Hi! So nice to meet you! Thanks for visiting!
It feels strange to be back in this place again...the place where you are stepping out on faith and depending on the Lord to fully meet your needs. Most of the time we think we can do it in our own strength and boy, do we try! Then there are those times before you when you know you can not even TRY in your own strength...when God is going to have to do something super natural to make things work.
This is one of those times.
Let's start at the beginning though...I had known for a long time that our family would grow through adoption. Can't really pin down a date...I just knew. I also knew that it would be a child with Down syndrome. I assumed we would adopt through our local foster care system and that God would just deliver to us a baby with DS...probably leaving him or her on our doorstep in the middle of the night. ;-) Crazy thought, huh?
We got the paperwork to begin the process of foster care to adopt in our county. I never even filled out one form and we found out we were pregnant! Made sense to get this new baby here and settled and then we could pick up with our plans to adopt.
Then Neely was born...and she just so happened to be born with DOWN SYNDROME!!
Was God really calling us to adopt or just trying to prepare our hearts to be Neely's parents? We had to figure that part out.
Then.....we saw MinLan's picture....we knew she was part of our family.
How precious is our sweet girl!?!?!?!
Moving forward, we have settled in as a family and are doing well. Never enough hours in the day to get everything done, but definitely enough love to go around.
Around Christmas time, Reece's Rainbow, where we found our MinLan, has a program they call the Angel Tree. You basically choose a child and help raise at least $1000 for their account on Reece's Rainbow to help another family adopt.
Our family chose a sweet little boy named Timothy. His smile just lights up a room....he is just precious! We met him as part of a group when we toured MinLan's orphanage. We put up pictures of him on our fridge, asked for donations to help his account and even hosted a big giveaway right at the end to hit our $1000 goal. We did it!
Ruby Kate, for weeks, walked around saying we were going to adopt Timothy....Ethan came to me one day after fussing with his sisters, with tears in his eyes and asked why he didn't have a brother...Ethan later asked if Timothy needed a family, why didn't WE become his family. Sigh.....
I assured them that those were all nice thoughts but we were NOT adopting Timothy...we were just helping raise money for him so when his family came they would have financial help through Reece's Rainbow.
Then God began to work...He began to unlock the doubtful door of my heart...the part of my heart that says:
"There is NO way we can adopt again!"
"God, have you seen our bank account? How would you like us to pay for an adoption?"
"God, we don't even have the money set aside for the application fees! How would we even get started?"
Then.....
- We found out our placing agency waives half of the application fee because we are a returning family.
- We found out our home study agency waives the entire application fee because we are a returning family.
- We received a refund check from our home study agency where we had overpaid for some reports....it was enough to cover our application fee.
Ok, God...we are listening...
We began to see Him go before us and make a path...to make a way where we saw NONE.
We are trusting the Lord to continue to make a way. We are willing to work hard, sell anything that is not nailed down, do without and do whatever it takes to get our boy home.
Can we count on you to stand behind us as we move forward with this adoption? Would you be willing to be a part of "The Story of 1000"?
Alone, it's hard for just ONE person to have an impact...but what can 1000 people do?
1000 people who feel led to give only $25 to help us bring our son home.
God can take your $25 and multiply it.
How you ask?
Would you be willing to donate $25 and share our story..the story of our family...with at least three other people?
Would you be willing to ask them to donate only $25 to help bring our son home?
You can give him a family.
This is not theoretical. This is not a faceless charity. This is Bryan and Jenifer. You know us; this is our family. We know you from church, we know you from ballet or soccer, we know you from work, we know you from our childhood, we know you because of adoption, we know you because of Down syndrome, we know you because you are part of our family.
We trust that God will provide the funds needed to complete this adoption. One way may be through people like you. With that in mind, we ask that you ask God if He would like you to give and be part of our story.
Please pray with faith that God would move mountains to bring our son home.
Please visit our You Caring page below to donate.
We covet your prayers and your support. You truly blessed us during our adoption of MinLan and your support means the world to us. Thank you once again for being willing to stand in the gap for us and pray for God's provision.
Love,
Jenifer
Please check out our family blog by visiting: www.jeniferparris.com
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