The Lewis' Are Traveling!

Hi there! We want to have a weekend dollar giving frenzy for the Lewis family! Remember them? You can read about them here. They are finally able to travel to the Philippines to get their daughter, Joy!! I'll let you read an update from Jenna (Mom)...


I’m not going to lie. The last few weeks have been stressful, agonizing and frustrating. We have been
almost at the crux of our adoption journey and one thing after another seems to have put a delay on
our travel approval. Yesterday, we FINALLY received the long-awaited phone call saying we could fly to
the Philippines to bring our daughter home! Oh, what joy filled my soul…UNTIL…we saw the plane ticket prices had skyrocketed basically overnight. We jumped on the cheapest tickets we could find with a decent schedule and thought we were good to go. American Airlines told us they would hold Joy’s one way ticket, but that we needed to call the Philippines office when it opened and actually pay for it and get it ticketed through. No problem, right? WRONG! After a long wait on hold at 8:30 PM (8:30 AM in
the Philippines), we found out the hard way that American Airlines has some crazy law in the Philippines where they cannot book a minor’s one way ticket out of the country! So…this morning we cancelled our tickets (thanks to the rule you can cancel within 24 hours without penalty!) and re-booked our flights with an agent’s help on Delta. The cost was quite a bit more than we had budgeted for our tickets.

Thankfully, money is not everything! I am sure it will be totally worth it in just a few days when we bring our little girl home and we hear her call us Mommy and Daddy for the very first time! I am sure every dollar we have spent and every agonizing hour of waiting we have endured will be worth it all when we see the smile on our daughter’s face. I cannot wait to see the miracles that will take place through this adoption and the way we can be Jesus to our new little girl!

If you would like to help us out with the cost of our plane tickets, hotel rooms or other expenses, you
can donate here! Every dollar makes a HUGE difference! Thank you so much!

Alright, folks.....let's help the Lewis family get those tickets paid for so they can focus on packing and getting ready to go pick up their little girl!  Ready to give your dollars?? I thought so:)  Thanks, y'all!

Update: moving past $120 as of Sunday morning...thanks!!

Thank You (and you and you, too!)

Hi there! It's almost Wednesday, have you given to the family of the week? Africa's page has a very fun family you can support. They will definitely appreciate your dollars!

Sooo, I've been obsessing lately about all of the waiting children out there. Waiting for their families.  It can be pretty overwhelming, but if we share their stories, then their families may see them and bring them home, right? Here's a Reece's Rainbow waiting child link and the Holt International link. Take a peek and share.  (thanks, y'all!)  A lot of the RR children have funds set up to help their families bring them home. Since we don't have a family this week, maybe you can spare a few dollars over there?

Thanks for visiting. Thank you for your generosity and thank you for loving adoption.

 If you're interested in being a family of the week, you can find me at tonyagarrick5 at gmail dot com.

Let The Children Come

Hi there! I hope you're having a great day so far! Today, we're hearing from Katie Hurst....thanks, Katie!  Follow their journey here. 

Need to contact me or want to be a family on Give1Save1? tonyagarrick5 (at) gmail (dot) com

                                                                 Matthew 19:14

But Jesus said, "Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

When we started our journey of adoption we got a lot of questions, from well meaning people, about our current biological children. I think there is still the stigma of adoption belonging only to couples that have no children. So, when some of us that have children step out to adopt we are automatically watched simply because we are out of the “norm.”

A few people thought we shouldn’t tell our kids anything at all until we were further in the process. Some when we they discovered the severity of our new son’s (still waiting in China) medical condition questioned if we were acting in the best interest of our children.

So, I want to take this chance to expound on children in the midst of adoption. First, I honestly don’t see how it would be possible to keep such information from them when it consumes your life for months while you work on paperwork and have an agency come into your home and even question your kids. Throw that thought out the window…not gonna happen. If your kids are above the age of two, they will know fairly quickly exactly what is happening. Keeping them in the dark will only add confusion.

