Cattle Sales

Another sweet cousin is trying to plan an adoption fundraiser for us and asked for information and a breakdown of the cost of the adoption to present to her church and local businesses. 

The total funds needed is an overwhelming amount. 

But we determined at the beginning, with God's help, to eat this big elephant one little bite at a time. And thus far, God has been faithful to supply. He is always faithful.

The first week of December we needed to send the agency $1300, we were a little short, so we sent what we could. And we were pretty spent, totally out of ideas for quickly raising more. Then the phone rang. By the weekend we had two more small fundraisers to do. The difference was made up. The $1300 was covered, with change left for the ongoing fundraisers (headbands, wreaths, and such).

Cow painting by Mary Beadles - given to Jorja last week at a fundraiser

I've said for a long time (at least 14 years), and through many financial hard spots (ours and others), "God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Surely He can keep the lights on." (As a single mom HE kept the lights on - miracle money in the mail box - that's another story).***

Earlier this year, driving to some adoption/trauma training, I passed some peaceful rolling farmland. Hills full cows to my right, a multitude of sheep to my left. And I was reminded of how God could keep the lights on. It reassured me to keep moving forward and pursuing these kids. 

This week, I passed a pasture with just a few cows and immediately thought, "Oh look, He sold some cows." 

I woke up Friday, to the official diagnosis for Andrii, "stage four malignant brain tumor with metastasis in the spinal cord." (Talk about adding wood to the fire!)

We had about $200 in the Abba Fund and $136 in the bag (my fancy way of keeping adoption funds separate is a big ziplock bag - don't be jealous of my organizational skills). And I shared publically about Andrii. 

Within hours we were overwhelmed with love and support and the way people who don't know him or us are being God's hands and feet. 

Enabling our desire to bring them home. 

Helping the orphans.

Being used to set the lonely in family.

Gathering those cow auction profits. 

Oh how He loves us! All of us. All 12. 

(And Stephen too - which makes 13, but I'm not changing the name of the blog). 

I'll stop typing now. 

*curtsy*

*** This is NOT a plug for the prosperity gospel. It is our little finite minds and hearts attempt to remember to trust a totally trustworthy, infinite, eternal, creative, doer of the impossible, God and Kimg of the entire universe to care for us. We are but sinful dust. We are totally undeserving of any good. Yet He cares for us. He carries us. He loves lavishly. 
All glory and praise and honor belong to Him. 

Desire

If desire were dollars or wings we'd be in Ukraine.

We desperately need prayer. Support - of all kinds.

Last week we found out that "our boy" had a brain tumor. Today we have been told that he has been in the children's hospital for 4 days, today he was officially diagnosed with "stage four malignant brain tumor with metastasis in the spinal cord." He has begun chemo. They believe it is inoperable.

We don't even understand all those words. We are researching each one. We have more questions than we can give voice to.

Oh to be by his bedside, holding his hand.... calling him "mine."

We cannot play the "what if?" game.
Only the "right now."
And right now... he should have a Mama and Daddy and family with him, comforting him, encouraging him...

And "our girl"... what must she be thinking? She's not as fluent in English as he is and communication is limited. She needs a Mama and Daddy and family with her, lots of hugs, encouragement, comfort, understanding....

They need love. And we want so badly to lavish them with so much love...

We are so close. We have "official" people there now advocating for him. For them. For us.

Funding continues to be a seemingly insurmountable hurdle. But God....

He who has call you is faithful, 
HE WILL SURELY DO IT.

1 Thessalonians 5:24

In the spirit of total transparency, thus far we have paid in over $5000 in adoption fees, the total estimated expenses is at least $43,000. So we just need $38,000 more (and we laugh and pray and fund raise and strategize and pray and trust God who loves them even more - because that number seems ridiculous - and more than many people make in a year).

So we ask, HELP! Help us go get them quickly!

We've got fundraisers in the works. See this post. 
We've got a tax deductible place to give through the Abba Fund.
We've got direct giving via PayPal.
We are preparing for change drives in churches and groups and available to speak anytime in person or online.
We've got ideas and need help getting it all to work.

Update: The agency we hosted through is hosting a fundraiser and it’s amazing! See it here.

