The Empty Bed...

In the corner of the boys room sits a little empty bed, waiting for a son, a brother, a nephew, a cousin, a grandson to lay his sweet head. It's now known as "Charlie's Bed." A reminder everytime I walk into that room to PRAY for our son that sleeps in the same little bed on the other side of the world, not knowing that he has a Mommy & Daddy that already love him. I am so thankful that there are a couple of other families that are going to the same orphanage before us to bring their children home. I can't wait for them to whisper in his little ear and tell him, " Your Mommy & Daddy are coming soon."

Jonathan & Tate are so excited to share their room with such a special boy!!!

Home Study Visit DONE!!

Yay! Our Home Study visit went great!! Our Social Worker was amazing and really made everyone feel so comfortable. She was here for 3hrs, but it seemed like it went by so quick. The kids were there normal little selves, talking to her like they have known her forever. So now we just wait a couple of weeks for the completed home study & then mail it along with our application to the USCIS... So happy to be moving forward & so happy for all of your words of encouragement & all of your prayers. One step closer to bringing Charlie home!!!

How God brought us to Charlie

Where to start?!@?@!? I have spent a great deal of my life wondering how God was going to use me (little insignificant ME), to "care for the orphan and widows in their trouble". James 1:27 In my mind I always looked at how I could make a HUGE impact for orphans. Maybe move to Africa, start my own orphanage, open a children's home, Anything to reach as many of those sweet little guys as possible! Really?!@? Now 7 kiddos later, I see how simple it really is, how incredibly realistic it is to start with one little life, one little heart, one little guy. When God opened my eyes to where I could help change a life... He led me straight to Charlie. ~~~My story starts with an amazing man, with an amazing heart that found me worthy enough to be his wife, followed by our first beautiful daughter who truly changed my life forever! With the birth of every amazing little miracle I would continue to talk about one day adopting. (as Sid I'm sure rolled his eyes) Little did I know that God would bless me with 6 precious children followed with a 7th little bonus that He would sneak in at the last moment. Ha! Nevertheless, the desire continued and after many prayerful moments with God, I knew He was not done growing our family. In Nov. of 2009 I began to follow the journey of our dear friends the Spencer's as they made their way to bring their son home http://bringinghomeboys.blogspot.com/ That's when I found Reece's Rainbow & began to fall in love with so many little faces. Every month I would choose a sweet face to pray for specifically. Then I would check back often & find that they had found their "Forever Family". I would be thrilled for them, sit in front of my computer & cry, & secretly be a little sad that they weren't coming to my home. Sid, being the wonderful husband that he is, began having to endure listening to me describe these little guys & talk about what was going on with each one, & he would totally act like he was interested. lol In my heart, I knew that God had not brought him to the same place I was. BUT THEN.....Our world changed in a matter of months!! Through the death of a mighty young man of God our hearts were changed, we were brought back to the feet of God, brought back to the place that God wanted us to be, brought back to where our hearts longed to be but had been avoiding, brought back to start fresh & begin a new journey. This event was followed by Sid's Dad being diagnosed with Lymphoma & God getting ready to take him home; but then healing him and leaving him here with us because He just wasn't quite finished with him yet. As the holidays grew near, I started reading a blog of an amazing woman of God. Many days I would read her posts & laugh, many days I would read her posts & cry. Then 9 days before Thanksgiving her 11yr old daughter step out in faith and impacted the lives of so many people including us. This 11yr old had fallen in love with one of those sweet little faces. So she asked her mom, "If I can raise $20,000 by Thanksgiving can we adopt Darya?" Mom, thinking it was pretty safe says, "if you can raise that much money in 9 days then we will know that it is God & we will adopt Darya." So every day for 9 days we would check the blog for an update, and every day we would be amazed at what God was doing. You can read the story here: http://the30dayjourneyforhope.blogspot.com/ (See Nov. 2009 posts) Some days my husband would come to me in tears saying, "you gotta read this!" It was truly amazing. Not only did this faith filled little girl raise $20,000 in 9 days, she raised over $26,000 in 9 days!!!! Now let me just tell you that little Charlie's face was already on my screen saver at this point & I had already made it know that I felt he was supposed to be our son, & I continued praying diligently. Then the discussions over the next few weeks consisted of how & why I thought he was the child God had for us, and how our lives might change if we brought him home, & then I just sat back & let it all soak in and left God in charge...then one day while Sid was out of town, I received a text message from him that said "It's time, lets bring Charlie home." I was so shocked that I couldn't even reply! That was the day our journey to Charlie began & now we can't wait to hold him in our arms, tuck him into his little bed & kiss him goodnight...

