Peace and Rest at HOME

Thursday for us was at least 28 hours LONG. 

And all of it travel. 

I've had maybe five and half hours of sleep in my own bed. But I was compelled to get up and go see all the faces in all the beds in the house. Because all OUR KIDS are where they belong. 

As I opened each bedroom door to tiptoe in and gaze at each precious face I was also compelled to find that verse, "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You..." and read that passage. Which I found amusing because in all our exhaustion from our travels, we did feel joy at reuniting with our home folks (and beds) but we didn't exactly feel peace or "stayed on You."  We felt pretty irritated.

I made coffee, fed the critters, and settled into my comfy chair (wow is american furniture comfortable!) and found the verse (I had to look it up) (emphasis added):

Isaiah 26:3

You keep him in perfect peace 

whose mind is stayed on You, 

because he trust in You.

Then I got to Isaiah 26:12 and it jumped off the page and hit me in the heart. 

O Lord, You will ordain peace for us, 

for You have indeed done for us all our works. 

If you've followed along you may remember that a verse that keeps coming back to me (for years) is 1 Thessalonians 5:24 - but lets back up to verse 23

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (24) He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it. 

Look what God has done - now to have a day (or weekend) of peace and rest!

And what confirmation of how trustworthy and faithful He is! Even in the hard and crazy. 

And the story isn't over...

I'll work soon on updating this little blog on all the happenings that brought us home - and there will be pictures! Stay tuned.

Love ya!

Change Drive Roundup

The time has come for us to "call in" the coins.* 

Our Change Drive has been going on for a little more than a month. We leave for Ukraine soon so if you've been sweetly collecting change for us (Thank you so much!) its time to turn it in. 
We'll be counting and rolling coins this coming Sunday afternoon (August 9). 
If you live locally we ask that you drop it by the house, or call and we'll come get it this week. If you're a little further away we ask you count it and give via check/snail mail or PayPal. 
Church family can just bring their jars/boxes/bags to the church Sunday morning. 

And if your late - no worries, a family member will be handling things for us.

It's really happening!!!!! 

If you've got questions... so do we. Trusting in God's sovereignty and greater plan. 
His will be done. 

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly 

than all that we ask or think, 

according to the power at work within us, 

to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus 

throughout all generations, forever and ever. 

Amen."

Ephesians:20-21

Our Agency:
Family Connections, Inc.
Note: to the Harold Brown family
P.O. Box 5555
Cortland New York 13045

Our mailing address:
The Brown Family
PO Box 854

Franklin Springs, GA 30639

*Bad song lyrics:
Calling in the coins, calling in the coins, we shall go adopting, calling in the coins.
Calling in the coins, calling in the coins, we shall go to Ukraine, calling in the coins.

"I don't know"

If you've talked to me lately you've likely heard me utter the words "I don't know" on repeat. 

What will happen when you get to Ukraine? I don't know.
When are you starting school back? I don't know.
How long will you be gone? I don't know. 
What will the kids at home be doing? I don't know. (lots of hanging with Grandmother)
What happens next medically with Andrii? I don't know.
Where is Amsterdam? I don't know. (But it's in the Netherlands - I had to google it). 

Thankfully some things are google-able. There are REAL answers. Other things we just have to trust God with the details. And He has proven faithful with the details.

"He who calls you is faithful; HE WILL SURELY DO IT." 1 Thessalonians 5:24

He didn't say it would be easy. But in His strength we move forward.

"fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you. I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. " Isaiah 41:10

What I do know... not much at the moment. But I know the One who knows it all. 

Love ya!

It's happening!!!

Done with radiation!!!

It's finally happening! We are finally going to Ukraine!!!
We have a date for our SDA/DAP - the appointment in Kiev where they match us with two particular children.  We've booked flights and made lodging reservations. It's all a little surreal. 
But we are so excited to finally see the kids!!!

In order to protect our family's privacy our blog will not be updated with travel information until we get home. 
If your our friend on Facebook you may ask to join our secret Becoming Twelve Facebook group to follow our journey. We just ask that nothing posted there is shared publicly. 

