Adoption Rocks!

Help support Lily's Prayer and raise awareness for adoption by sporting an Adoption Rocks t-shirt! We have sizes from Small - XXL. They'll make great Stocking stuffers!

We also have handmade cloth bookmarks from Haiti for $8. Pictures coming soon.

If you would like to order a shirt or bookmark email us at godforgives@bellsouth.net.

Blessings,
Cindy

Another Amazing yard sale

Thank you Lord for another amazing yard sale! One thing I have learned from the yard sales we have done this fall is that there are some serious yard sale shoppers. Some that no matter how good a deal you are giving them they still can't spare an extra dollar or quarter to help an orphan find its forever family. I have also learned that if you run an ad that your yard sale will begin at 7am expect your customers to start an half hour earlier. We actually had our first browser via car at 6am! Crazy! We are forever grateful for all who have shopped at our recent yard sales. Every little quarter or dollar sure adds up quickly! We had a lot of familiar faces that had come back to see our new items.

We were so glad to share our story with so many people and to raise awareness about orphans in general. Everyone's response was so joyful to hear our story. We had so much clothing that we had decided to do "Fill a bag for $5" to move it out. Because of this sale we not only helped raise money to bring our child or chidren home we helped clothe children in Columbia (the country, not the town in TN). We met a lady who is a native from Columbia who filled up two kroger paper bags with clothing and shoes for $10. She shared that many of her family members over there do not have lots of clothes so she trys to shop at yard sales to ship clothes back to them. She was so thrilled that she could find so much clothing for them so cheap and also help us with the adoption. I can't say it enough... God is so good! Because of our trip to Costa Rica and learning just a little spanish we were able to put smiles on some faces of our hispanic shoppers. I told this one little hispanic girl after she finished paying me for her toys " Dios le Bendiga" which means God Bless you and the look on her face was priceless. She was like, did she really just speak spanish to me? and then her Dad who was standing a good distance from us heard me and told his friends " She just spoke spanish" and he smiled at me real big. I loved that I could bless them just by trying to communicate a little in their language. Maybe someday we will speak and understand fluently so that we can better communicate with our local hispanics and especially for mission trips.

Another great story is that we sold almost all of the Haiti items that Kelly Mills had gave to us. We weren't sure if those would be items anyone would want but again God is so good. The best thing is that there were a couple of paintings that we liked and thought would be great in our child(ren)'s room and those were the only ones that did not sell. So we hope to get those framed soon to be decor in his/her room.

I keep thinking that I am done sharing our experiences from yesterday's sale but I keep remembering more. One shopper must have told her husband about our adoption once she got back in the car because the next thing we know he's getting out and coming to give us a donation even though she had already made a purchase. They had eight kids of their own so we were very appreciative of their generosity.

I'll end my post with this... God is good all the time and ALL the time God is good!

Blessings,
Cindy
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Marching Forward!

We are pressing forward! Finally today we have been able to seal up the envelope to send in our home study paperwork. Lily had the easiest job of us all ... she put it in the mailbox! This part of our journey took a little longer than we had hoped for but it is done. We now are in the waiting game of our social worker receiving it, reviewing it and setting up our next interview.

You really learn a lot about yourself writing your own autobiography. You learn a lot about your marriage as well. It forces you to really think about your role as a spouse and the things that you love about your spouse that you can sometimes take for granted. It was fun to drive down memory lane about our "courtship" too. I am so proud of David. For those of you that know David well, you know that he is an extravert and would rather be talking to someone rather than writing his thoughts and feelings down.


We have been on this journey now for almost 80 days. It's been an amazing ride thus far. Some days better than others but we are always thankful to our heavenly father in all circumstances. We know that we are in HIS grip and this journey is HIS story. HE is already teaching us so much. I am definitely learning to focus my entire being on HIS living presence. A verse that has been consistently coming up in my life is Matthew 6:33-34 " But Seek first HIS kingdom and righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." I catch myself wanting to jump too far ahead in the process by worrying about how are we going to to do this or do that! David constantly reminds me that "we" are not going to do anything! God is in control and we must seek HIS great wisdom and rest in the comfort of HIS presence knowing he will meet our needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:19).

