News on Mr. S!

This week we were so excited to finally get more pictures of our little prince! And a huge bonus, his medical report from the orphanage he is in! Since we can't yet share his picture online for now we will call him Mr. S! We were so happy to see a sweet smirky little grin on his now nearly CHUBBY face! Our first pictures of him were sad and very thin! Lets put it this way, he would have been perfect for one of those feed the children commercials! We are so thankful that he seems to be getting some more food and to know that he has been given a completely  clean bill of health!

On another wonderful note! Our I-600 is on its way. This is the document that clears us to bring home Mr. S in the eyes of US immigration. We are making rapid progress in the paperwork side of things! Please continue to pray that the responsible parties would be quick in their returns to us.

Also, have you noticed that lovely little thermometer over on the right? It has made quite a jump! We cannot thank you enough for the contributions you are making in our lives and the life of our son! It means so much! Please continue to pray that the funds keep coming!

We will fight for you!

Today began with the hope that we would have pictures and video of our son, that our case worker would have wonderful heart felt touching stories to share with us about meeting him. That she would be able to tell us of his smile when he received our gifts. All of this OUR PLAN.

But God had a different plan in mind. Instead we received news this afternoon that our beautiful boy was not seen by our case worker, she had no stories of his sweet smiling face, no pictures to share with us. This is because our son lives 1,000 miles outside the capital city, in what they call a "confilict zone". This made it impossible for our case worker to travel to him. Not only that but because of where his orphanage is located we are told that we can expect to add an additional 3-6 (most likely 6) months to our adoption process. You see, it is hard to get information in and out of where he is, and with the recent changes the DRC has made to their adoption procedures they expect it to take even longer.

At the very beginning of this process God laid a very specific verse on my heart for our son.

Deuteronomy 1:30 The LORD your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes!

As I was listening to our case worker today this verse just kept coming to mind. As much as I want to be discouraged and upset at the idea of missing another 6 months of our precious boys life I know that God will fight for him. God fought for us by sending his son, and he fights for us every day!

We cannot wait to see God work before our very eyes and fight for our son, just as he fights for us! We were so thankful to find out that our son is in an orphanage run by a wonderful christian woman and her husband who is a pastor, and that they were able to hand deliver our special gifts to our sweet boy!

verse 31 and 32 go on to say: and in the desert. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place. But even after all he did, you refused to trust the LORD your God" 

I pray that we do not get so lost in this process as we worry about this peice of paperwork and that peice of paperwork that we miss what God is trying to teach us in the process. That our eyes would be open to the work he is doing, and that we would allow him to use us to tell his story of how he fights for us! And we pray that we would learn to trust God more every day as he works before our very eyes!

Dear Friends and Family,

 

Please know that if you are seeing this you are very important to our family. You have played a role in our past, our present, and we are asking you to join us in our future. We are asking you to join us on a very special journey we have embarked on! Even when we were dating we both knew that we were called to adopt and that someday God would add a child to our family through this process. We are excited to say that God has not only led us to begin the adoption process, but we have already accepted the referral of a precious 2 year old boy from the Democratic Republic of Congo!

We are humbled to be called to this journey. Although we know that not everyone is called to take an orphan into their home we are asking that you would join with us in this journey in whatever way God leads you to do so. First of all, we ask for prayer. Specifically for the following:

 

·        For God to direct our path

·        That any red tape would be removed and paperwork could be completed in a speed that could only be attributed to God. Because our son has already been matched with us we need to move extra fast!

·        For funds to complete our adoption

Secondly and just as important, we would humbly like to ask for financial support. As you probably know adoption is expensive. In order for this adoption to go forward, we need to have somewhere around $28,000-$30,000. We are working very hard to save our own money, hold fundraisers, have garage sales etc. to collect funds, however we are asking you to partner with us in any way you can. We can’t do this without you! Some of the ways you can help are:

·        Join our 1,000 friends campaign: Do you know ten people (or more), that we may not know who are willing to give $10 (just two trips to starbucks) to help bring our son home?

·        Do you own a small business, etsy shop etc.? –consider donating a portion of your proceeds. We would be happy to offer you lots of FREE advertising on our blog!

·        Do you have a blog? - share our blog with others. We are using Google ads on our blog as a way to raise funds as well, every time someone clicks on an add we earn!

·        Do you drink coffee? - We have partnered with just love coffee. You can find their information on our blog as well.

·        We will be holding a garage sale in the coming months- do you have things you could donate? Contact us and we will coordinate with you!

·        Do you have airline miles you are willing to donate? This can be a huge help with air fare! Let us know and we will provide you with our airline advantage numbers.

·        Did you know that you can make a tax deductible donation?! Simply make your check of any amount out to European Adoption Consultants and add our names to the memo line. Then please mail the check to us. We will send it directly to our agency. You will receive a letter in the mail from European Adoption Consultants for your donation.

·        We also have a PayPal link on our blog . Simply click on the link on the right side and donate to our adoption.

 

We have created this blog to help us document our journey so feel free to follow along. Please click on the link to the right to follow our blog! As soon as we are given the ok we will be debuting our handsome little man’s picture for the world to see! We believe deeply in this call, and we ask boldly for your financial, and prayer support. Without our community we won’t be able to do this emotionally, physically, or financially. Thank you again for your support and prayers!

 

With love, Kelly, Taylor, Tatum and Blakely Brewer