We're Going Forward

Oh my goodness what a challenging last couple weeks it has been!  I am so drained but yet determined.  Our family is moving ahead with our original plans of trying to adopt a special needs older waiting child from China!!  The same boy we had committed to before-- Zhou Lie-- is still waiting for a family.  We have gotten approval from our agency to continue forward, despite our previous setbacks, and try to adopt him!

We have gotten a new homestudy done through the grace of God and a wonderful, kind social worker who has a heart for orphans.  We have compiled all the necessary paperwork for our dossier so that we can submit our information and hopefully be approved for this boy. We have gotten our medicals done, our passports, our items notarized.... the list goes on and on.  Anyone who has done this adoption thing before knows it is A LOT of work.  But oh, so worth it.  We long to have that precious boy home, safe and here with us.

I know the odds are against us, I have to be logical, but I also know that with FAITH all things are possible.  God can move mountains.  And right now, only He knows what the outcome of all this will be.

With that in mind, I beseech you all for your prayers.  Storm the gates of heaven, let the requests be made known to the only ONE through whom all things are made possible. Pray that we can do everything we need to do on our end in the short amount of time we have left.  Pray that our agency will continue to allow us to move forward without difficulties.  They are already skeptical that we will not be able to raise the funds needed to bring this child home, even if we do get all the paperwork sent in and approved.

I admit, I understand their concern.  We are concerned as well.  We lost valuable fundraising time after we discovered that we needed to switch homestudy providers and thought we would not be able to continue moving forward with this adoption.  We were stretched time-wise already at the beginning of this journey.

This is why we know we must ask for the generosity of others in order to make this happen.  I have already made up fundraising letters and given them to every member of our church family.  We have made our needs known before the congregation as well in hopes that they will step forward and offer some support.  I have also given these letters to other churches in our area hoping that their mission groups might support us as well in this endeavor. 

We have had one fundraiser in the past couple weeks which brought in $300-- my Premier Jewelry show-- and I now have jewelry from that show to offer here on my blog in a donation give-away as well.  That info and pictures of the beautiful items being offered will be up soon! 

We are also going to be having a "31" fundraiser which I will post more about on here as well.  Great ideas for the holidays coming up!  As well we are looking into having a pancake breakfast in our area through Applebees' program, and I am offering my baking services making cakes, pies and cupcakes for the holidays which are quickly approaching.  I am also going to organize a "Shopping Nite/ Nite Out" evening for people in our area who want to drop their children off at my home for a couple hours while they get their shopping done, or simply enjoy an evening out with their spouse.

So, you can see we are trying to brainstorm and act upon any idea we can that does not take a huge amount of time to coordinate, because obviously, we don't have a huge amount of time to work with.

 But I know that even with these fundraisers planned, we will still need more money in order to get this child home in two short months.  Zhou Lie ages out on his birthday just two months from yesterday.  Yesterday!  Please, help give this child a chance.  Help us give him a family. 

If you would like to donate you can do so via our chip-in at the top right corner of this blog.  Refresh your screen if you cannot see it.  If you would like, you can also donate to our tax deductible fund, you can go to http://www.sacredselections.org/ or call them directly at 916-770-0336. If you choose to donate to them online, please still contact the coordinator- Dana- and let her know the amount of your donation, and that your donation was specifically for the Rowe family.

We thank you for your generosity and your loving kindness towards orphans.  We are humbled by the help we have received already-- some from friends, some from others we do not even know. We know there are so many people who have a true heart for orphans out there, and we are so grateful for your help and your prayers.

 We know that Zhou Lie would thank you too if he could.  He would thank you for giving him the opportunity for a home, a family, and a life full of opportunity-- things he will never get if he is left to age out in China.  Please help him have a future.  Please help him come home.