Third Annual 24 Days of Giving

Ok, it's already day 3 of our traditional 24 Days of Giving, but life has been kicking me in the b*tt this year.  So, unfortunately, I won't be able to do the 24 Days of Giving as I had in the past.  But don't fret, we are STILL doing it!!!

Two years ago, we started this family tradition. it is our attempt to help families who are fundraising for an adoption.  Christmas is about giving, so in the spirit of the season, I bring to you

The 24 Days of Giving

I want to highlight families who are fundraising for their adoption on my blog for the next 24 days.  This year is going to be different though due to my time constraints.  If you want to be included in the 24 Days of Giving, here is what you need to do:

Post a comment to this post with a permalink to a blog post about your adoption (i.e. where you are in the process, which country, how to contribute) and your family.   I will then create an ever-growing blog post that stays at the top of my blog where people can link to your stories.

Remember, this is about giving - so this isn't the place for you to promote things you are doing/selling to fundraise, this is about people GIVING for the sake of GIVING.  So please don't link to fundraising posts or I won't include you. (and I really want to include your family)

If you aren't in the adoption process, please prayerfully consider donating to one or more of these families as a part of your Christmas giving this year. 

But here is the best part:

Our family will GIFT to one lucky family a sizable donation for their adoption;  This is our Christmas gift to you this year.  If you want to peek at last years winner, go here Loving Life with Lexi and Ivy Joy

To be eligible for the donation from our family, just add your link to a blog post in the comments.  Please feel free to link to this post and the post that will list all of the families on your blog.  

We will put all of the entries in a hat and as a part of our Christmas Eve celebration, we will choose the lucky winner.  I will announce the winner on my blog on Christmas Day.

So, spread the word to all your friends.  And this isn't just for international adoptions, it is for domestic adoptions as well.  And may we all enjoy the best GIFT of all this Christmas

JESUS

Day 15 - The Klemstines

We are Chris and Christine, best friends, married 16 years, blessed with 3 beautiful boys, Cole, age 12, Graham, age 10 and Jude, age 5. We are adopting from China because we believe we are immeasurably blessed and that God has called us to share our blessings with an orphan, that He knew before the beginning of time would be ours. We are currently waiting to see who He brings to us and waiting for our papers to come back from immigration. Our adoption process has already stirred my best friend in the world to begin her own adoption process. We are so blessed and so excited to meet our daughter and sister and friend!

You can donate to our adoption via paypal.  Just use our e-mail  klemstines@comcast.net

Day 12 - The Brenn's

Today is the 12th day of The 24 Days of Giving.  If you don't know what this is all about, please go read this post and this post  

We are the Brenn family, we have 6 children, almost 7. We adopted our daughter from China in 2006, son from China 2007, daughter from Ethiopia 2009, son from China 2010, and now we wait on our 2nd daughter from China, we hope to travel in March. You can find a chip-in on our blog at www.redeemedmama.blogspot.com

Thank you so much for considering us.
Tammy From Mississippi

Day 11 - The Pattersons

Today is the eleventh day of The 24 Days of Giving.  If you don't know what this is all about, please go read this post and this post  

We are Greg & Amy and we have 5 little boys. We are adopting a beautiful little girl from China who has Hepatitis C. Her Chinese name means "Gift from the Divine Land or Kingdom." We were matched with her on Amy's birthday, so she is truly a gift from God!
We have saved $13,000 in cash towards our adoption, but now we are only 4-6 months from traveling and are still another $25,000 short. God Bless You for advocating for fundraising families and thank you in advance to anyone who contributes to our cause! You will help make the difference in the life of an orphan.
To donate, visit the Chip In on our blog - you need to scroll almost all the way to the bottom to find the Chip In: www.searchforsavannah.blogspot.com

Day 10 - Room for at Least One More

Today is the tenth day of The 24 Days of Giving.  If you don't know what this is all about, please go read this post and this post  


I am SO excited to be highlighting different families that are stepping out in faith to adopt.  It is my hope that by highlighting these families that God will move on the hearts of many people to GIVE during this season so that a child can have a forever family.  Please spread the word about these families so the children have the best opportunity to get home soon.  

Today's family is "Room for at Least One More"  

We are waiting to bring home our daughter, who was born with complex heart disease. We submitted our dossier to our agency and we were DTC on 11/18.

