The Young Family Farm

In just 24 hours God has blown our socks off…and 1/2 of our travel expenses have been raised to bring our cupcake home! *IF* we are able to use our Delta SkyMiles (praying that works with the dates we will be required to fly)…then the SkyMiles would cover the OTHER half of our expenses! As I did the math, I smiled realizing how much the Lord had provided to have our adoption 100% paid for—and when I looked at our travel…Richard and I saw where we could be creative…sell things here and there…but no matter which way we looked at it—we remained at least $1,000 short on our travel. I thought if we could raise around $1,000 then we’d be set…and in 24 hours we have $1,165! I prayed that the Lord would provide just what we need—and I have such a peace that we have what we need. Of course we’ll need our SkyMiles to work out–but I am praying and believing they will!

I will be uploading the rest of the cupcakes you all sent my way (if you donated toward our trip but didn’t make a cupcake…no worries—Laney will make one for you!). I can’t wait to show Isaac all the cupcakes one day of all the people who came together to help us bring him home! What amazes me most—are the people who gave to us that are adopting or who I have never met or people who aren’t adopting…but “get it”. I am so thankful. Thank you for becoming a precious part of our journey…and I can’t wait to get home…get settled and pay it forward. One things certain—my heart NEEDED to feel and understand need…and to feel what it is like to have the body of Christ support you. WOW! I told Richard that every year until we are taken to glory, I want to support an adopting family! What a JOY and PRIVILEGE to be a part of a child coming HOME FOREVER!

I have a sweet family with our agency who is raising 100% of their adoption fees…and in a few weeks she is going to guest post on being a fundraisting family in adoption. Not all of us may be called to open our homes—but I truly believe that we are all called to serve the orphan…and be a part of them being placed in families. Psalm 68:6 says “God places the lonely in families.” What an opportunity to be a part of what God is doing!!!

Thank you sweet friends for loving me…loving my family…and especially for loving Isaac.

Come back tomorrow afternoon—and check out all the cupcakes under my adoption link! How thankful I am for each of these families who sacrificed to help us bring home our son. Love you all.

Okay…this is Andrea being completely real–completely vulnerable…and the Lord asking me to die to my pride. This last month has brought AMAZING surprises for our family…AMAZING! We have seen the Lord over and over and over…meet our need and show up in the unexpected! We have been able to pay for our adoption all in cash–upfront…and although I wanted to stop working and be 100% stay-at-home mom last summer, I continued to photography business editing only after my kids went to bed…going to sleep most nights at 3am…ALL for Isaac—and SO WORTH IT! I was committed to working hard to coming up with the money–and we figured out how I could stop working in December—and save so much each month January-June until we got a summer referral as our agency predicted for us. We even knew Richard would get a raise this summer–which would make everything work out as well. AND THEN…SURPRISE! YET…the Lord provided. We cleaned out our savings AND checking (all but $20!)…we cashed in bank stock…and we completed the final payments on our adoption. PRAISE JESUS!

All the while, I watched others raise support–and I watched God provide. And I have to confess, I was thankful I didn’t have to raise support for help. Trust me, there have been months where things were very tight…and I’d always praise the Lord we didn’t have to ask for help…although there was one time in the Fall where I broke down in front of my Bible study and just asked them to pray for us that we would trust God. Through some of those precious girls–the Lord did provide and it was soooo humbling…but something about it—felt right.

This entire journey–I have felt the Lord pricking my heart saying, “Andrea. I want you to die to your pride. You and Richard are not in this alone. Allow me to use my people to ease this financial need.”

I would always answer in my mind, “But Lord–we have a nice house. I could go back to work. And oh Lord—if I make our need known they will think we shouldn’t be adopting…” The list goes on to the things I would tell the Lord. But again…

He pricks my heart and says, “Let me get the glory. Allow me to provide. Won’t you let others be a part of this amazing journey? It’s not just yours Andrea. Let my will be done.”

When we pass court, we will be traveling around 4-5 weeks later—and our agency estimates it will cost around $3,000 for our travel per person. We have decided that Richard will stay here with our kids, and my mom and sister will go with me—and they both have so graciously go and buy their own tickets. We are trusting God to cover our costs—and we are even hoping we might even be able to use some of our SkyMiles if the dates work out…but we know because we’ll have a 1-2 weeks window to buy the ticket after receiving the Embassy date that we also can’t count on it.

