Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Please Pray

Friday three Liberian gentlemen are going to meet with the Ministry of Justice on our behalf. We are working quickly to get a few letters from our Senators and Governor to send as well.

Please pray that if it be God's will Christiana Tah would allow us to complete our adoption and go to pick up our children. This is a huge opportunity for us. Hannah and Hosanna turn two years old this month. What a celebration it would be for us to be able to bring them home to their forever family.

One amazing note...the Lord laid on our hearts last week before we left to contact the Ministry of Justice in Liberia. We emailed Christiana Tah and pleaded with her to allow our children to come home. Then a week or two later we hear that she has asked to speak with the adoption agencies in Liberia as well as adoptive parents that can make it to the meeting. We do not have the money for me to fly to Liberia tomorrow but with that said we have wonderful representation on our behalf!

Please pray!!!

Adoption Statistics

"The Spirit of Adoption is the visible gospel." Doug Phillips

Haiti:
9.876 Million People
380,000 orphans
4 % of population are orphans
43% of Haitians are under 18 years old

Liberia:
3.793 Million People
270,000 orphans
7 % of population are orphans
68% of Liberians are under 15 years old


United States:
311.666 Million
2.8 million orphans
0.9 % of population are orphans
25% of Americans are under 18 years old

UNICEF Statistics from 2008

147,000,000 orphans world wide

Over 40 times God tells the Israelites to help widows and orphans

"If you really want to be blessed, be concerned about the things that God is concerned about." John Piper, Pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church

Monday's Drive

Well Monday came and went before I was able to write what happened. At 8:00 Andrew, Jonathan, Jordan and Josiah met with AECT (www.aectceb.com) in San Antonio. AECT is a compressed brick machine company. Andrew and the boys have been looking into building us a home from compressed earth blocks. I am very excited about the possibilities of building a very large home from dirt blocks for very little money.

Andrew has been talking with a man at our church that started him on the idea a few months ago. A few days before we left for Texas Andrew found a company in San Antonio that manufactures machines that compress the dirt into bricks. So at the encouragement of us girls the boys made an appointment to meet with this company.

What we thought would be a short 30 minute meeting turned into over two hours time. They watched as the gentlemen at AECT built a brick, demonstrated the machines and walked them through the building process.

Two incredible things happened that only the Lord could have done. One when Andrew spoke with the secretary at AECT and told her we were from Georgia, she said," oh we just sold a machine to a man in Georgia." He is a pastor in Jackson, Georgia and purchased a compressed earth brick machine to take to LIBERIA to build houses for the people there. WOW ! How very exciting to see God's hand at work.

The other amazing thing was Andrew was chatting with a family at the conference who we greatly admire. Come to find out one of their sons has done great amounts of research into these block homes as well for possible use in humanitarian aid to Africa. Their son was also planning to meet with AECT this coming week for more information.

After we left AECT we headed to town to grab a little lunch and chat for a few minutes about what Andrew and the boys had learned.

We drove all afternoon and evening, with plans to stop in a KOA for the night. As we got toward the east coast of Louisiana we decided to stop at a hotel for the night. Everyone wanted to shower, I needed to wash a few clothes due to some outfits that got bloody due to an accident one little boy had, and we were just looking forward to a great nights sleep! So we found an inexpensive Comfort Inn and Suites. After we checked in the lady told us there was no laundry facility. Oh well...off to WalMart we go. Andrew and I ran in and purchased some cheap t-shirts, socks and undies for those who needed them. All things I would have bought anyway when we got home, but this saved from doing laundry! When we got into our hotel room they had not run the air in the rooms and they were steamy! Took most of the night to cool down the rooms, non-smoking rooms that smelled like smoke....now all my littles are coughing and wheezing. Not the best way to end vacation, but we wouldn't trade this trip for anything.