We are praying with expectancy that God will provide for the next step. Many of you have asked about how the fundraising is going. God has been so good to provide exactly what we have needed to pay for the first step which is the home study. Our next step is paying our deposit to the agency, and some miscellaneous fees to pay for the dossier, etc. That amount is around $3500. We are anticipating that we should get our approval to adopt in December. Would you join us in prayer that we could raise this money over the next month to be ready to move forward as quickly as possible?

Remember to pray for our sweet child(ren) in Haiti and that we can meet them soon!

In HIS grip,

Cindy

143 million orphans

"143 million orphans in the world", What do you think when you read or hear that? I sometimes have a hard time comprehending just how big a number 143 million really is, but it is not just a number. 143 million = 143 million lives, 143 million children without a mommy or daddy, 143 million hearts desiring to be loved. 143 million does not include the children that are not accounted for, those children who do not have a place to stay each night and are roaming the streets. Now when you read or hear "143 million orphans in the world", what do you think? My heart breaks for these children!

Please pray about how you can help the 143 million orphans in the world. Not everyone is called to adopt a child, but we all are called to take care of orphans. James 1:27 says, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world".

Please consider what your part is to look after orphans. Should you adopt, should you help those who are adopting, should you commit to supporting organizations that take care of orphans?What are you called to do?

In HIS Grip,
David

Dios Le Bendiga

Dios Le Bendiga (God Bless You)! Thank you to everyone who has been such a huge part of this journey whether through prayer, monetary donations or yard sale donations! We are so blessed to have such awesome family and friends supporting us. We raised around $900 at your yard sale this past weekend and the pasta orders so far have helped us raise about $300 . The yard sale was a lot of work but it was so worth it. Not only did we raise a lot of money but we met so many people who have been adopted, had adopted or knew someone who was adopting. We were able to share our story and hopefully raise awareness of the number of orphans that need homes.

Today has been a great day of accomplishment! David and I were off work together and were able to stop by several places to get a lot of our needed homestudy paperwork in process (dr. offices, police dept and sheriff's dept.). We are hopefully on track to have it all finished and ready to mail in by the end of next week. So prayer warriors keep praying for us as we are diving in to the very thought provoking and detailed paperwork that lies ahead in the next coming days.

Please keep praying and sharing our story. We need to raise the next amount of money which is about $4000 to continue on after we receive the official home study approval. We know God is in control and HE will provide for us to bring home our child.

Blessings,
Cindy
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Ps 115:1 "Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness"

Pasta, Yard Sale, Paperwork

Pasta, Yard Sale and Paperwork OH MY! We are winding down on our Pasta Sale until the next round at a later date. We’ll continue collecting orders until Sunday, October 4th. The online ordering should be opened for two more additional weeks but remember you will have to pay shipping. If you can, it would be better to order through us by Sunday so that we can save you the extra bucks. We soooo appreciate everyone who has ordered Fun Shaped Pasta to help bring our child home.

We are now in Yard Sale planning mode! Thank you so much to everyone who has cleaned out their homes to donate items to our yard sale. The overflowing support has been awesome! We are praying now for great weather next Friday, 10/9 and Saturday 10/10 and for a great turn out of people to buy, buy, buy :-) We are planning to sale baked goods too! I haven’t done that since I was Lily’s age. I remember our softball team would sell brownies, cookies, and pies in front of the Piggly Wiggly (now HG Hills) on Saturday mornings. Great memories and now I feel old too!

The paperwork is off and running… well at least my side of it. Please pray for the Scott Family right now. David’s Nanny has only a short time left with us here on this earth. We are at peace with it because we know that her heart belongs to Jesus and that soon she will not be suffering anymore. David has been trying to go visit her as often as possible so there has not been much spare time for him to start on his part of the paperwork. Right now he is doing what is most important at this moment. We know that we are not working on our time frame and honestly we need to raise a lot more money before turning it all back in to our social worker. It’s so hard to not be anxious! We want to bring our child home as quickly as possible but we are keeping our focus heavenward! We know that God is in control and we choose to press on! Phillipians 3:14 says “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Our next fundraising agenda is to sell T-shirts. So let us know if any of you have some creative ideas or know people that can help us out with getting them printed cheap.

