Catching Up.....

Busy, busy week!

The golf tournament was a huge success! 

We had 17 golfers and between the golf, mulligans & raffle we raised $607!!! Thank you to a special couple who put all of this together for us - we would have never been able to do this without you! Thank you to everyone who came out to support our adoption by hitting a few balls around :) on a hot day!!! Thanks to our raffle basket sponsors also! Thanks to a special guest friend (with little one all dapper in his golf outfit) who not only sponsored a basket but came by to offer more support both moral and monetary by purchasing Anthony hugs worth of raffle tickets! More thanks especially to those family members who came from VA & NY to add lots more support!!! A great day indeed and big brother Anthony loved riding around the golf cart with Momma!!!

Afghan Winner!!

We have a beautiful afghan that goes to Christina M. - Thank you to all who donated money to our Reece's Rainbow account or shared our raffle on FB. Anthony picked one ticket out of all the tickets and Christina is the owner of a beautiful handmade afghan! 

Both Hands

More news on the Pellegrino efforts....we have a widow!!! She is a very sweet elderly woman who lost her husband 27 years ago. We are working on the details now and it looks like her repairs are very specialized - soooooo if you know of any contractors, please send them our way!! We also desperately need people to mail letters out sharing this great program. The widows home is very small and we don't have enough room for lots of people to lend the hammer hand but we need to send at least 600 letters out to make this a success! Please consider helping us send letters out - the worse case scenario is the receiver will toss the letter - the best case is that they will be touched about how all of these hands are working together to help a widow and an orphan....

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this:
to visit orphans and widows in their affliction.” James 1:27

Travel

Travel update: the visa office in Gabriel's city is moving and will be closed for the mid August travel date so it looks like we (did I tell you my friend & neighbor Donna is joining me on this incredible trip) will be traveling at the end of August! We don't know just yet but it looks that way.

Matching Grant

Fundraising update: We were able to raise $150 though the Reece's Rainbow account when we announced the matching grant - so although we didn't reach the goal - the $150 is being doubled this week! Reece's Rainbow will be $950!!!! 

I think that is it for now....please, please keep us in your prayers as we help this widow out!!

For Him....

Great day today!!!

On Gabriel's 2nd and last birthday without his forever family, we finalized Anthony's adoption today at the courts. Although his adoption was already finalized in China it is more of a procedural thing in order to get his birth certificate - but it was still nice (I know for Korea it is a big deal as only then is the adoption final). It was funny because we were the only family and two people came up to us to ask if there was anyone else joining us - "ahhh, no, just us three". I guess it  is common to have more people - made me wonder whether or not we were suppose to get pictures with the judge.

We also received our Article 5 today - that might as well be Chinese to those not familiar with adoption procedures- that means only one more piece of paperwork in the paperwork puzzle to get! We get our travel approval very soon. If it happens in the next week, then we travel mid August - if it happens the week after we travel the end of August. (Eric looked and the prices are mega high for travel to China for the mid August, yikes - this short notice is a killer on the pocket)!. So we are getting close!!!!

We also - yes there is more - think (are pretty sure) that we have a very sweet widow to work with on our Both Hands project. We are going to visit her home on Sunday but I will say that God had his hands all over this one (not that he doesn't on it ALL) - I will fill you in with the details soon!

And YES THERE IS MORE!!!! If you recall we filled out many grant applications and with that got many denials - as I opened todays letter I said to myself, great another one down - WRONG!!!! A $1000 check with a kind letter saying we were approved and they will continue to pray for us! A very special thank you to Families Outreach for helping to bring our little angel Gabriel home!

Thank you all who have also offered up prayers and assistance. We can't wait to share this little one with everyone!!

PS....Happy Birthday to my sweet little peanut Gabriel - Momma's coming to get you real soon!!

For Him...

God Bless America

As we spend our 4 year olds very first Fourth of July with family, I can help but think about how blessed we are to live in such a great country with the freedoms that we have & I can't help but think about our little angel Gabriel waiting for his Momma to come & bring him home ..home to the land of the free thanks to the brave. Today is the last day for our matching grant opportunity...please donate any amount to our Reece's Rainbow tax deductible account....God Bless America & YOU.

Both Hands Mission Statement

http://bothhandsfoundation.org/home

Hi....I took a screen shot of the Mission Statement from the Both Hands website to share with you (again) the great program we got approved for. We are soooooo excited about this BUT need YOUR help....first stop - we need a widows home (maybe two)......

(and yes we only have TWO months to get this done!!!!)