Thursday, December 17, 2009

AMAZING

Wow...this post was so amazing!

Please check it out...think about it...and be blessed, challenged, and encouraged!

CLICK HERE

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Lucy Lane

I wanted to pass on a really encouraging blog that I read...

The family lives in Nashville, and Kristi has been such an encouragement to me in motherhood and the adoption process.  You have GOT to watch Lucy Lane's "Gotcha Day" video that is on her blog.  They also went through AGCI and their video is now on the website.  I am in a puddle of tears every time I watch it!

Enjoy...

http://weloveourlucy.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

My ballerina

Olivia had a little "trial" class for ballet this semester, and it was ADORABLE!  They had a little recital last week, so I wanted to post some pics.  I will work on getting a video posted, but I have to have the hubby help me!



Sweet little one...I just loved their tu-tus!!!! 






She is in the middle right by the teacher...I was impressed she actually DID it!!!



Here is a family shot:





And all the grandparents with the ballerina:




Monday, December 7, 2009

250 for 100

 *******If you don't know about our adoption journey, please feel free to go back a few posts and hear our hearts.********

The more we move forward in the process of adoption, the more amazing people I meet, read about, hear stories from, etc.  And, the more I hear, the more my heart swells for orphans.  There is so much more need out there than I ever would have dreamed.

We are so thankful that God has led us down this path.  We are so excited to be in process to go get our child(ren).  I know that there is a long road ahead with many joys, fears, insecurities, excitement, and anxiety all coming to the surface...even after we bring our child(ren) home. We went to a meeting last night about adoption and one of the "leaders of the pack" who has adopted four children said that the "pre" adoption part is the easy part!  I am sure that is so true...and I can't wait to find out, because that means that we will have one HOME!

We know that there are many people who do not feel led by the Lord down the road of adoption at this point or ever.  There are some that we know who are in process right now.  There are some who are dreaming about adopting or fostering.  There are some who have not even thought about the orphan crisis in the world. There are some who would love to be a part of orphan care in some way, but not by bringing children into their home.  I know that there is a place for everyone in the spectrum of "caring for orphans."  I am so glad that we have the body of Christ to meet different needs at different stages, whether that be walking alongside of people, encouraging people, giving to orphans, feeding orphans, adopting orphans, praying for orphans, etc.  I DO know that God said, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you (John 14:18)."  He is using His body to care for orphans and "defend their causes ...and maintain their rights (Ps. 82:3)"  God models adoption with us...He promises to not leave US as orphans...and He has come to us.  Praise the Lord!  All that being said...right NOW our part (the Crenshaw's) of caring for orphans is adopting one or a couple of children.

 To be honest, there is so much excitement in this whole process, and then fear from the enemy will hit me, and the lies flood in, "What are you doing?  You do NOT have $25,000 to bring these children home.  Don't get your hopes up...it will never happen, and they won't come home."  And then, the TRUTH floods in,"...these are GOD'S children...GOD'S creation...and GOD owns EVERYTHING in the world.  HE will provide..."  We know that it is God who has led us down this "interstate."

 Okay, so here is a challenge for you...we are calling it the "250 for 100 challenge."  If we can get 250 people to give $100, we can bring our child(ren) home!  Are you interested?  Are you in?  Of course there are so many needs...finances are just one of them.  If you are interested in being a part financially, email me at erinwcrenshaw@gmail.com.    So...250 people.  That seems SO MUCH MORE manageable to my heart of little faith than $25,000.  I don't know why...it is the same thing, but it just does.  (Don't feel like $100 is set in stone...more or less is of course SO appreciated...)

An incredible God moment is that MONTHS ago, some friends of ours just felt led by the Lord to give us $100.  She thought it was so random...and now that is the first $100 towards this adoption.  God is NOT random.  I feel so loved by Him!

This idea came from an AMAZING family...and AMAZING 11 year old who started raising money to adopt her soon-to-be sibling  with Down Syndrome.  It is a truly remarkable and inspiring story.  I asked them if I could "adopt" (no pun intended!) their idea, and they said that they would be honored.  You need to check them out HERE for the whole story...you will be blessed! No, you will be BLOWN AWAY by this sweet girl and what the Lord has done.

