Adoption Video!

Click here to view this video

So thankful to my friend, Rebecca, for making such an amazing video about our family. I hope you'll watch it and consider sharing with your friends. We're still running our 1 of 1000 event. Will you be 1 of 1000 people to donate $13 to our adoption grant? If just 1000 people donate $13, we'll be funded! You can make a tax deductible donation on the right hand sidebar of this page. Thanks for giving, sharing and most importantly for praying!

Hidden in Christ,
Mandy

What does your FAITH look like?

This is Sasha. He turned 6 years old in April and this photo was taken in the past two weeks. Does he look like a six year old to you? He looks like a child of God who is starving to death in an orphanage on the other side of the world, while we decide if his life has value. You are accountable before God for what you know! Now, you know about Sasha. What does your faith look like? How does God require you to respond?

Will you give here? Will you pray? Will you share Sasha's picture with everyone you know? Will you ask God if he's calling you to be Sasha's family?

Does this picture break you heart? It should. I promise you it's breaking God's heart. Every Sasha of the world breaks God's heart. He sees them. He's waiting for us to do something for them. He's waiting to see who will put their FAITH into action and save Sasha and the others like him.

My prayer is that Sasha will be saved. That he will be set in a family and nourished back to health. I pray that he will have a Mommy and Daddy who love him and teach him the things of God.

It's time to Do Something, church! Rise up and take your place on the battlefield. Sasha's life is depending on your action or inaction. Do not turn away!

Pray, Adopt, Advocate, Support...Do Something...God is watching.

Hidden in Christ,
Mandy

A Heart Full of Gratitude

We had great success at our fundraiser, yesterday! We had a yard sale/bake sale/craft sale/hotdog sale and car wash. All total we raised $1905! It was a Success! We are so thankful for all of our friends and family who came out and helped with the big event. There's no way we could have done it without you! How blessed our boys are going to be when they come home to so many people who love them already.

I am always amazed to hear other people tell our story and talk about our boys. I can hear the love and excitement in the voices of our friends and family as they share about Samuel and Joseph. It blesses us to know that they are passionate about seeing our boys come home and join our family.

I am, especially, thankful to God for allowing us to walk this road. We are finding Jesus in the most unexpected places. In the generosity of friends and strangers, we see Jesus. In a willingness to sacrifice time and resources, we see Jesus. In every extra mile driven to come out and support our family, we see Jesus. In every encouraging word and uplifting phone call, we see Jesus. In every item priced, donation given, truck loaded, cake baked, item sewn and car washed, we see Jesus. It has been our hearts cry to be the hands and feet of Jesus and in the process, we have experienced blessing after blessing from His hands and feet here on earth. Thank you.

The road less travelled really is the place where we meet Jesus face to face.

Hidden in Christ,
Mandy

Forever Family Friday

So many little faces

So many

Here's a sweet little face that is often overlooked.

MICHAEL

Michael just turned 3 last month.

He waits.

Another adoptive Mom met Michael recently, here are her words:

"Michael is often overlooked because he is so quiet. When I went over to him, he was quite surprised to receive attention. He was thrilled to be snuggled. I think he would have sat in my lap all day. He can walk if you hold his hands. He seems very healthy. He is in a very high functioning room with typical kids. Very, very sweet loving boy!  He would look deeply into my eyes, like he was looking into my soul! It was very hard for me to put him down!   I sure hope this helps find him a family!"

He's a snuggler.

Be still my heart...a boy who snuggles.

Every Momma's dream.

Is Michael yours?

Will you share his sweet face and help find his Forever Family?

Pray, Adopt, Advocate, Support...Do Something!

Update: Michael has a family!

All Children are Created Equal...or Are They?

We've spent the last three days at the beach with our kids, Eli and Julie. As I watch them play in the ocean, I marvel at the miracle of creation. That our Creator, who made the ocean in all of it's expanse and the beauty of the night sky, also knit together two precious children in my womb. He made them and knows them intimately, even more so than I do, the Mom who's been with them since before birth. God allowed them to be born into a family who loves them and into a Nation where freedom and prosperity reigns. These two beautiful children have certainly been blessed by the circumstances of their birth. Blessed with love, freedom, family and friends. They have never known a day of need for anything and have a Mom and Dad, who go out of our way to make sure they have the things they want, too.

