ENTER TO WIN!

Erica of Signature Finishes has offered her services as a "raffle" for helping us raise money for the adoption.

Enter to win a Bathroom or Children's Room painted by Erica of Signature Finishes, Valued at $500. For every $20 donation made to our adoption fund Starting February 15th thru March 15th you will be entered in the drawing for a chance to win.
$20 =1 entry, $40 = 2 Entries,$100 =5 Entries, etc. You get the idea! To be eligible to receive the service package you must live in Middle TN or know someone you can give the package to as a gift in the Middle TN area. It is not redeemable for cash.

Below are a couple of pictures of Erica's work. You can also sign up for her fan page on Facebook under Signature finishes to see many more pics of her fantastic work. You can make your donation through the donation button here on our website or mail us a check made payable to Cindy Scott at 1015 West Kirkland Ave, Suite 202, Nashville,TN 37216. We will post a short video of Lily pulling out the winning name on our blog no later than March 20th. How cool to make a $20 donation to help an orphan come home to their forever family and have a chance to win an awesome painted room worth $500!

Please send this out to all your family and friends! We would love to meet a goal of 100 entries! Little is much when God is in it!

Detour

We have prayed for wisdom and our Heavenly Father has answered our prayers. Our journey to adopt has taken a detour. We are now pursuing to adopt a child from Ethiopia. Why Ethiopia? Why not? Seriously, the plight of Ethiopia is the same as Haiti it's just a lot farther away. Also, we have already been through the trans-racial questions and counseling so it only seems natural to continue with a trans-racial adoption. We know that God has called us to adopt an orphan and that calling has not changed just because Haiti adoptions are closed. We don't want to stay focused only on Haiti where we currently can not adopt and not give another orphan a chance to have a forever family by the end of this year.

There are so many blessings that we see now during our recent months leading up to our detour. We had not contracted with our former agency yet due to the lack of funds and now that has allowed us to change agencies without losing a great deal of money. We have been able to switch to an agency that specializes more in Ethiopia. Also because our home study was complete she can easily switch it to Ethiopia without a lot of extra work. God always has a plan for us and sometimes HE doesn't always reveal all the “whys” when something detours our journey. Duet. 29:29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” We are trusting the secret things are with God and moving forward to the plan He has revealed to us.

At first when we were told by our former agency that we should look into other adoption programs it was really hard to swallow. I did want to ask a lot of whys. Why can't we have another child by natural conception... it sure would be easier than this roller coaster? Why did the “baby boy” come into our lives for only a short period to only leave us heart broken shortly after? (read our very first blog last August). Why can't we adopt a child from Haiti? So after throwing myself a short pity party, it all started becoming clear to me again. It's God's story not mine and I have to let HIM continue being the author of this adoption story. God is stretching us and growing us and preparing us for the child he has for us. Everyday I am learning to Trust Him more and more. Here is something that I read this week on a friend's facebook profile that really opened my eyes: “When God takes something from your grasp, he is not punishing you, but merely opening your hands to receive something better.”

Please continue praying for us. We have submitted our new application to Children's Hope International and should hear back from them next week. To get started with this agency and move on with the I600A we need to raise about $1800 which is about half of what we were needing to continue with the previous agency. Praise the Lord.

Our God is so Big and that's why we know that he can still bring our child home by the end of 2010!

We need 75 people to donate $25 to help is get moving forward again. Please pray about sponsoring our child to come home.

Spring is coming so when you start doing your spring cleaning please let us know if you have anything to donate for our spring yard sale.

God is good All the time! ALL the time God is good!

Praying for Discernment

First off what a beautiful morning with all of the snow! I loved being able to spend some time with my Heavenly Father and being able to gaze out the window looking at his beauty he has blanketed us with! What a wonderful symbol of God's purity! On the flip side when we start playing or driving in the snow it begins to look dirty and loose that purity. This to me is a reminder of how our lives can appear when we don't let God captivate our thoughts and then our actions begin to reflect our behaviors and the purity fades. The great thing is that God's mercies are new every morning and his love endures forever!

