Wow! As of 11:30 AM (Eastern) on Tuesday, October 12th we have 71 iPad Raffle entries and have raised $3555 towards bringing I and Y home!! We're so excited to see what the rest of this week brings. Lorraine was very kind to post about our fundraiser on her blog. The story behind the iPad gives me chills. I love seeing how God orchestrates so many details for the good of His children!
Although I don't know Lorriane and never met Chrissie, something happened when we were in Russia and their family was the first thing I thought of. This is what I sent to Lorraine:
I started following your blog just prior to Chrissie’s surgery. Since I wasn’t familiar with her story I looked through the archives and couldn’t help but smile. Just by looking at her pictures and video I can say with absolute confidence that she was completely filled with joy! If you look up happiness in the dictionary you will see her picture. :-) I knew that was because she had been adopted into a loving family. We prayed and prayed while she was in the hospital and felt heartbroken when she left this earth. There was no way for me to begin to imagine your grief.
About two months later we were in Russia for our first trip in the adoption process. Although the children had been here the summer before we really never learned much about their medical history. The first thing the orphanage director said was “you know about I’s heart condition, right?” No, we didn’t! My heart stopped and I instantly felt fear and panic. Not knowing what we’re dealing with really didn’t make me question whether we’d continue with the adoption, because that was a given. Although, it did make me wonder if our situation was going to be like yours. I questioned whether we were setting ourselves up for unimaginable grief. I doubted whether we could handle that.
Then my thoughts turned to Chrissie and her undeniable joy! I think she was trying to remind me that it wouldn’t be about the possibility of heartache, but instead the guarantee of happiness. It wouldn’t be about a scary medical diagnosis with an unknown prognosis, but instead the blessing of living life aware of just how precious it is. Because of Chrissie I realized it wouldn’t be about giving of ourselves and resources, but instead receiving an endless amount of love and joy. I realized that it wouldn’t be about an earthly future of unimaginable loss and grief, but instead a future with a direct connection to an angel in Heaven.
There is still a lot we don’t know about I’s heart condition and we’re praying it isn’t severe, but thanks to Chrissie I’ve been able to feel peace. We don’t know the future; only God does. We do know that these children are meant to experience the love and joy of a family…and we are that family!
Thanks again to all who have donated and are helping to spread the word! The iPad raffle continues the rest of this week. By making a donation in any amount your name will be entered to win the iPad! :-) Donations can be made with a paypal account or a credit/debit account through this ChipIn widget. If you'd like to make a donation by check instead, then please contact me at japplin at buckeye-express dot com.
Blessings,
Please scroll down to read more about the amazing week and a half we've had in this adoption journey...or should I say faith journey :-)
Today is Chrissie's 5th birthday! She's celebrating it with our loving Father in Heaven. Stop by Lorraine's blog and participate in Chrissie's birthday celebration. Be sure to check out the pictures from the party they had for her before the surgery. Nothing can compare to a smile like that! :-)
Wow, we've already raised $2330 in our iPad raffle! That's 2330 steps closer to bringing I and Y home that didn't exist even a week ago. We feel so blessed to be supported by so many of our friends, family and even complete strangers. We've even started receiving donations from people we don't know because others are spreading the word!
A little over a week ago I was trying to accept what was becoming more and more evident...that we wouldn't be able to bring the children home until the spring at the earliest. I felt devasted and like I have let these children down! They have waited for us to come and bring them home ever since they returned to Russia 14 months ago. If we don't bring them home until the spring that will be about 19 months they will have waited to return to the home and family they are missing. They know they have parents here waiting to give them more hugs and kisses than they can stand. They have siblings ready to resume their games of chase, reading stories and playing with toys. There are tubs ready for bubble baths, comfortable beds with warm blankets and cupboards full of food so they'll never feel hungry again. There is a large group of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins ready to welcome them into the family. There is a large supportive community and a great church that lives by the Gospel and goes to great lengths caring for "the least of these." There is even Max who is waiting for his friends from the orphanage to start arriving and join him in his new life. While it has been very difficult for us to wait, their waiting has been much worse!