In other news:

We have another teen driver. Our Lora passed her written exam on her first try. However, driving on the road - not just in the yard, proved more difficult than she expected. But practice makes better. 

We will wrap up our CHANGE DRIVE soon - I will post here about that.

Donations may still be made to our matching grant with Promise686 (which is doing very well), or to ABBA Fund, directly to our agency, or to us. Links and addresses below. 

Facetiming siblings

Promise686 grant 
virtually here 
or via snail mail by noting for the 342Brown Family
Promise686
19 Holcomb Bridge Rd. 
Norcross, GA  30071

ABBA Fund
virtually here
via snail mail by noting for the HEBrown Family
ABBA Fund
PO BOX 868049 
Plano, TX 75086-8049

Our Agency:
Family Connections, Inc.
Note: to the Harold Brown family
P.O. Box 5555
Cortland New York 13045

Our mailing address:
The Brown Family
PO Box 854
Franklin Springs, GA 30639

Joy Comes

Picked up my phone to see some wonderful news - a dear family, new friends, the ones adopting our hope-for-kids dear friend, got the call today to come over!!! They have to leave next week!!!
I’m so excited for them!!! REJOICING! 
(AND They were just ahead of us in the process and didn’t expedite, so... any minute now...)

But then I saw another message, a heart breaking message. Other dear friends, long time friends, who had hoped to adopt a particular little baby girl, had the door closed on bringing that baby home today. 
I’m mourning for them. Weeping. 

But we can still rejoice! That baby and her family (bio and hopeful) have been lifted before the throne of our Lord by a great group of believers. Daily. 
He hears. And just because this door closed, their home and hearts are still open. Longing. 

Oh what a torrent of emotions! 

That’s adoption. 

Help CHANGE Lives

I've talked before about our big Folgers can sitting in the foyers. Here.
We are still adding to it!

We’ve rolled a lot of coins this past year. Every cent has mattered. Every cent has had a purpose. 
Just like every human life matters and has a purpose!

This simple act of saving our change has paid for mailing cost, or fingerprints, or been just enough to cover a gap when we felt stretched to pay whatever fee was due. Because God uses it all. And He has made it enough.

And it’s a simple thing anyone can do. 

So we ask, that if you are able and willing, and feel so lead, save your change for us for just one month between now and whenever we travel to pick up the new kids. 

If you don’t have a container, we’ve been collecting them and are happy to bring/send one (or several) to you! Contact us and we'll send you a pretty sticker for your container and 

send a reminder at the end of your month. 

The change will be collected and given towards our matching grant at Promise686, or directly to our agency or travel expenses (depending on donor preference or where the biggest need is at the time).

We’d also encourage you to ask your social/civic group, church, Sunday school or Bible study class, or co-workers and friends if they would like to Help CHANGE LIVES with their loose change.

We’ve got more stickers! Just let us know about how many to send!

We cannot make donations to Promise686 or Abba Fund ourselves (per IRS rules) so the fundraiser donations gathered must be submitted by a friend or group/church on our behalf and are not tax-deductible. If you would like your gift to be tax-deductible you would need to write a check to Promise686 or the Abba Fund. We can collect those and send them in.

Not everyone can give big, but everyone can make a big difference. A little at a time.

To learn more about our matching grant click here or send donations to

For Tax-deductible gifts:

Online links  Promise686 or Abba Fund

or mail checks to one of these tax-deductible places:

Promise686, Inc. (memo: Brown Adoption)

22 Technology Parkway South

Norcross, GA 30092

Abba Fund (memo: HEBrown Family)

PO Box 868049

Plano, TX 75086

Or this link:

Or if you don’t give a hoot about matching grants or tax-deductions, or you just want to correspond,

Our mailing address and PayPal:

Brown Family

PO Box 854

Franklin Springs, GA 30662

PayPal.Me/edbrown77 – please note: for adoption