What a fabulous update!!! Gotta read, We Won And Our Lifesong Grant was Matched!! PTL!!!

Last week was quite an amazing week and I know that I lit your facebook pages up, email boxes up and when you saw me it was OH all over me!! Well, to tell you the truth, it is totally out of my comfort zone to do any of those things. I have always hated to ask anyone for anything, but that suddenly changed 9 months ago when our world was changed forever..........for one!! When God leads you on a journey, be sure to know that this is his journey that he needs your help on and his story for you to tell!!! You better be ready to go at his speed!! There have been many times that I have tried to take control and do it myself, but found out really quickly, that is not how he wants it and he will let you know. We have had a timeline set on each goal on when we thought we should receive our approvals from different places. Our timeline has not be right yet. For example - Passports, normally take 4 weeks, they took 2, approval from Immigration should take 90 days, it took 67 days!!! Everything is coming back sooner and we are super excited about it, but I will tell you when Jesus says GO, you better GO!! Going at Jesus speed is exhausting, but the rewards have been great!!! I have felt all along that he has been wanting us to go, go, go!!! So, my advice to you guys, sit still, listen and be ready to Go, when he says GO!!!!

So, what else has happened these past 10 days???? As I explained in Sunday school, we were so blessed to have someone match our $2500.00 grant with Lifesong!! The story is below that I have promised to share. 

A few months ago right after the Swing for Adoption golf tournament, I posted on my wall that we just made our next goal and was about to mail in our 2nd payment and we were thrilled about it. I explained that we had a few more to go, maybe I said something like, "2 more payments to Lifeline and also our dossier payment". It was not a few seconds later, that I received an instant message asking me questions about our payments and how much they were. Well, I gladly shared the amount of our payments and our dossier payment. A few seconds later, I received another message stating that she would love to help and felt lead by God to help us make our last payment. Tears of joy just ran down my face and I explained how grateful we were, well I was, because I could not shake Steve hard enough to wake him up! He had been carrying his golf clubs all over the golf course, he was tired!! :) I explained to her that it was between her and God and when she felt lead to provide the donation, that we would gladly except!! God works in awesome ways and a few weeks later, Steve and I applied for a grant with Lifesong. It took them about 10 weeks to reply, which is normal. Friday, January 13th, we received a phone call from Lifesong stating that we have been approved for a matching grant in the amount of $2500.00!! Woohoo!! Super excited!! I immediately sent text messages to my friends and family, called Steve to let him know! That was huge to me!! When I got home, I posted about it on Facebook and a few days later, I received a message from her and she needed to know Lifesong's information. I gladly gave it to her on Sunday, January 15th. On Tuesday, January 17th, I received a heart felt message from her stating that as she types, tears are flowing down her face, because she just mailed $2500.00 to Lifesong to match our grant!!! Our matching grant is now met and our hero is Kathy McCulley! Hallelujah!! This donation was made in honor of her niece, Torrey McCulley. Torrey passed away during her open heart surgery when she was only 5 months old. On January 16th was her birthday! What an amazing birthday gift to Torrey in heaven! And for this to be in honor of a precious child that is rejoicing in heaven over this amazing contribution from her Godly Aunt Kathy to bring our child home from China!! What an amazing heart Ms. McCulley has and what it means to not only us, but to our Awesome God!! God gets the glory and we get the joy!! Oh and she purchased a donkey that she named "BOYD"!!! Ha!! What a huge blessing Kathy is to us and our family!!! So, what I know of at LIfesong is a total of $5750.00!!