These are the thoughts I was consumed with last week. You see the Russian courts shut down for most of December and January. We were told that we need the last of our paperwork and the rest of the money within about 2-3 weeks to be able to get a court date before they close. We were faced with two huge obstacles. The first was getting back our final FBI clearance. They are no longer expediting them for adoptions. We were told not to do them until after our first trip, otherwise they may expire before court. It was beginning to look like they were going to arrive too late to still be able to get a court date yet this year. A friend passed on a number to call and check. The man on the phone sounded sympathetic when I explained why we needed them ASAP and he said we should have them in about two weeks. Then yesterday I noticed that our account was charged the fee to process the clearance. I'm praying that this means it will be sent out soon and we'll receive it on time. So I'm feeling good about the first hurdle.
That means raising the rest of the money we need may be the only thing stopping us from having an amazing Christmas with ALL of our family together. A week ago I would have said it was impossible. Yet, I kept hearing a little voice in my head saying "God can do this." Now here we are with the opportunity to raise the rest of the money we need through this raffle.
Please continue to spread the word about our fundraiser and pray that God will be glorified by this story! It's all Him! It has been the moment we said yes to adopting these children and will continue to be as we rely on Him for strength and guidance when we begin the new journey when our children come home. We believe that God doesn't call the equipped, but that he equips the called. We're trusting that his ways are always the best. :-)
If you'd like to participate in our fundraiser the details are easy. Make a donation in any amount and your name is entered to win the iPad. Donations can be made via this ChipIn widget with a paypal account or credit/debit card. If you'd like to make a donation by check please contact me at japplin at buckeye-express.com. We'll draw the winner's name the morning of October 16th. Thanks so much!
Wow, I feel like God has really spoken to us this week! My 36th birthday was a few days ago. People kept asking me for gift ideas and I really didn't know what to say. All I really want is to have this huge invoice paid to my adoption agency and have the money I need for two more trips to Russia to bring my children home for good! The problem is I don't think people were looking to spend quite that much on my birthday...
I'll admit, I've been feeling a bit down and at times desperate about this. We have come so far in this adoption process and we're nearing the end, at least in terms of paperwork. Still, the money isn't there to finish this. I've literally been waiting on God, trusting that his timing is perfect, even if it's not what I had in mind.
For some reason this week has been particularly hard and I've been losing hope that we'll have the money in time to get the children home by Christmas. One evening I was praying and asking God for a sign of hope. Then I started reading MaryBeth Chapman's book, Choosing to See (which is amazing!). Beth Moore wrote the prologue and at the end she included a Bible verse. Isa. 43:5 says, "Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west." My eyes widened and I instantly felt peace.
Also, this week I noticed some of the blogs I follow were trying to raise money for a sweet orphan named Yulia. :-) I was able to watch something amazing unfold. They were able to raise over $20,000 in just 5 days! They raffled off a new iPad as an incentive. I was inspired and thought that would be a great way to raise the rest of the money we need for our adoptions. The problem was that I didn't have an iPad or the money to get one. I debated using my birthday money and my husband's overtime money (which I had planned to put towards the adoption) to buy an iPad and try to raffle it off, bit it seemed a bit risky. I decided to wait and just pray about it.
So you can imagine just how thrilled I was when I found out yesterday that I won the iPad they were giving away!! Now, some may wonder why I donated to the adoption fund for another child when we’re short the money we need to complete our adoptions. The truth is I believe we are ALL responsible for ALL of the orphans in the world. Making a donation to Yulia’s fund was a no-brainer and had nothing to do with thinking we’d actually win.
If you're not familiar with our story, here it is: We met I and Y through an orphan hosting program in July of 2009. We were looking into adoption at the time but decided to try to adopt from our local foster care system because we felt there was no way we could ever afford an international adoption. When we heard about the orphan hosting program through a wonderful charity (FORO-Friends of Russian Orphans) affiliated with our church, we thought this would be a good way to help out an international orphan by giving him or her a sort of vacation experience. What we didn’t know was that God had His own plans.
Not only did He plan for us to adopt Y, the 5-year-old little girl we hosted, but He wanted us to adopt I, a 4-year-old little boy being hosted by another family at our church. We spent nearly three weeks with the children and then had to put them on a plane headed back to Russia. We had no idea how to overcome all of the obstacles to adopt them, but we knew we had to try. Of course everyone thought we were crazy! We already have four young children. With I and Y added, we’ll have 6 kids in a 5-year span (currently between the ages of 4-9). Crazy? Maybe, but we knew they were meant to be in our family and we needed to get them back as soon as possible.
