Garage Sale Results...

Wow, what an amazing three days at our Adoption Benefit Garage Sale! We had over 20 families donate items for us to sell, and let me tell you that we had a HUGE variety of stuff to sell! Especially clothes...wow, I've never seen so many!

We made $2,473.93 ...absolutely unbelievable! I told Austin from the beginning that I would be happy if we made $1,000 and blown away if we made $2,000. And to think we made nearly $2,500! Our Lord is so good! I'm telling everyone that I think Jesus multiplied $20 bills because it doesn't seem like we took in that much money. Praise Jesus for His provision! Between donations from people, t-shirt sales, and what we made off of the garage sale, we have enough to cover the rest of our home study fees ($500), our next payment to Carolina Adoption Services ($3,500) and our payment to USCIS ($830). Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!

Thank you to everyone who donated items, came out to work with us, came out in support of our sale, and prayed for us. You will never know just how much of a blessing you are to our family!

Thanks to the following people/families who donated their stuff for us to sell:

Stan and Darby Allen

Steve and Jeanie Cook

Danny and Becky Creswell

Brittany Doss

Chad and Jennifer Eidemiller

Sherrell and Rebecca Greene

Sean and Andi Harper

C.W. and Elizabeth Holland

Jacquie Honeycutt

Mandi Jones

Camden Kitchin

Victor and Judy Lee

Haley Lewis

Kerry Memory

Dan and Carrie Morton

Jayson and Amanda Mullen

Zach Onusic

Jara and Ashley Priban

Ashton and Jennifer Roberts

Cecil and Markel Sewell

Cecil and Sharon Sewell

Van and Sarah Shaver

Nicole Van Iwaarden

David and Heather Wise

Thank you to those who came and gave their time to help us sell stuff:

Darby Allen

Jeanie Cook

Jennifer Eidemiller

Grace Neuburg

Alicia Norwood

Markel Sewell

Sarah Shaver

Thanks especially to our families. My mom spent two very long days with us and didn't slow down the entire time. She kept everything so organized and neat, and she was such a huge help with Caleb, too. And we wouldn't have had the great trailer and tent if it weren't for Austin's parents. Austin's mom spent all day Saturday helping us with the sale and with Caleb, too. We are truly blessed with wonderful families!

Thanks most of all to Jesus, for calling us to this adoption and making us get uncomfortable. We are learning more and more every day what it means to depend on Him.

And to our little girl in Moldova...we did all of this for you. We love you so much already and want to bring you home to your family! We're coming as fast as we can!

Adoption Benefit Garage Sale...TOMORROW

Tomorrow (Thursday, May 27) starts the kick-off of our Adoption Benefit Garage Sale, and we'll be going through Saturday, May 29, from 7 am - 4 pm each day. If you live in the area, come and check out all of the great stuff we have! There's a variety of furniture, electronics, home decor items, household items, lots and lots of clothes, baby stuff, and more! Just come to 276 Hardin Drive - Hardin Estates - in Lenoir City.

A big thank you to those who have already so generously helped us out by bringing over items for the sale. You are a blessing to our family!

Please pray specifically that:

1. The rain would hold off and not affect our sale

2. An abundance of people will come to our sale and buy lots of stuff (and give lots of money toward our adoption costs).

3. We will be bold in sharing with others the reason why we are choosing to adopt

4. Ultimately, that the Lord will be glorified through this

Pictures of our garage as of 6 a.m. Wednesday morning...

One Orphan

This is a long video but definitely worth watching. How can YOU make a difference in the life of an orphan?

One Orphan from Children's HopeChest on Vimeo.

Simply Love Moldova shirts are in!!!

Our t-shirts were delivered to us on Wednesday. We are SO excited and pleased with how they turned out! And we finally got pictures made of us wearing the shirts when we were at my parents' house. Austin is in the men's brown, and I'm in the women's black.

We shipped the shirts out to those who ordered on Thursday, so you should have them very soon. Thank you again for your support! Oh, and we did order extras, so let us know if you want one! You can order online or send us an email at Shaverfamilyadoption@yahoo.com.

Where We're At...

Many of you have been asking where we're at in the process. We are happily moving right along with everything! We have one more home study meeting on Monday night, and then we've completed our part of the home study. Our social worker, Debbie, has just been amazing, and she plans on having all of the necessary paperwork from our home study completed by next Friday. Once her home study work-up is finished, it will go to our agency, CAS, for review. When they give their approval, we will be filing our I-800a to USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) to review our application to bring a child in to the U.S. from another country. If all goes well, we get approval and continue to move forward. Waiting for approval from USCIS can take up to 3 months, too. In the meantime, we will begin working on our dossier to send to Moldova. We have already received a packet of the documents required. Once we complete the "paper chase" as it is called, we will have those documents notarized and state certified (aka apostilled). We'll give you updates on all of that later. For now, just continue to pray for our family as we move through this process and especially for our little girl. Pray that if it's the Lord's will, that He move us through as quickly as possible so that we can bring our daughter home.

Order Your Simply Love Moldova T-Shirt!

We are offering Simply Love Moldova t-shirts, and 100% of the proceeds will go directly into our adoption account.

We have a women’s style, a men’s style, and a youth style. All the t-shirts have Philippians 4:6-7 (“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”) wrapped around the country of Moldova. See below for pictures and descriptions.

We ask that when you wear our t-shirts that you pray for our family throughout this entire adoption process. Thank you for your support and prayers!

WOMEN’S SIMPLY LOVE MOLDOVA T-SHIRT

The women’s t-shirts are extra soft and will fit like a unisex cut (ladies…this is NOT A SLIM SHIRT!) This t-shirt is available in either brown or black.

