You Never Know...

Check out this video of a dear friend of ours...sharing her story and a song of how she prayed the dangerous prayer - Break my heart, for what breaks Yours...let the movement begin. Some of you are tagged in this note because you and/or our kids are in the video slide show...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlSy09z5iuc&feature=player_embedded

Check out their family blog and Matt's book (on the subject of yep...adoption) called When You Come Home - www.mattandthegirls.blogspot.com - contact them and get your copies and I'm sure soon this song will be recorded and available!

It's amazing to me how when you share what God is doing in your life, how you never know how it will affect another...and then another...this began in our lives when we prayed the prayer and ended up revolutionizing our perspective and path on our next adoption...I've attached the original blog that we posted below. What does this prayer mean to you???

The Danger (Adventure) of Willingness

God has been doing a deep work in us. It all begin with our first step of obedience to adopt Sakari. It was an adventure and sure, scary at times. But He never leaves us in the same place if we are willing and obedient. Thankfully, the Word says that those who are willing and obedient will eat the good of the land. A promise that He will provide grace and resources, not only to get by...but abundant life.

Our adoption journey has been taken to a new level these past couple of weeks. The AW Africa reunion was amazing and right before it, I felt compelled to dig into Ethiopian culture and read more on the subject of the orphan crisis and what the church's (you and me) response should be. Author of choice, Tom Davis...if you have not read his novel, "Scared" and his book, "Fields of the Fatherless"...you've got to do so. I have spent the last couple weeks dwelling on what I've read, what I have seen across the world and what I know is going on in Ethiopia and Africa as a whole. Then the opportunity for me (Caleb) to go to Ethiopia in a few months with a small contingent of people for the cause of the orphan was another step of obedience.

As I have been thinking and praying about this trip and our next adoption - the phrase that has been in my mind for the past 2 days has been, "Break my heart for what breaks Yours, everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause". It has literally not left my mind and mouth the last day or so. Over and over and over and over. It's becoming part of who I am...daring to step into the adventure of willingness. This morning our pastor (www.victory.com), spoke on the necessity of reaching the next generation. I missed the music this morning of the first service, but as soon as I walked in, I knew something special was going on. The time of prayer was intense and I'm not a cry baby...for real...well, let me rephrase that - I didn't use to be a cry baby. During the prayer time, my heart broke. There are drops of water coming out of my eyes...what??! All I can think about are the orphans in Ethiopia. Then I realize (as the worship team begins to sing again)...that isn't this what I've been asking? Break my heart for what breaks Yours. Break my heart for what breaks Yours. Break my heart for what breaks Yours. And He did. As I try to compose myself, my tears and my snot - I realize what we are singing:

"Heal my heart and make it clean, open up my eyes to things unseen - show me how to love like You, have loved me
Break my heart for what breaks Yours, everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause...as I walk from earth into eternity"

Are you kidding me??! I look up and Becca's a hot mess too. I knew I had to respond to what God was asking of me...and I decided to say "yes". God's heart breaks for each of those children in Ethiopia who need a home - not just a home, but a chance to fulfill their destiny. As some of you know, we applied for an infant boy or girl, but mentioned that we'd be open to 2 kids, but we weren't officially requesting two. It's not convenient for us to add 2 more, but what's the bigger issue here - my convenience or an orphan who will die if I do not obey. Yeah, ok, right...it's not about me. When Becca comes down from off the stage, I look at her and tell her, "I think we have 2 kids waiting on us." She looks back at me through the tears and nods. We choose to obey. We choose to jump. We choose to trust.

Please do not misunderstand this to be a "look at us" gesture...this is a deep work that is happening in us and know there are many others out there that are praying the same prayer. But it can seem scary and if our story can encourage one person to take the step, it's worth it. I realize that this dangerous prayer goes hand in hand with the prayer of Jabez. Sakari has been very in tune to what is going on and today at lunch we asked her if she had 2 siblings - she confidently told us "yes". It's almost like she has known all along and was waiting for us to catch up with the program. We have officially decided to change our request for adoption to 2 children between the ages of 0 to 5 years.

It's been an epic day.

Craft Show Update...

We had a GREAT craft show...thank you soooo much to our friend, Sheila Rossi for organizing and coordinating it all! Thanks to all the vendors and sponsors!!! We were overwhelmed by the support and generosity! It was so fun to see friends and meet new people as they showed up to sell their amazing crafts, breads, books, jewelry, baby items, candles, etc. We raised over $500 just today!!! We are so grateful! If any of you see the pics and see anything in the pics that you like, let us know and we'll be happy to put you in touch with our vendors so we can continue to show them our gratitude.

We encourage you to check out our friends' new book with Tate Publishing called Preston Falls Up, by Tammy Mullins. We worked together years ago at a publishing company and this is the first of her books and it's our goal to help spread the word, so she can continue doing what God's called her to do. The graphics and story are amazing!

