Sunday, May 11, 2014

Who Wants To Run A 5K?

Since I last posted, we have been moving along as quickly as possible with all of our paperwork.  We received our completed home study and had all of the immigration documents ready to go, so we sent off our NBC application last week.  Now we wait for approval and fingerprint appointments and then, after a few more pieces of paperwork, travel approval!  It's so hard knowing that someone else is putting him to bed each night, and that he is missing out on being a part of a family, but I have also had many friends remind me that things will happen in God's time.

So the other two VERY exciting things that have happened is that we received our first grant (YIPPEE!) which is a matching grant, and our wonderful friend offered to put together a virtual 5K for us!  The purpose of a matching grant is that we are awarded a grant of $2000 if we can raise $2000.  This would then give us $4000 for our travel payment to our agency which includes our travel reservations, hotels, in country travel, etc.  This is all very very exciting, but now we need to fundraise.  This is where YOU get to play a part!

I am putting the link below where my eloquent friend describes a virtual 5K better than I could, but basically you can somehow move your body 5K (otherwise known as 3.1 miles) and you pay an entrance fee the same way you would for any other race and you get a beautiful medal and you get to be a part of our adoption journey and help one less child live as an orphan.  We would love for as many people as possible to participate in this since it is a great way to exercise and to be part of a unique opportunity to help us fundraise and have your donation doubled by our matching grant.  You don't even have to do the 5K all at one time.  It can be broken up over days or however long you need.  We are so grateful to our amazing friend for putting this all together for us and for supporting us in this way.  Here's the link:

http://www.foreverhome.us

We have also had friends ask us how they can specifically pray for our adoption.  What has really been on our hearts is to pray that our sweet little boy's heart is prepared.  No matter how you look at it, it's a scary situation to be handed over to people you do not know, who do not speak your language, who cook differently and act differently and dress differently, and who you have never met before.  We know that living in a family will be better than living in an orphanage, but he cannot know that.  We trust God to be with him and help him, but we pray that he will specifically be prepared for this and to have a sense of joy and peace about it.  We pray that the people around him can be preparing him for this and to help give him an idea of what will happen.  We would be so appreciative if you joined us in praying for him.

Well, that's a lot of information for one blog post, so please check out the 5K website and I will keep everyone posted about any progress!

"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me-the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace."  Acts 20:24