The other neat thing is that 9 of the children who participated in the hosting program are being adopted by families in our community! Seven of the children will attend the same church and school system. FORO brought over 10 more children this past summer for a hosting experience. All of those children are being adopted too! To these children their friends from the orphanage are their family and now they’ll be raised here together. :-) I also think the long-term impact on our communities’ awareness of the needs of orphans will be huge. :-)
God has been so good! He has opened doors that seemed impossible to open. One of the biggest hurdles has been coming up with the nearly $70k it’s costing to adopt these two children. When we started the process we did not have a single cent to put towards it. Through very generous donations by others and extra work opportunities for my husband and I we’ve gotten this far. We still have around $40k yet to pay out (an invoice here for over $23k from our agency and two more expensive trips to Russia). We are still short about $28k of that to have these adoptions paid for. To us this is a HUGE amount, but we know our God is BIGGER! We need the money very quickly too. Everything has been completed and we’re just waiting for the last of the paperwork. Once that comes in a few weeks (and if we have the money ready to go) we will receive our court date and can bring our children home shortly after.
The children desperately want to come home! They’ve been here so they know what they’re missing. We made the first trip to Russia this past July. It was great to see them and we were told that they constantly ask when we’re coming for them. The sad part is that they thought they were coming home with us then. Every 5 minutes one of them would say, “Okay, let’s go home to America!” We asked the translator to explain it was just a visit but she wanted to wait until the end. It was heartbreaking to leave them again.
So since we've been blessed with this new iPad we are hoping repeat the same miracle that's already occured...raise all of the money we need to bring our children home! The details are easy: From now until 11:59 PM (Eastern) on October 15th any donation you make to our adoption fund will enter your name to win the iPad. You can make a donation by clicking on this ChipIn widget.
If you'd like to make a donation by check please contact me at jennifer@jenniferapplin.com.
We're praying that all of you wonderful supporters of adoption out there who understand the need and struggle will help us bring our children home!! I used to think that it would be so much easier if we were just wealthy and already had the money. Then I realized that this testimony for these children, who have only known rejection and abandonment, will be so much greater knowing that it was a loving God and the care and concern of many, many people who understood their worth that brought them home.
God has already used this iPad to ransom one child. We're praying it can be used to ransom two more!
James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."
Well, as you can tell I wasn't able to keep up with this blog once we started the adoption process (not that I was doing a lot with it prior). Once we said "Yes!" to God regarding adopting these children that also meant saying "Yes!" to a ton of paperwork and working as much as possible to raise the money we need to bring our children home.
It has been a very challenging year. I really had no idea how difficult this process could be (more on that later). Through it all we have relied on God as our source of strength...especially when we've reached points where there was NOTHING else to rely on (I'm learning that God likes it this way :-). God has been GOOD-better than good, through it all! Over and over we have experienced miracles that only He could manage and our faith is so much stronger because of it! I have so much to share, but right now I want to start a separate post regarding a GREAT fundraising opportunity!
It’s funny how you can be cruising along in life with plans made, working towards your goals and then BAM!!...everything changes. That is what we’re experiencing in the Applin household. We have jumped on the “Russian Adoption Rollercoaster” and we’re in the process of adopting a little girl who just turned 5 and a little boy who is almost 5. Some of you may recall that we already have four children between the ages of 3-8. So this will give us six children in a 5-year-span! How did we get to this point? What are we thinking? Well, let me explain…
I posted below about the Russian orphan hosting program we were participating in this summer. Through a local charity thirteen children between the ages of 4-14 were hosted by ten different families for almost three weeks. We were matched with a spunky little girl who turned 5 just two days after she left (we initially thought she was already five). We also got to spend time with the other Russian children, including a sweet little boy who will be 5 this fall. The purpose of the program was to provide a sort of vacation and adventure to children who have only known abandonment, rejection and loneliness in their short lives. Like most orphans the statistics for these Russian children upon leaving the orphanage is heart-breaking. Only about 10% are able to make anything out of their lives. They are literally kicked out around the age of 17 lacking adequate resources to survive (money, food, job, housing, family support, etc.). The other 90% turn to a life of crime, drugs/alcohol, prostitution/sex trade, or commit suicide. Through this program we wanted the children to see that there is a world beyond the orphanage doors. Through ongoing communication we wanted them to know that there are people who care about them and hopefully they could strive to “make it.” For our family, as well as some of the others, this hosting experience turned into something entirely different. To put it simply, we fell in love! They are already a part of our family in our hearts and now we’re trying to make that official and bring them home!