Thoughts swirl and hearts hurt.

Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; 
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.

Psalm 82:3

As I'm writing our younger 4 children came in just now and offered to give up any Christmas presents - we just all want them HOME. Help us bring them home. Help us call them son and daughter.

This is the picture of those beautiful children we hosted. Those children we hope to make our own.
When we told them we wanted to adopt them, he said, "Both? or just her?"
"Both child. We want you both."

Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have called you by name, you are mine.

Isaiah 43:1

Christmas Shopping?

We want to bring home a new son and daughter.
Our kids want their new brother and sister home.
But whats currently melting our hearts is that Grandmother, Nana, and several cousins are excited to have new grandchildren and cousins! How loved!!!

Wreaths, headbands, scrunchies, lanyards, dog bandannas, and t-shirts!
So many pretty things!

Lanyards $4

Double sided Headbands $5 -
see below for more options

Double sided Headbands $5 many options - lots of Christmas fabric

Key Fob $3 (only 3 available)

Hair Scrunchies $3 each or 4 for $10

Dog Bandannas - Double sided - slides onto coller
Small $3, Medium $4, Large $5

The Morgan cousins made and donated all the pretty things above. Local pickup avaliable (I'll have them in the van). Shipping is $3 for the first 3 items (or 4 scrunchies)

Grandmother made many grapevine wreaths in assorted sizes then Nana and Ava decorated a few (the picture is upside down - I've fixed it twice - Oh well). Price $2-$9 depending on size and if it's fancied up. Local pickup only.

I use a grapevine wreath on my front door ALL YEAR - I just change the bow to match the season.

Merry Christmas! 🎄

Fundraising this weekend 12/7/19

At the beginning of the week our ideas for fundraisers were all falling flat - then the phone rang!  This Saturday we will again divide and conquer! 

Erin will be helping at a booth in Royston and Gene will be at a booth in Hartwell! 

Of course assorted offspring have been voluntold to help (and they’re excited about it).

🎄What we want most for Christmas is to have them home! 👩🏻‍🤝‍👨🏼

Update: We had a great time at the bazaar and artisan market this past weekend! Its always fun to meet your neighbors (some are more interesting than others) ;) 

Jorja is a natural sales lady! I was so glad to have her help me at the Artisan Market.
And Kelly, who hosted the event at The Old Corner Hardware Store, was a wonderful hostess!
Thank you Janna McCollum of Ruby Jewel Designs for generously allowing us this opportunity. 

Gene had a great time with Ava, Autumn, & Lora.
Thanks so much to Tammy at Hart Life for allowing us a space.
(Did you notice that the tablecloths are the colors of the Ukrainian flag?)

The FUNdraising continues in the upcoming post! Stay tuned! 

We be rolling (coins)

If you have come into our foyer in the last year you might have noticed this large Folgers canister which was lovingly decorated by Lora when we’re raising funds to host Andrii & Anastasia. We just kept adding to it when we said yes to adoption.
We drop change in it as we clean out pockets and purses, and it holds all the “in-between cash” (that money waiting to go to the bank or to the post office to become a money order to pay some fee).





We need to send in fees to the new agency (Family Connections) ASAP and we’re $38 short. So we got out our closet jars - we’ve been collecting in those a LONG time!
(That penny jar was nearly full, the shorter jar... not so much since we started collecting for fees.)(there was also one dead stink bug - unfortunately we can’t get much for bugs)

So we rolled coins. We ran out of penny rollers and still have half a big pickle jar of pennies - and wound up rolling a few dollars extra worth. (They will now be the in-between cash).

We do have a small fundraiser this weekend - I'm helping a dear friend and fellow homeschool mom sale her jewelry for a percent of the profits. She over booked herself to be at two Christmas bazaars.

We are also trying to think QUICKLY of one more to hold at a Christmas Bazaar we could join last minute. Several others are already doing baked good and hot chocolate... I wasn't as crafty as I'd hoped and my imagination isn't running at full capacity lately... so I need ideas. * Update: we’ve been donated some lovely handcrafted items!!! Woohoo!

