Video of Marina

We were thrilled to receive a video of our Marina yesterday.  This was such an unexpected blessing!  It is a joy to be able to "see" her while we are waiting to travel, but it also makes us more anxious to be with her in person : ) 

From someone who has visited her orphanage recently, they emailed us this about Marina:

"I follow your blog, and instantly recognized Marina when we were in her room at the orphanage.  We played with her several times, she was so fun.  And quite comical!  I took pictures and video for you, and will send when I have more time.  We just got home last night. She seems to be doing well, not sure when the last update you had on her was.  One of her caregivers said they were really working with her on speaking and communication.  We called her Marina the Fairy all week, because she would just flit around the room....quickly, and then jump into the air.  She loved to be picked up, hugged, and swung into the air.  She also knew how to blow air into a baggie, twist it, and the pop it.  We were all laughing (I did take the plastic bag from her, it was ours...didn't want a choking hazard around).  She also was a bit of a pick-pocket, and actually was in my fanny pack digging around before I could even realize what happened, and pretty sure she managed to get the lid off my hand sanitizer and give that a rub on her face (oops!).  We definitely loved on her for you, and enjoyed our time with your girl."

Very urgent prayer request

Sunday update:  The parents are reunited with their biological children and we ask for continued prayers that they will be reunited with their newly adopted children very soon.

Saturday update: (From those who are working very closely with government officials): With regards to PRECIOUS Sol and Christine and their kids....ALL pertinent government officials have been engaged since early this morning. I am confident that everything that can be done IS in fact being done by our government to resolve this issue and reunite this family. Please continue to pray for a QUICK release. This is an innocent family, this has been a terrible act of injustice......BUT, God...."

The family has asked now that people NOT contact government offices or media outlets at this time! Things on the ground are in the works, and at this time all they NEED is prayer.

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I just came across a horrifying circumstance an adopting family is going through in Ghana.  I don't know details, but this family needs the body of Christ to come together and pray for them URGENTLY!!!

From what I know, the parents, Christine and Sol have been put in jail in Ghana on unfounded charges of child trafficking while their two American born bio children and their four newly adopted children sit in a government orphanage.  This is the specific prayer request that is being asked to pass along.....please share this with everyone you can and PRAY, PRAY, PRAY for this family and all of their children! 

"There is a family in Ghana right now that has been arrested on (unfounded) charges of child trafficking. The family's 6 children (2 bio & 4 newly adopted) have been rendered to the care of a government orphanage while the parents sit in a jail cell in Accra! The bio kids are only 4 & 6 and do not speak the languages of Ghana. The family had their court paperwork with them and the children were all still removed from their parents! PLEASE PRAY for this family!!! The parents' names are Christine & Sol. The US Embassy in Ghana has stated that nothing will be done until Monday, even though there are American born minors affected! PLEASE PRAY for God to intercede and redeem this family! Thank you."

The family's blog is here.

And you can learn even more about this family's adoption journey here.

Only one kid missing

My Birthday Hope

We had a great turn out for our Thrivent BBQ fundraiser for Marina's adoption.  We couldn't have asked for better weather.  Sunny, upper 70s, and low humidity.  It was a beautiful day!  We praise God that we have such supportive friends and family who helped us put this event on AND donated so generously.  We do not know the exact total yet, as we are not sure of how many donations may have been mailed in. We are also going to leave it open for more donations for a little while longer. But from what was donated at the BBQ, we received $8,180 (including the matched fund of $500)!!  We are in awe of God's provision in our lives in so many ways!  Some of the children even donated their own personal earnings.  This was very heartwarming.  And a family whom we had never met, read our blog and decided to come!  They are currently in the process of adopting from the same EE country and happen to live an hour south of us.  This was awesome!  Having the opportunity to make new friends who are on the same journey was an added blessing.

You may have noticed we took the chip in button off of our blog.  We have decided to take this down for a couple of reasons.  When there are multiple ways for donations to come in, we think it makes it more difficult to accurately show how much money is needed on an ongoing basis.  And it seems that people are preferring to donate through Marina's Reece's Rainbow (RR) grant fund, which is just fine with us.   And all donations are tax deductible this way.  So we will continue to have this be the primary way to accept donations. 

As of now, we have $9,960 towards Marina's adoption.   This means we have $10,040 to go.  Today is my 37th birthday.  And my birthday hope is for each of you to prayerfully consider donating just $37 towards our soon to be daughter's grant fund.  This is one dollar for each year old I am now.  I know that WE personally feel the heartache for so many children who don't have families.  And we are aware of the financial hurdle that so many committed families are trying to get over to bring their children home.  I'm sure there are times when we all have felt a strong pull or desire to donate larger amounts because we obviously feel like we are making a bigger difference.  Especially when so much money is needed for so many children and families.   But there are also times when many people can pull together and give a LITTLE and it lessens the burden on each of us while still making a HUGE impact.  

If 272 of you donate just $37 over the next 6-7 weeks (before we travel), we will have what we need.   We would be fully funded.   My prayer is that as each of you view this post, to please pray over whether you are to be part of making a collective AND significant difference in THIS little girl's life.