Our daughter is waiting in southwest China. Our agency is hopeful our adoption will be expedited in China and the US has already begun the expedite process.

We do not have a donate button on our blog, but we do have a paypal account at cljjs (at) yahoo (dot) com using @ for the (at) and . for the (dot).

Day 10 - The S's

Hi. We're the S family. We are just starting an adoption from China. We will most likely be adopting a boy or a girl one year of age to age three with mild to moderate special needs. We are not new to international adoption as our two children were adopted from Haiti. Kenson is 5 and Conleigh is 4 1/2. My husband and I are both teachers by trade. He teaches K-4 art and I taught first grade for a number of years but now I stay home and substitute teach a few days a week.

Stop by our blog at www.ourmixedblessings.blogspot.com for more about our family and to donate.

Day 9 - Luke and Jennifer

We are Luke and Jennifer and we currently have 3 children at home and 2 waiting for us in Henan. :) We are waiting on our I797 approval from USCIS. Once we have that we'll be able to finish the sealing process on our dossier and finally send it to our agency for their check. We are praying that we will be able to send our Dossier and the money needed to our agency by the end of December. We have prayed and raised funds for each step and payment. God has helped us every time.

Our youngest little sweetie is WenZhi (Caleb once home). He is in Kaifeng, Henan. He is almost 13 months old and will have some surgeries once home to fix a "plumbing" problem. His big (little) sister is DaiYu (Addisyn once home). She is our newest addition. Addisyn is 19 months old and has a motor delay. We know that she will flourish once home. :) We have a ChipIn on our blog under our family pictures on the right.

http://browneyesandbarefeet.blogspot.com/

Day 8 - The Thompson's

I am violating my rule about posting families in the order I received their comment because this family is leaving so soon.  So, here is today's second featured family. 

We found out yesterday (or perhaps the day before... days are blurring right now!) that we must be in Shanghai on the December 24th so we can get our 5 yo DD Piper on the 26th! We will then go to Hangzhou on the 27th where we will get our 6 yo DD Jadyn! WOW!! Not only will we have them both in 2011 (WHAT an answer to prayer!) but they will be living, breathing Christmas gifts!! God has truly blessed us with this news...

Oh! The link to our blog is thompsontreasures.blogspot.com

Day 8 - The Cole's

 

We are adopting our sixth child (second adoption)from China! We are just about finished with our homestudy and ready to submit our 1800a. You can meet our family and follow our journey and donate here http://colestepsoffaith.blogspot.com/

Day 7 - The Waughthals

Today is day 7 of the 24 days of Giving.  We are featuring families who are fundraising for their adoptions in the hopes that during this giving season, others will feel led to bless these families with a donation.  For more about this effort, please go here 

We would love to be featured as we wait for TA for our precious Rosalyn and her little sister to be Lilianna

Our journey is chronicled at http://trustandobey-waugthals.blogspot.com with 5 children at home, and bringing home 2 more, and no support from our church or community, it is getting tight with high costs of travel at holiday time!

We have a donate button, on our blog.

God Bless You

Day 5 - Vicky

I'm Vicky a single older mom, and I'm adopting two girls. One age 10 and the other 12 on Nov. 30th. I'm DTC and waiting to hear that I'm LID! my blog is www.expectingsomethingsobigfromgod.blogspot.com

Please check out the Rylands - they leave TODAY and still need the last of their funds!!! http://www.rylandsfamily.blogspot.com/  

Day 4 - The Sammons

We are a family of 7 going on 8. Our 18 month old daughter Ivy is in Hengzhou China waiting for us. Ivy has a very complex heart condition and China has declared her inoperable. We have been blessed to call her our daighter and we can not wait to bring her home!

There is a paypal Donate button on the top left of our blog where you can help us bring Ivy home.

http://sammonsfamily7.blogspot.com/

Day 3 - The Dubbs

We are the Dubbs Family, and we are currently on Day 72 of our wait for LOA to bring home our daughter from China. She is 2 1/2 and was born deaf. Our current blog is http://bringinghomeyun.blogspot.com. We will be making a Chip-In available on our blog for donations. Thank you for this opportunity!