Now, what you guys have been waiting on for 10 days!!! I am proud to announce that we are in the TOP 3!!!!!! A total of $ 2275.95      was sold with a profit of $ 910.38!!! We have so many folks to thank for being our Ordinary Hero's and helping us bring our baby home from China!! We are so blessed with a wonderful family, church family and friends!!! Thanks to all Our Ordinary Hero's, Brian and Kimi Gilliland, Kim Perkins, Reginna Allison, Stephanie Brook, Christy Coggins, Bridget Shirley, Bevin Tomlin, Charlotte West, Kathy McCulley, Lyndsey Tibbs, Kari Tibbs, Shawn Dickson, Ashley Stricklin, Meagan Hyde, Brandi Abernathy, Kathy Bates, Lori Lawrence, Jeri Boyd, Nicole Rudd, Missy Bittle, Katy Wallace, Melissa Burdick, Dejah Greene, Virginia Holloway, Karmen Johnson, Lee Ann Conger, Jennifer Reaves, Robyn Nunley, Robert & Renee Pelfrey, Reagan Bellenger, Samantha Ross, Bradley Leonard, Wendy Woods, Nikki Nunnally, Denise Davis, Alyson and Erick Anderton. I believe there are a few more, but I have not received those names yet!!!

So between Lifesong and Ordinary Hero, that brings our total that God raised in just 10 days is $ 7,160.38. We still have $ 1,204.00 saved up, so that would total $ 8,364.38!! Wow!! What a way to start this 2012 year on our adoption journey!! God is so good and if you had doubt for one minute, it was not possible, he proved us wrong!!

I hope that if you feel lead to adoption or foster that you continue to pray about and answer to the one and only, our God!! He knows what he wants and will continue to stir your hearts and minds!!! 

God Bless you all!!! We love you and are super excited that you guys are following us on this most fabulous journey!! Please continue to pray for us!!!

In his name, 

Steve and Julie Boyd

Lifesong's Matching Grant!!!

God has been so good to us and has provided funds, lots of prayers, new friends that we have been able to share his story with and many many more blessings!! We are so fired up for this adoption journey that God has entrusted us on!! The more I talk about it the more excited that I get just knowing that we are saving 1 orphan and bringing he or she into our lives to share the great news of our Almighty God!!!

O.k so, now that we are up to "Jesus Speed" it is time to raise some money!! We were contacted a few days ago by Lifesong. A fabulous non profit that helps provide grants to families that are adopting! We were so blessed to find out that they would provide us with a match dollar for dollar grant for $2500.00!!!! Wow!! So what does that mean, we need to raise $2500.00 and send to Lifesong, then they will match it and $5,000.00 will go towards our adoption fund! What a huge blessing that is!! And too, it is tax deductible!! Double blessing!!! Come on guys, help us out to bring this sweet baby home from China!!!

Do you know what is better than that, Ordinary Hero is also having a grant contest for the next 9 days and if you purchase something from their store and choose my name in the affiliate drop down box, we will get 40% of the total sales and we could be in the running for top prize which is another grant for $500.00!! So here is the breakdown.

Lifesong matching grant for $2500.00 - when it is matched, $5,000.00 will be applied towards our adoption fund!!

Ordinary Hero - Purchase apparel or other fun items, we will get 40% of sales and could possible win a grant for $500.00. Ordinary Hero will mail total profit to Lifesong to help match dollar for dollar the grant. So, this way, you get a great shirt or other item, our adoption fund will receive $5,000 or maybe more funds to go towards our adoption fund!! This contest will end on January 22nd!!!

www.ordinaryherostore.org

If you consider helping through donating funds through Lifesong, please see indicate Boyd/#2446 on the memo section of your check and mail check to:
Lifesong for Orphans
PO Box 40 / 202 N. Ford Street
Gridley, IL 61744

or Via Paypay:

On the PayPal screen, please indicate where you'd like your donation to go. Please note that PayPal does charge an administrative fee (1.9% to 2.9% + $0.30 USD per transaction). The donation will be decreased by the amount of this fee.

http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/donation.html

Alrighty guys, you will see me on Facebook like crazy because that is what I have been lead to do is bring home a precious child from China and I will make sure that God is overwhelmed with lots of glory from us!! As you can tell, my joy is overflowing!!

Come on now, loaves and fishes!!!

Love you all!!

LIfeline Waiting Children

This is straight from Lifeline's blog. Please keep these sweet children in your prayers that God will lead a family to them. If you feel lead to adopt, I highly encourage you to!!!! PTL!!! 

Lifeline would like to take this opportunity to stir the hearts of many in the adoption world who are considering the adoption of an older child. Will you join us in in this challenge and spread the word?