"A Father to the fatherless, a defender of widows is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families"

Psalm 68:5,6

Choosing Charlie Bracelets

Purchase a Choosing Charlie Bracelet!!!! Their cute, their fashionable, and their a great tool to use to tell people about adopting Specially Gifted Children like Charlie...Wear it to remind you to pray for Charlie & for our journey to bing him HOME!!!

$3.00 each or 2 for $5.00

To order: email me at wah3@hotmail.com with
your address & number of bracelets.

OR

If local ask the KIDS & they'll be HAPPY to sell you one!!!

Let the PaperWORK Begin!!!!!

Holy Moly!!!! When you hear adoptive parents talk about the mounds of paperwork, they are not kidding! Fortunately Reece's Rainbow has amazing people who have amazing hearts & help you with all of it!!! We can not thank them enough!! We continue to pray and prepare for our Home Study on Feb 20th. Still searching for a bunkbed, to allow for more space in the boys room. Sid & I have both had physicals And we have managed to get 4 of the 7 kiddos in to the Pediatrician this week. We've gathered all the neccesary paperwork for the homestudy & just have to finish filling out a few things. Next on the agenda... compiling everything for the dossier. Pray specifically that every piece of paper is filled out accurately, notarized and that nothing is missed. We are believing that there will be no issues or problems. Most of all continue to pray for our sweet son. The sooner we get the paperwork in & raise the money the sooner we can bring him home.

$1100.00 Down only $18,900 To Go.....

Just thought I would share..........Our Home Study fee is $1100.00 & we have officially reached the $1100.00 mark!!!!! Yay! Thank you to those that have donated. We are Pumped!!! Looking forward to what God is gonna do next...

HOME STUDY!!!!

***Our HOME STUDY is scheduled for FEB 2oth @ 12:00!!!! Wahoo!!!! ***

PLEASE Be praying that everything goes well during our Home Study & that our Social Worker sees that we are a loving family that can't wait to have Charlie join our family. Help her to see that we have stepped back & are letting God run the show....We are soooo excited & ready to move forward.....

***Thank You in advanced for praying for our family

as we follow where He leads us****

200 For 100

Thanks to Lydia, an amazing 11yr old girl that had the FAITH to raise over $20,000 in 8 days to bring home another sweet child. We found our son Charlie!!! Through her amazing story we were given the idea to do 200 for 100. If 200 people DONATE $100, we would have the $20,000 to Bring Charlie Home!!! A Lofty Goal we know, BUT we have seen God do it and have faith that he will do it again....

For those of you that have asked about donations, here are some ways you can DONATE...

• Click on PayPal button on the right side of this blog & DONATE securely with your debit card
• DONATE directly to us by check (For Charlie on memo line):

Please email us for address: wah3@hotmail.com

• Visit this link at Reece's Rainbow and DONATE towards Charlie's Grant Fund

www.reecesrainbow.org/sponsorharper.html

**We are thankful for whatever God leads you to give**

****Check back For our upcoming Raffle to see what you could WIN****

We're coming soon Charlie...

Today our hearts are overflowing with blessings. God has done some amazing things in our lives this week & our hearts are so full. We have officially committed to adopt Charlie from Eastern Europe. This BLOG will be a place for us to journal our journey to bring our son home. Some people may look at this & say my goodness they already have a house full, why would they want another child. What I have learned through the years is that when you listen to God and actually follow where he leads, you WILL be blessed to the max! God calls men & women to take a stand, to pay the price, and to be willing to walk where He tells them to go. And that is what we plan to do. Charlie lives in a place where children are orphaned and institutionalized between the age of 4-6; where many children are left to live out their very short lives. We feel abundantly blessed and honored to be the family that God has chosen for Charlie, and we pray that He will help everything to move quickly & easily so that we can bring Charlie home before his August 19th birthday.

"Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this; to care for the orphan and widows in there troubles..." James 1:27
"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." John 14:18