Day 2 - The Postiglione's

Today is the second day of The 24 Days of Giving.  If you don't know what this is all about, please go read this post and this post  

We are doing our 2nd back to back special needs adoption and our fundraising for the majority of our costs. To see how our newest angel came into our lives please visit my blog at

http://thetalesoftwo.blogspot.com/

We hope to travel in the late spring to bring Talia Mei home.

We have a paypal donation button on our blog that you can use to donate to bring our daughter home.

Thank you, Mary Jane Postiglione

Day 1 - The Rancourts

I am SO excited to be highlighting different families that are stepping out in faith to adopt.  It is my hope that by highlighting these families that God will move on the hearts of many people to GIVE during this season so that a child can have a forever family.  Please spread the word about these families so the children have the best opportunity to get home soon.  You can grab the blog button on the sidebar and use it if you like.

Please feel free to link to the blog posts from your blogs so more people can experience the BLESSING of GIVING this Christmas season.

  If you want to know what this is all about, please go read this post and this post  and this post 

Our first family (posted in the order I received the comments) is The Rancourts. 

Our family is in the process of our first adoption, and we are adopting two little 2-year-old girls from China. We have "PA" for both of our daughters, and are "thisclose" to being DTC (hopefully within a week or so).

Both of our daughters have congenital heart defects, and one of them has been deemed "terminal" by the doctors in China. My husband Jacques and I feel that it is better to experience the unconditional love of a family for a short lifetime than a long one without. We are praying that the Almighty Physician will place his hand on both of our daughter's hearts and mend them. He is able, and for that reason we have great HOPE!

Jacques is the Evangelism and Discipleship Pastor at our church (Manassas Baptist Church). I am a Professor at the George Mason University in the Forensic Science Program. We have two precious little girls, Dryden (age 6) and Soleil (almost 4). Our family of four is so excited to become a family of six hopefully by early next spring!

Our Blog is "Once Upon a Prayer" at

http://www.rancourtfamily.blogspot.com/

People can donate directly to our adoptions on the right sidebar of our blog through payapl. Thank you so much for your willingness to bless others during this Christmas season!

Peace and Goodwill,

Jacques, Emily, Dryden, Soleil, Nianshu, & Qiuyan (How fun to sign six names!)

Day 0 - The Rylands

I'm going to start our 24 Days of Giving a few days early. This special family you are about to read about leaves on SUNDAY! to bring home their 2nd son who will turn 14 in just a few days!!

 If you don't know what the 24 Days of Giving is all about, please go read this post and this post  

We are the Rylands family and are relatively new to international adoption.  We started our journey back in April to bring home our son who turned 14 in August.  We are now heading back to China in just a few days to adopt our second aging out son, Cameron. We are so excited to see how God will provide the remaining $4000 we need to complete all of the epenses.  You can read our story, see our sweet boys and make a donation at http://www.rylandsfamily.blogspot.com/

Prayer Requests and more "Red Threads"

Here are some specific prayer requests for us as we move through this process

• That our paperwork gets through USCIS quickly- we can expedite everything from the I-800 on, but it has to sit in the lockbox for 2 WEEKS before it can be worked on.
• that our passports/visas make it to Chicago and back quickly and safely
• that we can get both boys the same week rather than having to take an extra week
• That we can get reasonable cost flights out of our local airport rather than an airport 1 hr away
• that we can get a Consulate Appointment when we want it (i.e. 2/15 or 2/16)
• that the boys get along well
• that their transition goes smoothly (I have heard that neither SWI tells the kids ahead of time what is happening)
• that our kids transition smoothly

I forgot to mention in the last post something that happened right after CP said "Yes".  Shortly after he called me at work to say "Yes", he called a friend of ours.  He told her about the upcoming adoption(s) and she offered us her son's bunk beds!!!! She said her son really doesn't like them and wants just a regular bed.  We had bought a bed for TJ, but of course, now needed another for GW.  And God supplied it right after we said "Yes"  -  How awesome is that!!!

Yesterday, I was talking to a friend at work who is from China about the upcoming adoptions.  When I told her we would be going to Jiangsu, she let me know that she is from Shanghai and will be in China over Chinese New Year!  She even offered me her Chinese cell phone number in case we need anything.  She also reminded me that another mutual friend from China is from Beijing and will be there when we will be also! 

Then today, I got an e-mail from one of our 24 Days of Giving families.  She had figured out from some yahoo group posts of mine that Guan Wei is in the same province as the River of Grace foster home - and they will be there visiting when we are there to adopt Guan Wei!  We will get to meet them!!!!

