So unfortunately PayPal will not allow us to use them to receive payments. Everyone who has already made a payment through PayPal is fine, but from now on we can only except checks in the mail or cash by hand. So sorry for the inconvenience...... You can send your checks to 129 Summer St., Auburn, ME 04210 & can make the check out to Anna or Josh Cousineau. Please just leave a comment or email us (akooz04@yahoo.com) to let us know how many tickets you are purchasing & that your payment is on its way. Thanks so much for your prayers & donations!!!!
Click HERE for more info on the raffle......
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
Who wants an iPod Touch?!?!?!?!
So Josh & I have about $7,000 left to raise for travel!!!! Sounds like a big amount, but trust me it's so tiny compared to what has been paid :-)
We will be raffling off an 8GB iPod touch. Tickets are $3.00 a piece. You can buy as many tickets as you want to better your chances of winning. The winner will be announced Sun. March 21 late afternoonish. Deadline to buy tickers is Sun. March 21 @ 11AM. We will post it on Facebook, Twitter, this blog, & we will contact the person asap. If you're out of state we will ship it to you. All of the proceeds will be going towards our travel expenses while in Uganda.
Ways to pay....
*Send us a check asap in the mail or give it to us asap (mailing address 129 Summer St, Auburn, ME 04210 You can make the check out to Josh or Anna Cousineau) Please leave a comment or email us ( akooz04@yahoo.com ) to let us know your payment is on its way.
*Give us cash
(If we haven't received your payment yet & you're picked as the winner, we will send the iPod out to you as soon as the payment is received.)
Tell everyone you know about this! Post it on Facebook! Post it on Twitter! Get the word out! Who wouldn't want a chance to win an iPod touch?!?!
We will be raffling off an 8GB iPod touch. Tickets are $3.00 a piece. You can buy as many tickets as you want to better your chances of winning. The winner will be announced Sun. March 21 late afternoonish. Deadline to buy tickers is Sun. March 21 @ 11AM. We will post it on Facebook, Twitter, this blog, & we will contact the person asap. If you're out of state we will ship it to you. All of the proceeds will be going towards our travel expenses while in Uganda.
Ways to pay....
*Send us a check asap in the mail or give it to us asap (mailing address 129 Summer St, Auburn, ME 04210 You can make the check out to Josh or Anna Cousineau) Please leave a comment or email us ( akooz04@yahoo.com ) to let us know your payment is on its way.
*Give us cash
(If we haven't received your payment yet & you're picked as the winner, we will send the iPod out to you as soon as the payment is received.)
Tell everyone you know about this! Post it on Facebook! Post it on Twitter! Get the word out! Who wouldn't want a chance to win an iPod touch?!?!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Why are Josh & Anna Cousineau adopting???????
First off I'd LOVE to announce that we are officially waiting!!!!!! We received our last document from the USCIS (immigrations) giving approval for us to adopt.... next step is our referral!!! Now we wait.... could be weeks, months only God knows :-/ Please pray for this impatient soul! Pray that all goes smoothly, and the wait won't be too long and that things will be resolved in Uganda....
So I'm going to answer a few questions that I've been hearing lately & some that you all are thinking but just won't ask....
*Why are you adopting anyway???? (Wonderful question I may add :-)
(2 verses for you to go with this question)
Mark 10:21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
Proverbs 3:27 Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.
Josh & I feel strongly nothing we have or own is ours. It was given to us as a blessing to glorify His name in some way. We have a very tiny bit of money left over every month, we have more room in our home, and room in our hearts. This life is not ours, and God says many times in His Word that we as His followers are to care for the fatherless. There are about 163 million orphans in the world today. God gave a command, God gave us room in our home, who are we to live a comfortable life and do nothing while 163 million children suffer? We find ultimate joy in our adoption in Christ's family. We can't think of any other way to thank Him for His ultimate gift than to adopt children and teach them and introduce them to the ultimate adoption we have been given.
*What about your boys? What if the girls are sick and expose your boys to diseases????
God didn't just call Josh and I to adopt. He called our whole family to adopt. God will protect us all. The girls we are waiting for are just as much our children now as our boys are. We think of them no differently. If Braden came down with something we wouldn't ship him off somewhere so Tanner wouldn't get sick!!! Simple as that.
