Help in the Process

A fellow Washingtonian has offered to help us fundraise for Gemma and advocate for other orphans through her blog and facebook account.  Ruth is a small business owner, homeschooling mom of 12, and has a heart for adoption.  You can follow her blog at www.11blessings.blogspot.com , her business at www.snapez.com, and her facebook auction for Gemma and Alexandra and Kimberly.  Anyone can bid and anyone can donate items to the auction.  Really cool.  We are very grateful for the attention she is giving us on our journey. 

On the adoption front we are waiting to receive a document back from Olympia,WA from the apostille to mail to the adoption agency in-country.  They have received verbal notification that Gemma is "desperately wanted" but we must make it official and file the commitment paperwork. 

Now for a short cute story....My mother-in-law normally comes over to play with the kids once a week.  With my daughter, who is 5, she is usually left playing doctor, or Sunday school, or dance show/dress-up.  The other day my daughter told me that she plays "adoption" now with Grandma.  Curious for her perspective, I asked "How do you play adoption?"  Her response, "Well, Grandma holds all the babies, I pretend to work on my computer, and Grandma tells me which babies I can have." Smile.

New Horizons for Children

This morning I wanted to mention another way to become involved in the life of an orphan without adopting.  New Horizons for Children is an international hosting program that carefully selects orphaned children from Eastern Europe twice a year to visit and stay in the United States with Christian host families.   The children gain a glimpse of healthy family relationships, exposure to our culture, experience with the English language, and hear of God's love for them.  The children are between the ages of 10 and 15 and are at risk of aging out of the orphanage within a few short years.  The experiences they have in the United States in a healthy environment can greatly change the choices they make at 16 and are living on their own.  You do NOT have to be considering adoption to be a host family and New Horizons is not an adoption agency.

from newhorizonsforchildren.org