18.3 Million Merry Christmases

There are 18.3 million children in this world living without a mom & dad...

Jason Kovacs Blog

This year has been really fun preparing for Christmas with Braden. He now can understand why we celebrate Christmas, & all that is going on. I'm so excited for tomorrow morning with the boys. For them to open up their stockings & presents, spend time with family, make Jesus a birthday cake :-), but I'm also feeling some mixed emotions as well. What are our 2 little princesses going to be doing tomorrow? As they prepare for bed soon, do they even know it's Christmas? Do they even know tomorrow is a special day? Will they have someone to give them hugs & kisses & tell them Merry Christmas? It kills me to think what situation they'll be living while their brothers are here happy, being loved, & spending time with family. What's even harder is to think about the rest of the millions of orphans that don't even have a family waiting & praying for them. They have no one to cry to, be loved by, to call Mommy & Daddy. I have so much anger towards what these children have to endure. The only hope I have is to know that the hatred Satan has towards these vulnerable children started with one Child. The Child that has given us the ultimate gift of eternal life & the Child that will soon come back to save these children & be their ultimate Father. The hope I have is that my Savior will stand beside those children to endure everything they are enduring, & in the end will devour the one that is causing all their pain.

God gave us the ultimate gift on Christmas....His Son. His Son who came to our sinful world to pay the ultimate price so that we may become His adopted sisters/brothers. Because of what Christ did, we are now adopted into His family. Why are there so many orphans waiting for a home? God sent His Son to be beaten, tortured, & bruised so He could adopt us into His family, when all we need to do is set up a spare bed in one of our many spare bedrooms, trust in Him to provide, yes, quite a bit of money, to adopt a child into our family? A child that will wake up tomorrow morning, with no one to celebrate Christmas with. A child that has absolutely no one in this world to care & love them.

I know I'm so anxious for next year. To throw on some purple Christmas pj's along with our blue ones. To have dolls waiting under the tree along with all the cars, planes, & trains, & most of all to love on those little girls & give them a family to celebrate Christmas with for the 1^st time in their little lives with their brothers. What will you be doing next year for Christmas? Filling your spare rooms with TONS of presents or filling it with a child that knew no family until you decided to give them a home?

Just something to think about.... I get this response a lot.... “We could never adopt. It's too expensive.” Remember what the creator of the universe gave up 2000 years ago so that we could be adopted into His family. May this Christmas be one where we give thanks for our adoption and maybe, just maybe take a moment and think about what we can do for the “Christmasless” orphans of this world.

!!!Merry Christmas!!!

Photo by: Seriously_Crawf

http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/2009/11/we-have-had-one-of-those-really-great.html

Info about Uganda

If you want to know anything about Uganda or the reason why we switched & chose Uganda, please read this blog! This couple adopted a beautiful little boy from Uganda as well. They probably don't even know I read their blogs, but they actually were one of the influences on us switching to Uganda.

Link: http://james127.blogspot.com/2009/10/why-uganda.html

Little bits of Uganda

This is a blog I've been following from a girl living in Uganda. She has a home full of 13 or 14 orphaned girls & works w/ very needy & vulnerable children. I'm going to share her blog entries from time to time for the few of you who have asked me about Uganda & the situations there. Some of the stuff she writes about are hard to take in, but it's her & all those children's every day life. She does an amazing job at being His hands & feet. I pray God will place a special person like her in my 2 little ones lives until they are in my arms.....

http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/2009/10/full.html

This song so captures my feelings! Just wanted to share while we wait.....

AMOS STORY
Aaron Ivey. ©2009 IVEYMUSIC. (ASCAP)

Another photograph to wrestle in my head
Another sleepless night on concrete featherbed
These thoughts of you like bullets to my soul
We’ve got to find a way to get you home

I’ll find a way to get you here
If it takes my fleeting breath
Another sunrise hits the ground
And it’s a dark lonely sight
Lightyears away I hope you know
There is somebody searching
For the way to get you here

I will get you here

Throw the clocks away and run out to the street
We’ll fly to distant clouds where it’s just you and me
A day will come when all of this is gone
You’ve got to find a way to believe

I’ll find a way to get you here
If it takes my fleeting breath
Another sunrise hits the ground
And it’s a dark lonely sight
Lightyears away I hope you know
There is somebody searching
For the way to get you here
I will get you here

Close your eyes and dream of a better day with me
As angels hold you tight, may you sleep in peace tonight

So dream, dream, dream my child
Hear the whisperings of hope
It’s a song that you can sing, as you sleep in peace tonight

UGANDA!!!!

