So, Brian got into the pantry...

...and he found the flour. They say "a picture is worth a thousand words" but I think this one is worth more than that! Just so you know, I brushed the flour from his hair before I thought to take the picture! Have a great day everyone!

Beth

If you are thinking about adopting....

...there are so many children who need families! There is an adoption agency, Madison Adoption Associates, that is based in Wilmington, DE. They are taking a trip to China this summer to help with a camp that has the purpose of helping orphans. Children who need families will come to the camp and spend time with the social workers, do tradition crafts, sing, etc. The social workers are able to get to know the children so that they can be more effective in finding them homes. This camp was held last year and 20 children found homes through it. There are still more children from last year's camp who need homes. The adoption agency has sent this email out and asked people to share it with as many people as possible. I am posting it on my blog...hopefully someone's heart will be stirred by one of these children. (When a Chinese orphan turns 14, they are no longer eligible for international adoption. Some of these children are very close to the deadline, they need a family very soon!) If adoption is not what you feel led to do then, please pray for these children. My personal goal is to pray for at lease one child each day. Please join me in this. They need our prayers and they need a family!

"We are thrilled to tell you that Amy has a family!!!!!That means as of today, 4/22, 20 of our Ox children are matched or on hold! We are so excited!!! BUT- it is not enough! In going over there, we made promises to these children that we would do whatever we could to help them find a family. We HAVE NOT DONE ENOUGH! We literally lie awake at night and wonder what we can do to help get these kids a home... We did establish an agency grant program, but we are realizing that the possibility of a grant is not enough to make people look.

THUS, we have decided, that MAA will offer an addition $2000 grant for all remaining waiting children. This is in addition to our automatic $1000 grant/fee reduction for all waiting children.

Additional grants may also be available for our 12 and 13 year old boys...PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ADVOCATE AND SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT THE FOLLOWING CHILDREN WHO ARE STILL AVAILABLE!

Here is a little blurb from me about our still waiting angels...

Wayne- 12 years old- Awesome singer! Kind and handsome! Very sweet- Bilateral Cataracts

Gary- Just turned 13 on Saturday!!!! Let's give him a present!- Loves to swim and make new friends. Gary is the type of kid you can always count on~- Left eye cornea blockage

Kenny- 10 years- Loves sports- A true angel- This is the boy that asked me to adopt him... Oh how I wish I could! He is SO SWEET AND KIND!- Cerebral Palsy

Jimmy- 9 years- Smart, active, loves outdoors and Operas.. 5 kids said HE was their best friend- meningocele- post surgeryToby- Just turned 11- LOVE HIM! Incredible friend- loves to share- very witty and friendly. ADORABLE BOY!- Cerebral Palsy

Michael (aka Tim) -10 years- A true class clown! Loves to goof around and laugh- Lights up a room with his laughter and bubbly personality- Cerebral Palsy

Brad- 8 years- Serious and intense- Loves sports and helping others- spinal meningocele

Trent- 8 years- Beautiful, sweet child!!! Quiet and timid, but lots of friends! We ALL fell in love with Trent!- Repaired Hydrocephalus

Josh- 11 years- A true performer! Very talented and outgoing. Incredible singer. He and Dottie are the regular emcees at performances- Cerebral Palsy

George- 11 years- Shy and sweet. Very artistic. Loves meat and trying new foods! (A boy after my own heart!)- Meningocele- post surgery

Chet- 11 years- Loves to draw and read comics. A true animal lover- Gentle and kind, smart, mature and creative- Deaf/non-speaking

Marty (HOLD)- 12 years- Shy, sweet and gentle. True intellectual- loves chess!- Repaired imperforate anus

Alan- 13 years- Kind, honest, loves to sing and perform. Very polite and gentle- Sequelae (Cerebral Palsy I believe?)