Secondly, life is hard, really hard. Sometimes it is full of heartache. As parents we naturally want to shelter our children from things that hurt. We hover over them constantly on playgrounds. We pad them from head to toe when they head out on their bicycles for the long trek…down the entire driveway. So, the thought of doing something that you know is going to stretch them and possibly bring heartache is something very foreign to our minds.

God tells us in Matthew to, “Let the children come.” Let them be near to the heart of God. Let them join in the work for His kingdom. Let them sit at His feet. Can we really say that dressing them up in expensive dresses and sending them down the hallway to Sunday School Class really teaches them about serving their Savior? Being near to the heart of God means seeing things as He sees them.

My purpose as a parent has changed through this journey. I want to stop teaching my children to be Sunday morning Christians. I want to teach them to be in the trenches serving their Savior. I want to teach them to love the Lord their God will everything that is in them.

Should the day come when we bury our son, their brother, then we will guide them through grief and teach them of how great God’s love for them is and how much He loved their brother. I want my children to know deep within their souls how God loves the “least of these.” I want them to see how He would go to such great lengths to place one dying child into the arms of someone who will love them even if it is for a short time. I want my children to understand that this life is short. This life is just a picture of the beauty that is coming. I hope they will learn what it truly means to be the hands and feet of Christ. I want them to see and understand that following Christ is not always the easy way, but it is the most beautiful, the best way to live your life as a Christian.

Let your children be a part of your journey. Let them sell cookies to help you fundraise, let them see your grief and watch you lean on Christ. Let your children see the heart of Christ through you. Let them serve right along side you.

Let the children come.

A Quick Note

Hey guys...just a quick post for you today.  I hope you're enjoying this beautiful Fall weather.
Beth's husband is traveling very soon to pick up their baby boy in Ethiopia. Swing by the Africa page to show them some love! And if you haven't donated to the other families on Give 1 Save1, do that today, too!

Remember the Tuckers? Their little boy was too sick to bring back home when they traveled to China to pick him up. You'll hear more about them later.  (or you can read about their story now at their blog!)

Adoption brings families together.  Sometimes just like we planned, but often times not. Sometimes it takes forevahh!!! Often times there are bumps along the way. Are you adopting? Where are you in the process? What have you learned along the way?

Enjoy your day!!

Happy Monday

Well hello--great to see you!
Guess what?! The O'Dells brought their 2 children home from China last week! And, the Lewis' should be traveling very soon to get their new daughter from the Philippines. You were a part of their stories, so thank you! (missed giving to them? you can donate on their blogs)

Have you clicked on the other pages yet? Africa, the Caribbean and the US all have families this week. Do you have 3 dollars?  If so, you can help support their adoptions. They will be very grateful!

Update on my Gingermelon doll: turns out my sewing skills are a little lacking. (did I mention I've never sewn?)  My tiny doll head looks so cute, but the feet are cuh-razy.  (they make her look like a mermaid)  They need work, so I'll make that my project this week.  Or she'll just be a mermaid. But her teeny tiny little flowers in her hair are sooo sweet!

I'm sending a care package this week to Korea!! So exciting:) Stuffed elephant, dress, pictures of us.....so fun! It helps the wait go by a tiny bit faster.

Need to contact me? Want to be a family of the week? tonyagarrick5 (at) gmail (dot) com

Thanks for giving.....your generosity is super special.

Cuteness

Guess what I just got? The patterns for some cutie patooties from Gingermelon! I'm going to try my hand at sewing them this weekend.  Wish me luck!  This will definitely be going in a care package soon.
What are your ideas for care packages?  Snacks? Clothes? Small toys? Hot Wheels? I think I'll send a disposable camera, too.
My (very cute) 2 year old girl in Korea is a chunk, so her 2Ts did not fit:) The ladies enjoyed seeing her in her skin tight leggings, though. They kept patting her fat booty and laughing.  She chowed down on the toddler puffs we had, so I guess we'll send that in the care package, too!

