URGENT Prayers needed!

...I can't even put into words...

...I try to think, and nothing comes...

...Of what I can say about this...

Amelia.  You knew her first as Lilliana.

Sweet, precious Amelia's adoption was finally approved recently, her family given an invitation to travel to pick up their FOUR precious children from the two orphanages where they lived.  Amelia lived in the same orphanage that little Katie came from.  She is eleven years old, and even after receiving specialized nutrition under a new orphanage director, she is refluxing and unable to keep anything down.  This sweet girl weighs only twelve pounds.  A year ago, when Katie's Mama first traveled to see her, Amelia weighed only ten pounds.  That she has lived this long is nothing short of a miracle.

Amelia's Mama is there with her in her home country right now.  She has been taken back to the hospital this morning.  The last word we had was that she was not doing well at all.  My very heart fears for this precious one right now.  I found out overnight from another mom adopting from this orphanage, whose daughter is fourteen years old, and only fourteen pounds, that the situation was desperate.  She updated this morning that Amelia was back in the hospital, where she spent a number of days, weeks even, earlier this year.  We prayed for her then, even though we could not share openly whom the child was for which we prayed.

PLEASE rise up with me and PRAY for sweet Amelia.  She needs to be stabilized enough to travel home with her family over the weekend.  I'm sure she will be hospitalized upon arrival in the U.S. - but we have to get her here first.  Friends, family, whomever you are, pray this sweet girl home with me.  She's only just getting the opportunity to know the love of a family.  She NEEDS His healing hand on her more than anything right now.

PRAY as you never have before, for sweet Amelia Brown.  Precious angel girl, hang on.

Blessed

Sometimes I really can't believe how different one day can be from the next.  Yesterday at exactly this time, I was in heaps of pain, both physical and emotional, wishing I could just cease to exist for a while.  Today, I can't wipe the idiot grin off my face.  Why?

Well - look back at my last post about the Jobes family, friends who are overseas now for their second and third adoptions.  I wrote that at 1 am today, after bouncing back somewhat from my 6 pm low.  I sat on that post for days, wanting to write it just perfectly and finally realizing that perfect words weren't going to come, and I needed to put the word out about them and their need NOW.  The last thing I did before I fell asleep last night (or rather, early this morning) was check their FSP at Reece's Rainbow.  It read $21884.29.  That was up about $2,000 from where it had been when fundraising started for Linden's adoption last week.

I slept late this morning... later than late.  I knew I was going to be in pain today so I took benedryl before bed last night and slept well into this afternoon, not waking up until about 2 pm.  I woke up just long enough during the night to hear the good, soaking rain we've needed for weeks falling outside my window.  Then, when I woke up - in pain, as I expected (if you've not been reading long, I have endometriosis, which means chronic pain no matter how many times they slice open my abdomen, until I get pregnant or have a hysterectomy)... I wanted to check the Jobes FSP again... see if it had gone up any during the night.  See if anyone had heard the cries of myself and others to please help them bring Linden home.

And I pulled my computer onto my lap and refreshed the still-open page.  Thank goodness I hadn't been holding anything or it would have dropped with my jaw.  The Jobes FSP read $25,029.

Seriously?  It had gone up OVER $2,500 overnight - or over day, as the case may be.  And it wasn't done yet.  As I talked, stunned, to Faith and to a mutual friend who has been helping me spread the word about the Jobes need, that number continued to go up.  Just now I checked it, and it read $28,279.29.  That's right, they MADE their matching grant, hit $28,000 and continued to grow.

I'm literally speechless.  Seriously, I started writing this post hours ago.  The paragraph you read two seconds ago was written over four hours ago.  I'm that speechless.  God is MIGHTY to save the orphan!

And as if this weren't enough good news today... we found out that one of the babes from Katie's former orphanage that we've all been praying for has found a family... the same family as another soon-to-be former resident of that place!  They will be bringing home TWO girls from that place, into a family forever!  And finally... I saw pictures from one family's trek back from EE over the weekend.  They brought home tiny Keith, former resident of that same orphanage, along with four other older children... and they live in the very same state as I do, which means I get to meet those precious angels for myself!

It has been a good day.  I smiled today.  I was happy.  You might've thought I'd forgotten to miss someone. But elephants?  They never forget.

