Adoption News!!!

Our friends Nate and Catrina Brock (http://travelstocertainty.blogspot.com/) brought their little girl Dania home last week after 4 years of waiting. Thanks to any of you who helped through prayer and calls to your government officials!! Because of the conditions surrounding her homecoming(earthquake in Haiti) their story has become national news which meant a week full of interviews and camera crews.

They decided to allow all of this in order to give glory to God and continue to raise awareness of the needs of Haiti. As a result, we had a film crew and producer from the Rachael Ray show join them for our church service last Sunday. We have been told the story will air February 3rd.

An added blessing, a producer heard some of Aaron's songs during worship and has decided to use two of them as backround music while the story is aired. We signed a license agreement and have asked that they do what they can to promote the CD in order to raise adoption funds.

Our agency has informed us that we are now registered with the Ministry of Justice in Bulgaria as of Jan. 15, 2010. Yay!!! We are now in their system and have been "put in line" for a referral. We are being told this could take 12-18 months. We know that God has this process in His hands and will work everything out perfectly in His time.


We have launched 2 new fundraisers!!


Please check them out and feel free to pass the information along.

First, we will be collecting used ink cartridges and toners for recycling. We found a company that will pay us for the these as well as pay for the shipping for us to return them. The company is http://www.advantagecartridge.com/. We get a $20 credit for anyone who signs up, mentions our name and sends in their 1st qualified shipment. This company recycles laptops, ipods and cell phones as well. Check out their site to see what qualifies. We can get more boxes, so if you know of a business or organization that might be interested in supporting us in this, let us know.

Second, we found a company online that sells t-shirts as an adoption fundraiser. We were able to pick out 4 styles to sell at an online store. Go to www.adoptionbug.com/littlebrother to see our personal page. We will make 26%-43% depending on the size and style of shirt. All we have to do is direct people to their site and the company takes care of payment and shipping. Once we end the fundraiser they will mail us a check for our part.





For those of you who are also adopting from Bulgaria, our favorite design has the words Faith, Hope and Love written in Bulgarian.



We are real excited about these opportunities. We continually pray for creative ideas from God and He has continued to supply us with them.

Thanks again for all your prayers and support. We love you all!

One of the families in our church is bringing their daughter home from PA. Here's a PA news story on them. Praise God!!!!!

http://kdka.com/local/parents.adoption.orphans.2.1438966.html

Something else we can do to help the orphans
I have copied the below information from a friends blog. We have 2 families in our church who are adopting from Haiti. One family has a child in the same orphanage that the entry is written about. Please read and send emails to your Senators to help bring these orphans to their families quickly.

"Our daughter and her husband are in the process of adopting two children (Wendy & Josiana--brother and sister) from Haiti. The two children are in an orphanage in Port-au-Prince. Fortunately, no one in the orphanage was hurt in the earthquake, but now they are threatened with a severe lack of drinking water and food.

Beyond for sending money to one of the relief agencies, there is little we can do as individuals to help. EXCEPT...

Like Wendy and Josiana, there are hundreds of Haitian orphans who are awaiting final approval for adoptions to families in the U.S. The building in Haiti where the adoptions are processed was destroyed in the earthquake. It may be years before the processing can resume.However, the U.S. can grant temporary visas to all orphans whose adoptions were pending before the earthquake. With the grant of visas the oprhans could then come to the U.S. to live with their adoptive families, but be classified as "foster care" children until the final paperwork is completed.

In granting the visas, the evacuation of the hundreds of orphans stuck in this limbo will free space in Haitian orphanages for the thousands of new orphans that have been created by this emergency. Please note that under U.S. rules, any family that applies to adopt a foreign child must first be certified as a foster care family, so there is a safe-guard system in place to insure that these oprhans who would come here under this plan will be safe.

PLEASE, PLEASE. Contact your U.S. Senators asking that they put pressure on the United States Citizenship and Immigrantion Service (USCIS) to grant "temporary visas" to all Haitian orphans now in orphanges awaiting the completion of their adoption process.This is a real way to help and it will cost nothing. You can send Emails by going to the website for the United States Senate (http://www.senate.gov/) and finding the links to your two senators' websites.If you have contacts or friends in any agency of the U.S. government who could push this idea with USCIS, please reach out to them to help, too.Thank all of you for your concerns, good thoughts and most of all prayers for my family these past few days. ~Ed "

Feel free to post this on your blogs or facebook and spread the word. In doing this we are helping the orphans be with their forever families.

Thank you!!!