Nick has been on my mind so much today. I do believe he knows in his little spirit that something is happening in his life. The orphange staff is well aware of us and the fact that we have started his adoption process but they do not tell the children anything about their possible adoption. And I agree that is best for the children. When we receive our date to travel to visit Nick they will tell him that he is going to have visitors. It will be that when we arrive for our visit and officially make our decision to adopt him they will tell him then that we want to make him our son. But right now I feel so strongly that he already knows. To some of you that might sound ludicrous but I know that God gives us these gifts of discernment and children are very sensitive to the work of God. I know God has sent angels to care for Nick as he waits for us. I pray, in Jesus’ name, that our new son is home very, very soon. It will be the most wonderful thing to be able to finally hold him in our arms and let him know he has a mama and daddy, sisters and brothers, and lots of family and friends that love him so much and will always be here for him.

We want to thank all of you who are doing so much to make this possible for our little Nick. Some of you may not realize it but you are true instruments of the Lord. You do not realize how much you have blessed our lives and what you have taught us through all this. The true heart of Jesus is to love unconditionally and so many of you have shown the love of Jesus to us. This has been and continues to be a very humbling experience for us. To ask for money to help us bring Nick home was not an easy thing for Trevor and I to do. But the bottom line is that we were being prideful and did not want to humble ourselves. God showed us that it is not about “us”…it is about Nick and that He had called us to bring Nick home and that we needed to get over ourselves and do what needed to be done to accomplish that. So, thank you all who have and are praying for us, for those who have given money, time, donations for our rummage sales, candles…the list is never ending. You are all true and God sent blessings. We pray double blessings for you all and your families. God bless!

In His Love,
Wendi and Trevor

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I had to start a new donation event with “ChipIn.com” because the last one expired. The events expire every 30 days. We had a total of $405 dollars donated on the last event. A huge THANK YOU to everyone that has donated to help us get our little boy home.

I also added a donation button for those of you that would rather donate using Paypal.

I will try get something up on the website showing the total amount of donations contributed in my spare time (ha ha).

God Bless Everyone,

Trevor

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Our dossier was sent to our adoption agency today along with our first payment. What all this means is that the agency now will have all our paperwork translated into Russian and will submit everything to the Russian officials. Once Russia receives our paperwork they will then register us in their system and we will be given an invitation to travel to meet Nick! So very exciting yet a bit scary as well! Russia is a long way from home and I do not like to fly!! Nick is worth it all though! I will keep everyone posted as we progress!

Blessings

Wendi

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I have to share what two of my granddaughters did this morning! Taylor, age 14 and Alysa, age 8, deposited $12.00 today into Nick’s adoption fund at Farmers Bank. I must tell you that I am humbled beyond words by their act. That was all the money they had…Taylor $10.00 and Alysa $2.00. Their little hearts are very troubled about Nick and they want him to come home. That $12.00 means the absolute world to us because of their motive and it was all these babies had. We love you both so much! A lot of kids would have wanted to run to Walmart and spend it on themselves. Not these girls! We are so proud of them and the love that they have shown. I cannot even begin to imagine how Jesus must have been smiling upon them as they gave all they had!

As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. ²He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. ³“I tell you the truth,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. ⁴All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” Luke 21: 1-4 NIV

Blessings to all of you,

Wendi

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What an awesome day today is! God has shown His love in some many ways today! He has blessed us through other people today. My dearest friend, Vanessa, and I were on the radio today discussing Nick’s adoption. Janet Shrewsbury, a wonderful woman of God, invited us to be on her talk show today. The show was an hour long and was a wonderful time of sharing about what God has done and is doing in our lives. Thank you, Janet, for allowing us the time to share our story.

A lady who Trevor and I met several years ago (in fact we groomed her dogs when we owned our grooming shop), contacted us a few days ago and said she wanted to help us get Nick home. We have not spoken with her since we got out of the grooming business. We could not believe the offer she made to us. I had told her we were going to have some fundraisers and one of them was to be a candle fund raiser. Come to find out she had a candle business a while back and still had lots of candles left. She is bringing all of them to us tomorrow and we are not paying her for them until we sell them. And then we are only paying her for her supplies to make them. We will be able to make a large profit from these candles and she will make more for us if we need more! God knew when she made the candles months ago that part of them would be used to bring Nick home. Amazing how God is into even the smallest details! God is truly using you, Kathy, and we thank you for your unselfish act. That is love!

