Kid, You'll Move Mountains!

Wow.

That is pretty much all I have to say about this past few weeks. God has been so good and amazing to bless us in ways we could never have dreamed would be possible. Seriously, I still can't wrap my head around it!

This past Sunday we had the privilege and honor to be guest speakers at Discovery Fellowship. We shared our adoption story and our hearts passion for orphans here in America and world-wide (YES! We love ALL orphans!!!!) If you are a new follower to the blog from Discovery Fellowship and wanted SO BADLY to watch the video we had to share that froze (boo!) here it is. It is worth the 7 minutes, I promise!

Also, WELCOME! I hope you continue following along in our journey. We loved your Church, the family atmosphere and your heart! Thank you SO MUCH for having us!! We hope to come back and visit soon <3

The amazing news just does not stop there. Oh no. KTVN's Channel 2's Kristen Remington came to our house to do a "Someone 2 Know" piece about the brave, creative and BOLD fundraiser of my wonderful husband TeJay. Haven't heard about it, go here! WHEELBARROW WALK FOR ADOPTION.

Words simply cannot express how amazing this is.

Seriously.

Who makes the choice to adopt, and then gets to share their story, their love for orphans and their love for Jesus on the NEWS?! I'll tell you who-someone with a big, awesome and powerful God.

Kristen was extremely kind and gracious to us during her interview. I've never met someone with such a genuine and beautiful smile! If you are local and wondering-she really is as great as she seems on T.V. this is amazing especially considering that only a few months ago her husband was diagnosed with Leukemia and is about to undergo his 4th round of chemotherapy. They have a great need for prayer, so PLEASE keep her, her husband, and their two little girls (3 and a few months old) in your prayers. With God all things are possible!

Anyways, if you are a new follower of the blog from the newscast, WELCOME! I hope you too will follow along our journey as we wage war against poverty, sickness, death, abuse, neglect and every other part of sin that makes up for the 143 million orphans world wide.

If you have ANY questions, any at all PLEASE feel free to

e-mail me at scrunchnose@yahoo.com day or night.

Also, I have decided to do a quick re-cap of our journey thus

far to catch the new followers up to speed.

THE FACTS:

1. Who are these people?

We are currently a family made up of 3. TeJay, myself and our daughter Eva who is two years old. If you would like a snapshot of our lives, visit the ABOUT US tab up top.

2. Why adopt period?

We love Jesus Christ. He and His adoption of US as sons and daughters into His Kingdom is the #1 reason we are pursuing this adoption. Children are very important to Jesus-therefore, they are very important to us. We also feel very strongly about adoption because of our daughter Eva Grace. We often wonder, what if it was Eva born into a broken home, or a war zone, or a family that was dying, or a home that abused her. When you start to really think about these kids, and make it personal, it's almost impossible NOT to get involved.

3. How far into the process are you?

We finished our homestudy (yay!) and our dossier packet has been mailed out to our agency. We are now on the referral list waiting for a phone call to be matched with our child. This could happen tomorrow, 2 weeks from now, 2 months from now, or more. It depends on so many factors that its impossible to even guess when we will get that call.

4. Okay, but why Africa?

If you are curious why we are adopting from Africa-and not here locally-the answer is really quite simple. That is where God led us. We do not think any type of adoption is "better" all adoption is beautiful, all adoption is selfless and wonderful, and all children need homes. Period. If you read here WHY AFRICA?to see more about choice.

5. Why on Earth does it cost so much MONEY!?

That is a very fair question. At first, it can really seem like someone's pockets are getting lined when you look at the $25,000 estimated price tag of adoption-but when you break it down bit by bit you will see that each "little bill" really adds up. For example, plane tickets alone to Africa and back are going to cost us $4,000-$6,000 (ish). We are trying to be as transparent as possible when it comes to finances, and so I have given as best of a breakdown as I can for where exactly all that money goes. It can be found HERE

6. How can I get involved/donate?

Glad you asked! There are several ways you can aid us, as well as other members of our community who are adopting as well.

A. Pray for us. Pray for a smooth road. For financial, emotional, and overall support to our family as we tackle the paperwork, overwhelming to-do lists, and bills.

B. Donate financially. You can do this several ways.

-There is a Donate Now button on the left hand side of the blog where you can donate SECURELY, SAFELY, and QUICKLY online. We do not ever see your card information, and therefore your identities are protected via PayPal. You do NOT need a PayPal account to donate this way.

-Send me an e-mail scrunchnose@yahoo.com and we will give you a mailing address for checks/cash donations.

C. Continue following alongside us in our journey! Tell your friends about us, educate yourself about adoption and ENJOY!!

7. What if you surpass your goal?

This is an awesome question, and I loved getting asked this. Reason being, that up until a few weeks ago the thought of even MAKING our goal seemed impossible, and now people want to know our plans if we PASS that goal! WOWZA! There are several options, none of them include taking a vacation to Hawaii though, so fear not!

A. Our goal of $25k is only estimating ONE parent travelling to pick up our child, if we surpass our goal we can use some of the money to help get BOTH of us there.

B. It is possible if we surpass the goal enough we will consider adopting more than one child. This is not a promise, but it is a possibility. It would be around another $10k per additional child, but if that is what God wants for us we won't say no!

C. We give the excess money to another couple adopting. We know several people adopting internationally that are fundraising as well, and if we surpass our goal it would be wonderful to continue passing along blessings to other families in need.

D. Buy gifts/supplies for the orphanage for when we travel. We would LOVE to bring them day-to-day items that they simply cannot afford like toothbrushes, shoes, socks, underwear, hair brushes, toys, shampoo, soap and everything else that we take for granted here in America.

I assure you, whatever we do with the money we will be honest about and share here on the blog. We also have a checking account SPECIFICALLY for adoption and we are happy to share the statements (with anyone interested ) showing that the only things going in are donations and our own funds, and the only things going out are adoption expenses.

Well, I think that is a pretty good overview of our journey so far. Of course, if you want to dig deeper you can navigate your way around the page and read past posts as well. I hope that if you are new to the blog you will continue to follow alongside our journey to Africa and back!

We also want to assure everyone that we are not looking for a free ride in this. We have our BOAT up for sale, as well as all other possessions of value we have such as this TIGER WOODS HAT

Until next time, MUCH LOVE!

-TeJay, Ashleigh, Eva and Baby H.