Eddie- 13- TURNS 14 IN NOVEMBER- PLEASE LOOK AT EDDIE- Intelligent, kind-hearted, has a "grateful heart"...- Deaf/non-speaking

Patsy- Turned 12 last week- Artistic, happy, kind, beautiful- LOVE THIS KID!- Cerebral Palsy

Tammy- 9 years- Extroverted, helpful, kind and honest. Loves to dance and sing- Sequelae from brain injury

Emmy- 12 years- Quiet, sweet and shy, but loves people- Smile that lights a room- Spinal meningocele- post surgery

Carrie- Turned 11 YESTERDAY!- VERY SPECIAL CHILD!!!!- Smart, incredible artist, beautiful. Kind and very special.- CCAA and the Civil Affairs Director has personally requested we find an incredible home for Carrie. Please look at her- See for yourself how special she is! Cerebral Palsy

Lynn- 7 years- Had surgery during Ox camp so we did not get to meet her. We hear that she is doing great though and that she is WALKING! We have requested new medical and photos- She loves dolls and games- Meningocele- post surgery

Kristy (HOLD)- Kind, active, lots of friends. Loves basketball and team sports. An adorable tomboy!!!!- Neural cystostomy- post surgery

Derrick- 5 years- Sweet, tiny, adorable! Active and polite- The photos of this little guy do not do him justice! HE IS ADORABLE!- cl/cp repaired

Hank- 11 years- SO SWEET! Loves hugs and affection! He was always hugging and loving on our group. Has lots of friends and is very well liked by all. Again, the photos do not do justice to this child. He is a total love bug!- Delayed mental abilities.

Please take a look! We are Madison are committed to finding homes for our children. If you are interested in a child but something is holding you back, please call us to discuss. We make no promises, but will help with anything in our power.PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!

Thank you!
Diana Bramble, MBA, MSWMadison Adoption Associates
1009 Woodstream Drive
Wilmington, DE 19810
302-475-8977
www.MadisonAdoption.com
www.MAAOxCamp.blogspot.com

He has a bed!!

We've been searching for a bed for Adam. Someone gave us a bed frame. Someone else gave us a box spring. Today someone called and asked if we need a mattress! Yay! We have a place for Adam to sleep!!! Thank you Lord!


We need to paint Adam's room white and as soon as the bed is here and together his room will be ready. We want wait until he arrives to find out how Adam wants to decorate his room. We have a few clothes but we aren't really sure of his size. There is an assortment of size 8, 10 and 12 in his closet and dressers!

We have had alot of people donate things for our yard sale. Thank you all, we appreciate everything.

Mark and I are speaking to the "Kids Klub" at our church on May 4th. Please pray as we talk to the children about adoption and Adam. Kids Klub has 1st through 6th grade (I think it's 6th grade) I want to make sure what I say is easily understood by the 1st graders and still interesting for the older kids. Mark and I work with the Cubbies for AWANA, 3 and 4 yr olds, so I'm also hoping I don't revert to "Cubbie language!"

Speaking of Cubbies, I better get dinner ready, we'll be leaving in a couple of hours.

Thanks for your prayers everyone.

Beth

Addition to last post

Since I had a headache last night I didn't thank the people who donated to our puzzle in the past couple of weeks. So, I wanted to make sure I thanked you all. Thank you to Meredith, Mike, Skylar, Kody, Gracen, Rachel, Sam, Sarah and Bonnie. It is such an encouragement that everyone is so willing to help us bring Adam home. Our church family and our friends are such a blessing to us!

I hope everyone has a great day and a wonderful week!

Beth

Another puzzle picture!!

So, I haven't had a lot of time to work on the puzzle...but I took some time tonight. We have 30 pieces sponsored so far. Through this fundraiser I have discovered something about myself, I am NOT a puzzle person! Especially the BIG puzzles, all those pieces look alike and there are about two pieces that "could" fit but don't quite fit. Wow!! I spent quite a bit of time tonight and it is starting to actually look like a puzzle....

I'm fighting a pressure headache, not from the puzzle, so I think I'll head to bed.

Beth

Final documents for homestudy!!

Well, we have the final documents for the homestudy almost ready, we just need to update a few amounts and mail them in. Yay!!
After this we move onto the MAJOR paperwork...the dossier!