These children have been waiting a long time. They are all special focus children. They have been specifically assigned to Lifeline. We have been blessed with the privilege of partnering with the CCCWA (China Center for Children’s Welfare and Adoption) to locate homes for these precious Waiting Children. As a participant in this program with the CCCWA, we are able to advocate for these older children with special needs.

Unique challenges come with adopting an older child with special needs. We realize that! But, they are so worth it! They deserve to have a forever family to call their own!

Please contact us with any questions including questions of transfer possibilities for these children. We are here to help in any way that we can.

Please email Logan Gibbons here or you can reach her at 205-972-8480 or e-mail Lisa Kelly here or by calling her at 785-783-4565 with any questions about these children.

Help us share these children who are waiting with others by "liking" and "sharing" our our "China's Waiting Treasures" Facebook Page HERE.

What a great start to a 2012!!

2012 has been a great year so far!! God has been so faithful!! We praise him for all he has done for us. Tuesday I came home from work and went to the mailbox and pulled out an envelope from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I thought to myself before I opened it, oh no, what is wrong?? We were not supposed to hear from them until the end of January, so something has got to be wrong!! Thank you Jesus nothing was wrong, but everything was right!! We have been approved by Immigration!!! Nothing is ever wrong when Jesus is involved!! Hallelujah!!!

This is a huge step and just a visual that this is really happening!! God is so good!! We are so blessed and so thankful for this journey!! We can not wait for the next few months to pass and to get closer to traveling to China!!! 

In the very beginning we knew that this was not going to be an easy journey and we knew that we had to have complete faith in the one and the only, Jesus!! We have gone through much stress, but continued to pray and keep him first. We know that instead of dashing forward towards our enormous goal, that we would try our hardest to slow down and enjoy this journey with God. We have alot more money to raise....might I add it is $18,000.00!!! Yes, that is correct!! You say, "How in the world?" Well, I said the same thing over and over again to myself and to Steve. When I initially set our goal, I left out the expenses of our children traveling to China with us. What an experience they are going to have!! I have kept them involved and I want them to experience the journey as Steve and I do. They are apart of this and we will continue to keep them a part of this by allowing them to travel to China as well!! 

This week has been a week of thoughts about fundraising. It is a little overwhelming, because I came up with so many ideas, but when you start piling all those ideas on top of each other, it gets a little confusing and exhausting. So, I wrote them down and will continue to pray over them. 

I felt led to have a theme for the Spring arts n crafts fundraising. I was not sure of what I wanted to do, so I began praying about it. When we first started our journey I was explaining it all to my sister, Missy, and asked her if she could help with the sewing. Of course, she said Yes!! She then went on to explain to me that she has also prayed that God would open her eyes and ears to ways to use the fabric that she had left over for a good cause!! :) During that same time period she began to notice sparrows flying around the same window and her garage. They came at the same time everyday and just pecked on the windows and door. She continued to pray and then it hit her to sew some stuff for our adoption to help raise money for our China baby!!! Fast forward a few months to our 1st Annual Sow to China Open House as I was cleaning house and getting everything ready, I opened the doors to just let the fresh air in and a sparrow flew in the house, around the kitchen and sat in my Christmas tree for just a little bit. I thought it was weird because a bird had never flown in my house!!! I walked outside and came back in and the sparrow had flown out. I did not think much about it until a few weeks later. I sent a message to my sister and let her know that it was a sparrow that had flown in and the night was totally blessed with an awesome turnout and we raised alot of money!! God works in wonderful wonderful ways!!!  Yes, I know you are probably thinking, she is one weird cookie!! Well, it hit me the other day when my mother n law mentioned that birds are really in right now. It was one of those Ah ha moments and I got really excited and said, "That's it!!!" Sparrows it is!!! Well, the verse that I have chosen and prayed over is:  