We want to thank our sponsors/donors: Faith Central Christian Academy, Desi Wok, Starbucks, Great Harvest Bread Company, Rib Crib, Treasured Captures Photography and CAJD Graphics!

OUR HOLIDAY ADOPTION CHALLENGE!

Our Holiday Adoption Challenge

We have been asking the Lord to give us creative ideas on how to raise the massive amount of funds needed for the adoption of our next 2 kids. All this time, we have been looking at the big picture of the challenge to raise almost $40,000 to bring our kids home. We have not once doubted that God will provide, but while praying this week, I felt like the Lord was speaking to us to focus not only on the big picture but to break down the fundraising into a simple, attainable format. The idea was to take the Biblical principle of “1 can put 1,000 to flight, but 2 can put 10,000 to flight” – the power of multiplication.

Through that, we’ve decided to send out a Holiday Challenge to you and all our friends to sell 2 of our adoption shirts in your areas of influence: work, family, friends, church, etc. Here’s the amazing part of it - If just 500 of our Facebook friends were to take the challenge to sell 2 of our adoption shirts (can choose from 2 designs and you’re not limited to selling just 2 shirts) to their family and friends during this holiday season…2 shirts each – that would help us raise over $15,000 towards our adoption!!!!! That’s almost half of what we need – it’s a simple challenge not only to raise funds, but more importantly to spread the message of adoption in ways that we never could on our own! For added fun: we’ve decided to do a drawing for the first 100 people that sign up and sell their 2 shirts, you will go into a drawing to win an iPod!!!

Checks could be made out to One Child Campaign and are tax deductible. If you are interested in taking the challenge, please email me back by November 14th for more details and to let us know how many shirts you would like to challenge yourself to sell. We have order forms available for you...you'll see the 2 designs available attached to this post. As always, your prayers and encouragement mean more to us than anything!

Love,
Caleb, Becca and Sakari

Mile Marker 7

Today was the exciting day where we got to meet with our social worker again to complete our final home study meeting. We had decided to drive out to Stillwater to do our final meeting and the trip started out just perfectly. We left Sakari in capable hands of Grammy, Uncle Josh and Auntie Val. After a few tears, she was fine and had a blast playing outside. It's been gorgeous fall weather and the leaves are changing, so the drive was beautiful. It takes about an hour and a half to get there. As we pulled out of Tulsa, we noticed that we needed to get gas soon but we had enough to get to Stillwater. We'd just fill up there before heading back home.

I love Google maps...how they make our lives so much easier...well, usually. We kept driving. And driving. Hmmmm....haven't seen the exit Mr. Google said that we needed...down to 30 miles to empty. Have we gone too far, we check the atlas...looks ok. Down to 18 miles to empty. Surely we shouldn't turn around, at this point we are getting closer to another Interstate. Mr. Google??! Well, it's ok there will be a gas station at the highway intersection. We are now going north towards Wichita...next town, 24 miles. That's not gonna work, so we decide to turn around and go back the way we came after pulling over and asking someone at a rest stop. 9 miles to empty. Get Google GPS out on my phone...there's a station 8.9 miles away!!!

Hope has been renewed, we might not die out here tonight! We drive...and drive...and drive. Randomly putting the truck into neutral willing the gas fumes to get us to our beacon of hope, Conoco. 6 miles to empty....um, these Oklahoma plains sure look endless. 2 miles to empty. Google!!!!!! Time to call Amber again to let her know we're gonna be really late due to our predicament. Before Blue Steel (our 4Runner) could putter it's last pathetic gasp for oil based products, we pulled over...and landed at Mile Marker 7.

We are in the middle of nowhere. 30 minutes from where our appointment is scheduled. How did that happen??! We were seriously miffed, we hate being late! Amber was just incredible...instead of us waiting for our roadside assistance, she went above and beyond and brought us a can of gas. While we waited for her arrival, after a few moments of sheer disgust - we decided to enjoy and make the situation fun. We sat on the side of the road with our windows down...18 wheelers randomly shaking the 4Runner. Then we hear an awkward, painful, mooing sound. There's a bull bellowing like it's hurt or something. I decide in all of my veterinary glory that I'm gonna get to the bottom of this and find out what's going on. Becca's like...um...if it IS hurt, what are YOU gonna do about it...duly noted. We are stuck in the middle of nowhere so I go talk to the bull. He tolerates me for a while, then he walks away. I turn around and see a highway patrolman getting back into his car...I call him Captain Crankypants. Becca told me that he was trying to be intimidating and asked her what was going on - we ran out of gas, someone's on the way. He proceeds to ask her if our gas gauge works. Um, yeah. But we are at the ends of the earth...yeah, there aren't any gas stations out here. No really, Mr. Einstein, thanks for the pointer. Well, it will be dark soon so we should leave our hazard lights on...thanks, I love to see my tax dollars at work.