*They're from Africa! What if they have AIDS????
Then we will be extremely blessed to have exposure to medical help for them, and will be able to offer them a WAY longer life here then if they were left in Africa. Yes, we would have to take precautions throughout our life, which isn't comfortable, but then again God didn't say life would be comfortable.....did He???
*You know it's not going to be easy right???
I don't think even raising 1 child is easy! Of course we know it's not going to be easy!!!! God didn't call us as believers to live an easy comfortable life. He called us to pick up our crosses and follow Him. So because I want to have 8 hrs of uninterrupted sleep at night I'm going to turn down a starving little girl who cries herself to sleep every night because she remembers watching her mother die from a disease that could have been treated if they had the money to buy the medicine to treat it? Because I want money to stop to get a coffee 4 mornings out of the week I'm going to turn down a little boy that was left in a dumpster to die because his father was nowhere to be found and his mother didn't have the money to care for him??? (These stories I'm sure are true, but I just typed what popped into my head) How selfish is that!!!! We know life is going to be hard, but we also know God is walking right along side us giving us the strength we need to get through everything He'll be throwing at us. We also know we have an awesome church body! We have a ton of families in our church that have gone through this that we know for a fact will be here for us......
My question to all of you is this......
*Why are you NOT adopting???? (Only non-selfish answers please because most of the ones I hear are in fact out of selfish reasoning)
Yes, I know not everyone is called to adopt, but if you've had even a tiny thought in your mind about adoption, I just want to know...... why not???
If you're one who is not called to adopt, are you called to help in some way? Helping a family pay for their adoption? Bringing meals to a family transitioning from an adoption? Calling the adopting couple to pray with them? (Just a few examples, and no I'm not just talking about helping Josh and I, although we would love all of those :-)
If you have any questions for Josh and I about our process, about adoption, or anything else leave a comment and I'll try to answer it :-)
Please keep our family in your prayers!!!!!
So I'm going to answer a few questions that I've been hearing lately & some that you all are thinking but just won't ask....
*Why are you adopting anyway???? (Wonderful question I may add :-)
(2 verses for you to go with this question)
Mark 10:21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
Proverbs 3:27 Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.
Josh & I feel strongly nothing we have or own is ours. It was given to us as a blessing to glorify His name in some way. We have a very tiny bit of money left over every month, we have more room in our home, and room in our hearts. This life is not ours, and God says many times in His Word that we as His followers are to care for the fatherless. There are about 163 million orphans in the world today. God gave a command, God gave us room in our home, who are we to live a comfortable life and do nothing while 163 million children suffer? We find ultimate joy in our adoption in Christ's family. We can't think of any other way to thank Him for His ultimate gift than to adopt children and teach them and introduce them to the ultimate adoption we have been given.
*What about your boys? What if the girls are sick and expose your boys to diseases????
God didn't just call Josh and I to adopt. He called our whole family to adopt. God will protect us all. The girls we are waiting for are just as much our children now as our boys are. We think of them no differently. If Braden came down with something we wouldn't ship him off somewhere so Tanner wouldn't get sick!!! Simple as that.
*They're from Africa! What if they have AIDS????
Then we will be extremely blessed to have exposure to medical help for them, and will be able to offer them a WAY longer life here then if they were left in Africa. Yes, we would have to take precautions throughout our life, which isn't comfortable, but then again God didn't say life would be comfortable.....did He???
*You know it's not going to be easy right???
I don't think even raising 1 child is easy! Of course we know it's not going to be easy!!!! God didn't call us as believers to live an easy comfortable life. He called us to pick up our crosses and follow Him. So because I want to have 8 hrs of uninterrupted sleep at night I'm going to turn down a starving little girl who cries herself to sleep every night because she remembers watching her mother die from a disease that could have been treated if they had the money to buy the medicine to treat it? Because I want money to stop to get a coffee 4 mornings out of the week I'm going to turn down a little boy that was left in a dumpster to die because his father was nowhere to be found and his mother didn't have the money to care for him??? (These stories I'm sure are true, but I just typed what popped into my head) How selfish is that!!!! We know life is going to be hard, but we also know God is walking right along side us giving us the strength we need to get through everything He'll be throwing at us. We also know we have an awesome church body! We have a ton of families in our church that have gone through this that we know for a fact will be here for us......