I am overwhelmed today just thinking of how blessed I really am. I just thank my Father for all He has done in my life and all He continues to do.

Blessings to all,

Wendi

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Trevor and I were made aware of something only three days ago that totally took us by surprise. It is not important to the story how we learned of this sitaution but it is most assuredly factual. Please understand that we do not wish to divulge our source.

Much to our shock Elijah and Nick WERE in the same orphanage when Elijah was adopted! In fact, Nick was brought into the room where Elijah was with the family who initally adopted him and Nick was told by the staff that Elijah was being adopted. At that time Nick was not quite five years of age. Elijah was eighteen months old. Nick was not adoptable at that time due to his illness. So, there was no choice by the other family than to leave him behind. We fault no one for this but nonetheless it has really torn at our hearts, knowing these two brothers actually were together. It is not as before when we would tell people that they had never met. We do not know if Elijah has any recollection of Nick but we are pretty sure that Nick more than likely does remember. I cannot begin to imagine what he was feeling when his brother was taken from him. All we can do is press on and keep praying that God will bring Nick home soon so these two brothers can be reunited and remain together always.

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I read this morning on one of my Yahoo groups. Someone posted this and did make it clear that she did not know who actually wrote this. I am posting this as it really touched my heart. I have been feeling just a bit overwhelmed and also somewhat discouraged as we try to complete all the paperwork required and also wondering where the money is going to come from! This article spoke to my heart and has reminded me, “WE” are not doing this at all. So, I say “thank you” to whoever wrote this!

Sometimes I wonder…..

Sometimes I wonder why so few Christians obey the mandate in the
Bible to care for the widows and orphans? The Bible mentions this
over 60 times specifically…. yet it seems only a handful of
Christians are obeying. The handful that are obeying are standing in
a gap that is too wide for them to bridge themselves. Why aren’t
more churches and fellow Christians coming along side them to help
shoulder such a huge responsibility by adopting, setting up
ministries, and helping in other ways? It’s easier to turn the other
cheek, to say things like “what can little ole me do?”, concentrate
on other ministries, and to let someone else do it.

Sometimes I wonder why we, the ones who are caring for the orphans,
are scrutinzed, put down, and made to jump through hoops that no one
in their right and “natural mind” would. Imagine if everyone who
wanted to conceive a child had to turn in five years of tax returns,
bank statements, be fingerprinted by the FBI, be interviewed by
social workers, undergo medical exams and drug testings, turn in
marriage licenses and birth certificates, turn in financial
statements of assests and liabilities, and the list goes on (each
time you want to adopt). To make the decision to adopt, is to make
the decision to live a transparent life for Christ. Who else would
willingly turn over all of this information to numerous strangers?

Sometimes I wonder why we put ourselves through all of this yet
again… it gets so old and so frustrating to jump through hoop after
hoop after hoop. Then, I remember that we aren’t doing this…
Christ is doing this through us… his willing vessels.

Sometimes I wonder….
Why haven’t more Christians said “Yes Lord” when he so freely adopted
you? …imperfections and all.

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Elijah celebrated his fourth birthday yesterday! Wow! Time is moving so fast. It seems like only the day before yesterday he was three. Seriously, it is hard to believe that he is four years old now. Where did that little baby go? Anyway, he had a great time and got lots of presents! I uploaded a few photos of the grand event in the photo section.

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Just a quick note to let everyone know most of our paperwork is into our adoption agency…the rest will be sent next week. It is very possible we will be able to travel to meet Nick before the end of January. So much depends on the Russian government. Once our agency sends our dossier (paperwork required by Russia) to Russia the Russian authorities will go over everything and let us know when we can travel. They have to actually invite us to Russia.
We have started to get a few donations and we are very thankful and appreciative to those of you who have donated already. I cannot begin to tell you what it means to us to know there are those of you who care about our family and our situation. We are trusting God in all of this as there is no way, we, ourselves can make this happen. We know God will provide the finances for us to complete this adoption and bring Nick home very soon. We thank you all for the many prayers that are being sent heavenward on our behalf. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

Blessings to all of you,

Wendi

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