Psalms 84:3, 

Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young--a place near your altar, O LORD Almighty, my King and my God. When I decided on a verse, everything just seemed right and I had peace about it!! God is fabulous and amazing!! He asks that we don't get discouraged and not to give up, he is our continuous helper!!! He is the way, the truth and the life!!! He is higher than any other!! I praise him for it all, without him, nothing is possible!! Please continue to pray that God will open doors and continue to bless this wonderful journey!!! Please continue to pray for us!!!! Blessings and Love, Julie

2011 Coming to a Closure!!

Wow! What an amazing year!!! I can not believe that it is a few days away from saying good-bye to 2011!!  In some ways, I am sooo happy to say good bye, but other ways we reflect on and wonder if we should have done differently. We will continue to keep our heads up and say bring it on 2012! What a fabulous CHRIST mas we had!! We had lots of fun parties to go to and family gatherings to attend, we baked lots of goodies and made some homemade ornaments and gifts. The kiddos received way too much stuff and I am to blame for most of it!! Through it all they were very appreciative and knew that Jesus was the real reason!! We discussed many times what it is going to be like next year with a new sibling and the joy he or she will bring!! We will keep our traditions and add lots of new ones! Boy are we excited to share the love of Jesus and his birthday with our new China baby!

God is so good!!! The month of December was a great month for Sow To China!! We have raised our next goal of around $5600.00 to pay our next two payments and our dossier payment. I know that you have to be thinking, "They have got to be getting close to their overall goal???" Well, our next goal amount is not determined just yet because we will be taking Carson and Hailey with us to China to meet their sibling and we are not sure of the expenses for them just yet. We can say that we are half way there!! About 8 months ago we were wondering how in the world are we going to get the money to make the agency payments? Guess what, God provided and they are all accounting for!! Hallelujah!!! Thanks to everyone that contributed and prayed for us!! The next goals will be based on in country expenses while in China which consist of flights, travel, hotel, official fees, visit to orphanage, etc.... We have no doubt that God will continue to provide. We have come this far with his hand and have continued to be faithful and trust in him. We don't deserve the joy that we are receiving from this journey, but knowing he is getting the glory for this, we will take the joy all day long!!


 In the past few days of being on Christmas vacation with my family, we have played with new toys, games, passed around the tummy bug and finally taken all the Christmas decorations down.
While packing up some of the ornaments that were made this year, a china doll ornament, china ornament and a cross that was made for me by a sweet friend, Averie, that is Hailey's friend, I read a letter that Averie attached with the cross. She is 8 years old and has a heart for Jesus!!! I received a text from her mom one Sunday morning asking if we were going to be in church and I replied back, yes, we would be there. She explained Averie had something for me. Shocked, I definitely wanted to find out what she had for me?? Her attached letter read...

Dear Mrs. Julie,
The reason I made the cross is because you are always doing fundraisers and making stuff for other people. So, I decided to make you something.  You know, because no one makes you anything. If you don't like it, you don't like it. But, I hope you like it.
Sincerely,
Averie

What an angel she is!! Of course, I loved the cross and it will be placed in our baby's room! More than anything, I love her heart and her love to give to people!! She brought tears to my face and I realized, I hope Jesus feels this way with me!! I hope he understands that we are doing this for him and not for us!! I hope that he has happy tears for us!! We believe in him and we believe in his sacrifice for us!! What can we do for him? What is most important to him? Is it the one more toy that my kids had to have just because? Absolutely not, it is shining for him and living for him, it is spreading his word!! This sweet orphan that we are going to  rescue will love him and know him, just as he wants us to teach he or she and others! There are no orphans of God!! We are all his children and we will always need his love!!

I have had some time to think about what will be the next fundraisers??? Oh my, not sure yet! We have applied for a few grants, but your not always guaranteed, but we will prayed for and considered. I am sure some handmade items will be coming out soon for the Spring holidays and our Sow To China shirt will be posted soon along with other fundraising t-shirts!! We will be praying for God to lead us to where we need to go and what we need to do to gain a few more steps closer to our China baby!!!

Thank you all so much for all your prayers!! We appreciate it so much and love you all dearly!!

God Bless you all and I hope and pray that 2012 will be a blessed year and you will live for Christ!! Believe me, you will not be disappointed, but filled with so much joy that it will send you on a fabulous journey!! Remember what he did for us.....

