Friday, June 28, 2013

ALL FOR ALLISON

"Allison" is the name assigned to a beautiful little girl on the Reece's Rainbow orphan advocacy site.  RR assigns names to children to protect their true identity because sensitive information is shared in trying to find families for these orphans.

Allison has cerebral palsy and a seizure disorder.  She is in a horrible institution in Ghana.  She NEEDS to come home to her family - to gain access to the medical care and LOVE that she deserves!

Allison is being adopted by some of my closest, dearest friends - Jenni and Eric.  Jenni is in country now, waiting on one final document to bring her precious daughter home forever!

Allison's needs are great.  Travel home with her will be logistically difficult, and will require Eric to fly to Ghana to help Jenni bring her home when the time comes (hopefully VERY soon!).  Unfortunately, booking last minute airfare to Africa is never cheap, but this time of year it is down right ridiculous in pricing.

To help my dear friends raise the final funds needed to bring "Allison" home, I am hosting a giveaway!

GRAND PRIZE (CHOICE OF 1):
Kindle Paperwhite 

** OR **

$100 Amazon Gift Card


FIRST PRIZE:
$50 Gift Card to Cheesecake Factory
 

SECOND PRIZE:
$25 Gift Card to Starbucks

THIRD PRIZE:
$15 Gift Card to Cold Stone Creamery

FOURTH PRIZE:
$10 Gift Card to Barnes & Noble

FIFTH PRIZE:
$5 Gift Card to Tim Hortons


There  are two ways to enter:

DONATE!!!  
Donate to Allison's Reece's Rainbow account, then email a copy of your paypal receipt to me at ghanakeepgrowing@yahoo.com to be entered in the drawing!
     ** When you donate $1-$24 you will receive ONE entry into the drawing
     ** When you donate $25-49 you will receive TWO entries into the drawing
     ** When you donate $50-$99 you will receive THREE entries into the drawing
     ** When you donate $100+ you will receive FIVE entries into the drawing
CLICK HERE TO DONATE (scroll to bottom of page & click DONATE)

SHARE!!!
Share this blog post on Facebook and/or Twitter with the hashtag - #allforallison - and/or share on your blog!!  Comment on this post which of these you've done for ONE entry into the drawing for each!!  (Include blog links please.)

DRAWING WILL BE HELD AS SOON AS ALLISON'S ACCOUNT REACHES $7100.  
THAT WILL MAKE HER ADOPTION FULLY FUNDED!!!  
AS OF 6/30/13 at 10:00pm THERE IS ONLY $839 NEEDED!!!!!

Remember - this is about bringing "Allison" home forever!!  Please pray for the family as they prepare for travel and homecoming with their newest princess!!!  Thank you!!


"Don not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  ~Matthew 6:19-21

Friday, June 21, 2013

T-Shirts!

We have been blessed with God's provision to cover the vast majority of our adoption expenses.  The only funds we find ourselves needing to raise are for travel & immigration fees!  Of course, travel to Taiwan will not be cheap.  Sam & I will need to fly over together to meet our children and attend court.  Our prayer is that the judge who presides over our case will have mercy on us and sign all the necessary documents immediately, allowing us to travel home together with our new son & daughter after an approximate 2-week stay.  However, it is very possible that the judge will feel no sense of urgency and we will travel back to the US alone, with one of us returning to Taiwan 1-2 months later to finally bring Ana & Ezra home.

In an effort to raise the final funds we need to add Ana & Ezra to our family, we have had these awesome shirts designed! Our entire adoption has brought us new hope after our loss last year, and so the message we seek to share with the world is the message of HOPE in the Lord. The small text is excerpted from Proverbs 24:12 - "Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do."  The shirts are super soft, pre-shrunk, 100% ringspun cotton.

Unisex shirts available in red or olive green.  Sizes Small - XXXLarge.
$25 each, shipping included.



LADIES' shirts are available in heather purple.  Sizes Small - XXLarge. 
$25 each, shipping included.


YOUTH shirts are available in orange.  Sizes XSmall - XLarge. 
$20 each, shipping included.
You can place your PRE-ORDER via the buttons in the column to the right.
We will place the order at the end of July and ship the shirts to you as soon as they arrive.
Thank you so very much for your support!!


Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do.  God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows what we know and holds us responsible to act.
~Proverbs 24:12

  

Thursday, June 13, 2013

But Not From Ghana

When we began our first adoption in 2009, I found myself clinging to blogs of other families who had adopted or were adopting from around the world.  I gleaned anything I could from their experiences - good and bad.  I tried to prepare myself for what lye ahead, including "worst case scenarios" of RAD, ODD and even disruption.  Because of the tremendous blessing many of these blogs were to me, I felt led to blog about our journey as well...in part to help others coming after us, but mostly just to have written record of our journey.  I'm amazed by how often I reflect back on that 2 year adventure now with those children home.  (You can read all about it HERE.)  When we began our second adoption, I wanted to continue recording our journey, but created a new blog simply because I liked the formatting better through this particular publisher.

When I started this page, I was creatively playing on words when I named it "Ghana Keep Growing" since our adoption plans included returning to Ghana to continue adding to our family.  Unfortunately, as you've read through the last several posts, that is not God's plan for us.  In fact, the new Minister of Gender & Family in Ghana has suspended adoptions, and is pushing toward a full closure of Ghana to international adoption.  There is talk of Ghana signing on to the Hague Convention in the future, but implementation could take several years, if it's ever fully achieved.  For now I pray that the families already "matched" with their children won't be STUCK like the families adopting from Russia & Vietnam, and I pray that the orphans of Ghana will be well cared for even after international adoption is no longer a hope for them.

For us, God has given us complete peace with where He is leading.  We certainly still mourn the loss of R & A, and we will again seek to add to our family through the miracle of adoption...but not from Ghana.  No, the road laid out before us is not from Africa at all.  We have seen the faces of the children being added to our family, and they are beautiful!!!

I can't wait for the day we can show you their smiles...but for now I can only tell you that we are adopting another sibling pair - 1 girl [Ana] & 1 boy [Ezra].  They are "older" children who have some individual needs and we are confident that God has called our family to step out in faith for them...to give them hope...to be their forever family.

Today we embrace this new hope for our family.  We are trusting in God's promise to arise beauty for ashes in our grief.  We know that had we not suffered the loss of our girls, we would not have the opportunity to bring these children into our lives...and we are filled with hopeful anticipation of the day Ana & Ezra will enter our family forever!

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.  ~ Isaiah 61:3 ~