Welcome!

Welcome to my little private corner of the world wide web.


In this forum, friends and family may share our journey to follow the Lord's calling to adopt a little girl from Russia whom we like to call, Glory.

Our story begins in January 2007. I naively ask a friend of mine who had an adopted daughter from China, "what's the deal with all these people adopting Chinese baby girls?" Yes, I know. You are shaking your head right now. You have probably watched the news more times this week than I have in a decade. I make no excuse other than that I am already the mother of 3 children under 8, and I was already pretty busy before they came along.

My friend graciously replied that she had a book for me to read. That weekend I read The Lost Daughters of China and scoured the internet for any information about orphans in China and Russia. Why Russia?

I have always loved Russian literature, culture and history. Even the fiction I read as a teenager was set in Russia. During the summer that I was 12, I started a Bible study for my friends for the purpose of praying for Russia and raising money to support Brother Andrew smuggling Bibles behind the Iron Curtain.

I have actually read War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Because I wanted to.

So, after those first days of weeping at what I had read, my immediate reaction was to say, "Me, Lord, I'll take one." I proceeded to read everything I could get my hands on about the plight of the orphan and God's plan for them. As I did, I was humbled and amazed at the answers God has already provided for questions I was just beginning to ask. The Holy Spirit was faithful to eloquently weave together verse after verse that I had known since childhood with my newfound concern for Russian orphans.

I will try to set this information out for you here, not to convince you that you, too, should adopt, but to convince you to ask the questions.

You can find much more reliable information by doing the research for yourself, but if you want to rely on my memory...
• there are 143 million orphans in the world today, the United Nations
• there are approximately 700,000 orphans in 2000 orphanages and another 2 to 4 million orphans living on the street in Russia, the Russian Department of Education
• 95% of those Russian children have at least one living relative who is either unwilling or unable to care for them
• of the ones who are not adopted and age out of the system between 16 and 18 years old,
50% of the girls end up in prostitution,
40% end up addicted to drugs and/or alcohol,
40% end up in crime,
10% commit suicide,

10% become functional members of society

Family Life and Focus on the Family are two Christian organizations that have teamed up with others to create a campaign called Hope for the Orphan. One of the main emphasis for this campaign is the role that the body of Christ should take in caring for the "least of these," as Jesus would say. And remember, "whatever you have done for the least of these, you have done for me."

In the book, Fields of the Fatherless, we are reminded that the three protected groups mentioned by God repeatedly in Scripture are the orphans, widows and aliens or strangers. So, if you're keeping count, that's a double whammy for international orphans.

Proverbs 23:10-11 "Do not move an ancient boundary stone, or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, for their Defender is strong; He will take up their case against you."

James 1:27 "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God our Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."

Adoption is a picture the Lord Himself gave us for depict His relationship with us.
Ephesians 1:4b-5 "In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will...."

Psalm 82:3 "Vindicate the weak and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and destitute."

Psalm 41:1 "How blessed is he who considers the Helpless..."

Matthew 18:5 "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me."

Matthew 25:40 "The King will reply, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

I could go on and on, and the Lord willing, I will on another day.

Since we are currently pursuing a Russian adoption, we must write this blog anonymously. Please do not jeopardize our adoption by putting anything on the internet with our names or personal information. Thanks.

Please pray for us... for Glory... and for the children waiting for families.

Welcome, part 2

So anyway, to complete the thought in "Welcome," God selected our family to adopt a girl from Russia. He first told me about it in January of 2007. We prayed about it for a year before my husband said it was time to start. We researched adoption agencies in Jan-Feb, applied and were accepted. In March, we selected a homestudy agency and attended their orientation and education meetings.
It will take 8-12 weeks for the homestudy to be done from the day we turn in our paperwork and our check. During that time, they will be checking the validity of our forms, checking with references, interviewing us and our children separately and together, inspecting our home, etc. We will simultaneously apply to immigration for the advance approval to bring our adopted child into the U.S. That takes a few months, an FBI fingerprint check and another large sum of money.
Then it will be time to complete our dossier for Russia which I am already working on now. Dossier is code for "another large stack of paperwork separate and distinct from the other two you have already compiled and notarized."
We'll talk about what happens after that another time.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

You can’t help them all, but you CAN help this one.

The following is from the letter I created today to solicit help with our fundraising.

There are 143 million orphans in the world. We ask you to partner with us in saving just one. I read somewhere that words like “prices” and “fees” are related to goods and services. However, when the Bible speaks of saving a person, it speaks of paying a ransom. If your child was being held for ransom, you would come up with that $45,000. Since God has called us to adopt, there is a child out there that He has ordained as our child. In order to bring her home, we must pay the ransom.

Matthew 25:40 "The King will reply, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."
Nearly 3 years into our adoption journey, we are excited to see how
the LORD will provide the $45,000 that it will take. If you are one of the people who will help in this amazing venture, let me suggest some ways
for you to be a part.
1. Sponsor a Mile. We will fly over 20,000 miles to make the two trips to Russia to adopt and bring Glory home. In other words, it will cost us about $2/mile to adopt. How many miles will you sponsor? Go to www.matt2540.blogspot.com and click “Donate” to post a secure transaction thru Paypal.
2. We will have a raffle and silent auction on December 11, 2009. Do you have a business, a skill or a service? Do you have anything to donate?
3. Donate American Airlines miles.
4. Volunteer to sell raffle tickets for our largest donations.
5. Bring your kids or family December 4- 5 for Christmas portraits.

Post a comment here to sign up, and I will contact you to set up an appointment.


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October 2009, yes you read that correctly. It has been a year since my last post. So much for 6-8 weeks to complete a homestudy. We have literally been waiting a year and a half for paperwork that was holding us up. I thank God for the "peace that passes understanding" with which he blessed us to wait patiently (for the most part).
I was reminded today of the saying that if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. So many of my plans have taken a nose dive in the past few years. But God is faithful, and I am confident of this, "that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6.
It may be that we have finished again. Our paperwork is complete, and it seems that our homestudy is being finalized. We are reapplying to the Department of Homeland Security for our advance petition to bring in an orphan child. We will have to pay the $830 fee AGAIN, since our homestudy was not submitted within a year of the last time we paid this fee.
We are now beginning our fund raising. Today, I created a letter asking for donations for a raffle and silent auction as well as other ways people can help.
I'm also going to try to start an email list to send updates, so if you would like this information, please sign in on the guest book with your email address. Thanks for sticking with us!
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Counting the Cost


Did you know that Russia charges nothing for adoptions, but it takes about $45,000 to pay all the agency fees, hotel stays and plane tickets for 2 separate trips and donations to the children's home, etc.

I read somewhere that it is also important to understand that words like “prices” and “fees” are related to goods and services. However, when the Bible speaks of the redemption of a person, it speaks of paying a ransom: “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). If your child was being held for ransom, you would come up with that $45,000!

Since God has called us to adopt, there is a child out there that He has ordained as our child. In order to bring her home where she belongs, we will have to pay the ransom.

Every prudent man acts out of knowledge ...Proverbs13:16a

There are 143 Million orphans in the world today languishing, hungry, alone...waiting for a family! After learning this information today, ask the Lord whether He wants you to share the resources He has entrusted to you to help bring one small girl from darkness to light.

You can donate money by clicking the link to the side. American Airlines miles or hotel chain points can help, too. Most of all, we ask for your continued prayers.

Are you ready for how God wants to use you?



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