Maybe the Lord will use this idea to fund MANY adoptions for friends near and far in the future!  The hurdle of finances seems like it is a big barrier to so many people that are wanting to adopt.  So, maybe this will multiply and the affects will be rippling YEARS down the road as people continue to give.  But, for now...are you willing to be a part of our 250 for 100 challenge?  We would be honored!  Email me if you are interested and I can  get you some details!

Please pass this along to anyone you think would be interested at all.  We are praying that God will do big things quickly so we can bring home our kiddo(s)!!!!

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Mail!

Yay!!  We got a UPS package today!  Here is what came:





And...here is what was inside!:



Ugh!  Just look at that precious face!!!  I can't wait to go through all of this paperwork in our orientation packet:



 

So fun!  Now...I am off to read!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

YIPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you tell I am excited????  We just got accepted to the Ethiopian program with All God's Children International!!!!!  In talking to a couple of people, even my sweet hubby, they thought that was just a given, but for some reason for me it REALLY marked a HUGE moment for us!  What still seemed like a dream now feels like reality!  I got a message from the sweet woman we have been working with with AGCI saying,"Congratulations!  You are officially accepted...."  and I didn't even hear the rest!  I was cheering and crying saying "woo-hoo! woo-hoo!"  Olivia said, "Why are you sad?"  I told her I was so excited I was crying because we get to adopt a brother or sister!  Well, she thought that was the case all along of course, so she thought we were on our way right then! :) I WISH!

But, I am so excited to meet with our social worker and get going on everything!  I am anxiously awaiting our orientation packet in the mail!!!!! 

So...has been our timeline to date:

  • always...God moving our hearts toward adoption...
  • April, 2009...began praying more intentionally and seeking God for His specific plan for us in adoption
  • October 20, 2009...met with a woman from a local agency and God really used this meeting to lead us to Ethiopia.  
  • October 20-26...talked to numerous people and researched adoption agencies and programs with Ethiopia...decided to apply with All God's Children International!
  • November 20, 2009...sent in all of our information to AGCI!
  • November 23, 2009...they got our application, met with their team, and we realized we were missing some key letters from doctors/counselors.  So...on to waiting for those!
  • December 1, 2009...they got the letters, met together and accepted us!!!!!!  WOO-HOOO!!!!!
Lord Jesus, thank you so much for leading us down this road.  I am so excited!  I want to travel TODAY to go meet the next Crenshaw(s)!  We ask that you lead us each step of this way.  Give us wisdom, discernment, and few "snags" in the process.  We love you and thank you for adopting US.  Thank you for this beautiful picture of your grace, even though it isn't how you intended to grow families.  You are using it for your glory.  We love you!


And, here is a copy of part of the email we got!:

Hi Brian and Erin,
I am happy to welcome you to our agency as an applicant to our Ethiopia program! We have reviewed your application and have approved you to move forward with AGCI. I will mail your Orientation Packet today via UPS and you should be receiving it within two to four days. Enclosed are the contract agreements for the program and your next steps in becoming an adoptive parent. 

Yipee!!!!!


Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Journeying

What a perfect month to start a new blog and share our journey with adoption...National Adoption Month!  Who knew that we had a National Adoption Month?!?

 We just wanted to document part of the road that God has us on.  We are officially starting the adoption process!!!  God has laid it on our hearts for quite some time, but the journey hasn't been exactly what we thought.  We started researching and talking a lot more about starting the process a year and a half ago...right before we found out  I was pregnant with Eliana! :)  Well, since that sweet little blessing was on her way, we obviously were not thinking about adoption quite so intentionally.  Recently, though, we have prayed, thought, researched, and looked more and more into it.  The Lord has brought SO MANY sweet stories to our attention and recently literally we can NOT get adoption out of our heads!  On our "getaway" anniversary trip a couple of weeks ago, we immersed ourselves into learning more.  All along the way, God has shown us more His heart for orphans, widows, and the poor.  We feel like this is a tangible way for us right now to show the love of Christ.  We are excited, anxious, sad about the orphan crisis worldwide, and burdened all at the same time!  As we began talking to agencies, we narrowed down our choices of countries.  Honestly, we were open to numerous places, and God has sovereignly led us to Ethiopia!  We have chosen an agency and started paperwork and will hear if we are accepted within the next couple of weeks.