If your church or group would like to do a change drive for us in the new year to help with raising adoption funds and/or travel expenses that would be FANTASTIC!!! Just send a message or leave a comment and we'll talk! Funds can be donated directly to our agency or to the Abba Fund. (if you do donate please specify that the funds are for the HE Brown family).

All the things I haven't said

When we are waiting on something good it seems to take forever!

But when we have something to do (or that we should be doing) the time flies by!

Blogging will be an easy way to keep everyone up to date. (If you actually do it).

I'll be good at blogging. (Nope - sorry).

Here's the possibly lengthy catch-you-up post. (not totally in chronological order).

Since my last post was about a patriotic quilt (seriously thought I'd updated LOTS since then), I'll start with:

The quilt sold via eBay. But not for as much as we had hoped. We are very grateful to Aunt Carolyn for her donation of the beautiful quilt and to the eBay-er who was delighted to use it in redecorating.

We have since been posting lots of little things on eBay (member erbr_2337) to help raise funds and in the process have gotten to know our sweet postal worker better. They are the most helpful people for shipping anything as cheaply inexpensively as possible. And they are just super sweet.

Photos and college by Jacob

We did have one more yard sale that had shoppers waiting on us when we arrived at the crack of dawn. The unsold treasures lived in the basement until I couldn't stand it anymore and "organized." Some things went on Facebook Marketplace, some on eBay, some to the thrift store. (And, for the sake of total honesty, a few treasures we are using).

Currently, there's a box in the dining room and two in the basement of posted and waiting to be posted items. I got my house back and an extra job. 

A sweet friend, Elena, did a Tupperware fundraiser. It was delicious. 

Tomorrow we are having a Krispy Kreme sale before (and possible after) church. 

100 dozen doughnuts = 1200 doughnuts 

Pray for hungry folks with $7 and a sweet tooth to drive by.

We did this last year to help raise funds for hosting fees and more than doubled our investment. So all those eBay sales have been invested in doughnuts. 

Of course we still take donations any time in person, snail mail (message us for the address), via PayPal, or for tax deductible gifts through the Abba Fund.

Fundraising is FUN. But exhausting. And I'm running out of creative ideas. Matter of fact, I'm not feeling very creative at all. In any area. 

But we have been encouraged this month. We can finally see the light at the end of this homestudy tunnel. We had been waiting (for over 6 months) for one piece of paper, a certain background check, to be sent to our homestudy agency. They had requested it several times. Finally, after several phone calls it arrived. So now we make sure all our boxes are checked and get our original documents together and wait again. 

Fall Birthday People

Next steps (hopefully), apostillizing the documents (they get stamped as "fo'real" legal papers), USA approval, and extreme grant writing. (Plus holidays).

In more personal news:

Over half the family had birthdays - Jorja, Autumn, Gene, Erin, Jacob, and Elijah. 

And the biggest news (drum roll) after a blur of preparations and bridal showers, 

Ava and Stephen tied the knot! 

It was beautiful. They are beautiful. 

The only thing we wish was different (okay, they only big thing) was that the two new children could have already been here. 

Here is a video of just a few of the pictures from the wedding events:

So that's the short version of the last some-odd months. 

Today it has been one year, one month and ten days since we first opened out hearts and homes to two wonderful, beautiful, smart, sweet, funny, energetic young teens. Orphans who want a family.

Pray things hurry along from here and provision is made for all expenses with the least amount of stress. 

Pray for Gene and I. God is refining us, our household, our finances, and our marriage. 

And pray for our two "heart children" who are also waiting - they are ready to come home! Pray God would protect them and redeem this time and place people in their lives to shine His love to them. 

Love ya!

"Is anything to hard for the Lord?" 

Genesis 18:14a

 

They're Coming to America, Quilt Auction

What better way to celebrate the Forth of July than working to bring home some new Americans!

For 10 days we are running a patriotic quilt auction!
One of Erin's very talented aunts made and donated a special quilt, "Let Freedom Ring,"to help bring home her newest great niece and nephew!
Bidding begins on eBay today (Tuesday, 2July) at 7am and continues through Friday, July 12 at 7am. 
Follow this link to place your bid!

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

2 Corinthians 3:17

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F312681643404

I'm out of control

How many times have I said to myself just in the past few days, “It’s all in God’s perfect timing. He has all the details in order. You are NOT in control”?