God continues to amaze me with his provision and connection for this last minute leap of faith in obedience to his call. 
And just for the fun of it, last night I photoshopped GW and TJ into a picture we took of our four kids at home.  (It's not the best - but we just got PhotoShop for Christmas!)

Obedience

During The 24 Days of Giving, we got a lot of e-mails/comments, etc thanking us for the wonderful thing we were doing.  I didn't think it was a wonderful thing; I just thought we were being obedient to God's commands. 

Deuteronomy 14:22,28,29 says


22 Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year.  28 At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, 29 so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.  (bolding mine)

Some may say that this is an Old Testament command and doesn't apply today.  Yet I would point them to Matthew 25:34 where it says

³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

and Matthew 26:9 where one of Jesus' disciples says
⁹ “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”

From what I can tell, the tithe as originally designed was intended to be collected by the church and distributed to the poor and needy in the community.  The poor and needy are those that are hungry, thirsty, need a place to stay, need clothes, are sick or are in prison.  I would say that orphans qualify as "poor and needy" on a number of those grounds. 

We have for years given to our local church.  However, as I have learned and grown in my Radical approach to Christianity this year, God has opened my eyes.  God does not require us to give to the local church.  God requires us to take care of the poor and needy.  If your local church is doing that - GREAT!  They might be the best method of distributing the money.  If they aren't, well, then you might want to look at tithing somewhere else.  This is where God has led us this year.  Our local church doesn't do much to reach out to the poor and needy in our local community or elsewhere.  We talked with the leaders at our church about this and didn't get a great response.  As a result, we decided to send our tithe elsewhere - where it WILL help the poor and needy.  So, that is where the funds for The 24 Days of Giving came from.  It wasn't a "sacrifice" at all on our part - we're still working on that part.

I write this for two reasons - one, to deflect any "praise" or "glory" that some might be tempted to heap on us - we DO NOT deserve it.  Two, to challenge my blog readers to evaluate where your tithes are being spent. (assuming you are tithing at all - that's another post)  Are your tithes being used to help the poor and needy?  Or are they being used to build bigger buildings, hire more staff, and create more programs? 

You might just want to send some of your money to someone who is fundraising for an adoption so you can be sure that it is being used for the poor and needy.  Or maybe sponsor a child through Show Hope, Compassion International, An Orphan's Wish or any other organization reaching out to orphans.  Just pray and ask God to show you where your tithe needs to be going.

The 24 Days of Giving - Our Winner

So, back on Nov 30, God gave me an idea for a way to bless families who are fundraising for their adoptions this Christmas Season.  We had 30 families join us for The 24 Days of Giving.  These families represented four countries (China, Uganda, Ethiopia, and South Korea) and 38 children (YEA!!!) that consisted of 19 girls, 12 boys and 6 unspecified gender. 

Our family had a wonderful time reading about each family and their journey to their children yesterday.  We took time to pray for each family as we drew their name in our reverse drawing.  I think our kids enjoyed it as much as we did!  So, for the moment you've all been waiting for.......

Our Winner of the Grand Prize is

The McEwans
You can click on their name above and read their story...

But since we have such a heart for these kids, we have decided to give ALL of the families something to help bring their kids home.  It will probably take a couple of days for me to get around to each family to make the donation, so please be patient. 

Merry CHRISTmas

The 24th Day of Giving - The Crazy Papa and Mama

CrazyPapa and CrazyMama have been privileged to be parents to 6 of the Lord's children, 4 kiddos home grown and the youngest two born half way across the world, and delivered to our arms through the blessing of special needs adoption from SaiGon, VietNam in 2008. They hope the Lord has plans for another special need’s adoption in their future and are currently forwarding their completed dossier to China. Donations can be made by contacting me via our family blog http://nancyvnjourney.blogspot.com/p/contact-me.html

During the day today, our family will have a reverse drawing to choose our winner.  As each family name is drawn, we will read about your family and the precious children you are planning on bringing home.  We will then pray for each of you and your children.  Finally, at the end of the day, we will be down to the last families.  The last family name out of the hat will be our winner of the donation for your adoption.  I have been blessed by reading about each of your families and your willingness to step out in faith for these precious kids.

We will announce the winner on CHRISTmas Day.