We have so much opportunity to seek the Lord right now...
-on behalf of our child(ren) ...(yes... we are open to sibling groups) for their protection and the people taking care of them.  It is so weird to think that there could very well be a Crenshaw alive right now across the globe waiting to come home!
-for the Lord to protect our marriage and biological children
-for the finances...excited to see how God is going to provide the $25,000ish!
-for the patience!  I am sure the process will be longer than we would like for it to be!  I have heard that paperwork is a lot and the process can be a long one!
-attachment with the newest little Crenshaw!
-...just to name a few!...

As we were dreaming/talking about all of this, we were amazed at what a HUGE issue worldwide this is. There are 143 MILLION orphans worldwide.  Unbelievable...makes me so sad to think that 143 MILLION children do not have somewhere to call home. This number of 143 million is overwhelming. Here are some interesting statistics to think on...

-143 million orphans worldwide
-100,000 orphans in the US
-2.5 billion Christians worldwide
-using a median cost of $20,000 per child, the amount to adopt every child in the world would be 2.9 trillion
-The Iraq war is likely to top $3 trillion. And that's a conservative estimate according to Washington Post 3-08.
-If every Christian worldwide pitched in to adopt a child it would cost about $1,200 per person
-if every Christian in the world adopted 0.06 of a child, there would not be an orphan problem in the world
-of the 143 million orphans worldwide almost 5 million of those live in Ethiopia (a country similar in size to Texas)
-almost 4% of the world's orphans live in Ethiopia
-population of Ethiopia is approx 78 million (about 6.5% of the country are orphans)

There are SO MANY issues that go along with all of this...poverty, orphans, human trafficking, sickness, hunger, death just to name a few. We realize that this is just one small step in a HUGE world-wide epidemic. Hopefully the Lord will walk us down many other avenues in this battle before us. We long to help with just orphan care in general, and right now the Lord is leading us to adopt.

As you can see, we loved talking about how we can care for orphans worldwide. We are really excited about this journey that God has us on!  Please join in praying with us.

I loved this video I saw.  It just HIT me all of the sudden and watched with tears streaming down my face that these are REAL pictures of REAL people in these REAL situations.  People REALLY live like this.  Oh, Lord, never let this burden leave my heart.  I want my life to be about changing these lives for your glory.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Isaiah 58

First blogspot endeavor...Everyone I know uses it, so it must not be that hard, right?  I will find out!  Bear with me while I try to change and move around and see what works.  There are some old stories and posts on my other blog, but we have a new journey that we are starting (I will give details soon, but we are adopting a precious little one from Ethiopia!), and with that, I thought it would be a good "transition time" for blogging, too!

So, why I-58?  The "I" is for interstate...this road we are on.  The road of our life and journey with God. May be cheesy, but that is what we Crenshaws can be sometimes! :) There are ups, downs, twists, turns, and smooth flat areas.  We welcome them all and will strive to obey and glorify Him.  We really want our lives to count for something for the Lord.  With that being said, the "I" is also for Isaiah...Isaiah 58! We want our lives to be a "true fast" for Him.  The beginning of Isaiah 58 goes through a lot of RELIGIOUS things we can do for God...seeking God daily, delighting in knowing His ways, fasting, humbling ourselves, etc.  God's word says "behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure" (we do it for ourselves...for what we will look like to others...for what we will feel like). Religious things aren't acceptable to him.  The "appearance" of righteousness is not acceptable to him. I don't want to seek my own pleasure...

He says the fasting that He chooses is this:  starting at verse 6: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?  Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall be your rear guard.  Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, "Here I am." If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.  And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.  And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in.  (ending in v. 12)

There is so much richness in all of that.  I will go into more pieces in more detail, but I just wanted to introduce us a little...

Here are a couple of fun family shots...

We love the beach...


 Daddy and Austin riding gocarts!
 
Brian and I on a weekend getaway trip!
 
Pumpkin patch!
 
We like to call this "hollywood!"