Hey everyone!
It feels like forever since I've given an adoption update....
Since the last time I blogged, we have transferred to a different agency, switched from the Ethiopian program to the Ugandan program, & have received a refund check for some of our $ we sent to our old agency.....

Why all the changes you ask??? Let me tell you :-)

We've been stuck in the same phase of the adoption for quite some time now. We needed about $12-13,000 just to continue on to the next phase with our old agency. We've been praying hard for God to reveal to us what to do next. We knew in our hearts He still wanted us to pursue the adoption we just weren't quite sure what steps He wanted us to take next. Someone asked Josh if we had ever thought about the Ugandan program. They talked a little about this, & when Josh got home spoke to me about it as well right away. We decided it was something we could pray about. The only hard part in switching programs was that our old agency didn't have a Ugandan program so we knew we would have to transfer to another agency. Knowing we could lose quite a bit of $ since we've been sending the old agency $ for about a year now, we needed to know this was really what God wanted us to do. We asked a godly couple from church to walk beside us in prayer for a week about this decision. After much prayer & asking others what they thought about it, we all came to a conclusion that there was no reason at all why we shouldn't transfer. Doors have been opening up wide for us & we have no doubt that we have made the right decision. Now looking back on things, God has been preparing the way for this for a while now. I was a little disappointed that we hadn't been excepted for any of the grants we had applied for, but had we been given that grant $ we probably wouldn't have gotten that back. Little things we look back on now that God had closed the doors on, now make sense to us on why He was doing it. Weeks before Josh talked about changing to Uganda, I had been looking at other agency's websites & programs, not b/c we were having problems with ours, but just because, or what I thought was just because was actually God nudging me into looking for other options for us ;-) There are no coincidences!! Only God-incidences!!!! We absolutely LOVE our new agency! We have a conference call with our new case worker on Thur. & look forward to working with her. We did lose a little $ from our old agency as they refused to refund some of it, but we now only need about $6-7,000 to COMPLETE our adoption with our new agency as opposed to $12-13,000 just to get to the next phase with the old agency.
We are very excited to see what God has planned next for us & God willing we will be heading to Uganda to pick up our 2 little ones as soon as God prepares the way!!!!!

“Don't Ignore What's Going On! Do Something!”

So I was told something today that bothered me a little bit. I'm not upset at the person for saying it, but it made me realize how many more people are probably thinking the same thing,
“I try to pretend none of that is happening”.
I've been reading a few books that touch on orphans/AIDS/Africa. When this person saw the book on my table (“Scared” by Tom Davis) they said they couldn't read it followed by that statement many others are thinking as well “I try to pretend none of that is happening”.
STOP PRETENDING!!!! No matter how hard you try to block it out of your mind, it is happening.

The number of children in the world that have lost their mother or father, are parentless, or have been abandoned…now exceeds 143 million. In the past hour… 1,625 children were forced to live on the streets by the death or abuse of an adult. 1,667 children under the age of five died from malnutrition and vaccine-preventable diseases. 115 children became prostitutes. 66 children under 15 were infected with HIV. 257 children were orphaned because of HIV/AIDS. In just 1 hour, 1 hour! Most children are under the age of fifteen and are… Sleeping on concrete beds and rancid garbage piles every night – streets, sewers, dumps. Scavenging amongst human waste and excreta for rotting morsels and scraps to eat. Huffing glue and other substances in order to numb the cold, hunger, pain…and shame. Prostituting themselves for basic food and shelter. Trafficked and sold into sexual bondage, even at five years old and younger. Abused and brutalized by sexual predators, local gangs, corrupt police officers, and slum lords. Victimized by HIV/AIDS-infected men who believe that sleeping with young virgins can cure the disease. Recruited into lives of thievery, smuggling and drug dealing. Abducted to serve as child soldiers or the sex slaves of soldiers. Exploited as child laborers or slaves in sweatshops. Executed by local businessmen and officials who view them as a dirty pests interfering with trade and commerce. Sacrificed in occult/witchcraft rituals. Robbed of childhoods; Robbed of self esteem; Robbed of innocence; Robbed of hope. (statistics taken off of another website)

