My Little Starfishes :)

The Starfish Story
Original Story by: Loren Eisley


One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed
a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.
Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”
The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean.
The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”
“Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish?
You can’t make a difference!”
After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish,
and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said…”
I made a difference for that one.”



 















Posted in: on Tuesday, April 26, 2011 at at 6:50 PM 1 comments  

A Village

OH, how I want to bring this little guy home. He needs to be in our arms not behind those bars in a crib. I am hoping many more are saving their change to make a real change. It all adds up, sometimes quickly and sometimes not so quickly. His grant has grown some in the last few weeks but not nearly enough to get him home. Not knowing if he is ours is hard at times but I know God is faithful and He will let us know if he is ours. I wonder what his real name is. I wonder the same thing as I wonder about our Little V. Are they being loved, are they being taken care of or are they even allowed to be as a child should be? They say Matthew is not even walking yet. Is that because he has no one to take him by his tiny hand and lead him? Is it because day after day he lays in his crib? He has so much potential they say. In order to live up to that potential he needs out of his prison. Just two years old and living/trapped in a prison for babies. They call it a baby house, sound nice doesn't it? Little Carrington lived on a baby house.
This is her at age 3 1/2, just six weeks ago
 when she was rescued.
Weighing 11 lbs.

So "baby house" may sound nice but that may not be the case. I have followed numerous stories, all true, that show the horror of a "baby house". So if we can rescue two instead of one, we will do it. We will fight for a life of a child that needs us. We will continue to pray for Little Matthew in hopes he will be in our arms along with our dear sweet Little V.
I know the economy just seems so over whelming at times. I honestly believe that our God is stripping us down so that we can see the real needs in this world. Yes, in our back yards and across the world. How sad for Him to see this world fall apart. To watch people care more about the car they drive then about the stranger living on the streets. To see professional sports players get payed more per game then it would cost to feed a community. How sad to know that we would spend more money on a pair of shoes then we would spend to helping someone rescue an orphan. I know the excuses I am know I have said them myself. But that is exactly what they are excuses.  They say we can not imagine the love God has for us, don't you think we can't even imagine the pain He has as well?  We have to continue to be His hands and feet. There is no one else to do it.
Please take time to pray and ask the Lord what He will have you do to help Little Matthew. It may not be for us but it will be for him. We will do what it takes to bring him home. We will do what ever the Lord asks us. Right now He has asked us to advocate for him. Raise money for his grant and not our own. So that is what I am asking, for your help. For you to share our story. Share Matthew's story. Help send Jesus' hands and feet over to rescue him. It will take a village to bring this little one home to his forever family, and I do pray that it is us. I do know we are part of the village.  Are you part of the village? Are you willing to pray, ask and be obedient to what the Lord will have you do?

Many Blessings Ann

Posted in: on Monday, April 25, 2011 at at 4:43 PM 2 comments  

Oh My Goodness!!!!

I just received these today. And........Oh my goodness. He is an absolute doll. I just can not imagine going to see him and walking away without bringing him home. Receiving these photos makes me even a little sad. I hope you all enjoy them. Please keep us in prayer if we can raise his grant to 12k we will proceed and adopt Matthew too!

I knew this little guy captured my heart from the beginning.


Matthew 6 months old

6 months He is so tiny :)

11 months old


I love his fingers in his mouth. So sweet!


Hi mommy and daddy :)

Posted in: on Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at at 8:36 AM 2 comments  

Jars, Pearls, Matthew, and Give Aways!

There is a connection between the four jars, pearls, Matthew and give aways. I am asking that each and everyone of you find and empty jar and titling it "Matthew's Jar" decorate it any way you please and for the next 6 weeks collect all the change you can scrap up from pennies to quarters. At the end of the six weeks I am asking that what ever change you have gathered that you  would donate it to Matthew's grant. Email me a photo of your family's jar for Matthew so I can post it to this blog. You will then be entered into the Pearl necklace Give Away and other goodies.  On May 23 I will draw for two people to win one of the pearl necklaces (Photo below) and other stuff. These are real authentic pearls. They were given to me by a friend to do what I pleased with in hopes to raise money for our adoption. I am donating them for this give away to help Matthew get home to whom ever it may be.
This is going to be fun. Get your family involved. Have your kids ask friends and relatives for any spare change. We can all give change to make a change in this sweet boys life.
IF you would like to make a monetary donation before the six weeks is up please click on his photo on the right hands side of this blog.


