Blankets of Hope

We have had a whirl wind 2 weeks. I hope this post finds you all full of turkey and counting all of your blessings. I know that describes our family at the end of this holiday weekend. We had an opportunity to spend the holiday with several of the girls that I went to Africa with. I am so blessed to have such a passionate group of people in my life. We looked at some video of the trip and I saw more great footage of Sam, Betty, and Fallah that I hope to be able to show on our blog soon.

Before we left for our trip, we had a "Blankets of Hope" outreach. For those of you who do not know, our daughter McKenna, started a ministry called Warm Hearts Warm Bodies and she makes blankets for people in need. It was her ministry that started the whole Africa passion for us. She was asked to make 90 blankets to send to "The Covering", which we did...and I think the rest is history. Well since I have been back, we were asked to make another 100 blankets for our local homeless shelter. We had our first blanket making party last week and we had around 55 people there and 57 blankets were made. Malachi, Mckenna, and Mackaden also made a blanket to raffle off at the party with the proceeds going to "The Covering". They made $178 on that blanket which I was able to hand deliver the money to The Raining Season while I was there this past weekend. I cannot believe the way in which God can use you if you just let Him. One of our big mission statements for Warm Hearts Warm Bodies is "to empower other people to do great things". When people see how a 7-year-old can really make an impact it can be amazing to watch other people want to do something to help.

We have started to process for the paperwork for the adoption, but we are coming to a point where we will need some financial help to get our kids home. I have had so many people ask how they can help us and I guess now is the time. Our first financial obligation is going to be for the home study and imigration paperwork. I am also going to start planning a trip to Sierra Leone for Feburary. I am pretty sure that I will not be able to bring the kids home at that time, but it would be my hope to get a court date and take care of the in-country paper work at that time. The country NOT having a great adoption process in place makes this a little tricky and not as efficient as some other international adoptions I have heard of. Once we get the paperwork done in both countries, then we will just have to wait for the visas and we will be able to go get our kids.

To start the fund raising process, I am going to have Malachi, McKenna, and Mackaden make another blanket that I would like to see if we could auction off on this blog. We have called these outreaches "Blankets of Hope" and that will hold true for these kids as well. Imagine the "hope" these kids will now have. I need for you to let everyone know to check out the blog and post a bid in the comment section. The auction will run for about a week before we will have a winner and hopefully a good start for our adoption finances. I will be posting a picture of that blanket within the next week so please be looking for it.

We have been asked if Sam, Betty, and Fallah have been told about our intentions to adopt. Not yet, but can you imagine how fun that will be. I will be sure to let everyone know the details of that story when we get the opportunity to tell them.
Lastly, please pray for Sam on Tuesday. He is having his much needed hernia surgery. It is so hard to not be there with him, but I know we can all cover him in prayer.

With love and Thanksgiving,
Lori

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