My question to all of you is this......
*Why are you NOT adopting???? (Only non-selfish answers please because most of the ones I hear are in fact out of selfish reasoning)
Yes, I know not everyone is called to adopt, but if you've had even a tiny thought in your mind about adoption, I just want to know...... why not???
If you're one who is not called to adopt, are you called to help in some way? Helping a family pay for their adoption? Bringing meals to a family transitioning from an adoption? Calling the adopting couple to pray with them? (Just a few examples, and no I'm not just talking about helping Josh and I, although we would love all of those :-)
If you have any questions for Josh and I about our process, about adoption, or anything else leave a comment and I'll try to answer it :-)
Please keep our family in your prayers!!!!!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
I May Have A Control Issue
It's been over a year & a half now since Josh & I started the adoption process. Going into it, I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but, boy, I sure didn't know how extremely difficult it was going to be. Sure, the paperwork is tedious, tiring, never-ending. Having someone come into your home to decide whether you're "capable of parenting" after parenting for over 3 years already, was a little different as well. The waiting is a little trying, too, but the thing I've found most difficult is the control.... In the world of adoption, you have none! When you're pregnant, you at least have that sense of somewhat protecting your child since they're living in you & taking over your body. I have no way to care for or protect my little girls. It kills me! It kills me to think about what they're living right now while their brothers sleep in their own comfy beds in their own rooms w/ filled little tummies. The only thing getting me threw all of this is knowing that my heavenly Father loves them even more than I can imagine. He has them wrapped in His arms protecting them. I pray every night that God will give them a sense that there is a family fighting for them. I use to read about adopted mothers telling their children "you didn't grow in my tummy, but you grew in my heart." I don't think you can really get that statement until you've gone threw this process. I never imagined having this much love for 2 little girls I've never met, seen, I don't even know their names yet, but they're my little girls. As we further into this process, my love for them grows stronger & stronger. I can't even imagine what I'm going to do when I finally have them in my arms. When I got word from our adoption agency that Ugandan adoption was put on hold, I was devastated. I cried a little.... ok, I cried ALOT! but again I have no control. I have no control over our government. I have no control over the Ugandan government, but my God does. My God moves mountains, & this is only a tiny speed bump to Him. This just gives Him time to show me once again that He is in control, not me :-) He never fails us. He keeps amazing us & providing for us. We were given a $1,000 grant about 2 weeks ago & we received a call today that we've received a $5,000 interest free adoption loan. Of course, as soon as I got off the phone with the agency, I automatically thought "Well alot of good that's going to do us when we can't even adopt right now." Shame on me!!!! What I should've thought & now am thinking is, "God, how wonderful! Now we're so close that when You do open the doors back up in Uganda, we'll be ready!"
So all that to say, please keep praying for our family & for God to move mountains & open up the doors again for Ugandan adoptions. It seems so untouchable to me, but to Him it's nothing. Thank you to all of you that have been walking this journey with us. You're prayers & encouragement mean alot to us. It's prayers that are getting us through this.....
So all that to say, please keep praying for our family & for God to move mountains & open up the doors again for Ugandan adoptions. It seems so untouchable to me, but to Him it's nothing. Thank you to all of you that have been walking this journey with us. You're prayers & encouragement mean alot to us. It's prayers that are getting us through this.....
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Please pray!!! Ugandan adoptions on hold....
Please join w/ me in some strong prayer! I received an email last night from our adoption agency telling us that Ugandan adoptions were put on hold. Apparently the US is not pleased w/ the wording the Ugandan judges are using to grant guardianship to US citizens. I'm not completely sure exactly what is going on. This will affect our adoption, but more importantly there are families there in Uganda right now who have guardianship of these Ugandan children, but are not being allowed to leave w/ them. Their own children & our government is saying they can't leave w/ them! This is very upsetting, but I know God can change those embassy workers' hearts. If we all join together in prayer miracles can happen..... Please pray hard!!!
Thursday, December 24, 2009
18.3 Million Merry Christmases
There are 18.3 million children in this world living without a mom & dad...
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 1st 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
Friday, November 20, 2009
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