Kids doing great things!

This week has proven to be one that speaks to my heart. Since the beginning of Warm Hearts Warm Bodies by McKenna, I have come to realize that young kids can do some amazing things. McKenna has inspired so many people (young and old) to consider what they can do to make a difference in the world of someone else. This week I have had 3 children allow their hearts to be moved and act on that feeling. One was an 8-year-old named Garrett. I work with his mom, Angie, and she has supported our cause from the first day she heard about us making blankets. She was quick to involve her kids by buying material and they made blankets for us to give to our local homeless. This past week, Angie had an opportunity to share our adoption story with her kids. Without hesitation, Garret went to his room and got $10 and handed it to his mom and said "Give this to Lori. She needs to get those kids home." Garret, you have no idea how that touched me. God can use everyone if only we listen with the heart of a child. The next child gives me an opportunity to brag on my own. As a previous post indicated, Malachi was doing a fund raiser today called "Shoot for Africa". This is to raise money for him to travel to The Covering with me in May. Can I just say my little boy WORKED HIS TAIL OFF! I am so proud of him. He shot 121 times in 15 minutes and raised over $1200 to go toward his trip. When you see his RED face you will see that he gave everything he had to give. He is so excited to go on this trip and today was his first attempt at making it a reality. Way to go, Malachi! I was so excited to talk about Malachi, but I don't want to forget Jack! Jack is one of Malachi's friends from school. He is a very shy kid (at least around us according to Malachi)and he showed up today to support Malachi while he was shooting. He sat very quietly in the back and watched my son shoot his heart out. As Malachi collapsed after his exhausting experience I saw Jack walk up to Malachi and put his hand on his shoulder with such encouragement and that touch penetrated through Malachi to the point that I overheard Malachi on the phone with Jack later expressing to him how much it meant for him to be there. Jack's parents had already pledged money for Malachi for this particular fund raiser, but Jack showed up at our house tonight with his own agenda. He handed Malachi $10 of his own money...JUST FROM HIM!!! Kids...they truly are amazing! I will post video of this fun event very soon, so stay tuned!

We have troops on ground

Hey all,
I wanted to let you know that we have had to make our blogs private for the month of February while we have a team from The Raining Season on ground in Sierra Leone. We want to give our team there a chance to work on the adoption piece without any speculation from SL of our intentions before it can be explained. Remember the country is not real clear of our hearts as Americans and our desire to adopt internationally. This is one reason we must continue to pray. Please remember to pray for our team as they travel for God's favor. This is also the week that our kids will be told of our intentions to adopt them so please ask God to prepare their hearts to embrace their new future. As I mentioned, our team will be at government meetings to talk about the adoption ban. There is not a more perfect time to join together as one group of believers to lift this ban. Ok thank you all for your faithfulness and please know that you are appreciated.

With love,
Lori

Shoot for Africa

We are all up to our eyeballs in Fund raising...I wanted to share with you something neat that Malachi is doing. He is asking for pledges based on how many baskets he can shoot in 15 minutes. We have estimated that he can shoot anywhere from 85-115 baskets in that amount of time. This was Malachi's first attempt at fund raising independently. He was calling people and asking for these pledges. Fran and I were very proud of his efforts so I thought I would help him out just a little by posting a blog for him. If you would be interested in pledging for him please place your bid in the comments section with your email address or feel free to email me at loripyleslp@gmail.com Thank you so much for helping our son have this life changing experience.

A Perfect Saturday Morning

We had such a great Saturday last week. We were able to skype with our kids at The Covering. We don't always understand them and they don't always understand us, but it is true that love flows across all languages. These kids do not yet know of our intentions to adopt them, but one thing that was clear several times during our conversation was them referring to Fran and Me as "mom and dad". Fran was behind me in the camera and Sam was very quick to say "hi dad". I just can't believe how God has prepared everyone's hearts for this very time.

Other exciting news...we had our first visit for our home study tonight! Please continue to pray for us as we go through this process. I am believing for a speedy time frame for the home study/immigration to be processed and for favor in Sierra Leone when TRS meets with the government in just a few weeks to discuss adoption.