I've been guilty of not letting God captivate my thoughts lately regarding our adoption journey. The Haiti adoptions have been closed for now. It is unclear when these adoptions will be open again. If I can be real here... I have had to deal with some hard emotions about this. I have let my human nature of trying to understand captivate my thoughts instead of Christ. David, Lily and I all are yoked on the fact that we know God has called us to add to our family through adoption and we were very sure HE had called us to adopt from Haiti. Now it is unclear of when God wanted us to adopt from Haiti. It seems that God may want us to wait a couple of years and in the interim adopt a child from elsewhere. We've been praying to be open to adopting more than one child so maybe both children aren't coming from Haiti. Maybe a child from here or Ethopia and then a child from Haiti. So as many people keep asking us what does this mean for our adoption, we are seeking wisdom for discernment on that very question ourselves. Many articles we have read and interviews we have watched about the adoption situation in Haiti state it could be 2-3 years before they will open it back up.

As I stated in a previous blog that the realization that our child probably just became orphaned is still in our hearts and could mean that we adopt here in our own country while we wait for that child to be deemed "orphaned" and not just "displaced". Really at this point of our journey the only truth we know beyond a shadow of any doubt is that God is on HIS throne and HE is full of Goodness and Love. Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

For now, we are going to keep moving forward with raising money for our adoption fund. We want to be ready when God says Scott family move! We want to be ready whether that means Haiti or another country or domestically! Our home study is almost complete but the completion of it has been put on a temporary hold as we wait upon the Lord for direction. We are going to research possible domestic adoption avenues and look at other countries as we seek HIS will for our family. We want to be prepared to meet any opportunity that God may present to us in the coming days ahead. We will continue to serve as we wait upon HIM.

We are still selling our Adoption Rocks T-shirts. Adoption still Rocks no matter where the child is adopted from... can I get an AMEN! We still need to recoup the money invested in the shirts and we still need to raise money to bring home our child from where ever he/she may be right now. As before, if you do not want a shirt but want to donate please feel free to do so through the donation button. If adoptions from Haiti were to open back up in a short period of time or if HE tells us to move in a different direction, we would need about $3,000 to keep moving forward.

Keep praying for God to bring our child home in 2010.

In HIS grip,
Cindy

Trusting....

As I write this words can not express the heaviness our hearts feel for the people of Haiti and especially the orphans. Many people have asked what does this mean for us and right now we don't know the answer to that question. What we do know is that as I stated in our last blog “We know that God has gone before us and we can trust in HIM for what the year has in store for our family.”. We know that now more than ever the need for adoptive parents for Haiti will be even greater. There were already about 380,000 children in orphanages pre-earthquake and now that number is expected to grow tremendously. David has actually said a few times in the last months that he didn't think our child was at the orphanage yet and the realization has set in that our child or children may have just now become orphaned. Last Monday night we were working on some paperwork for the adoption and I was having a bit of spiritual warfare going on because our process seems to be going slower than “I” would like for it to go. Then Tuesday just a couple of hours before the news of the earthquake I was listening to a christian radio station and the gentleman on the air stated “Do not let the enemy steal the seed God has planted in your heart”. That statement was so profound to me because of the way I was feeling the night before and then it became even more profound when the news of the tragedy in Haiti broke out across the media. I then realized that is why I was in the car at that exact time to hear that exact statement. We as a family know that God planted this seed in our heart to rescue a child or two from Haiti and we are not going to let the enemy take that from us!

We have realized that our slow paperwork process has been part of God's plan because all of it would have been lost when the administration building went from a five story building to five feet of rubble. Our plan for now is to PRAY, TRUST and OBEY. We are going to be still and know that HE is God and HE has a plan. We know it is no coincidence that we are already on this journey to adopt from Haiti. We are praying that this will open the awareness and possibly cut out some of the process to move things a long more quickly to help those sweet children find forever families.