Remember to praise God because HE is worthy! I can’t imagine my life without my Jesus! Thank you LORD for your son paying my debt so that I can be free! Thank you LORD for your love, grace, mercy and strength that you pour out over us daily!

Remember to mark your calendars to come check out our yard sale next week. I’ll post the address closer to time.

Thank you for all of your prayers and keep them coming. Especially pray for our child waiting in Haiti that he/she is staying healthy, has plenty of food and water, has people loving on him/her and telling them about Jesus already! We are coming for you sweet child!

Blessings,
Cindy

First Home Study Complete

We had our first home study on Friday. We spent a good amount of time making sure the house was in order. I'm not quite sure what in order looks like, but our house was it on Friday.

We were a little nervous about some of the questions we may be asked, but God saw us through it. The lady we are working with could not have been a nicer person. She made it plain and simple. She was great and we look forward to our next meetings with her. She gave us our paperwork and I do mean paperwork. I've worked in real estate and I have seen my share of paperwork before, but this paperwork is intense. The questions we were nervous about, well let's just say we get to write about those questions extensively. We are ready to get started and I know God is right by our side throughout this process.

We look forward to sharing our adoption story with you as we walk through it.

In HIS Grip,
David

Help us bring home our child - Check out our Fun Pasta Fundraiser!

Right now Lily’s Prayer is fundraising with a great company called “Fun Pasta Fundraising”! We are working hard to raise money to bring home our child from Haiti as quickly as possible and we would appreciate your support. Here’s how you can help.

They offer a wide variety of fun and delicious pasta products…Here are just a few of the pastas offered: Cat lovers, Dog lovers, Girlfriend Pasta, Tailgate and Celebrate pasta, Slapshot Hockey Pasta, Soccer, cheerleading, basketball, baseball, Gobble it Up Thanksgiving pasta, Halloween Pasta, Christmas Tree pasta, Cheesy Farm animal pasta, Chili kits, Chicken Noodle pasta(noodles are shaped like chickens) and just in time for Football season there are 27 different College Logo Pastas (Big Orange UT Pasta)!

Check it out – there’s something for everyone! There are meal gift bags available and each pasta comes with its own seasoning and three recipes. And the prices are affordable – you can support our adoption with prices ranging from $6.50 to $11.00.

If you are a local family or friend you may email your order to us at godforgives@bellsouth.net. Be sure to include which items you want, and your quantity. We will then send you a confirmation of your order, your total due and where you can send your check. If you are not local or it would be easier for you to have it shipped directly to your home, you have an opportunity to place an online internet order with Fun Pasta Fundraising. Each order placed sends 40% of your order total directly to our adoption account (excluding the shipping cost for online orders and taxes for TN residents). 40%!!!

So, please go to the link below and have some fun shopping. Make sure if you are ordering online that you don’t forget to enter our account # at checkout so we get the proper credit.
We are taking orders for the next 3 weeks so send this on to all of your family and friends and help us bring home our child! Just think every time you cook a delicious bag of fun shaped pasta you’ll be reminded that you helped with bringing an orphan home to their Forever Family!

First click on the following link to check out the fun pasta for sale
http://www.funpastafundraising.com/images/stories/brochure.pdf
After you have made your selection(s) either email your order to us or
GO TO: www.funpastafundraising.com
Click on the link “CYBER SALES-Support Your Group”
At CHECKOUT, please input our ACCOUNT # LP10

If you would like to make a donation for our adoption but do not want to order pasta, you may do so on our website using the paypal donation button.

THANK YOU for your support and God bless you all!

David, Cindy, Lily and our child waiting to come home

“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His face upon you and give you peace.” Numbers 6:24-26

Wonder If?

It's been a great Labor Day Weekend. We've definitely labored around the house all weekend. Our first visit from the social worker is scheduled for September 18th. Our house is always "liveable clean" just not "visitor clean"! So we have spent several hours already trying to make the house look like June Cleaver lives here. Our biggest project was cleaning out the office room which will soon be the bedroom for the newest member of our family. I can't wait until we know if it is a girl or boy so that we can start decorating the room for him or her.

