Claim A State!

We're holding a patriotic little "fun"draiser by coloring in this map of the USA!  States are claimed by a donation of $5 or more to Hope's FSP, PureCharity or Paypal. Comment below with your state of choice and e-mail the recipe to bornagain andproud at yahoo.com (without the spaces, of course). Your state will get marked and we'll be one step closer to bringing Hope HOME TO OREGON! So go Claim A State, Friends! 

A Sobering Fact

Go do me a favor before you read any further.

Get a soda can and three water bottles.  

I'll wait. 

Do you have them? 

Line them up end to end.

Like this.

Did you do it?

That is about 29 inches. 

It's less than my waist circumference. 

It's less than the height of an average two year old girl.

It's less than the measurement from the floor to the waist of my nine year old son.

It's less than the size of my couch cushion.
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.
.
.
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It's the entire length of a seven year old girl.

We are racing to get her. 

We have experienced miracles!

Please continue praying for her to hang on.

Hope by Heart of the Young

Today we have a guest post from Andrea at Heart of the Young.

Hope is beautiful.

Hope has so much potential.

She is 7 years old.

7 years old and just 10 pounds!  

She has the chance become part of a loving family, the Horton’s.

She will be a daughter for the first time. 

She will be a sister for the first time.

I’d like to introduce one of Hopes new sisters, Sophia.  

Sophia is from the same orphanage that Hope is in.  

You see, when Sophia was adopted by the Horton’s at age 4, she weighed just 10 pounds.  

I met this angel shortly after she came home. She fit in an infant car seat and looked like a baby.  This, from years of neglect. 

But living with this amazing family, little fragile Sophia became a happy 26 pound 6 year old!  

Tell me that’s not astounding. 

Tell me that’s not remarkable.

Tell me Hope hasn’t got the same chance to be a chubby, smiley, happy kid.  

The proof is right in front of your eyes with Sophia’s transformation.   

I know this family, the Horton’s.  They are truly amazing people.  Right now they are trying to expedite Hope’s adoption due to her fragile condition.  It is so much more dire than imagined.  But with that, comes more need, more fees and a totally different timeline.  But despite these unforeseen hardships, they don’t want to let Hope down, they want to go get their daughter. 

Please go here to help  any one of three different amazing causes, the Horton’s included, or donate a little to each of them!  Oh, and when you donate, you’ll be entered to win some money and some bling!   

Let’s  band together and do something great today!

Hope and the Horton family thanks you!

On Roadblocks and Hurdles...

Though we are working at warp speed to bring Hope home there have been some roadblocks.

We are seeking to expedite the process on the US side and have had issues with documentation requirements. We have submitted all that was asked for, but today we were told more is needed.

A picture is worth a thousand words.... 

Unfortunately three MD affidavits and a picture and a video are not enough.

The GOOD news? Once we jump this hurdle ALL of our paperwork is ready to be submitted to the government in Hope's country.

Truthfully...we are exhausted...we are worn down.....we feel defeated. Tears are never far from the surface.  We look at the video we have of our sweet daughter, and we pray for her health and strength.

Will you come alongside us and pray for miracles? 

Thank you!!

Auction for Hope is over and was a great success!  

Thank you from the whole Horton family to all who bid and donated!  

You can still get 31 bags and Pampered Chef and help bring Hope home!

Keep watching...we have some wonderful things coming up! 

Progress Update

Although we have done " this" before I am always stunned by the amount and complexity of paperwork, as well as by how quickly the fees and charges add up.

So...where are we? 

*****We have biometrics in Portland at 8 AM Monday. (Sounds simple but it is 230 miles round trip. We have to leave by 5 AM. We prefer not to try to bring kiddos which means we finding someone to spend the night as well as watch them for most of Monday, and both of us miss hours at work).

*****We have already submitted out dossier to our agency in Eastern Europe....which has been translated and is ready to go...we just need to send our approval from the U.S government (I800a) once we get it. 

****** We have submitted all the needed medical documents to our state Senator who will then submit to USCIS and begin the expedite.

***** Once everything is in Hope's country we will wait for approval for Trip 1 where we will spend five days visiting her in the orphanage  twice a day. Typical visits are 3 hours each. Our experience with Sophia was that she was too weak to handle that much time...we are very concerned that this will be too much for Hope as well.

****Once our week with her is over we return home and complete more paper work and pay more fees before we can complete the adoption and actually bring our daughter home.

