A Journey for Love

I honestly don't even know where to start..... God has moved so profoundly in our lives in the past few weeks that it's hard to adequately describe. 10 weeks ago I launched Project Ethiopia, which if you don't already know, I am making scarves out of recycled t-shirts and all the proceeds are going to our adoption fund. When I started this I had no idea what to expect or how people would respond. The Lord has blessed this project so much and taken it to so many places that I could have never dreamed! Complete strangers have went out of their way to help me get a window display in 2 retail stores, friends and family have shared my story and I have sold to many people who were way out of my reach of influence, I've been to craft shows, and personal parties. I have been so busy in these 10 weeks that I think I may cut scarves in my dreams! The response has been amazing and I am so grateful to all of you for everything that you have done! In 10 weeks, Project Ethiopia has ...

This Sunday is a day that before this year, I never honored. That before this year, I'm going to be completely honest, I didn't even know existed. This Sunday, November 4th, is Orphan Sunday. The seeds of this united Orphan Sunday come especially as a gift from the Church in Africa. While attending a church service in Zambia, an American visitor was struck by the pastor’s passionate call to care for orphans in the local community, which had been ravaged by AIDS and poverty. Members of the church faced deep need themselves. But as the service ended, one after another stepped forward with money, food and other goods-some even taking off their own shoes and placing them in the offering for orphans. The visitor, Gary Schneider, was so impacted that he began to help Zambian leaders coordinate Orphan Sunday efforts across Zambia. These efforts spread to the U.S. in 2003 with help from Every Orphan’s Hope and other organizations. This picture is so beautiful to me, these peop...

The husband makes fun of me for how much I love Christmas time! The smells, the decorations, the weather, the gifts, the movies, and the music.... oh the music! Just the sound of a Christmas song triggers something inside me. I like to say that it makes me "fuzzy". You won't find this definition for fuzzy in the dictionary because I made it up. This happens to me with sappy movies, when there is a celebration time between teammates at a sports event (I know that one is hard to explain, but I love it!), but the most fuzzy times for me is when I listen to Christmas music! It brings me back to childhood and I remember all the wonderful times I had as a child at Christmas. I remember decorating the tree with Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers playing in the background.... now that is good stuff! The hubs doesn't have this fuzzy feeling when Christmas music is on and I cant understand it! We have to agree to disagree on this topic. I mean, he isn't a Scrooge, but I guess h...

I am a big fan of Project Runway.... It's not about the people or even the fashion, I just love and am fascinated with being able to take a flat peice of fabric and create something beautiful like a gown or a jacket, or even just a pair of jeans! It's as if this fabric has been brought to life and now has a personality all it's own, it moves, and has shape and character! It's amazing to me! This transformation is the inspiration for our first fundraiser.... We will be selling scarfs for the new Sanders baby! First of all, let me just say that I am obsessed with scarfs! I can't get enough, and they really just make any outfit better and make it look like you put way more effort into it than you actually did. Nuff said:) But these scarfs are even more unique. There is a "from death to life" transformation in each one. Each scarf is made out of an old t-shirt! We cut, stretch, and pull these lifeless peices of fabric and make them into something with shape ...

Hello again to all my family, friends, followers, and blog buddies! Yes, we are still alive and yes we are still adopting! So much has happened since we last talked..... I won't bore you with all the paperwork details, but we have finished our homestudy and we are just a month or so away from completing our dossier (I hope). And once that process is complete the official waiting process will begin. Yes that's right, we haven't even begun the waiting yet. One of the bigger developments in the journey is that we have chosen a name for our little boy! We are naming him Cameron.... we call him Cam. We have yet to choose a middle name, but that will come (Im pretty sure we have plenty of time). We have also, enlarged our reach and we are now on Facebook sharing our journey. Our Facebook website is www.facebook.com/ajourneyforlove  If you can, please share this with your friend list. We are stepping into a very important part of our adoption journey.... (insert suspenseful mus...

Instead of Facebook pics of my baby bump, morning sickness, and frequent updates and searches on how my baby is growing inside of me, I have PAPERWORK!!! It's quite overwhelming, but I guess because we are still so new in the process, it is all still very exciting to me. Im so sorry that it has been sooooo long since my last post. We are officially moved to a new city (Go Warriors!) and settled into ALL God is doing in our lives and our ministry here. So, with that settlization (that's not a real word, i know) comes picking up the adoption paperwork, emails, and online courses again! We sent off our 2nd set of paper work a few weeks ago, along with our initial payment. And today, we were contacted by our social worker, Amber, and we will be starting our home study very soon! My heart is leaping with excitement! The thought of going to Wal Mart and buying an accordian folder for all my adoption paperwork is the equivilant of the excitement I had with each dr.'s appointmen...

Today is mother's day, and for me, this day has a different feeling than it has in the past. Today, not only am I looking at my two beautiful girls and thinking about how blessed I am that the Lord has given me these gifts, and how grateful I am that He chose me to be their momma, but I'm also thinking about my baby that I haven't met yet. The one who is in another county, the one who isn't going to come into our lives in the traditional way. The one who won't be biologically ours, but God given to us to raise up. I'm thinking about him today and wishing that I could hold him right now. Im also thinking about his mom..... is she pregnant right now? Where does she live? Does she have a home or food? Today, on this day dedicated to mothers I want pray for my baby's mom. I pray peace and blessings over her life. I pray love find you when you need it most. I pray for shelter, food, drink, and protection. I also pray for strength as you have to give your child a...

Ever since my previous launch of our adoption blog, our lives have been in full speed motion! It's been hard to keep up with all that God is doing in our lives right now..... let me get you up to speed. God decided that when he was going to speak to us, He was going to get a lot done in one shot! A "Bodie and Rachel overhaul!" So, along with the news that we are to adopt a baby from Africa, we also recieved the call to sell our house and move to Glenpool. This being the house that we had just built & moved into one month prior! Barely had time to unpack the boxes before we put the FOR SALE sign up... the Lord has a sense of humor:) The house was on the market for one week before it sold, I know, that is insane! So, then we had to begin the mad search for the house we were to move into, cause being homeless wasn't the best option. Warning! "House hunting may cause near fist fights with your spouse, if you don't take moments of silence and deep breathing...

Welcome family and friends to our official adoption blog! This is an extremely new thing for us, so please bear with us as we "learn the ropes". We want to be able to keep you involved in this amazing journey that we are on. We are on a "A journey for Love". A Journey to meet the little boy in Ethiopia that God has destined to be our child. So, for my first entry I figured I better just start at the beginning, give you a little insight on how this journey began. Luckily I wrote down my thoughts when this all first began, so here we go! I wrote this on February 24th... " These past two weeks have been an absolute whirlwind! And more concentrated in these last few days…. God has taken me to places that I have never been before. It all started with a question… “What if we adopted our third baby?” BAM! Out of no where these thoughts and feelings come flooding inside me! What if we adopted? That would just be crazy! How much does that cost? I wouldn’t even ...