I know that we are still very early in the process and soon I will be overwhelmed by the paperwork so for now I have been reflecting on the "wonder ifs?" of the unknown journey. I wonder if the child God has for us is a boy or girl? I wonder what age he/she will be? I wonder how long we will have to wait? I wonder how soon we will be making our first visit to Haiti? I wonder how long it will take us to raise the funds for the adoption? I wonder how excited he/she will be to see us? I think you get my point as to where my mind has been lately. The one thing I don't wonder is how much God is in this journey. HE is involved 100% of it! So when my mind is off wondering I can easily reel it back in because God's plan is perfect. It doesn't matter if it is a girl or boy, how long we wait or when all of the funds are available. God has the perfect child picked out for us and HIS plan for bringing our child home is in HIS perfect timing.

A few things coming soon are David's first blog, our first fundraiser and yard sale details! Just like Lily said in a previous blog... We can't wait to see how many lives God will change through our journey and we know our lives will never be the same! It's all for HIM and HIS glory!

Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness. " Psalm 115:1.

In Christ's great love,
Cindy

Lily's Thoughts

Since I was able to talk I've prayed for a baby sister or brother.I'm so excited that we are adopting from Haiti, I feel like GOD has answered my prayers.I feel so blessed that I have AN AMAZING GOD and mom and dad who care so much about me and whoever my brother or sister is. I'm so blessed I have a church like Long Hollow that has a passion for loving JESUS CHRIST and will support you through anything. The most amazing thing is how many lives we may see be changed through this process. This means so much to me to maybe have a new family member in our family and our church family.

JAMES 1:22
My favorite verse ! It helps me know that I need to read the word everyday to understand that GOD IS POWERFUL ,MERCIFUL ,GRACEFUL ,AND I KNOW WE AND I CAN DEPEND ON HIM ALWAYS ALWAYS!

God is good all the time! All the time God is good!

It is so true that God is so good all the time! I never want to lose the "Awe Factor" with my Heavenly Father. It hasn't even been one full week into our adoption process and HE has blessed us beyond belief. THANK YOU to all who have committed to faithfully pray for us. THANK YOU to all who have posted such encouraging and uplifting comments on here and on FB. THANK YOU to those who have so kindly donated to bringing our child home from Haiti.

This week we are waiting to hear back from the lady who will be doing our home study. I'm sure thats how the next several months of our life will be "waiting". Probably something like hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait! We don't mind. We've been waiting ten years so what's eighteen months, give or take a few, going to really matter. God's timing is perfect and well worth the wait. We want HIM to receive ALL glory for uniting our family and making it complete.

Psalm 34
1 I will extol the LORD at all times;
his praise will always be on my lips.
2 My soul will boast in the LORD;
let the afflicted hear and rejoice.

3 Glorify the LORD with me;
let us exalt his name together.

Blessings,
Cindy

HIS Story a.k.a. Our Journey

Lily’s Prayer

I know this post is long but it is well worth the read to understand our journey that has brought us to the current chapter in our lives.

Thirteen years ago God united David and Cindy Scott as one on July 27, 1996. We were and are still very much in love with one another. We set out on this journey of life together with our plans of how our lives would be together. Did you catch that, “OUR” plans? We decided about a year into our marriage that we were ready to start a family and we did just that. About ten months later from that decision we were blessed with our precious Lily. Wow that was so easy. “OUR” plans were coming together just as we had hoped. We had really never discussed how many children we wanted but we knew we wanted more. When Lily was two years old, we said “let’s have another one”. Little did we know that it would not be as easy the second time around. Months passed by until years had passed and it was still just the three of us. Life for the Scotts was not going in the direction than we had always planned. We continued to pray for God to bless us with another child but yet we didn’t even have Christ as the center of our family. Lily had always prayed for a baby brother or sister since she could pretty much talk. When Lily was in preschool she shared with her teacher that she was going to be a big sister! The teacher then asked “Is your mom going to have a baby?” Lily proceeds to say “Yep, Mommy says all we have to do is keep praying and God will give us one!” If we could all have the faith of a child how wonderful that would be.

