Helping a Stranger....

Odd title I know! But I wanted to get your attention on this particular post!

About 2 or so weeks ago I was on Facebook (FB) and I saw a post from an old friend from high school about her friend she was trying to help, here's the Stranger part. The post was a link to her friends blog, Wondering, Hoping, Praying..., so naturally being in the blogger world I wanted to see her blog, maybe get some ideas and just in general be nosy! LOL!!! Once I began reading her blog I understood why my friend had posted her blog on FB:

She is in the process of adopting a child from Ethiopia and from what I am understanding, she has gone through all the proper channels starting in the Spring of 2011, she began thinking about adopting, then in October of 2011 she made the final decision that adoption was for her and her family! Once I read this part of her blog, I began to think of the battle she must have gone through in the decision process...having a child is not something to take on lightly, much less adopting. Then in December 2011 they decided to go through an agency to do the adoption, January 1, 2012 they made an even bigger decision, theywanted to adopt a child from Ethiopia, which also triggered an astounding respect for her, not only is she adopting, but she is adopting from a child from a foreign country that TRULY NEEDS a home and lastly, she's STILL (at this point) a perfect stranger that I have this new found respect for! On January 3, 2012 she sent in the initial adoption application to the agency "Lifeline" and on January 12 she mailed in the paperwork to start the Home Study process, which included the first payment, (thinking begins again). She has had to do all kinds of research on this particular agency considering she is sending them money and entrusting them with such precious cargo, i.e. a child that would soon be their own, WOW, what enormous research/background checking she must have done to get this far, not to mention all the day to day things she does, i.e. home schooling her daughters, daily household things, bible study preparations and. other day to day things. The paperwork has been sent in to "Lifeline" the agency and now she is awaiting the Phone Orientation, On January 20 she gets her phone orientation done with "Brittney" and is now waiting for her Home Study Visit. But not long after the phone orientation she gets her first Home Study on January 22, I found this to be quite fast considering all this has happened in just one short (but probably seemed long to her) month. O.K., back on track, now it's February 2nd and this is when I started reading her blog.

As you would expect, the process of adoption is not free, heck, NOTHING is EVER really FREE! I'm sure during this wait from January 22 to February 2, she did a lot of brainstorming to figure out a way to pay the fees that come with the adoption process, hence this post! (I know, I took a very long time to get here, but I wanted you to know all that she has been doing to get to where she is now, so I though it important to add this info!).

The idea she came up with was a very "crafty" and very adorable bracelet that she has decided to sell as a fundraiser to come up with the money to pay the agency fees. Here's SOME of the bracelets:

Aren't they the cutest!

She is selling them in different sizes, adult size at $12 and children size at $10 and of course she has different prices if you buy more than one at a time. You can check out the prices here, she has different colors and patterns and they are just too cute for words.

On February 24 she put all that IMPORTANT paperwork in the hands of our U.S. Post office. She got everything mailed off, then came the waiting game. During all this time as she has been patiently awaiting information from the agency and filling orders for her bracelets and coming up with more patterns and colors for different bracelets so that there is a wide variety to choose from. Now that her paperwork was done, to her knowledge the next steps were a home study, making sure everything was correct with her paperwork and all she was suppose to have done was included with her paperwork. (I mean can you say STRESS upon STRESS upon STRESS???). Her Home Study was finalized and sent to "Lifeline" (the adoption agency). Now comes more waiting. As I read I began to realize that this one person, whom I've NEVER met, had become someone I had grown to respect (immensely) and seemed drawn to, in some way, to help out, thus this post!

Even though she has already gone through so much just to get to the point she is currently at, she still has the one issue that is the most important issue of all....(it's what makes the world go round) MONEY! Like I said previously, for some reason I felt compelled to help out as much as I could and due to my current situation (NO JOB) I could not help monetarily, but I could help by posting a blog for her in hopes that maybe my readers, even though they are few and even if it's just one, someone would some how feel as compelled as I did about her and help her in their own way, weather it be buying some bracelets or posting something on FB, or blogging about her decision. It would at least get the word out and help her family raise the money they need to complete this adoption.

As far as she knows there are several other steps she must complete before everything is done and they can finally have her baby she so desires, which her and her husband have decided to be a boy (another post I read on her blog). With the Home Study finalized, there needed to be immigration paperwork done and an appointment to have fingerprints done, so yes, wait, wait, wait!

I have gone through her blog and read numerous post and have become familiar with what I can only call, a Stranger. However, I am hoping by posting this and putting her story out there, I can soon no longer caller her a Stranger, but a friend. I am a firm believer that God has a plan for everyone and a reason for that plan. I trust in my heart that God lead me to read this Stranger, whom now has a name, Heather, for a reason. His divine, amazing and some how strange plans, don't always seem clear to you as quickly as you would like for them to, but in time I know that I will realize what and why I was so immensely compelled to tell Heather and her families story.

As I await the answer to the plan God has already set in motion, I can only ask of you, as my readers and as my friends to please read Heather's blog, Wondering, Hoping, Praying... and find it in your heart to help out in a way that you feel is the best that you can do. I also can't help but think that this is my way of "Paying it Forward" (I know cliche') and hoping that you too will do the same. With that said, I will end my post in saying that I hope you keep reading Heather's blog as I will be doing and soon see pictures of this wonderful baby boy that she will soon be calling their SON.

Happy Blogging...