Homestudy Complete

I know I normally only post once a week, but I can hardly contain myself! We just got word that our home study in complete and the formal copy has been sent to our agencies home office! This is a big big deal and a huge part of our paperwork load! We only have two more documents to complete the paperwork side of our adoption! Woo hoo! Now the real waiting begins! We were also excited to read today that our case worker has safely arrived in the Congo and has been able to visit many of the children! check out their blog at: http://eacafrica.blogspot.com

1000 Friends Campaign

We are anxiously awaiting news from the Congo about our little man, but in the mean time all the planning and preparation just keeps going around the Brewer house! Unfortunately we have all shared a very nasty head cold the past few days which has left mommy completely voiceless! A fact which I am sure is not to upsetting to many around here! :) I can be quite loud!

As I said in my last blog post we have made some great friends along this journey, one of whom has offered some great fundraising ideas for us. This week we are rolling out what we are calling the 1000 friends campaign. We definitely do not know 1000 people but what we are asking is that you would join us on this journey and be willing to ask ten people that you know if they are willing to give just $10 (just two coffees from Starbucks) to help bring home our son!

This is a very real, and very helpful way to be a part of our journey. Simply ask 10 (or more) of your friends if they would be willing to give $10 toward our adoption cause. If so they can give you cash, or for a tax deductible donation they can give you a check made payable to European Adoption Consultants. If they chose to write a check please ask them to add our name to the memo line.

After you have collected your donations simply mail or bring them back to us!

If you would like to be a part of our 1000 friends campaign please let us know and we would be more than happy to send you an envelope!

We cannot express enough our gratitude for your help in bringing home our son! You are making an eternal impact on his life!

The Great Paper Chase- home study

We survived the home study visit! This Saturday our wonderful social worker came out and spent SEVERAL hours at our kitchen table asking us all manner of questions about our life, our marriage, our parenting style, our upbringing, you name it! Nothing is off limits in a home study! We are thankful to say however, that although we enjoyed our visit, we are glad it is over. Now as our case worker calls it, The Great Paper Chase can proceed! This week has been all about getting medical records, dog vaccinations, shot records, finance records, you name it we have had to get it together! At this point we are just trying to keep up the momentum! Now that our home study is finished, it has to go for approval by our agency. While we are waiting on that we begin our dossier, which is just another huge packet of documents that we will send to the Congo.

On another note, we shipped a little care package to our sweet boy this week, which will go to the Congo with our case worker on Feb. 2nd! Please be in prayer for her and her team. Please pray that she is able to accomplish all of her trip goals, and that she is able to visit our sweet boy, deliver our presents to him and take such much anticipated pictures and videos of him for us!

Thank you to my newest sweet friend Jodi for all of the helpful adoption advice! Please visit her blog and follow her amazing journey as well!

http://headsup07up.blogspot.com/

Are we being Punked?!

Hmmmmm....this may not be the greatest post to write just before our home visit but I just cant help myself! If I am normal, which I like to think I am at least semi, than its OK that there is at least one thing in my house that I really do not do well! (keep in mind that I said at least one thing, not only one!) For me its laundry! I despise laundry, really really truly just hate it. And I'm convinced it hates me too! I have joked with Kelly that I have intentions to tell our social worker that "my kids may not go to school with matching socks every day but they are loved" to which he responded "I'm lucky if mine are clean I wouldn't mind if they didn't match!" How dare him right! Go easy on me please, I'm airing our dirty laundry here (literally). So, anyway, all that to say, in preparation for our lovely home visit I have been doing my fair share of laundry! We will leave out how much! yesterday apparently I did so much that the washing machine hose came lose and water started leaking onto our hard wood floors! Aaaahhh! So fast forward to 7 pm and I am behind that washing machine carefully following Kelly's instructions, and the girls are playing in the living room. We have the hose back on and are testing it out... just as Kelly pushes the button on the washer to start the spin cycle and empty the water the hose comes flying off and HOT water goes spraying everywhere!!!!!! All over me, all over the walls, all over the floor! Oh and it gets better, right about that time I hear Tatum yell "Daddy!!!!!" Only to be very quickly deserted by Kelly to find out later that Blakely had inserted her hand into her VERY dirty diaper and was playing in it! So now does my title make since?! If only we had a camera we so could have won America's funniest home videos! All Kelly and I could do was laugh!I am so thankful that God has given us humor!


On an adoption note! We have our lovely home visit this Saturday which we are frantically preparing for! We covet your prayers that we can get all of the necessary things done and ready in time! Also we are preparing a small care package to send to our sweet boy at the end of the month! We are so excited for him to receive it, and see pictures of us and the girls for the first time! We are praying that God will begin the prepare his heart to be a part of our family and that he will continue to protect hime!

Job 8:21 ESV   
He will yet fill your mouth with laughter, and your lips with shouting.

About Orphans in the Congo

Kelly and I want to thank you all for joining us in this journey! We thought you all might want to know a little bit more about where our son is coming from! Any child being orphaned is a terrifying thing, and unfortunately there are millions around the world. For us the decision to adopt from Africa was an easy one thanks to the mission work we have been blessed to take part in there.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo they have one of the worst orphan situations in the world! 15% of the Democratic Republic of Congo's under 18 population are orphans. That means that one out of every four children are orphaned! Many of these children end up caring for younger siblings or family members, or being institutionalized. This is in a country where life expectancy, literacy, access to knowledge and living standards are ranked in bottom place of all countries in the world. Many of these children are orphaned due to aids; however the overwhelming majority are orphaned due to poverty. One in five children die before the age of five – a quarter of them before they’re a month old. Malnutrition is one of the leading causes of the high rate of child deaths. 75% of the orphans are boys.

It is with such a heavy heart that I write this post, thinking about our sweet boy in these conditions. Kelly and I pray that God will protect him, physically, emotionally, and spiritually! We are so thankful that we serve such a Mighty God, who has called us to this journey and who has promised us that he will go before us! We long for the day when our son will join our family.

Deuteronomy 20:4 "for the LORD your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory"

No matter what battle you are fighting today, know that it is a Mighty God who fights for you!

It would be an honor for our family if you would join us in prayer and support!

 

BIG BIG Brewer news!

Its official! We are happy to announce that we will be adding to our family sometime hopefully before the end of September! We have accepted the referral of a precious 2 year old boy from the Congo! Unfortunately that's really all of the details we can give right now, but we hope to be able to share more soon! Now its on to LOTS and LOTS of paperwork, and raising the money to bring him home! Please pray that God would provide the necessary funds and in a timely manner. Because our son is already identified the process will go quite a bit faster than a typical international adoption! We are so excited about Gods plans for our little family and cannot wait to share more!

For years Kelly and I have known that adoption would be a part of our family. As we have rejoiced in our news over the last few days we are reminded that without God's love we would all be orphans! It is so amazing that God has promised us that he will not leave us as orphans:

18“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

We are so thankful that Christ has not left us as orphans and that he has promised to someday return! We cannot wait for the day when we are again united with him!

Thank you for all of your prayers and support as we begin the wait and work of bringing home our son!

Welcome to 2013!

Hopefully you have had a wonderful Christmas and New Years and are ready to march into 2013. We know we are! We expect 2013 to be a big year for the Brewer family as we continue our process of adoption! As you may know adoption is a very costly undertaking! In order to assist with our adoption we are trying to come up with some fundraising ideas. I have listed a few links below that you can access should you feel led to support us. Also if you have any ideas for us, we are always open to suggestions!

https://justlovecoffee.com/about/beneficiary/TheBrewersadoption/

More to come later!