No eloquence tonight - just a golden opportunity

I've sat here in front of my computer for two days trying to come up with the right, perfect words to write this post, and I've come to the conclusion that I'm not going to find them - at least not before it's too late - so these ones are going to have to do.

Some friends of mine, who live literally within walking distance, are in Eastern Europe right now completing their second adoption.  They adopted their daughter Etta, who has down syndrome and autism, a little over a year ago - I only met her once so far but let me tell you, she is just a bundle of cuteness!  They also have an eight year old son (who A proudly befriended at the playground) and their very own angel.  They are a beautiful family and I have been so excited to see them through this adoption!

Knowing that older children stand less of a chance of being adopted, Faith and Evan chose Josiah to be their son (They will call him Cohen).  He is eight years old and has Down Syndrome.  They traveled to his country a little over a week ago to meet him, bond with him, and bring him home

Josiah/Cohen in his adoption file photo

Faith, Josiah/Cohen, Morgan, Evan and Etta... such a beautiful forever family!

From what I can tell, the Jobes family has been responsible for bringing joy to the residents of Josiah/Cohen's mental institution for the past week.  The smiling faces of these men and boys of all ages tell me that this family's trek across the ocean is already benefiting more than just the child they went there to adopt.

And indeed, the Jobes family had love left over to give.  Once in country, they asked for a blind referral of a baby girl with Down Syndrome.  And they were given this:

Linden.  A golden opportunity not only for the Jobes, but for this baby girl, no more than one year old, to escape the life of institutionalization that would await a child like her, a little girl with down syndrome, in her country.  She could be home, with a family, in a matter of weeks!  Instead of lying in a bed in an orphanage, like Josiah/Cohen did seven years ago, before his family found him.

It's well known that older children are not adopted as often as younger children.  Their institutional behaviors, chronic medical issues, traumatic pasts, often scare families away.  The words "Mental Institution" are usually enough to send a family running for the hills.  But not the Jobes.  No - they crossed the ocean for that dear boy who lives in the mental institution, with men and boys even older than himself who never found families.  And you know what?  Faith and Evan just adore him, no matter how old he is or where he lives.  Look how precious:

And now they have the opportunity to bring Linden home BEFORE she has to spend years in an institution!  But, as I'm sure you've all guessed, her redemption comes at a cost.  Because Linden is in a different region than Josiah/Cohen, her adoption requires an additional facilitation cost of $9,000, with added travel possibly causing the total needed funds to reach $12,000.  In the first days after Faith announced their intent to bring Linden home, $2,000 was raised.  Amazing, right?  But here we sit, it's 1:00 AM EST, which means the Jobes are probably just waking up and getting ready for their Tuesday.  The $9,000 has to be raised by FRIDAY!  That is only four days people!

And for a moment, I thought it might be impossible.  For a moment, the adoption community seemed to falter in its steadfast support of all these families.  But then it roared back to life with the news that the Jobes are being offered a MATCHING GRANT of $3,000!  Do you know what that means?  We don't need to raise $7,000 more by Friday... if we raise $3,000, it will become $6,000!

Just like Linden, her sunny little self in her yellow outfit... this is a golden opportunity.  Home in weeks.  Not in an orphanage.  Never in a mental institution.  A beloved daughter and sister.  And all that stands between Linden and that opportunity is money.  Since when have we let price tags scare us?

This is where I ask you for help.  Truly, I tell you that NOTHING is too small.  PLEASE, consider giving to the Jobes to help with Linden's adoption.  I want to kiss those cheeks, people!  Think about it.  If you donate just $5, it becomes $10.  What you would've spent at McDonald's for lunch instead of toughing it out with a PBJ one day.  $5 isn't too much to give.  It isn't too little.  With the matching grant, it DOUBLES!  And think, if you can spare $10?  Skip pizza night?  That's $20 toward Linden's adoption!

A few months ago, a fundraiser called Mulligan Stew on another blog (which I so enjoy reading) spanned a month and raised funds for several families adopting from a particularly brutal orphanage.  I couldn't afford to give much.  $5 here, $10 there.  I think in total I wound up giving about $45 over the span of the month.  Not enough to bring anybody home, right?