Please pray for Mike and Missy Wilson who many may know or have seen on the news lately. Mike is in Haiti trying to bring home their daughter Tia. They were only lacking her passport and Mike is trying desparately to bring her home to the US. Please also pray for the orphans of Haiti as they have no mom or dad to fight for them to have food and medical care. You can keep up with the Wilsons at www.bringtifihome.com.

In HIS grip,
Cindy

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

2010 - The Journey Continues

Happy New Year everyone! We are so excited for the new year. We know that God has gone before us and we can trust in HIM for what this year has in store for our family. Forgive us for not blogging much in over a month or so. I've sat down many times to blog but never seemed to post anything. I have always enjoyed journaling but never really imagined I would journal for the world to read well... for a few friends and family to read =) Journaling can be so therapuetic but it is hard sometimes for me to be an open book as I am usually a private person. I am hoping to overcome that some in order to blog/journal a lot through out this journey so that our child will be able to read about the wonderful ways God provided and changed our lives in the process of bringing him/her or them home.

Here's a brief update on our journey:
We made a trip to Chattanooga at the first of December to meet with our social worker. It was a good trip and good meeting. She met with David and I alone and then with Lily. We should have one more interview this month and then hopefully by the beginning of February we'll have our official approval. We have not sent off our contract to the Agency yet but we did find out that there are lots of things we can be doing in advance of sending our contract that will hopefully speed things up a little. Really there is not a lot of update to give at this time. We kinda took a break from paperwork, fundraising and such during the christmas holidays but we are ready now to put our hands and feet to the grind to get our child home. We know ultimately our process will go according to God's timing but our human nature can't keep from wanting to hurry as much as we can. I have been trying to get in a habit of imagining doing things with two possibly three total kids. I am so excited. Yes... we are still praying about whether we'll adopt a sibling group. I know our lives are going to be totally rocked by just adding one but adding two will absolutely rock our worlds in such a great way. I look at several of my friends who have two or more kids and I admire them so much. I know they at times seem overwhelmed and even stressed sometimes with the day to day of raising that many children but from the outside looking in ... I see the blessings, the craziness, the laughter, and would love to have that multiplied in our home. I see beyond the now and see the future big family gatherings and watching them raise families of their own and so on.

God gave me a glimpse this week of how great a big sister Lily is going to be and how her little sibling(s) are going to adore her. We were with some friends whose grandson was with us and he was hanging on to Lily and hugging her constantly. She was loving it.

Please continue to pray for the following throughout this year and journey:
1. Praise God for all the wonderful things HE is doing and will be doing in ours and your lives.

2. Pray for our child(ren) who waits for us in Haiti. We do not know who they are yet but we know that they are in God's grip. Also pray for their current caregivers.

3.Pray for us (David, Cindy and Lily) as we continue to walk this journey. Pray for us to stay strong, trusting in the LORD especially on the days it seems impossible.

4. Pray for an unbelievable speedy process with the paperwork and especially the financial funds so that only God can receive Glory! We are far from our goal of atleast 25k for one child.


Four out of Five People in Haiti live on less than $2/day. We are so blessed in our country that most of us spend that on a cup of Coffee or a coke per day. Wow.. that's $60 per month. So basically if a little over 400 hundred people sacrificed for only one month their daily cup of joe, we could rescue our child and give them hope of a brighter future. Problem is we don't really know 400 people! So what if we had 100 family and friends donate an average of $20 and then all 100 family and friends asked 10 of their friends or family to donate an average of $20... we would have 22k in no time! I have had many strangers ask if we were really bringing a child home or just sponsoring an orphan. This made me think what if our child was sponsored by monthly givers... of $10, $20, $30 etc. until they come home. Really in our culture most families spend $30-$40 on eating out a week. What if that money was donated to bring an orphan home and they ate sandwiches at home that one night for one week. God could do a lot with that don't you think!

Little is much when God is in it. Let us know if you'd like to purchase a shirt or bookmark handmade in Haiti!

Thank you all for your continued support.

Blessings,
Cindy on behalf of the whole Scott Family (all four or five of us!)

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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