Women's Front

Women's Back

Women Style T

Small $24.95 Medium $24.95 Large $24.95 XL $24.95 2XL $25.95 3XL $25.95

Colors

Brown Black

Pick up or Ship

MEN’S SIMPLY LOVE MOLDOVA T-SHIRT

The men’s t-shirts are extra soft and fit normal. This t-shirt is available in either army green or brown.

Men's Front

Men's Back

Men Style T

Small $24.95 Medium $24.95 Large $24.95 XL $24.95 2XL $25.95 3XL $25.95 4XL $26.95

Colors

Brown Army Green

Pick up or Ship

YOUTH SIMPLY LOVE MOLDOVA T-SHIRT

The youth t-shirt is a good mix between the men’s and women’s front design and will have the saying like the women’s back (Love Will Always Find A Way). This shirt is available in either brown or black. NOTE: I need at least 10 youth pre-orders to order. Email me at ShaverFamilyAdoption@yahoo.com to order.

Youth Front

Youth Back

Youth Style T

XS (2-4) $24.95 Small (6-8) $24.95 Medium (10-12) $24.95 Large (14-16) $24.95

Colors

Brown Black

Pick up or Ship

Do you have room?

I stumbled across a series on adoption from the church at Battle Creek in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Dr. Alex Himaya shares a very powerful message on orphans, adoption, and the Christian's role in caring for orphans. Here are some of my notes.

- It’s hard for us to grasp just how many orphans there are in the world. But here is a visual - if you lined up all the orphans in the world, shoulder to shoulder, hand to hand, you could go around the world 3 times, with about 1,700 orphans per mile. If you drove one mile every minute, you would see 1,700 children per mile. How long would it take you to stop and help just ONE child?
- Question: Where is God with all of the orphans? What does He have to say about it?

- Answer: God values children! And He values orphans (Deuteronomy 10:17-22; Exodus 22; Psalm 27, Psalm 68; John 14). God also values adoption (Psalm 68).

- God is the Father to the fatherless

- God calls us, the Church, to protect the orphans

- God promises to bless those who provide for orphans (Deuteronomy 13, 24)

- Orphans are not a "footnote" in scripture. Over 60 times in the New Testament, God calls us to care for orphans.

- Pure and undefiled religion is to care for the orphans (James 1:27)...so why does it say this in James?

1. Orphans can't repay (what a beautiful picture of us trying to repay God...we can't!)
2. To teach us about the love of God (orphans are slow to love us back...just as we are slow
to love God back)

3. To teach us to be sacrificial
- Jesus Christ was adopted! Joseph adopted Jesus. Jesus’s lineage is traced through His adoptive father’s blood line…not his biological mother Mary’s. For Jesus, adoption was not Plan B. It wasn’t second best.

-The first century Church opposed a lot of things….good things. They had a high view of life…because of what the Bible said. And they acted on God's Word. They took orphans into their families and loved them as their own children. Our calling today is no different than the first century Church.

-How can we have 150 million orphans…and the Christian Church in America do nothing about it? Every day 25-30k children die.

- God is pro-life. He is the Creator of life. God’s heart is for adoption. You cannot be pro-life and not be pro-adoption.

- When it comes to adoption, the supply is never the issue with God. He owns it all.

- As believers, it is our job to adopt. We should be first to bring these children into our homes. And God wants His children to be in Christian homes!

- Key Points
1. Caring for orphans through adoption is normal (according to God)

2. Adoption is the most beautiful manifestation of God’s love on the planet - think about a father going to the ends of the earth to bring a child home. Is that not what God did for us?

3. Adoption will lead to missions…which leads to God’s ultimate priority of worship

4. True life is only found in surrender to God and His will

Did you know that more than 1/3 of Americans have considered adoption, but only 2% actually adopt? There are an estimated 2 billion Christians in the world. Even if there were only 1 billion Christians in the world, if 1 in every 12 Christian couples responded to this call, we would eradicate the orphan problem altogether. Are you being led by God to adopt? Pray for His guidance and wisdom.

Luke 12:48 - From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.

Take a look at the video below of one family that decided they have room...

Blogger Book

Since this blog started, Austin and I have been planning on having it turned into a book for our little girl. So please leave comments often because the comments will all be included in her book. We want her to know how many people love her, prayed for her, and followed her story.

I cleaned my room...in Greek!

This is really good! Here Francis is speaking about living out what we claim we believe and doing what Jesus commands us to do. It definitely hit home with me especially as it relates to orphans. Jesus talks time after time in the Bible about caring for orphans and meeting the needs of those around us. I hope this challenges you as it did me.

Garage Sale Time!

We are going to be doing a garage sale at our home in Lenoir City on Thursday, May 27 through Saturday, May 29.

You can help us by...

- Donating any unwanted items. Now is the time that many people are "spring cleaning", so as you're cleaning out, please consider giving us your stuff to sell. 100% of what we sell goes toward bringing our little girl home.

- Spreading news about our garage sale to ANYONE and EVERYONE. Use email, Facebook, Twitter, or any other method you can think of. The more people who come, the more we will sell!

- Working with us at the garage sale...even if it's just for an hour, we can use your help!

- Praying for a successful event!

Calling All Coffee Lovers...

Interested in trying some coffee from Just Love Coffee Roasters? Each bag is $12.95 plus tax. For every bag that you purchase, $5 is donated toward our adoption fund.

And...beginning Sunday, May 9th, we'll have some coffee available here locally! My mom has so graciously offered to pick up our orders in Murfreesboro next week (thanks, Mom!). So...send us your coffee order by Monday, and we'll bring it to you the following week!

You can go directly to Just Love's website for more information. You can also order from them directly and just pay for your order plus shipping.