A LOT!

We are still waiting on the septic to be fixed so we can pass that portion of the homestudy.

I am not in control of that man who dig’s holes and lays pipes’ schedule.

I must get some fingerprinting redone.

I am not in control of how any of that works.

The Young Love Birds

Ava’s medical report was totally messed up at the doctor’s office.  

I am not in control of those people and their lack of understanding.

We are in full-blow wedding planning crazy! And the budget is…. There isn’t one. 
It’s a week by week adventure.

That is beyond my control. We only have so much.  We can only plan and pay for what we are able to week by week.

What am I in control of?

My attitude. I can enjoy the ever-changing journey. I can decide this is an exciting adventure and love every minute (it’s only a season).

I can be patient. I can treat people with kindness (even when they make me wait more).

I can be a good steward of all we are given. I can keep moving forward (with adoption fundraising, and paper collecting, and wedding planning).

I can do my best at what I can and not sweat the rest.

I can KISS it all (Keep It Simple Stupid).

I can choose each day (multiple times) to trust God’s perfect plan. (this one is the most important).

I can take care of me. Then I can take care of others (and all the rest). I can stop in the middle of all the crazy and give myself a pedicure or read a book or write a blog post (your welcome) or take a nap (or all these as needed).

I can try to control me and my words and actions.

I’m out of control. But not really.

“The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.” 

2 Peter 3:9

Have patience, have patience

Don't be in such a hurry

When you get impatient, you only start to worry

Remember, remember that God is patient, too

And think of all the times when others have to wait for you

~ from the PATIENCE Song (Herbert the Snail)

Sad News/Good News

We came across this article (linked here) stating that, as PERSONHOOD Alliance said, “GoFundMe has just independently launched its own megafund to support the National Network of Abortion Funds, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the ACLU Foundation. Donor money will be split among the 5 organizations to pay for legal challenges to abortion laws, lobbying for abortion-on-demand in Congress, and the actual killing of pre-born children.”

This us such sad news. We are extremely pro-life (I lead a local pro-life group). So, we have chosen to delete our GoFundMe account completely and remove all links.  

Thankfully we have already been approved to have an AbbaFund page and PayPal for online giving.

All our current adoption fundraisers are linked on the side (in web view, I don’t know where to find them in mobile view, but if you scroll down on your mobile device you can change views).

We’ve also launched a NEW t-shirt campaign with pretty summer colors and TANK TOPS to help keep folks cool on the long hot summer days! You can find these trendy little pretties https://www.bonfire.com/becoming-twelve/

at

You can also find the old t-shirt campaign (with a few different colors) at https://www.bonfire.com/ukrainian-adoption/

It may not be to late to book a trip using our Airbnb link. We aren't sure if that link still works to save you $$$ and earn us funds we can use towards our stay in Kiev.

I Ran Away

Gene and Chris install a s
hiny new transmission

Birthday Girl

I was really glad that the fellas got my van fixed because I NEEDED to go to Alabama.

There’re these precious girls there and one was having a birthday party.

There’re my big cousins who I love.

And a GREAT aunt and uncle.

But mostly there’s this beautiful, new, tiny, perfectly perfect baby girl, and bless her heart, they named her after me!

Erin LeighAnne

The Erins who ran errands

So, I loaded up the four youngest and spent the gas money to get these people in my arms.

I needed to.

We ran away for just a few days from the details and to-do list of adoption and weddings and celebrated life!

And I loved it.

Then we came home and took a very long nap.

Adding On...

So much can happen so quickly. Thankfully, it’s all good. We could use some good news.

The text photo that
this was a thing!
Maybe my current
favorite picture of
my favorite oldest
daughter.

Stephen & Ava

First, the biggest news!!! We are adding a son-in-love to our tribe! 

That oldest tall child got a wedding proposal Sunday and she giggled happily and kept the ring, so the young suitor took that for a “yes!” 

So, now we are planning a wedding. They have yet to set a date. She’d love a Fall wedding but with the uncertainty of when we might travel to Ukraine (hopefully in the fall), we asked them to speed things up or wait longer. They see benefits to both. 