Go ahead try to ignore it, but it's not going to save all those children from what is going to happen to them. I'm not saying this as a perfect person who is doing all they can to help. I'm not! All these books are making me realize.... I'm doing nothing! Yes, Josh & I are in the middle of an adoption, but that will only help 1 or 2 of these orphans out of the over 143 million out there. We as Christians are called to love & care for the orphans, widows, the poor, & helpless. What are you doing to help? Maybe you're thinking, “Well people here in the states need help, too.” Ok, then what are you doing to help the orphans, widow, poor, & helpless people here in the states? Not everyone is called to adopt & that's ok because adoption isn't the answer to helping these children. There are tons of organizations out there that can help these children through your money. You can go on mission trips & find out that way what God is calling you to do. Just pray & listen to what God is telling you. Stop ignoring what is happening in this world & do something. You may be the only sign of Christ to 1 person, but it could make a difference in hundreds of others lives just by helping & loving that 1. It could be as easy as going without your Starbucks for a month & giving all that money to someone you know that needs it. Or as easy as picking up a man holding a sign that says “Why lie I need a beer” & bringing him to actually get one & telling him about our Savior. Ok, so I wouldn't suggest that to any woman out there, but you get what I'm saying. If you've been thinking about this already, but just don't know which organizations to go through to help, I have one in mind so just let me know & I'll point you to the right direction.
Stop pretending, because it's happening!!!!

Your Part of Adoption

I thought I would share one of the biggest encouragement throughout our adoption story, outside of the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

The faithful gifts of those who are called:
What do I mean by this? There is a strange way that many people have had a big part of our adoption and it is through prayer and listening. Listening to the prompting of God on their hearts. Throughout our journey we have had many times where we have felt down, discouraged, not sure what God is doing. However it seems that every time we get to this point, God sends someone. Someone who has listened to Gods prompting on their heart and gave of themselves to our child. Yesterday was one of those days.

The MT. Ahead:
We have a mountain size hurdle ahead of us, in the size of $15,000 before we can move on. Yesterday God sent someone to show us that God can and will do what He wants, when He wants. This blessing came in the form of a $2,000 gift. God proved that in one single moment He could take our $15,000 down to $13,000 and that we must trust Him for His provision.

Your Part:
Whereas prayer is needed I want to encourage you to also listen to God. Here are a couple questions to ask in prayer:
- Who can I bless with something this week?
- What do I have to give?
- How can I be apart of an adoption? More then just prayer maybe.
- How can I pray better for people adopting?
- How can I bless the fatherless, homeless, abandoned children of the world?
- Where can I cut back to help change the life of a child?
- Is God calling me to take someone into my home?

Once you ask make sure you listen for God’s answer. You may just be surprised by His answer.

Josh

A Little More Encouraged

So I received an email from our caseworker yesterday. He wanted to check in to see how we were doing & where we were at in the process. I was a little hesitant to email back since it's almost been a year since we started this whole process. I've completely stopped working further into our dossier. I guess, I stopped doing anything in a way of throwing myself since we still don't have the $ to further the process. I let him know that we still didn't have the money & that I was going to start all over with our dossier since all our docs were from a year ago..... He emailed back immediately & told me that Ethiopia has no expiration dates on their dossier docs. Praise God!!!!! This means I can keep ALL the docs that I have gathered already & that we will almost be done our dossier. Our wonderful notary will be coming to notarize the rest of our docs tonight & the end process will be completed tomorrow with authentication in Augusta!!! Our case worker has offered to look over our dossier as soon as we have it completed, which is a step they usually wait on til we have paid all our fees. Then off to D.C. it will go! It's still discouraging not having the $ to complete the rest of the process, but this has given me a little encouragement knowing that we will be a tiny bit closer & that we don't have to gather all the docs for the dossier all over again!!! Your continued prayers are greatly appreciated!!!
Anna

Not a very encouraging day....

We heard back from 2 grant agencies. One told us they weren't excepting applications anymore and the other one denied us. Needless to say I'm a little discouraged today. It's so frustrating to have all the money we need to complete everything except sending out our dossier to Ethiopia. I try to keep telling myself it will all be in His timing.......

Still Waiting :-/

We've been asked lately by quite a few people how the adoption is going. I'm happy to be asked, because hopefully that means we still have a few people praying for our process & our little one. It's still at a stand still. 2 or 3 of the grants we've applied for will be reviewed this month & next month. We're praying like crazy that we'll hear good things from them soon! We have only a few documents left in our dossier to get notarized then we can send it off to D.C. & we'll be heading to the USCIS office in the next few weeks for fingerprinting. We trust that this is all in God's timing. He will pull everything together when He knows we're ready.
Thank you very much for your continual prayers!
Anna