"18

"18 Six strands of ribbon
This set of bracelet,s hand made by
me, will also be giving away. I sell them
for $26/set
I will also give this set of bracelets away, hand
Made by Me
sold for $26/set







Cookie Lee Jewlery
necklace donated by Natalie Miles
•Offering two (2) of these  -- Gift certificate to lia sophia (worth ~$100), good for a FREE peice of jewelry--anything in the current catalog that is $100 or less! See the catalog online at http://www.liasophia.com/sites/adele/catalog-intro.
•Two (2) -- lia sophia jewelry (past line pieces)

range in value from $50 to $100 each. Photos coming soon


5 HOURS of Genealogy for your family

•For 1 person -- 5 hours of genealogy research (a value of $250)

•Genealogy usually takes hours and hours to find out all that you want to know about your ancestors. The 5 hours I'm offering is a free "mini course" so-to-speak: the winner should pinpoint a specific goal to be accomplished (e.g. "I know my grandmother was born in Des Moines but I don't know anything about her parents or siblings. I want to learn about them.), and I will do 5 hours of research for them on this research problem, providing them whatever results I find, including pedigree charts, family group records, documents I find about the family, maps, etc. I will also provide a list of "next steps" for them.

•AS A NOTE: As part of my "day job" I've worked on celebrity trees for the Who Do You Think You Are? and The Generations Project television shows. The research results shown in those TV shows took weeks and months to achieve. I say that because often people will set an unrealistic expectation for what can be accomplished in 5-10 hours (they expect the researcher to hit the "Easy Button" and print out the complete family histroy). Having given that caveat... a lot can be accomplished in 5 hours, especially by a professional like myself who knows where to look and how to quickly interpret findings.




This is our Matthew Jar, it already has over $13!
 





Jennifer Abell's Jar
Tamarah Saylor's







Wiegersma Family's Jar



Rachel Gander's










Aunt Jenny's Baggie ! :)

Sarah Birschbach's


Autumn Winkle's Jar







Wagner Family's Jar

Posted in: on Monday, April 11, 2011 at at 4:26 PM 3 comments  

Chaos and Love

This is a baby picture of Matthew.  I believe God has already chosen his family. I truly do not know who it is but I pray daily for them. I pray they read this post and feel compelled to step forward no matter how scary it seems. No matter if they never thought they would adopt a child with special needs. No matter if 40,000 just plain freaks them out. To be quite honest never in a million years did I think we would be on that journey ourselves. I can not even begin to tell you how blessed we are; how blessed we have been just because we said yes to this adoption journey. It was a year ago last month that I had a dream about little orphans with Down Syndrome. Literally it started with a dream and look where we are at now.
We are about to travel across the world to meet our daughter. Our daughter who was born three and half years ago. The exact time that I begged my husband to adopt a child from Ethiopia. My niece had come home from there and I felt compelled then to rescue a child from a life with no future or hope. My husband said no. He really didn't even give it a second thought. Sure he pretended he did but I knew he didn't. I prayed that God would take the burden from my heart and He did. Little did I know that three years later he would lay that burden down again.
September 2007- I asked my husband to adopt from Ethiopia, He said "No"
September 2007- Our daughter Little V was born
September 2010- Committed to Little V with Matthew on our heart.

Bringing us up to date we still do not know if Matthew will be ours. He has relatives in his country who have to give permission for an international adoption. We have to raise another 10,000. I am not sure if God is asking us to bring him home. I will do what ever I need to do to help this little boy. I am not sure if anyone is willing to give anymore. I have to believe they will if they feel led to, if they feel led to help rescue him, if they carry a burden on their heart as I do. I have to believe if God wants him in our family then his family will release him, his grant will reach the 12,000 mark. I have to believe if he is meant to ours God will continue to lead us to him. 