This video was floating around a lot this week, so you may have seen it, but if not......WATCH. It's about giving. You're a generous group here.....I really think you'll enjoy it:)
Of course, it's from Sevenly.

Have a good one!

Adios Summer! (almost)

Hey there-thanks for stopping by our page! We have several families waiting in the wings, so check back soon for our family of the week. You can like us on Facebook, too. We like you, too! Have a dollar? The Hatfields, adopting from Africa would be grateful for it!

The temps are slowly dropping here.  I do mean slowly.  I live in the South, so it stays hot here for a while! But fall is super close! Yay!! What's your favorite fall tradition? College football? The beautiful fall colors? Visiting pumpkin patches? I love carving pumpkins with my kiddos. I can't wait to carve a girly pumpkin:)  I've tried to roast pumpkins seeds, but they never turn out right.

A few posts back, I mentioned some adoption etiquette Q and A.  Here's another point to ponder...

Adoption is expensive. A lot of people know that and wonder how you could afford it. They probably do not know about grants and fundraising opportunities-take a minute to pass along that info.  So, if someone asks about the price of your adoption, share only what you're comfortable with.  If you're the one asking the question, accept your friend/family member's answer, even if it's vague.  It's a similar question as "how much do you make?".  Some people are very private and some don't mind telling! To each his own, right?

If you're asking, this is what you may hear....

"Yes, it's very expensive!" 

"Not at all! We're rolling in the dough!" --this one is less likely to be heard;)

"It's a lot of money, but well worth it!"

"Yep. We are penny pinching like crazy!"

"Expensive?  Sure is! You want to help with that?"

"Thanks for asking. Here's a link to my fundraising page!"

So if you ask about $, you may want to have some cash in hand!;) 

Thanks so much for checking out our page. It was great having you here...stop by often! Adopting and want to be a family of the week on our site? Email me at tonyagarrick5 (at) gmail (dot) com

Have a great week!

New Clothes, anyone?

I'm still in Korea (where the weather was BEAUTIFUL today)  and have been slacking on my posts. So, here ya go!

I was just recently introduced to a pretty neat ministry in the Philippines. They support a children's home and several other areas of ministry there, including providing support to victims of trafficking.   Take a look at their site.....

They are Zoe Clothing Company and they have some really neat products that support a great cause. Ready to do some shopping? 

Check back soon for a new family and in the meantime, check out the Africa fam of the week, the King family!

Bye for now!

Ahn-nyung from Korea!

Good morning/evening....just a few quick updates for you today!


We are in Korea right now visiting schools with our organization that we both work for.  We are in Seoul and are thrilled to be visiting the country where our daughter is from! AND we should be able to meet her next week!! SUPER EXCITED.  It was a bit emotional landing in Korea, knowing how close she was, and that we would not be bringing her back with us. This time, anyway.


The O'Dell Daddy is about to meet their son in China. They have been super busy! Dad and Granddad are in China, while Mom and the rest of the kiddos are back in the states. These are the times you are thankful for Skype!

Beth's shirts came in and she is looking super fab modeling them! Check her out! You can buy an Africa shirt from there, too.  Asia shirts to come soon!

Okay, I know I said we would talk about adoption  Q and A etiquette, but I'm only going to write 1-2 things today. I've been traveling and my mind is full of way too much extra stuff! So, here ya go for now:

1. Most adoptive parents do not mind answering questions about their adoption.
2. Most adoptive parents do not want to answer personal questions in front of their children. We've all heard too many examples of people asking about personal details right in front of the kiddos.  Huh?? I got a taste of this when we fostered some beautiful young ladies.  First I felt obliged to answer, then I felt obliged to protect the girls' privacy instead.  You know....like everyone does for their children:)

More on this later....

We should have a featured family in about 2 weeks, so stay tuned. Want to send in yours? Email me at tonyagarrick5 (at) gmail (dot) com    Click on our back to the map button to follow next week's families on our other pages....

Find us on FB,  and have a great weekend!