Prayer requests:

*First and foremost for Hope's health; that God will keep her and sustain her.

*For no complications with paperwork and our ability to expedite.

* For wisdom and compassion for the medical team that will be treating her both in country and once she arrives home

*For funding.....we have about $596.55 in our Reece's Rainbow Account

http://reecesrainbow.org/94973/sponsorhorton-3

...and $690 in our Pure Charity account. 

https://www.purecharity.com/and-then-there-was-hope

 We have a SIGNIFICANT amount of money still to raise.

We have an auction going until Monday, July 20th at 9 PM EST. 

We have a Pampered Chef party and a 31 Party that are benefitting Hope’s adoption, too.

Please pray, share, donate. We truly need "the village”.

Auction for Hope

There's an auction going on for Hope right now.  Have you been over and seen all the great items?  There's nearly 100 items up for grabs!

Do you have an artist in the house? There are some really nice art sets!

Do you have little girls? A whole new wardrobe is available!

Do you have toddlers? Board books are ALWAYS needful!

Do you have a baby shower coming up, or are you going to be blessed soon with a newborn? There are lovely crocheted afghans, bibs and nursing covers!

Have a man in your life? There's even men's clothes!  These are rare offerings in adoption auctions.

There is something for everyone and we are adding new items every day!

The auction is active now and will run until July 20th at 9 PM EST.  Make sure to get over and get your bids placed!

Wishes

"To wish was to hope, and to hope is to expect." ~ Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility  

So...we are WISHING.

Wishing our girl Hope was sharing secrets with her friends and doing homework and arguing with her siblings and splashing in the pool and staying up late watching Frozen and singing with us in church and falling asleep on Mama's lap and helping Daddy make pancake on Sunday morning and...and....WISHING.

Wishing...the real "heart-pounding; can't sleep" sense of urgency we feel to bring our girl home was felt by others.  Wishing.

Wishing...MONEY wasn't such an overwhelming obstacle to adoption. Wishing.

We are HOPING.

Hoping our girl has a guardian angel with her in her crib, singing her a lullaby, keeping her strong, telling her mama is coming.  Hoping.

Hoping you will come along beside us and pray, share and donate to our Hope.  Hoping.

We are EXPECTING!
Expecting a MIRACLE!
Needing a miracle.
Praying for a miracle.


Along with all that WISHING and HOPING and EXPECTING and PRAYING comes a lot of HARD WORK!

"You don't need to wish harder, you need to work harder!" ~ Amit

We still have so many amazing opportunities for you to come alongside us. For locals:

For EVERYONE!

Amazing Auction!  So much cool stuff!

Thirty-One Party! Beautiful, functional bags! Take a look!  Make sure to click on Lauren Horton's party!! 

A Look Back...and Forward!

Did you know that Sophia was featured on LifeNews.com back in 2013?  Crystal Kupper wrote the article bringing attention to Sophia and Reece's Rainbow. Thousands of folks read the article and have prayed for her.  I thought I would share it here for you to see.  We are praying that LifeNews might be interested in doing a follow up article!  As you know, Hope is in the same orphanage and in similar condition, and we fully expect her to thrive as much as Sophia has when she joins our family!

   

I gasped the first time I saw her photo. Limbs splayed out across a metal crib, the little girl’s ribs nearly poked out of her chest. Her striped socks — the only piece of clothing she wore on her emaciated body — nearly fell off her miniature feet. And her thighs and arms! They looked no larger than my fingers. This girl looked like she had just crawled out of Auschwitz or Dachau, not a government-run children’s home.

Then I saw her statistics and blinked twice. Sophia, a nearly-four-year-girl from Eastern Europe, weighed ten pounds. Ten pounds at four years old. That’s how much my brother weighed at birth, not when he entered preschool!

As a volunteer with Reece’s Rainbow, an adoption advocacy agency that works with special-needs children all around the world, I know......Read More Here

Why?

Because we are called to live the words we say we believe.

Because if we are called to be the hands and feet of God, how can we say we value life.....yet KNOW this child will die if we do nothing.

Because of our Sophia

(4 years old and 10 pounds)

She has enriched our lives beyond measure, she has made us better, more compassionate human beings.  She has taught us trust, faith and hope. She IS worthy!

(Six years old and 26 pounds)

And Hope is worthy, too. 

(Seven years old, 10 pounds and in the same orphanage Sophia was in)