He's Always Been Faithful

This post title just happens to be the lyrics to one of my favorite songs by Sara Groves, and the most perfect expression of God's work in my life. He is always faithful. And I continue to experience His complete and amazing faithfulness during this adoption journey. Although the past few weeks have brought some really difficult moments for our family, we have felt His presence and experienced His goodness. We have asked for prayer and cannot say enough about the way our friends, family, church family, and fellow adoptive families have encouraged and prayed for us. God has used each of you to demonstrate His faithfulness, and we are thankful. 

International adoption of a teenager is an amazing gift, but it is not an easy road. Because our son is almost 15, there is an overwhelming desire to bring him home as soon as possible. So, paperwork and other delays can be discouraging and stressful. And although we are blessed and thankful that we get to communicate with Dima fairly regularly, when phone minutes run out, batteries break, and other events occur, there can be some quiet and difficult weeks when we don't hear from him at all. In the midst of everything else happening, we are also working hard to fundraise. From the beginning, this has been a financial leap of faith for our family. So many people have been generous and giving, and you have blessed us with your time, money, talents, and more! When we look at the bottom line, it can feel overwhelming. We have a long way to go, but we continue to look forward to the day we reach our goal.

The emotional twists and turns of this journey are to be expected, and we continue to see what we call "bread crumbs" of encouragement to remind us that God is the author of this story, and that He will complete it in a way that brings Him glory! Those bread crumbs come in many forms--phone calls, texts, and messages from friends; a precious little girl who gave part of her life savings to help bring Dima home; friends who pulled together to make yummy food and raise money for us at their own event; friends who blessed our family with a mini vacation, groceries, and their company; new friends who know, are adopting, and love other kids at Dima's orphanage; pictures from friends who were recently at his orphanage on mission;  friends using their talents to make things we can sell; and so much more!

On the right side of the blog, I have added a fundraising thermometer and a broken down list of adoption costs, along with our progress so far.  By year-end, we need some additional funds in order to keep our progress going and not have any delays to our current schedule (which puts us traveling to Ukraine in May 2014). Also on the sidebar, there is a list of current fundraisers, a couple of which are great Christmas shopping opportunities. And don't forget that you can take advantage of tax deductible year-end giving through Grace Klein Community. Message me at loveandtots3 at gmail dot com for details on how to make a 100% tax deductible donation to help us bring Dima home.

Thank you for following our journey and for praying for Dima and our family. Here are a few recent pictures of our son.

1 Thessalonians 5:24 "The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it."

Until he is home,
Casey

Handmade, Custom Towels for Babies, Toddlers, and Kids - great Christmas gifts

A couple of years ago, my friend Julie and I had a small ministry named (Cover)ed. Basically, we made super cute hooded (and non-hooded) towels for babies, toddlers, and children, and invited adoptive families to sell the towels in order to fundraise for their adoptions. We also sold towels independently through our blog and donated proceeds from those sales to ministries focused upon helping children and families in poverty, providing orphan care and prevention, and serving adoptees/adoptive families. We were blessed and blown away by the response, but being busy moms ourselves, were unable to continue making towels year-round. 

So, now I am super excited to announce that Julie (the talented seamstress of our former partnership) has offered to make these beautiful, personalized, handmade towels for people this Christmas season in order to benefit our adoption! These are made from full size bath towels, and are roomy enough for children up to 10 years old (my daughter is 9 and still uses hers)! Towels are $22 each, and about half of that goes to our adoption. They make great gifts to use for after the bath, but they are also wonderful to take to the pool or beach in the summer. Below you can see the color and personalization options for ordering towels. We will take orders through November 23 in order to ensure that your towel(s) are completed in time for the Christmas giving season! Feel free to comment here or message me at ukrainemyheart6 at gmail dot com with any questions or to place your order.

Please indicate the following when ordering:
1. Towel color (pink for girl, blue for boy)
2. Hooded or Without Hood
2. Personalization Initial
3. Fabric Choice (indicate number that is listed with fabric choice pictured below)

Finished Towels:

 

Custom Fabric Choices for Initial:

 **B fabric choices are for the blue boy's towel option, G fabric choices are for the girl's option

 

Fabric B1



Fabric B2

 

Fabric B3

 

 

Fabric G1

 

Fabric G2

 

Fabric G3

 

Fabric G4

 

Happy Shopping!

 

Until he is home,

Jeff and Casey

T-Shirts for sale - 1st order deadline Nov. 15

Thanks to fundthenations.com, we have an amazing design for our adoption fundraising t-shirts!There are youth/children's sizes XS-XL available as well as adult sizes S-XXXL. The shirts are standard fit and are only $15 each.  Everybody likes a great t-shirt, so order some and help us bring our son home! You can order by commenting here or messaging me at ukrainemyheart6 at gmail dot com. You can pay by cash, check, or paypal.