We ended up just talking, enjoying the fall colors, laughing at ourselves and watching the sun set. When the gas can arrived in our social worker's chariot...we were so grateful and apologetic! We got to a gas station, filled up...and headed to Morrison Cafe in Morrison, OK (yeah, who knew it existed) to complete our home study. We are so grateful for Amber, who is so thorough and objective as she advocates for our children and for us. We feel educated, encouraged and inspired to keep praying for our next adoption. So...now it's time for you to enjoy the pics, including the one that shows our fuel gauge at 0 miles to empty. Enjoy a laugh at our expense...

Break My Heart shirt - Pre-Orders End Thursday

Shirts will be black with bright blue - click on paypal and include a note with your size and mailing address. These will be available in unisex and women's sizes. We can do kids sizes as well...but we need a minimum of 10 kids sizes pre-sold, so far none have been purchased. All proceeds got to help orphanages in Ethiopia.

Oregon Vacation - Unplugged from the World

We took a much needed vacation to Oregon this past weekend. Our lives are so hectic that we had to use up some frequent flyer miles and stayed with our dear friends, the Rogers family. They are also in the process of adopting from Ethiopia and we just need some down time. We were unplugged from the phone, computer and everything. When I was in 1st grade, we lived in the Portland area (Milwaukee) and it was one of our favorite places that we'd lived. I love the mountains, trees, waterfalls and clean air. We spent our time in the Gorge area, just exploring the waterfalls, playing, eating, laughing and took an incredible drive through the Fruit Loop and up to Mt. Hood. We even got to see the View Point Inn where the prom scene of Twilight was filmed and also the field where the baseball scene was captured. It was exactly what we needed and we could have used another day, but alas, back to the real world! We hope you enjoy the pics, they don't do the beauty of the Pacific Northwest full justice. Vance, Stacey, Kenna, Emily and Addison - thanks for letting us come and just "be"!

An Eventful Weekend

This weekend, we had our huge garage sale to raise funds for our adoption. We got tons and tons of donations of items and our 3 car garage was FULL! We have found that Fridays are WAY more successful than Saturdays...Friday was sooo busy and all we did was sell and unpack more and more stuff to sell. We made a grand total of $1,600 - $1200 of it on Friday! Sakari's cousins set up a lemonade and rice crispy treat stand...and they made $41.50 off the unsuspecting public coming to our garage sale. Thanks to all our friends and family who helped us sooo much! We couldn't have done it without their help, we are so grateful! We have only about 1 car garage worth of stuff left over and will start taking donations for another garage sale in the next couple weeks after we vacation for a looong weekend in Oregon. We seriously need the rest and down time!

In the midst of it all, we got a call at 2:30am on Friday...that my sister's water broke and she was on her way to the hospital. She was such a trooper! She didn't dilate much until the late afternoon...so we tried to pack up the garage sale early and headed over to the hospital. We were there from about 4pm or so until after midnight...but it was so much fun waiting for Benjamin to arrive. We nicknamed him Baby Boop a few months ago and we'd been waiting to see his face. Sakari ended up spending the night with Becca's sister and family while we were at the hospital. It was her first time spending the night away from us, I think she did better than we did, lol! Benjamin made his official appearance into the world at 11:30pm on Friday night at 5 lbs. and 14 oz. He is the cutest thing ever! Lots of babies aren't cute when they are born...but this kid was! Becca was in the delivery room taking pics for them. We got to hold him for a few minutes after his birth and got home around 1am and up again at 6:30am to sell away at our garage sale. It was exhausting, but we don't regret it at all! Sakari was so excited to see Boop yesterday, so we went up to the hospital after the garage sale and spent some time up there. She kept kissing him and gave Auntie Grace a raspberry on her face! We're so thankful that he came while we were still in town so we could spend some time with him before going on our mini-vacation.

Enjoy the pics from our eventful weekend!

Homestudy Well Underway!

We had a great "first" homestudy meeting with our amazing social worker, Amber. She handled our homestudy last time and we just love spending time with her! She is a great resource and support to our family and we're so grateful to her! So though it was the first "official" homestudy meeting for this next adoption, it's like spending time with a friend.

We got tons more paperwork done and of course, more to do but the paperwork is so much easier this time around. We're walking by faith and know that He is going to provide everything we need. We're gearing up for our big garage sale this next weekend and would love your prayers that it will raise tons, so we can step into the next phase of the adoption process.

Sakari is so funny, she's getting excited about having siblings - but we're also trying to start preparing her now for the transition. We pray for her siblings every night and talk about sharing and how much we love her now and how much more we will love her when her siblings arrive. Sakari is talking soooo much now, copying and new words and sentences daily. She is such a joy! These have definitely not be Terrible Two's. We have of course, had some moments of her pushing the boundaries but she is an obedient, happy, hilarious kid! Can't wait to see her grow into the dynamic of sibling in the coming months!

New Owner of the Prayer for Africa print...drum roll, please!!!!

AND THE WINNER IS.......you gotta watch the video...

Ballet, Roller Skates and General Silliness

Enjoy the pics...remember today and tomorrow are the last days to get the Prayer for Africa painting!