In a completely unrelated topic...we almost finished our garden today. Abby, Emily and I planted the seeds and we just need to plant our new strawberry plants. I told the girls that in about 10 days we should be able to see our little plants poking their little heads up.

I am always on a quest to find birthday gifts that are not "toy" gifts. My girls are very interested in butterflies and ladybugs. I bought them caterpillars and ladybug larvae and now we are watching them grow and soon they will enter the pupa stage. Abby received permission from her teacher to bring both in to class...but on separate days, I don't want her to drop them! She is taking the ladybug larvae to class tomorrow and the caterpillars on Tuesday. I love that they are so excited by these gifts!

Brian will be getting a "non toy" gift for his birthday as well. He has really become interested in Superman lately so either I or one of the grandmothers will be buying him Superman sheets for his bed. He loved the Diego sheets he got from Grandma and Grandpa last year! I may even ask for a set of Thomas sheets...he loves that little engine!

If anyone lives in the DE area, we are having a yard sale to raise money for the adoption, if you have items that you'd like to get rid of you can drop them off here. We have a lot of things but "the more the merrier"!! You can email me for our address if you find something that you'd like to donate to our yard sale. beth_c_smith!@hotmail.com

In the prayer request area, we have a twin bed frame and a twin box spring but we don't have a mattress for Adam. That is a big need right now. I am hoping to get a bed set up in his room by the time we are officially matched with him so we can send him a picture of his new room.


Well, I must sign off. Have a great night.

Here it is!!

Here is the first photo of our puzzle! It is in a couple of sections but right now we have 21 pieces! Thank you to those who contributed since our last post. Bonnie and Russ, Karen's sister-in-law and Bob and Theresa. Mark did some work for some friends and they paid him more than he asked for...so Mark was able to "sponsor" 8 pieces of our own puzzle! Yay!

I told Mark this week that it is very humbling to have people donate to our adoption when they don't even know us! Thank you all!

When you are with your kids everyday you tend to forget how amazing they are. My parents took care of our girls when Mark and I had to take Brian to the ER this past week. (He's ok...needed some stitches but he's healing well.) My parents put the girls to bed while they were here. My mom talked to me the next day said that she got "teary" when the girls said their prayers before bed and both of them prayed for Adam. My girls have been praying for Adam since November and it is becoming "routine" for me to hear them pray for his safety, that he will have a good night sleep and that "we can adopt Adam." This reminds me that prayer should NEVER become routine. I admit that sometimes my prayers can become somewhat of a "checklist." My kids are such an inspiration for me, they want to pray for EVERYONE! Abby regularly brings prayer requests home from school. I love that about her! Her tender heart is so amazing, unfortunately tender hearts bruise easily.

Back to our fundraising efforts, we will be having a yard sale in the next month or two. Last summer Abby and Emily had a lemonade stand to raise money for, what else, toys. I am so thrilled that this year they want to have a lemonade stand and bake sale, on the day of the yard sale, to raise money for Adam's adoption and for Kay's Camp. Kay's Camp is a camp for children who have cancer. Kay's Camp was the idea of Kaylyn Warren. Kaylyn was a teenage who attended our church, she was diagnosed with cancer in her junior year of high school (I believe that is correct) A week or so before she went to be with her Lord in heaven, she told her family that she wanted to establish a camp for kids with cancer. Abby's class is raising money for Kay's Camp and when I suggested that they split the money from the lemonade stand/bake sale between Adam's adoption and Kay's Camp, she was thrilled!!

Prayer requests:

We should submit the final documents for our home study next week, if all goes well. Prayers for that please.

Once the home study is completed we will be able to apply for adoption grants, please pray that we will be approved for enough to complete the adoption.

Please pray for Adam, orphanage life is not easy and I ask you to pray for his young heart that God will protect it from the harsh things of life.

Please pray for whoever is adopting their child at this moment, that the transition will be easy.

There are so many older children who need homes, children who have mild medical needs, or moderate or severe medical needs. There are also children who are completely healthy...just "older". Please pray that people's hearts will be moved to either adopt these children or to pray for these children.

Thank you all for your support, whether it is emotional, financial or prayer support.

Beth