But why wait?

In other news, the Knee Baby (that’s what we call the next to youngest), with help for the almost oldest, cooked chicken enchiladas for a Fiesta supper earlier this week as part of his math assignment. He even decorated the porch and had the Daddy put on some fiesta music. It was fun!

During the course of dinner conversation the younger set were discussing brothers and sisters and very naturally said they “have 9 brothers and sisters” (for those slow on the math – that’s 2 more than currently reside here full time – that a wonderful precious big deal). They may be half a world away but they are close in our hearts. And have already been counted as part of this crazy clan.

Adding on as fast as we can.

This Weeks Adoption Progress

There’s only a few more (maybe 4?) more things to check off our list to get done for this homestudy!

This week we finished the 10 hour Hague Adoption Training (don’t tell anyone that it was mostly boring, somewhat outdated, and didn’t take a whole 10 hours – BUT some of it was good and thought provoking and helpful – I suppose that’s balance), we’ve gathered more documents, we’ve ordered more trigger locks, that last old child is finally getting her medical report filled out today!

A quite few minutes writing notes earlier this week
which still need to be mailed

All that’s left is one more reference letter, the septic letter (septic being repaired next week), the TB test, and one more certificate.

Next week we’ll be continuing writing thank you notes, finishing school lessons, getting a new transmission for the van, visiting a new baby cousin (Lord willing!!!), putting together more fundraisers, and planning a wedding.

But that’s ALL!

Come Back Soon(er)

Today all this legal stuff is just taking too long! 

I’m feeling impatient. I want to rush things but it’s out of my control. (And to fair, we are still just in the overly detailed dragged-out beginning phase – so this is totally a heart issue – keeping it real).

It’s been four and a half months since we hugged them good-bye. (Seem longer). We didn’t know what to do with ourselves. God distracted us with a problem with the van (less serious than the current van problem).

I dreamed again last night that we were where they are and I could hug them, touch their faces, tell them that I love them and that we really are trying hard to get there and bring them home.

Oh, to bring them home!

Got up and did my morning routine. Bathroom, coffee, devotions (about parenting), emails, Facebook (hit the brakes) - right near the top of my feed someone had shared a beautiful older child adoption story (linked here). Now I’m a teary-eyed mess.

Reminded again that God is in control. We may not understand His plan. We may get impatient with His timing and provision. But it is ALWAYS PERFECT.

He loves them.

We just trust and press forward with the next task at hand. All for His glory.

They’ll be here soon.    

"This God—His way is perfect; 

    the word of the Lord proves true;

    He is a shield for all those who take refuge in Him."

Psalm 18:30

PS - It's so much the little things that impress me and keep me amused. Pretty rocks, little flowers, baby toes....wanna boost my ego a little? Subscribe to this blog - we "installed" a gadget for that near the top of the sidebar. Or just comment occasionally. Tell us your praying, give us some wise word, or tell us we're crazy... all are acceptable. 

Abba Fund

We were approved for the Abba Fund last week! This is very exciting!

Those lovely folks who wish to give a tax-deductible donation can do that through the Abba Fund.

AND – I love that I don’t have to touch the money – I just tell the Abba Fund people where to send it. This can help pay for any adoption related expense. They will send funds directly to our agency or a travel agent…  or wherever to cover the cost.

They even take donations of cars, assets, gift cards, or other (whatever that is).

We also love their statement of beliefs and faith. They are “grounded in helping orphans – often referred to as the “fatherless” in Scripture. [They] believe the best environment for an orphaned child is to be cared for in a loving, nurturing Christ-centered family environment where they will not only experience the love of Jesus Christ, but be introduced to the person of Jesus Christ … and hopefully trust in Him so that they will be adopted into Abba, Father’s family through salvation.”

You can find our info page at www.abbafund.org/hebrownfamily

Prayer Request

We are thankful for our good health, and remember how the Lord has lead, guarded, provided for, and loved us all these years. Please join us in praying for the following details.

First, as part of our home study we must have a letter that our septic system is in good working order. It has been examined and found lacking. According to our very nice fella from the health department, a family half our size shouldn’t be able to flush the toilet. Yet here we are… a year and a half of flushing and showers and laundry and dishes… but he can’t give us that letter. But he wants to help us resolve this easily. 