This brings me back to my point about changes. While we had been looking into adoption for a while we figured we'd be adopting from our local foster care system. Coming up with the money to adopt internationally just seemed impossible! We didn’t plan on adopting two children from Russia (one of the most expensive adoption programs). We didn’t plan on needing a bigger van this soon because ours only seats 7 people. We didn’t plan on growing our family this quickly to the point that it would be very difficult for me to work (at least until they are all in school), as we deal with adoption-related issues and meeting the needs of all of our children. But that is where we are. We said yes with our hearts, not sure how to work this all out. I guess that’s why they call it a “leap of faith!” As we considered the possibility of adopting these two we initially talked ourselves out of adopting both of them. We felt we just didn't have the necessary resources. Most of those resources needed are financial to pay for the adoptions and bigger van, as well as allowing me to take the time off from writing to be the mother these children need. But after a lot of discussion and prayer we realized that we needed to trust in God to handle those provisions. If it is His will it will be done. We realized that just because we don't have those resources now doesn't mean they won't be there when we need them. Even as I type those words, though, that walk by faith is still the hardest thing we've ever done. There is so much at stake-most importantly these two precious little lives.
Right now I’m busy working on the massive list of adoption paperwork and working as much as possible. My husband is taking on all of the extra sides jobs he can. As I write this he has returned home from work and has headed off to earn extra money by cutting down trees (I just hope he remembers that he’s 38 and not 28!). He doesn’t complain. As he puts it he’s a man on a mission to bring home his children who are half-way around the world.
So those are the big changes at our house! Are we crazy? Well,…yes, but I'd prefer to say obedient! More importantly we’re just excited to start this new chapter in our life. Through research I’ve learned that globally there are over 143 million orphans, and this number increases by the thousands daily. I know that when it comes to the orphan crisis we can’t change the world. But I am hoping that at least for these two children we can change their world, and they’ve already changed ours.
We know we can't do this alone and we already feel so blessed by the offers of help we've received! If you'd like to help would you please consider: -Praying for us and the children! As with any adoption there are many obstacles to overcome. Prayer is the one thing that is bringing us peace and keeping us from feeling panicked that something will go wrong and we won't be able to adopt them. -Letting me know about any programs that help with adoptions (grants, fundraisers, etc.). -Making a donation to our adoption fund. I hesitated even putting the button on the top of this page. I'm not very good with asking for or accepting help. But I am learning that this is bigger than "me" and my comfort zone. Any donation would be a HUGE blessing!
So that's the news about our exciting leap of faith! I'll keep you posted. :-)
This summer we are participating in a Russian Orphan Hosting program. There are ten families from our church hosting 13 Russian orphans (there are three sets of siblings). The children, along with the two chaperones, will be arriving exactly one month from today from the Arkhangelsk region! They will be visiting for nearly three weeks. We have been matched with a 5-year-old little girl :-) Our other kids are 8, 6, 4, and 3, so she'll be right in the middle and our daughter (the oldest) can't wait to have another little girl in the house to play with. :-)
Tonight we'll be attending a meeting to go over some of the details, have a quick lesson in speaking Russian (the children won't know any English!) and finally see pictures!! Initially we weren't supposed to find out who our host child is until tonight's meeting. So it was a great surprise when we found out on May 8th! But...for some reason I was mistaken and thought we'd see pictures before today, so I've been patiently waiting (or NOT patiently waiting according to my husband ;-).
I can't believe it is only a month away until she arrives. I feel like I'm nesting. I first started "nesting" back in the spring when I thought we were preparing for our home study through the county (more on that later), but now I'm really feeling the push to clean and purge, clean and purge. I must admit though that it is a lot nicer doing it this way than when I could barely waddle around with my very large pregnant belly!
I am a Christian wife and mother. I've been married to a wonderful man for 11 years and we like to laugh together..a lot! We have been blessed with six children through birth and adoption (L-age 10, C-age 8, Y-age 6, I-age 6, O-age 6, T-age 4). The middle two were adopted from Russia in December 2010. I'm passionate about adoption, orphan care, the hurt, homeless and hungry. We're trying to serve God by serving others in Jesus' name.
"Sometimes I'd like to ask God why He allows poverty, famine, and injustice in the world when He could do something about it...but I'm afraid God might ask me the same question." ~Anonymous
"Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, KNOWS that we know, and holds us responsible to act." ~Proverbs 24:12
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