I called my sweet friend Addie this morning with the idea to have this big event here in town…A CUPCAKE—jumpies…face-painting…the works. Wanna know why? PRIDE. I felt like if I could make it a really fun deal…it would just look like FUN and at least people would have fun coming;). I love friends who encourage us on our journey, see things from a different perspective and speak truth into our lives. What Addie told me very much aligned with what my Father has been speaking to my heart…TRUST ME—this isn’t about YOU…it’s about ME getting the glory. Addie is right…my blog readers are the ones who have been a part of our journey. And before I do anything crazy as we all know Andrea doesn’t have much time to be crazy right now;)…it only makes sense to allow my sweet blog readers to join us in the journey by helping us bring our baby boy home.

SOOOO…we are going to have a VIRTUAL CUPCAKE SALE…ALL WEEKEND!

Would you pray about helping us bring our Isaac home?

Would you consider joining us and being used…becoming part of our story—and allowing the Lord to get the glory as His people support one another in His will being done?

You can “buy a cupcake” for any amount…and any amount helps! I want to believe God for BIG things—so if by some crazy miracle we get more than we need…it will be donated to Hannah’s Hope orphanage in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. If you would like to join us in helping us bring Isaac home…you can “buy your cupcake” by donating here:

Please include your name, email, blog address (if you have one) and your mailing address in the “notes” on Paypal OR please send this on my contact form—because after we pass court (hopefully on May 13!) I would like to send all of those who joined us a paper cupcake with our cupcake’s picture on it…so you can pray for us as we travel to get him and bring him home!

AND FINALLY…

After you “buy your cupcake”…just for FUN—you and your kiddos can MAKE a virtual cupcake and send it to andreainga@yahoo.com! Go here to create your cupcake—send it to my email and I will be posting ALL of my sweet cupcakes with the donor and your blog (if you have one!) under my “adoption” link on my blog.

I want to thank you all for being a part of our journey…for loving us—and most of all…for supporting us by praying for Isaac. Thank you for letting me be real…share my yucky pride stuff…and for loving me anyway. Thank you for encourageing me—and thank you for considering joining us in helping bring our cupcake home financially too. We covet all of your prayers! Truly, this life is not our own! We love you all!

P.S. Look under the “adoption” link on our blog to see contributor cupcakes! This page will remain on our blog for years to come to help us remember how the Lord provided and those who He raised up to help us go across the world to bring home our son…and to even put in his life book as a reminder to us…that we really are all in this together! Thank you friends for joining us!

First, thank you sweet friends for praying for us…and now celebrating with us that we have a court date…JUST TWO WEEKS AWAY! HOOT! I’m so excited!!! Please pray with us that by God’s miraculous hand that we pass the first time! How we feel your prayers! How we are humbled and so appreciate for them!!! Thank you precious friends for being a part of our journey!

I have gotten this question a lot today–so I thought it’d be easiest to explain on my blog: “Does this mean you will travel to Ethiopia twice under the new policy?”

No:). We will actually just travel ONCE! The new policy states that any case OPENED in court by May 9th will be under old policy and only travel once. Our case was actually opened last Wednesday, so as of last Wednesday we knew we would only travel one time. There are definitely pros and cons to the 1 or 2 trip policy—so while we would be ECSTATIC to see our baby boy on the 13th on our court date—we’ll actually have to wait until we PASS court (Almaz or someone from Hannah’s Hope Orphanage will represent us in court on the 13th) and then we’ll wait to travel when we receive a court date. They say the chances of passing court the FIRST time are 50/50. SO…we would LOOOOOVE to have you all join us in prayer that this happens!

Many things have to line up so you pass the first time. Some of them include: 1) the MOWA (Ministry of Women’s Affairs) must submit the paper work to court…many times this is the reason families don’t pass court the first time. Some times all the papers required don’t make it to the court. 2) Birth mother or any living relative who was the guardian of child must be present in court (some times they don’t show up because they needed to work or they can’t be found to be told their need to be in court) and 3) some times the judge might ask to see more documentation from the birth family. Soooo…many things have to line up. If you don’t pass, the good news is that everything that was there is checked off and doesn’t have to be there again for your next court appointment. The rescheduled dates can be any where from a few days to weeks away…but we are praying we pass the first time.

After we pass court–Isaac will legally be ours, and we will wait on travel dates which will be scheduled around our embassy appointment when we’ll get our sweetie’s visa to come home. And then a few days later…we’ll travel home. SO…in a nut shell this is what is ahead—and the timeline is all in the Lord’s hands.

So…court date, travel date and then embassy date…and we’ll be good to go. Please pray for the Lord’s hand to be on every detail—and most importantly for His hand to be on Isaac. Thank you for joining us on our journey to our son—let the court countdown begin!

XOXO!

Andrea