He asked that we first check for leaks.

Did you know that your toilets could be slowly leaking from the tank into the bowl without you knowing it? And that that slow leak adds constant pressure to your septic? And you can test it with red kool-aid?

New information for us too. Turns out all our toilets needed new flappers.

Worse case now is we will need to add some more drain field. Messy costly job.

Next, this weekend our big giant van, that is the Mama’s main vehicle, started making really weird whiny noises and being a jerk. (It jerks, especially in reverse). We’ve got a couple of theories about what could be wrong.

Lastly, (which seems minor compared with those first two) that oldest tall child, is the only one who hasn’t gotten her medical exam done. Medical reports are also needed for everyone in the family. The older two girls aged out of the pediatrician’s office and just hadn’t gotten a new doctor yet. They both visited a local office to get their records transferred and become new patients. One got in, one’s records never showed up. The office has resent the request (over a week ago) and we continue to wait.

We praise the Lord that all of our medical exams were covered by our insurance as our yearly check-ups.

We are at peace as we trust God has all things in His control and will provide for each need. Pray we see soon how those first two request will be provided for and that any oversight on that last one is cleared up.

We’d love to hear from you. Please feel free to comment on any of our post. We know most of this blog now is the nitty-gritting, somewhat boring details. But hang on the really exciting stuff will come as we continue to press forward.

Yard Sale

Our friends, the Vickers, who hosted the yard sale and made and put out LOTS of signs and donated items and fed us lunch and… and… and … hoped that we would raise at least $500 this weekend and we made … (drum roll) …

$568.64

With that and what we have in the bank we are about halfway to our next small goal!!! (Eating this BIG elephant of adoption expenses one small bite at a time – not sure my brain can think in tens of thousands of dollars).

We are so thankful to so many who helped so much! Of course, the Vickers, and the Waltons, McCollums, Dallas, Stricklands, and… Natalie (whose last name I don’t know but enjoyed getting to know her) and all those who supported us by finding their new treasures and eating some tasty snacks!

We worked hard but we had fun. And got good tans.

And I must brag on my children. Sometimes I feel like I need to micro manage or they stand around wondering what to do next (honest Mama moment). But I was so impressed this weekend with how they ALL jumped in to help pack, unpack, set up, take down, sale, run errands, clean up messes, and visit with others. All without my prompting. Thank you, Ava, Autumn, Elijah, Alex, Lora, Jorja, Jacob, and Josiah for working so hard to help bring home your foreign friends and call them family.

We aren’t done. We’ve posted several things that didn’t sale to Facebook marketplace and are making more sales today. We are open to getting more “in-kind donations” (aka your junk that could be someone else’s treasures). We’ll continue to sale some things on Facebook (just a little, it’s very time consuming) but will also be collecting for another yard sale at the end of summer or early fall.

More to come!

Time Alone

Gene and I celebrated our twelfth anniversary this past weekend. 

We started with a Famliversary Brunch with all the children – ‘cause really it’s the day we became a family (not just married folks).

We were gifted with some money with instructions to get outta town. 

So we did.

We romantics found a cute little cabin on Airbnb built in the mid-1850’s down in Thomson, GA and spent two quiet nights ALONE!!! Totally alone. Even the host left town for the holiday and we had the invitation to roam and use their pool and enjoy ourselves. Nearby there were some historic sites (even pre-revolutionary stuff) and antique stores nearby and we are dorks and love that stuff.

So we did.

We sure needed it. Then it was time to come back to reality. Reluctantly.

So we did.

But we’d love to go back.

We were very happy with our Airbnb reservation and with every part of the process and stay.

And we learned 3 helpful things:

1.There are Airbnb places in Kiev. And hopefully soon we’ll get to go there.

2.  If we share our Airbnb link with people they can get a nice discount

3. If those people make a reservation we get Airbnb credit that we can save up and use on those several trips to Kiev. That would be super helpful!

So if you’re looking for a nice place to park yourself for vacation or business or just cause sometimes you gotta get outta town, here’s a link to save you money!

https://abnb.me/e/06Cxz8px4W