Both Hands Project – Snapshots of the day

When we began planning our Both Hands Project, I had no idea how amazing it would truly be. God gave us an amazingly gorgeous day full of amazing people who had amazing joy while doing amazing work for an amazing lady... AMAZING! It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life, and I loved being able to focus on the needs of somebody else for the day. It was exhausting work, but there's something so beautiful about pouring yourself out to serve others. I am so grateful for the family and friends who spent their day with us helping Ms. Bernice. I just have no words to express how humbled we were by their support. 

Honestly, if we never raised a single dime of sponsorship for our days worth of work, it would have still been worth it, but we have raise a few dimes... 57,500 of them to be exact. If you're like me and not so great at math, that's $5,750 which is just over 25% of our goal (we set big goals). We are overwhelmed by the generosity of those who have chosen to sponsor our Both Hands team and help our little girls get closer to home. 

God is "the father to the fatherless" and "the defender of widows" and HE "sets the lonely in families!" We still believe that God can and will move mountains to provide all that is needed for our daughters to be ransomed from their lonely place as orphans and set into OUR family! While 75% of our goal not yet being met should be discouraging, we are not discouraged! We KNOW where our help comes from. Our help comes from the Lord! He will help us!

If you feel led to be a part of K, K and Rs story and would like to still sponsor our Both Hands Team for the work that was done for Ms Bernice, you can still do that by visiting our Both Hands webpage. Donations are tax-deductible and can be made online or by mail. 100% of the funds donated go to help bring K, K and R home! No donation is too small!

Here is a list of tasks that our team completed for Ms. Bernice on March 8th:

• Pressure washed the back patio
• Dug holes for new shrubs on both sides of the house
• Planted a truck full of new shrubs on both sides of the house
• Placed landscaping timbers
• Spread multiple bales of pine straw
• Planted flowers
• Painted the front door
• Painted the shutters
• Removed wallpaper in the guest bathroom
• Removed wallpaper boarder in the breakfast room and kitchen
• Cleaned baseboards and outlet covers
• Patched holes in two walls
• Painted foyer
• Painted living room
• Painted breakfast room and kitchen
• Painted guest bathroom
• Painted both hallways
• Painted garage
• Painted exterior back wall of house
• Cleaned all the carpets
• Cleaned light fixtures
• Replaced light bulbs
• Replaced broken toilet seat
• Fixed stove

The very beginning of the day as we assessed the landscaping.

Me on the phone with our House of Heroes partners.

Breaking ground and digging holes for the new shrubs.

A truck load of new shrubs and top soil ready for planting.

Laying landscaping timbers on the side of the house.

Allison laying pine straw around the newly planted shrubs.

Lance and the boys pressure washing... the camera man?

My boys loved being a part of the day.

Mark the master cutter!

Painting the foyer.

John put down the camera and grabbed a roller for a bit.

Ladies working hard in the kitchen taking down the boarder.

Jasmine was a high school student who volunteered her day!

Kris and Allison freshening up the front door.

I vacuumed and steam cleaned all the carpets.

I cannot confirm or deny whose bare feet those are.

Me and my best friend Andrea taking a photo break.

We made the news! Thanks WTVM!

We even had some Indians show up! :)

At lunch we has a flag ceremony in honor of SFC Wright.

The kids took advantage of busy adults and climbed trees.

Even my kids climbed trees. 

Noble captured our day on video! Coming soon!

What a wonderful day! Glory to God for his goodness!

So, that was our day in snapshots. I look forward to showing you our video!

Until next time! -K

A Call To Prayer

I actually have started writing two other blog posts recently, and I know I should get them up, because one is an update on our Both Hands Project. However, I feel a bit of urgency to write this one.

Back in October, God majorly convicted me about my praying. Honestly, before that I just wasn’t doing much of it. Today, I’ve be re-convicted about my lack of belief that my prayers – our prayers – really make a difference. I know that seems crazy seeing how God has already answered many of our prayers in BIG ways! I guess I’m a lot like the Israelites... I forget all too easily what God has done for me!

I’ll be honest, I don’t know how prayer “works” – how our feeble offering of words makes any difference – but God commands us to pray, so it doesn’t matter if we understand how it “works” or not... we should pray! Even Jesus prayed, and his IS God. If prayer was important for Jesus, then it should especially be important for us! 

So... tonight I am making a call to prayer as I would love as many prayer warriors as possible to pray with me about these specific things! I am laying some pretty big requests at the feet of my Father in heaven. These are prayers that would require miracles in order to be answered. Quite frankly, these requests seem impossible, but we know that God can do the impossible! Here’s what we are praying:

Request #1 

I am asking the Lord to provide the money we need to be fully funded – agency fees, country fees and travel expenses – by the end of May! Our approximate amount needed to be fully funded is $25,000! Pray that Jehovah Jireh would provide all we need to get these sweet girls home.  

