the numbers are in...

We made it to the bank last Friday. I had to wait until Josh could go with me because the weight of the coins was too much to carry by myself. :) Are you ready to read the results of our "Change 4 Rwanda" coin collection?

$1,388. 79

You read right. Wow. That's a lot of change! (some of you also collected some "paper" change) :) To your generosity and kindness for caring and taking the step to get involved - I say thank you! We are blessed beyond measure.

I am meeting with Angie from Africa New Life this afternoon to give her a check towards the feeding the street kids in Kigali. Angie also handles church partnerships with ANLM and I can't wait to hear all about that! I have a lot of questions.

We hit the one year mark yesterday of our dossier being in Rwanda. I am sooooo grateful that we received our non-objection letter prior to yesterday. My heart is hopeful.... I now find myself having a hard time falling asleep at night as I think about the day starting in Kigali. I think is this the day they will send my boy's picture to me? And of course this leads me to praying and thinking some more, etc..... And every morning I wake up and check my email first thing to see if today is the day our lives change forever?

Next up...our last fundraiser (hopefully). A garage sale this weekend! Good thing I have lots to do to keep me busy. :)

Blessings!

No objection!

We got our non-objection letter this morning! Wow. All that waiting and there it is. I could just stare at it and read it again and again.

Crazy thing is that it was issued on May 6th. We didn't officially see it until this morning but we have been approved since then! How nice to be waiting for a referral and not even know it. :)

The letter did not indicate how long we can expect to wait for a referral. (aka placement with our son) :) From others we have heard that it can be anywhere from 1 to 3 months. Who knows? God does. Yes.

We're on deck!

blessings.

no guts no glory

We did it! We came, we saw, we conquered. Okay, more like I huffed and puffed my way through a beautiful 13.1 mile course this morning. It was a hard run for me. I knew by about mile 5 that I was going to need to dig deep to finish this race. I knew I would finish but I had to take it one mile at a time. :)

We have to collect a couple more jars and then I will post the final count of change that came in. Thank you from the depths of my heart for choosing to care and participate in our fundraiser.

My legs are sore but my heart is filled with joy!

The few pictures from the today:

Melia waiting for me to finish.

Melissa and her kids. Melissa trained with me and was such a HUGE encouragement! She ended up getting sick with some yucky respiratory junk, so she became the race day photographer. (All these pics are from her camera). Thank you Melissa for all your help and love. You are AWESOME!!!!!

I can see the finish line. I'm almost there.

What a hunk!

Shannon (best buddy since college) ran with us, sporting the orphan awareness t-shirt.

Thanks to my mom and dad who had the girls spend the night.

Just missing our boy.

We did it!

Blessings!

Dream

What's your dream? What secret longing do you wish for? It can be goofy or serious. Where and how do you dream? Some dreams are too embarrassing to tell anyone. Some are too hard and scary to venture out on. What if your dreams seem impossible?

What if God called you to be obedient to your dream and do all that you could to make your dream a reality? Would you still give excuses? Or is the saddest part of it all is that you don't have dreams.

I'm a concrete kinda gal, despite my big crazy dreams. I like to be in control and I most definitely have a plan of attack for every project. Well, almost every project.....

When I was praying and wrestling with the idea of adoption one thing that struck me was that I didn't have the whole plan of attack figured out. I didn't know how we were going to pay entirely for adoption process. I knew it would be hard and scary and stressful and ya know what..... it didn't matter. Because God is in control and I am not. I don't have to have ALL the answers. I can trust Him to provide and guide and give strength. Worst case scenarios don't matter when God calls. Hard times don't matter when He says, it's time to step out and and step up.

I have received a few jars back from people who are part of the "Change 4 Rwanda" campaign and wow, I have been blessed. I wasn't expecting that in the midst of this "hard" part of waiting for our little guy. I feel so richly blessed by your generosity and willingness to dream with us and be apart of our journey. Truly, an oasis of joy and comfort from the Lord through you in these hard, grueling days of waiting. I feel so deeply thankful.

Dream big! You won't be sorry. Have you ever asked God if He wants you to make your dream come true?

I dream of my son. I also dream of being a dancer (but don't tell anybody)!!! :)

Blessings!

Light the Streets Video

Take a couple of minutes and watch this video. Warning: you may never be the same!

Light the Streets from Africa New Life Ministries on Vimeo.