Except that everybody else chipped in $5 or $10 here or there too... and our gifts were multiplied... and the fundraiser concluded, having raised over $45,000!  Can you believe it?!  And that's not the only time I've seen this happen.  Small groups of people, each chipping in whatever they can, raising huge amounts in days to bring kids home.  A dear friend of mine went through her house over the weekend and collected all the change, totaling $35 to donate to the Jobes.  Could you do that?  Hunt down some change?  Chip in a little bit to be multiplied - and have the reward of seeing Linden come home?

Donations can be made to the Jobes FSP account at Reece's Rainbow via paypal, credit or debit.  It's easier than making a purchase on Amazon... and so much more meaningful!  You can find their FSP at this link:  http://reecesrainbow.org/26162/sponsorjobes-2.  I believe that number needs to read $25,000 without the matching grant added, $28,000 with it.  Just a little over $3,000.  We can do this, people!  Remember, whatever you give will DOUBLE!  And even if you're completely financially tapped out... even if you can't spare a dime... you can lift Linden and the Jobes family up in prayer with us.  This is in His capable hands, but we must be His ground troops.

Could anything be more important than giving this precious babe the gift of a family, a life, an opportunity... that she could never have without you?  Linden... a golden opportunity.  Don't miss it.

http://reecesrainbow.org/26162/sponsorjobes-2

Picking up where we left off (Florida Day 5)

The crisis made it hard for me to blog about the rest of our trip, I've been so consumed by it for so long, and we're not out of the woods yet, not even close, but as I've looked at pictures and talked to friends recently, I've been thinking it'd be good for me to get writing about it again.  So, I'm going to pick up where we left off...

SUNDAY!

We woke up pretty lazy on Sunday, not until about 11 am, because we stayed up so late the night before (just because we were on vacation).  I had already planned the day's events, but hadn't told A about them yet.  About 45 miles down A1A from where we were staying, is St. Augustine, the oldest city in the United States.  There, is Castillo de san Marcos National Monument, which is an AMAZING fort used by the Spanish conquistadores over 450 years ago.  I'd been there twice before, when I was seven and when I was thirteen, but I hadn't understood its historical significance.  I'm sure A didn't either, but I wanted to take her for a cultural experience.  We both had a blast, as the fort is VERY cool.

My girl on the drawbridge

You already know she's all about princesses and fairy tales, so taking her to a REAL castle was way cool.  She even joined me in my goofy antics... like pretending to be prisoners in the room they used to hold native Americans captive...

I was TRYING to make a terrified face...

And this girl... well, she just can't look unhappy on command.

And then, on the roof, there was the cannon shot I convinced her to take... can you tell we were having too much fun to effectively act scared?

And then there were the obligatory cute (or attempted cute) pictures of both of us.

We were trying to get ourselves and the background of the fort in the picture...

I love how excited she looks in this one.

After the fort, we headed to downtown St. Augustine, where there are some of the cutest, most unique little shops I have ever seen.  When I was seven and my parents took me there, I learned what 'made out like a bandit' meant.  A learned the same thing.  I got her the cutest sling for her water bottle (and another one to bring home to M), each of the girls a box of worry dolls (and I explained to A what they were for... I'm feeling so glad I did that now.  They were in the bag I sent with her when she left me)... then we treated ourselves to ice cream, which was DELICIOUS...

See me rocking my free sunglasses on top my head there?  Who needs $500 sunglasses, these ones worked great!

Then I found something that meant so much to me... you see, ever since my dear friend Angie died nearly a year ago, I've been looking for a dolphin necklace... dolphins were her favorite... and it had to be perfect.  I'm allergic to almost everything, so it couldn't just be something cheap.  It had to be special.  

I found it.  And orange was her favorite color.

After our fun downtown, we headed to the beach at St. Augustine.  On the way, we got a special treat seeing the drawbridge go up!  A was completely flabbergasted.

Shortly after that we arrived at the public beach, which is really nice and has a lot more shells than where we were staying.  A had a blast looking for them.

She was still a little scared of the waves so she mostly stayed in the surf up to her ankles.  It was evening by then so the beach was pretty quiet.  After that we hit up a McDonald's for dinner and headed back to the condo.  We tried to go to bed a little earlier, because we already had plans for the next morning...