Overwhelming Gratitude

Overwhelming Gratitude

Overwhelming—submerge, engulf, deluge, flood, inundate, overcome, dumbfound, steamroll, clobber, bowl over, floor

Gratitude— gratefulness, thankfulness, appreciation, indebtedness, acknowledgement, credit

In this month of November, many of us are counting blessings, keeping thankfulness journals, or realizing all of the many little things that come together into larger reasons for us to be thankful.

We have many things to be thankful for, both big and small.  For the purpose of this blog post, I want to focus on two.

1. The gift of life.

                               This is where a pic of Jiao would be :)

 

Our son, Wesley, and our daughter, Jiao, are two of our most important blessings.  They are our blessings because their birth families chose the gift of life for them.  Their decision, though riddled with struggle and maybe even bitterness and a whole lot of bravery and sacrifice, gave us the opportunity to love on these two little souls and provide for them a life full of their own blessings.

While you may not be called to adopt a child or to be a foster parent, there are so many blessings you can provide to families and children in need.  Over these next few months, I challenge you to do something—however big or small—to bless a child or a family in need.  I’ve listed some resources below that are local, national, or international. 

Manna on Main Street- http://mannaonmain.org/
Other local soup kitchens and food pantries- http://www.cadcom.org/Montgomery-County-Cupboard-List/58/#northpenn
Cradles to Crayons- https://cradlestocrayons.org/
AdoptUSKids- http://www.adoptuskids.org/adoption-and-foster-care/overview/ways-to-help
Morningstar Maternity Home- http://www.morningstarmaternityhome.org/
Catholic Social Services- http://cssphiladelphia.org/catholic-social-services-volunteers/
Bethany Christian Services- http://impregnant.bethany.org/pregnancy-help
A Baby’s Breath- http://www.ababysbreath.org/services/methods_to.html
Christ’s Home for Children- http://www.christshome.org/
Compassion International- http://www.compassion.com/how-we-work/child-sponsorship.htm
World Vision- https://www.worldvision.org/

1. We are grateful for YOU!!!!

In the months of September, October, and November, we’ve been fundraising pretty heavily in order to raise money and bring our daughter, Jiao, home.  Because of those efforts, we have the funds to cover our dossier submission fees, our LOA submission, travel visa fees, two more agency fees, and part of our travel fees.  THIS IS HUGE!!!  We now have just about $15,000 left to save for the remainder of the fees.  In the coming weeks we will be applying for grants to help offset these monetary challenges.

While your help financially is certainly making this adoption journey smoother and easier, we are most thankful for you.  Between our bio families, our church families, our work families, our friends, and even acquaintances, you’ve surrounded us and lifted us up in prayer and have provided a village of support and love.  No matter where we go in our village, we know that Wes and Jiao will be loved and accepted.  That is bigger than any amount of financial support in the world.

At this point in time, we’ve submitted our I800A application and will be collecting and updating documents to submit for our dossier.  Your prayers continue to be needed both here and abroad.  We wish we could share pictures of Jiao with you (if you see one of us—please ask!  They’re on our phones.) but she’s technically/legally not ours YET!!!

Thank you for your love and your support.