Our story would soon start a new chapter when we were invited to attend Long Hollow Baptist church by someone who was a member of another church! Life as we knew it would be over and we would begin a new life with someone else’s plans for our family. We had realized that we had not been living according to God’s plan for our lives. There was now a new member to our family and it wasn’t a baby. His name is Jesus Christ. Jesus became the center of our family and we have fallen crazily in love with HIM. Our precious Lily became our sister in Christ at the age of 7. We all three have continued to let God shape us and mold us in HIS image. We were learning quickly that God’s plans are much better than “OUR” plans we had been trying to live. Proverbs 16:9 says “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps”. We are so thankful that God is a loving God and that he has completely soaked us with HIS grace and mercies.

Through the last five years we have continued to pray for another child; one negative pregnancy test after another. We really should have bought stock in E.P.T! For almost ten years Lily has consistently requested prayer for a baby brother or sister without fail. We can’t tell you the countless times we have said maybe this is just not God’s plan for us but she would insist on praying anyway. We have contemplated adoption and even attempted to begin the process twice in the last two years. There seemed to be something always holding us back from stepping out on faith and moving forward. Honestly, it has been the overwhelming doom of the long process, paperwork, and financials required. However, we have continued to pray for God’s will in our family.

About a year ago we received an unexpected phone call asking if we would be willing to adopt a little boy whose grandparents could not raise him. Of course we said yes and began down that emotional rollercoaster ride that would come to a quick end. We know in our hearts that we were a small part in God’s big plan for this little boy and that he is right where God has intended for him. Hopefully that is with his mother now. Lily was such a trooper during this experience and handled it so much better than her parents did. We would grieve for a short time over it and move forward with the plans God had intended for us. We just didn’t know exactly what that looked like yet. We have always held on to Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Several months later God would then call both of us on a mission trip to Costa Rica. The mission trip would teach us all three to say “Yes, Lord” and trust HIM. It was a very successful mission and it was a pleasure to join in where God is working.

Two days before the church would announce its new campaign called “Crazy Love”, my desire for another child would ignite something fierce in my heart. On Sunday August 2, 2009 my heart broke for what breaks God’s as I listened to the campaign and watched the video of orphans in Haiti. It was during that time of worship I would understand why I had gone on the mission trip. I had been against International Adoption for the last two years because of my fear of flying, going to another country and leaving our precious Lily for several days. God had removed me from my comfort zone and showed me that with HIM all things are possible. I was ready to do something crazy and I was not going to let the flame be put out this time! We both had read Crazy Love by Francis Chan and had learned that we are to love Christ with a crazy kind of love because he first loved us. Once we learn to love Christ crazily we can do things in the name of Jesus that look crazy to others! It took David a few more weeks for him to become yoked with me on considering adoption once again.

God began to plant many seeds around us regarding Haiti through the church and through a precious friend who has a great passion for the Haitians. We have now realized that those seeds were actually planted several months ago and were really just starting to grow. Our sweet friend, Kelly, introduced us to the Wilson Family who is currently adopting a little girl from Haiti. After hearing their passion and love for Haiti and speaking with their case worker, we had full peace and confirmation that this is God’s plan for adding to our family.

As a family we have decided that we will begin this journey and not look back. We know that God has a baby brother or sister waiting in Haiti for his/her Forever Big Sister, Lily. Lily is totally excited. We know that this is going to be a long process, but we know that it will be worth it. We also trust that God will provide a way to bring our child home to us.
We didn’t realize what a prayer warrior our little angel was back in preschool but we definitely do now. Because Lily has prayed for so long to be a big sister, we thought we should name our adoption campaign “Lily’s Prayer”.

We are so glad that we realize now that it’s not OUR story but it’s HIS story we are living. All glory is to God! Many of you have asked how you can help. First, please pray for our child that God is preparing to join our family. Secondly, pray for a smooth and quick process with paperwork and raising the finances needed. Thirdly, pray about whether you are able to assist financially with a donation to bring our child home even if it is just one dollar. Little is much when God is in it.

We are so blessed to have such a great circle of family and friends to share this journey with us. We also hope to make new friends through this campaign and raise the awareness of what God is doing in Haiti.

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

James 1:22 “ Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves but do what it says.”

James 1:27 “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

In Christ’s Love,

David, Cindy, Lily and our child in Haiti.

You may contact us at godforgives@bellsouth.net.