Two years he has been waiting for a family of his own. Two years of laying in his crib waiting for some one to hold him and tell him they love him. I can feel him in my arms at times. I can see my life full of children with chaos and love overflowing my cup. 
I have a beautiful family full of love. Not perfect but perfectly imperfect.
Please consider helping us raise his grant so when we head over to his country there will be a chance we can say yes. Yes, to loving him for the rest of his life.
To donate click here:

Posted in: on Saturday, April 9, 2011 at at 8:28 PM 0 comments  

The Machine Shop and Thank You's

$2,250
That is how much we received in donations @ the Machine Shop during our benefit concert.

Special Thank You to Kevin and Craige @ The Machine Shop
Flint, Michigan
You guys are amazing and we will never be able to thank you enough!

Wendy Green and Matt Davis
Our Little V touched their hearts. They made this concert happen and we will never forget what they have done for us and for our Daughter. Both of you will hold a special place in our hearts, always.



Some of the Bands. Four Bands, one great night of music.
Thanks to all the guys!
Parastesia
Wake of Destruction
Neighborhood Muscle
and
Straw Man







Can never forget the support of our Family and Friends
We Love you guys so much




Cher, Me, and My sister Jennifer


My dearest friend from High school
Thank you for your loving support
Shannon, Me, and Becky
Jennifer and Janie
Thanks Janie for coming home to join us. So happy you shared
this night with us. Luv U!



Kevin, me, Tamera, and Dane
These three worked all night selling tickets for our "Give Aways"
Thank you so much. We raised over $500
 
Me, Tony Lebrie, and Jason (finally, I think He may have been hiding from camera's all night)
Thank you Tony for sharing our story on the radio.
 Thank you for giving me the chance to share during our interview.
Your fantastic!

As for my beautiful Sister:
I Love you and Thank you for all your Support every step of the way
E
Miranda and Jake so glad you came.
Love you guys!

Cher and Todd
So glad you are part of our family.
We Love you

Aunt Nay Nay and Uncle Jim
You were right Nay Nay it was nothing
 but a miracle thank you for sharing it with us.

Thank you to everyone who was part of this night. None of you will be forgotten.
We are so excited to say we are fully funded and now the only thing
that stand in the way of us and our daughter
is Court. Please keep us in your prayers. Pray for
a judge who is kind and wants nothing more than to see
these orphans in a loving home.
Oh! one more Thank you.
Thank You Dave for watching the kiddos at home until 1:30 in morning.





Posted in: on Wednesday, April 6, 2011 at at 9:39 PM 0 comments  

Update is in Need

For the past week we have had a lot of information come in and go out about our adoption. It doesn't look like we will be travelling in the next month, could even be the end if May or middle of June. It is entirely out of our hands. Our POA (power of attorney in country) has requested that we have all  court documents ready 7-10 days before we make our first trip. This is not a normal procedure we were suppose to make our first trip April 21 and then come back and finish up some paper work and send it over, not the case for us. They are going to try something NEW!!! This will save time and money and expedite the court process if we do this. Sounds great right? Problem being we don't have all those documents and the two most important can take 12 weeks to get. UGH!!!  Also my HS (homestudy) agency is working at their own pace......pretty much because she doesn't feel like it doing what she has to do. And no there is no one that can help  me with that she owns the agency. She can do what ever she feels.
 So here we are all applications sent out. We are waiting for a fingerprint appointment to get INS clearance and we are waiting for FBI clearance. Good news is that FBI states that it could take 12 week but they have been getting them done in 4. Also I just read somewhere that INS just finished someones process in 22 days." Please Lord complete these two clearances in the next four weeks."
That's our update. OH and don't forget we are trying to raise Matthews grant to 10k. We have gotten permission to go see him and we will get his full information. Hoping and praying that God continues to lead us with the direction we should take with Matthew. Are his mommy and daddy still out there. I am praying to will step forward. I am praying a large grant will encourage you to step forward and get him. If not I know Gods plans are perfect with our flaws.
IF you would like to help raise Matthews grant to give him a chance to have a family you can click on his photo on the right hand side. All donations are tax deductible and they go to his personal grant not ours. Help me find his family, help us get him where he belongs. A $5 donation adds up when everyone chips in.

Posted in: on Friday, April 1, 2011 at at 8:40 AM 0 comments  

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