Birthday Video

I was going through old videos and pictures and I thought this was so cute!  When we celebrated Austin's birthday at Mema's house in Newbern with the Crenshaw side of the family, Mimi got some trick candles!  It was too funny!  Sweet Austin was such a great sport!

My SEVEN year old!!

A couple of weeks ago, we got to celebrate this guy turning seven!:

What a cutie!

I am so thankful for so much about him, but one of the things I love the most is his tender heart.  God has given him compassion for others and a sensitive spirit for Him.  He brings such joy to our family!

The apple not falling far from the tree, he wanted a "painting party!"  (I am not the artist...my sweet hubby is!  More on that later...)

It was so much fun!  He had his cousins there and his buddies from school, and each one got to paint a canvas to bring home as their party favor.  They did a great job!

Here is his cake:

Surrounding the cake are little cake balls ("paint balls!")  It made a LOT, so I put all the extras in little paint cans:

They were yummy!

Here are the kiddos painting away:

And, Eliana looking at all of the finished products:

It was a great time of celebrating our little guy!  God has blessed us so much through him!

God is so faithful!

Of course the title of this is a given...as believers in Christ, we all know this to be true.  But, we all experience it in different ways and the "freshness" of this truth in different depths.

My heart is FILLED with thankfulness!  I don't know how to put it all into words, but I truly got to experience a miracle last weekend.  We had a yard sale that we were preparing for for a long time to raise money for our adoption. We had a TON of people donate a TON of things for it!  We got to see the generosity of the Lord through the body of Christ in a tangible way.  People not only donated their things, but their time and service to help us sort, gather, bake, set up, organize, sell, and clean up!

There were three families in this thing together, and we all were blown away by what God did!

To recap:

• Thursday was set up day!  We had two storage units FILLED, plus things at each of our houses and a storage place at an office!  We rented a UHaul and got it all there (after almost 12 hrs of moving!).
• We had an unbelievable location!  We have some friends that live at a very busy intersection and they let us use their yard!  How generous!  Their whole house/yard were taken over!
• We were not going to sell anything on Thursday...just spend the day organizing and setting up.  BUT...the Lord had other plans!  People saw things coming and they started stopping and buying!  At the end of the day, we had raised $3,000!!!!!!  WHAT?!?  We didn't even remember anything that sold!  We looked out into the yard and it was still FULL!!!!
• Friday morning came bright and early!  It rained through the night, so everything was wet.  We were sad, but people kept coming and not one person even mentioned that things were wet or complained! WHAT??!?
• My sweet friend Kristin (who was one of the families doing the yard sale with us) said that God used the rain to remind her that it is all about what HE was going to do with this...not about our (wet) stuff, the weather, or anything else.  Amen!
• At the end of Friday, I think that we had a total of around $8,000!!
• Saturday brought some more rain around lunchtime.  We covered everything up and hoped that it would stop soon.  People continued to come and were shopping under the plastic covers.  WHAT??!?
• At the end of Saturday, we were overwhelmed with emotion, exhausted, and SO VERY THANKFUL for what God had done.  It felt like we were in the New Testament but instead of fish and loaves, we were seeing "stuff" and "money" just multiply.  It was amazing.  Truly.
• A sweet Ethiopian man came!!!  He told us pieces about the Ethiopian community here in Memphis, and even the Ethiopian church that he goes to!  I can't wait to meet more people from the country our child is from.  What a cool way to keep parts of their heritage!
• God used this yard sale to provide for other people in need, too, whether it was a flood victim or a family in need of a carseat, or an encouraging word.  It was really sweet to watch.
• In all, the total from the yard sale was $11,200.  Again...WHAT??!?  Who raises over $11,000 at a yard sale?!?  Thank you, Jesus!  And...we still had stuff to help two other families get started on gathering for their yard sale next month to raise money for their adoptions!  And, when I say stuff, I mean truckloads!
• My sweet friend Wendy (also one of the families doing the yard sale!) sent us an email the week before saying to pray, pray, pray...the theme: beauty from ashes.  Wow...did God ever bring beauty from ashes!  People donating what they thought was their "junk," to raise SERIOUS funds to bring kiddos home to their forever families.  THAT is beauty!  

I can't say how thankful we are for the part that SO MANY people played in this!  From designing fliers to donating stuff to working with us that weekend to (most importantly) pray for God to show Himself faithful in raising a huge sum for us. So...THANK YOU!!

Here is a picture of us at the end of Saturday....with God's provision! 

SPRING CLEANING??

I am totally motivated to start CLEANING OUT!  Are you??

We are having a HUGE yard sale with another family to raise money for our adoptions on May 6 and 7.  We would LOVE all the stuff that you are trying to get rid of!  We are making it EASY...we will come pick it up!  Big or small items, we don't care. We have access to a trailer to come and get the big things from you!

Please give me a call or email me and tell me when you want me to come and pick it up!

This will be a HUGE help in bringing these children home!!!   Thank you!!!!

