Exciting News

Philippians 4:4 "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice."

We have a ton of exciting news floating around in our house this past week. First of all, Wayne and I celebrated our 18th anniversary!! As we reflect on the last 18 years, it is amazing to see all that God has done in and through us over the years. We thank God for all of His blessings and for each day He gives us together!

Second, we are excited to say that a family is pursuing Parker!! Until they reach a certain place in paperwork and have announced the news themselves, we will just rejoice with them. This is an amazing family and I am so thrilled that God answered our prayers for the best family for Parker. Orphan will no longer be his title, but son!!! Stay posted to hear more about Parker's exciting adventure. We will tell you more once we can!! Seriously, we couldn't have prayed for a more perfect family for Parker!!

Lastly, we wanted to share that the last part of our paperwork is in China at the US Consulate in Guangzhou!! After Chinese New Year, our agency will be able to pick up our paperwork and forward it to the CCCWA, who will then issue us our travel approval. Once we have our travel approval, we will be booking flights to China!! It is surreal to think that we are now just talking about weeks from travel vs. months!!

With all the excitement with our adoption moving forward, we are now scrambling to save up money for the last expenses, including the orphanage fees for the boys. Months ago, when we first started this process, we prayed about the steps we should take and asked God to lead us. We have been saving, cutting spending, fundraising, baking goodies to sell, etc. As we were doing research, we came across an amazing organization called Both Hands. The organization's mission/vision is the following: 

"Both Hands mission is to fulfill James 1:27 by serving orphans, widows, and Christian adoptive families.

Both Hands' purpose is to help Christian adoptive families fund their adoptions by coordinating a service project fixing up a widow’s home.

Both Hands' vision is to see the day when finances are not an obstacle for Christian families who are led to adopt, while simultaneously serving every widow in need of home repairs."

We applied with Both Hands in September and we were approved to pursue a project for a widow. We prayed for God to direct us to the widow that he wanted us to help. After much prayer and thought, we felt God calling us to help my friend Jan. The more I thought about how God has crossed our paths, the more excited I got about the project and what it meant to both of our families. 

In order to understand this relationship, I have to take you back to 2015 when Wayne was diagnosed with brain cancer. We met Jan and her husband Terry when Wayne was undergoing brain cancer treatment. Terry was diagnosed with brain cancer about two months after Wayne. God allowed a wonderful relationship to develop between me and Jan. We texted frequently sharing prayer requests and encouragement. Unfortunately, Terry lost his battle with brain cancer in October of last year (2016). 

Jan has played a very important part of our lives since we met her in 2015. We are praying that this project blesses Jan just a fraction of how much she has blessed our lives. Jan not only was a cheerleader and a great support during our husband's battle with brain cancer, Jan has been a huge prayer warrior and cheerleader in our adoption process as well. She has mobilized her friends to help gather items for our rummage sale in the Fall, she helped us obtain fundraising items, she spent time on the phone trying to find out if airlines would be able to use donated miles, and the list goes on. It is our prayer that our Both Hands project blesses Jan!! If you are interested in joining our team and helping us serve and love on Jan, then you can contact me (rebeccaharder35@gmail.com). If you are interested in supporting our team as we serve Jan, you can visit the Both Hands page by clicking the image below and see how you can help!!!