Request #2 (The BIGGIE)

I am asking the Lord to pave the way for us to travel before R’s 3rd birthday which is in the beginning of August. I cannot stand the thought of missing another birthday. I’m ready to hold my girls in real life and not just in my dreams! We also want to travel as soon as possible considering the unrest that is developing in different areas in the East. Guys, this is logically impossible! The courts shut down from mid May until the end of June and the likelihood of us passing court in time to travel before her birthday is like zero. We would need MASSIVE movement between now and April... like blow your mind massive! I must admit that I feel like a complete fool to even ask for this but this is my desire.

This! Just this!

God may choose not to answer my prayers for whatever reason, and if he doesn’t then I will continue to trust his sovereignty, BUT I am going to ASK! This momma is going to get on her knees and plead the case of three orphans before the Lord “because he [has] inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.” 

Will you Pray with me? Saying “I will be praying” is SO easy to do yet most people don’t actually do it. I know, I’m guilty too. So when you see me or Lance in person or on social media will you please stop for a brief second and say a short little prayer for our family? If you feel led to pray more earnestly with us, then by all means please do. I am believing that we will see the Lord move in mighty ways. I may be a fool but I am a fool with faith that my God can do BIG THINGS! 

Amen! Until next time! -K

A Beautiful Puzzle

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

"Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause." Isaiah 1:17

These are just a a couple of verses in the bible that instruct us to care for the orphan and the widow. THIS Saturday is our Both Hands Project! It’s finally here! Lance and I, along with a team of about 22 of our friends and family, will live out these words and spend our day serving Ms. Bernice, the widow of a veteran in our local community. We will be working on her home doing cleaning, painting, organizing, landscaping and other tasks. None of this would be possible without the help of our local House of Heroes who is providing much of our supplies! This is one “hand” serving the widow!

With the other “hand” we are serving the orphans... our orphans and soon to be daughters! We are are raising sponsorship for our team's day of work (much like people raise sponsorship for running a marathon or playing in a golf tournament), and 100% of all the funds raised go directly to bringing K, K and R home from !ndia. Right now we owe our adoption agency $20,000 and we also need about $10,000-12,000 for travel expenses. This project is one of our biggest opportunities to knock out a large portion of these funds. We have sent out hundreds of letters and made dozens of posts online. We are trusting God to faithfully provide all we need. He’s got this!

I have been brought to tears more than once just this morning as I have considered how much God has already done for our family and how blessed we have been by those who have supported us in this adoption journey. What I love about this Both Hands Project is the fact that the focus isn’t just on our family, but a large part of the focus is on serving Ms. Bernice. I am humbled to be able to serve alongside so many wonderful people and to make a small difference in her life. I am praying that she is blessed by our efforts and that she senses God’s love and provision for her.

I’ve been putting together a puzzle I had picked out when we began fundraising. It is a beautiful HDR image of the Taj Mahal. We are putting names of people and families who have supported us on the back of the puzzle pieces.When I ordered that puzzle I read that it was 2,000 pieces, but it wasn’t until I started to put the edges together that I realized just how BIG this puzzle is. It’s so big I didn’t really have a surface to put it on except for our massive, square coffee table. Once I got all the edges pieced together I had a better idea of how big this sucker was, but I still didn’t know how beautiful it really was until I started filling in more of the middle... the hard parts. 

As we have walked this road of adoption over the last year, I have realized there are way bigger things going on with this than just our family growing or helping orphans. These are just small pieces of the puzzle, and just like this puzzle, when we began this adoption we knew it would be life changing but until we started seeing the pieces come together we had no idea how big and how beautiful this process was. I’m finding odd little pieces of this puzzle that I never expected to be there, but they fit so perfectly! God can see the completed puzzle. He knows every piece and he knows who is involved with every piece.

So, as I sit here with tears in my eyes at the beautiful providence of God all around me, let me ask you this: Are YOU a piece of our puzzle? Are YOU a piece of a different puzzle? Has God  been gently or maybe not so gently tugging at your heart about something? Maybe you know deep down that it’s more than just a thought or a hope or a dream... it’s Him and you know it like you know your own name. What’s holding you back from saying “Yes” to following Jesus? Is it selfishness? Pride? Fear? Doubt? Let me encourage you, Christian... saying “Yes” to following Jesus (whatever that may look like in your life) will NEVER be something you regret. It may bring you pain and hardship, but it will also bring you JOY and PEACE and HOPE and LOVE! His puzzle for His bride is always beautiful... maybe not in the way that the world sees beauty, but let me assure you, it is the most beautiful thing you will witness this side of eternity. Say yes! Do that something that you can do in the name of the One who will empower you to do it!

If you happen feel that God is leading you to be a part of our puzzle by supporting us through prayer or giving, then please visit our Both Hands Project Page. Soon we will have a video of our project day to share. Everyone who sponsors our team (in a big way or small way) will get their name on the back of one of our puzzle pieces. I can't wait to have it all put together so I can stare at the back. Ha!

Please feel free to share this blog post or our BH page! (((Hugs)))

Until next time! -K