A Little Encouragement

We haven't heard a TON of facts about everything that is going on with adoptions in Ethiopia, but what we have heard has been encouraging (that is a relative term..."more encouraging than our original fears" is what I should say!).

Tonight we got an email that said that MOWA (Ministry of Women's Affairs) is now going to allow 20 finalizations/day instead of 5.  They used to process 50/day, so there will still be a delay, but it is better than 5!

Through all of this, I have been reminded that God loves all of these children way more than I could even imagine loving them.  HE is protecting them, HE is providing for them, and so we are begging HIM to make a way to put them in families.  A couple of friends have reminded me of the spiritual warfare in it.  Satan wants nothing more than for these children to remain orphaned. Hungry. Lacking trust for anyone, including God. Hurting. Sick. And God wants to put the lonely in families!  He wants to heal their bodies and hearts!  He is using His children to do this, and the enemy wants a hand in it, too.

Where does this leave our hearts?

Honestly, (I know this isn't the case for everyone on an adoption journey) we have felt since the beginning of this journey that this is about a specific Crenshaw child (or possibly more) that we are fighting for.  Although we want to advocate for all orphans and love and serve them well, we believe that every step of this path has been towards a specific child.  Precious face and circumstances are unknown to us right now, but we are going to fight to bring him/her home.  We are going to persevere through whatever stands in our way and beg God to remove the barriers.  It actually empowers us in a way to press on even more.

I will update more when I know more!

And on to our March numbers....we got our new numbers today, too!  There is still movement, even in all of this craziness!
Girl List: 50
Boy List: 37
Siblings List: 26

Trusting and Expecting

What a roller coaster of a week!

Below is a statement about what is going on in the Ethiopian program.  It has been hard to process it all, not knowing what is truth, what are rumors, and what could eventually come to pass.  We have been waiting for word from our agency.  We have been wondering if and when we will get to meet and bring home our child.

Above everything, it has made me take God at His Word:  He cares for orphans.  It breaks my heart to know that there could be SO MANY orphans left with little food or medical care unnecessarily. We have been asking God to give our agency leaders, the leaders of the program in Ethiopia, and all of the agencies advocating for orphan wisdom in the action steps to take.  We are trusting Him to move on behalf of ALL of these little ones. We serve an amazing God, and we are trusting Him in a way we have never had to trust Him before...for our little one across the globe in the midst of all of these uncertainties.

WE NEED YOU TO HELP BE A VOICE FOR THESE MILLIONS OF ORPHANS!  And it is easy...

PLEASE read below and take a couple of seconds to sign the petition.  We need MANY more to sign it by the weekend!

March 7, 2011

Statement on the Pending Reduction of Intercountry Adoption in Ethiopia

Last week the Ethiopian Ministry of Women’s, Children’s and Youth Affairs announced their intention to reduce intercountry adoptions by 90% beginning March 10, 2011. The Ministry’s plan for a dramatic reduction is apparently based on two primary issues; 1) the assumption that corruption in intercountry adoption is systemic and rampant and 2) the Ministry’s resources should be focused on the children for whom intercountry adoption is not an option. Without further announcements by the Government of Ethiopia, it is our understanding that the Ministry’s plan will be initiated this week.

The Ministry’s plan is a tragic, unnecessary and disproportionate reaction to concerns of isolated abuses in the adoption process and fails to reflect the overwhelmingly positive, ethical and legal services provided to children and families through intercountry adoption. Rather than eliminate the right of Ethiopian children to a permanent family, we encourage the Ministry to accept the partnerships offered by governments, NGOs, and foundations. Such partnerships could increase the Ministry’s capacity to regulate service providers and further ensure ethical adoptions.

The Ministry’s plan, which calls for the processing of only five adoption cases per work day, will result not only in systemic and lasting damage to a large sector of social services, but will have an immediate impact on the lives and futures of children. Moving from over 4,000 adoptions per year to less than 500 will result in thousands of children languishing in under-regulated and poorly resourced institutions for years. For those children who are currently institutionalized and legally available for adoption, the Ministry’s plan will increase their time languishing in institutions for up to 7-years.

Joint Council respectfully urges the Ministry of Women’s, Children’s and Youth Affairs to reconsider their plan and to partner with governments, NGOs and foundations to achieve their goals and avoid the coming tragedy for children and families.

You Can Make A Difference...PLEASE:

• Click here to sign the petition now.
• Forward this to your friends, family, church, small group, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Why Ethiopia?

First off, thank you all for your sweet words over the last couple of weeks!  You are all so encouraging! 

I have been longing for our little one lately.  So many questions flood through my mind: Is he/she born?  Well?  Loved on? On his/her way to our orphanage? Being fed and clothed? Is the next Crenshaw going to be a boy  or a girl?

I love answering questions about adoption, and our journey specifically.  It just reminds me of God's specific plan to bring our child home.  Each detail of the story was a way that God lit the path for us to walk on to go get our child!

One of the questions we are asked sometimes is "Why Ethiopia?"  That is just a part of the story that God has for us and our family.  I love this video, though...so I wanted to share it (thanks, Alison!)