We Have Arrived

We have made it to Freetown. We should be leaving in the next hour to go see the kids at The Covering. I will blog whenever I get a chance, but our internet is not consistent. Malachi is doing great! He had one meltdown when we started out from Chicago as he was trying to imagine being on the plane for the next 8 hours, but after a nap and dinner he was fine. The next 8 hour flight was a breeze for him. He and his cousin Jordan are hanging out with Quami running around the hotel. He stated to me last night "Mom, I am already falling in love with this country". He had some new adventures as soon as we stepped on ground...I will have so much to write about. I hope we keep a good connection. Keep praying for us.

5 days and counting

Malachi and I leave in 5 days for Sierra Leone! On one hand it feels like it has been forever since I have seen our beautiful children over there, but on the other I can't believe it's already here. We are a bundle of emotions right now. I have so much to write about. We did a huge fundraiser last month called the 163 Formal Affair (to note 163,000,000 orphans in the world). I will post pictures as soon as I get them, but I cannot express how God's hand and favor was all over that event. From the donations...to the turn out...to the final amount earned. We raised almost $30,000 for adoption, travel, and sponsorship for The Covering. Awareness of the orphan crisis is spreading through the Springfield area and I could not be more thrilled. We have so many close friends who are now sponsoring kids and chomping at the bit to have a relationship with them. We will be able to initiate that bond starting next week. Several of Malachi's friends are investing their hearts and their own money. I hear it when they talk. One mom shared with me that two of Malachi's friends Cole and Jackson were talking about the orphanage and the kids that they now sponsor on the way to baseball practice. Jackson personally emailed TRS to sponsor a child. His plan is to work on the farm with his dad to make money to support his child at The Covering. I am amazed to say the least. Malachi's class is doing a peanut butter, shoe, and sock drive for us and his teacher continues to be a blessing to us. We have so many donations that we are having to pay overage fees to ship it on the plane...crisis...no, we had $250 donated within 45 minutes of posting the need on facebook. What can I say but, wow...God is moving!
During such exciting times when God is moving we can also see the forces of darkness trying to work against us so please be in continued prayer for us. We feel tired at times and scared at others. We sometimes feel like we don't understand how we will ever accomplish all we are called to do, but you know the answer...He is never surprised by what the enemy throws at us!

Special request: Please pray for a dear friend of mine who was just diagnosed with melanoma. God cares for these sweet people across the waters, but he also cares for His people right here in the great USA. I am praying for a complete healing...please join me.

I will be blogging while we are in Africa...so stay tuned!!
Much love to all of you,
Lori

Urgent Needs at The Covering

www.savetheorphan.blogspot.com
Today was going to be the day that I shared our new video footage of our kids in The Covering, but I cannot celebrate just the joy of my 3 kids and how well they are thriving at The Covering while there are such urgent needs. I am so pleased to see my kids "fatten up" and light up the room with their smiles, but I also want other kids who were in the same shape as mine (or worse) to have the same chance as Sam, Betty and Fallah have had. I am asking you to please look at the current situation at the covering as it is described in the above link and please tell everyone you know that we need your help. Please pray for the children being brought in, for the staff that is going to care for them, and for the dear people who founded and run The Raining Season...what a big job God has given them!

Love to all, AND stay tuned for the video footage of our sweet kids...you will now believe how well they are doing.

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.