As I watch them playing and laughing and enjoying life, my mind wanders to the other side of this great ocean, where my other children wait. Joseph and Samuel grew in another belly in another country. The circumstance or accident of their birthplace left them with little freedom and no chance at a long healthy life. I know you caught it...I don't believe in accidents. God knew what He was doing when he allowed our boys to be born in EE. He was allowing them a chance at life. Had they been conceived here in the land of the free, they would most likely have been aborted before they could breath their first breath. Instead God purposed for them to be born. He created them with a plan. From the foundation of the world, God knew these boys belonged to Marty and I. He just had to figure a way to get them from conception and into our home.

Our boys live, now, in a place where they have no freedom and are treated as "less than." They are outcasts. They have known pain, loss, hunger, need so great it would crumple some strong American children. This is their reality, for today.

But God. God is orchestrating a beautiful song out of the lives of Joseph and Samuel. It's a song about how He sets the lonely in families. A song about how He loves us, Oh, How He love us! A song that says no matter where you are born, when God's people do what they are called to do, what they were redeemed to do, then we will see that every child is created equally. God's beautiful plan to prove that every life has value is a plan of redemption, a plan of adoption. It so perfectly mirrors our own adoption into the King's family.

Joseph and Samuel are fearfully and wonderfully made, they just don't know it yet. Joseph and Samuel are loved, they just don't know it yet. Joseph and Samuel are sons of the Rhodes' house, they just don't know it yet. They won't realize what's happening when we bring them home. They, like so many of us, may never fully understand the circumstances we will save them from or the blessing that we will bring them home, too. That's okay with us. Just like it's okay with God. He loves us more than we can imagine and He has created us equally.

Two sets of children, born oceans apart, bound by the location and circumstance of their birth. Each set, each child, loved by God. Each life telling a story that only it can tell. Each one created with a plan and purpose, to show the world, How Great is our God! I do believe all children are created equal...it's just up to us to show them.

Love an orphan...it will change your life,
Mandy

1 of 1000!

Marty and I have the most amazing family and friends. My Mom, our family and some of our close friends had dinner last week and Mom said something about if 1000 people would donate $13 each we'd be fully funded. I linked our FSP on facebook that evening and mentioned the same fact. This morning, I woke up and found that while I was sleeping, Rebecca (our friend from dinner) had created a facebook event inviting people to be one of 1000 to donate $13 for our boys to come home.

Until you've been in this process, you have no idea how difficult it is to trust God to speak to the hearts of his people to give on your behalf. It was encouraging this morning to wake up and see $13 had been donated while we slept. I know it might not seem like much, but it was the exact amount I needed this morning. The exact amount of encouragement. We've been a little over 2 weeks without a donation until today. I had been a little discouraged, but just kept thinking our big fundraiser is this Saturday and we'll bring in some money then.

I'm out of things to offer, right now. I can't offer the type of reward God promises, anyways. I can invite you once again, to be a part of our journey. To be one of 1000 in this strong army of God to help bring our boys home. There's a link on the right hand side of the blog. It has a donate button. You can click the button and follow the link to make a tax deductible donation directly to our grant at Reece's Rainbow.

Thank you in advance to each who will give, for your sacrifice for our boys and our family. Thank you, Rebecca, for believing in us and helping every step of the way. Thank you, God, for the right amount of encouragement every step of the way.

Hidden in Christ,
Mandy

Homestudy Approved!

We had our third and final visit for the homestudy this morning and we're approved :) We should have our notarized copy to send to USCIS in the next week or so. Of course, we'll need to be able to pay for our USCIS application. It's around $900, so we'll be announcing a new fundraiser, soon. For today, we are enjoying the satisfaction of completing this very important step in the journey to our boys.

Thanks to everyone who was praying for us this morning, too. We had a real sense of peace and no stress when it was time for the visit.

That's all for now.

Love an orphan, it will change your life!
Mandy