Blessings and Love,

Julie

Hope Ethiopia: 100

What an amazing story witnessing God's hand at work!!! This is the latest post from Lifesong for Orphans! What an amazing organization they are and the things that they do for orphans are quite amazing!!

Do you remember that Hope Ethiopia:100 challenge we gave you? The one where YOU all completely exceeded our goals? 

And that one phone call where an AMAZING donor committed to match ALL donations (up to $130,000) to Lifesong Ethiopia through the end of 2011?

Well, we found out about that donor on November 17th! That's 45 days to raise $130,000... which made this goal seem next to impossible... in OUR eyes! However, as you all know... GOD had different plans for THESE kids -

and these kids -
 

Plans that we could never had imagined... plans to give them hope and a future! 

Thanks to an AMAZING TEAM of individuals and their fundraising efforts, coupled with the provision of our Lord, THE MATCH HAS BEEN MET! Did you hear me? All ONE HUNDRED THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS has been donated for the children at the Adami Tulu and Ziway, Ethiopia schools! 

We stand in complete awe of our MIGHTY Jehovah Jireh! 

Thank you fundraising team for your efforts, for the way you never stop advocating for these children, and for our faith in our Lord God Almighty to provide for ALL of their needs! 

Thank you donors who stepped up to the challenge and did not let the dollar amount get in the way... but trusted that EVERY one of your dollars mattered! 

Thank you to all of you who advocated for these children, pray for them, and have invested in their lives... it will surely be an invest with an eternal reward! 

Check the Adami Tulu site often to learn more about The Project, the fundraising priorities, and what's in store for 2012! 

Its been a whole month!

I can not believe that it has been a whole month since I last updated our blog! I guess you can tell that I have not been twiddling my fingers. Well, we had the last 3 fundraisers for the year. We had 1 at Sirote and Permutt, my mother n law's office, and it was a great success!! We raised over $800.00 and are still delivering orders!! We appreciate her very much to take the time to help us get it set up and sell the handmade items while I was at work. Everyone was so sweet and thoughtful and complimented us on all that we had made. God is so good and has blessed me with a crafty side and I am so thankful for it!! It has been alot of fun and just knowing that a little piece of what we have made has gone into so many homes and given as gifts to so many. I pray that the blessings that we received from making it all carries on and it taken by each recipient. The next fundraisers were lots of fun, both were at friends homes and we raised close to $800.00 at both combined. God is so good!! I thank Christy Sparks for allowing us to come into her home and set up. What a fun Shopping Palooza it was! I am so thankful for Christy and her sweet family!! Just to be with friends and praise Jesus for what he has given us and just knowing it was a "God Thing" that we all made it back to another show together was fabulous!! Candi Boissel was there selling Thirty One and she had a great turn out!! I am so thankful for her and her friendship. It is funny how we have met so many people through this journey and some have just touched our hearts in so many ways!! I just think the world of her and I feel like I have known her for years!! Thanks to my mom as well for coming to the party and sitting with me! And thanks for delivering orders after the party!!
The fundraisers for 2011 have come to a fabulous end! We are so blessed and thank Jesus everyday for entrusting us with this journey! We continue to ask for guidance and for him to be the pilot, because we can try and take over, but it will not be the same as how God wants it to be!! PTL!! We have raised enough money to take care of our next payment to the agency and the payment for our dossier to be mailed to China. Oh my, that is a huge relief and a huge praise!!!

So, what's next? Where do we go from here? Well, during the fundraising period, we have been compiling more documents together to be added to our dossier. We have been to the Immigration Department here in Birmingham and had our finger prints done, which was painless and done within 15 minutes!! We have applied for 2 grants so far to Lifesong and Show Hope. We pray that these go through and we get some guidance from those. We have about a 1 month 1/2 left to wait on our approval from Immigration. When we get our approval from Immigration, our dossier will be complete and mailed to China! After about 2 to 3 weeks after China receives, reviews and logs us in to China, we will receive a log in date. When we get the log in date, shortly after, we will hopefully begin the matching process!! Woohoo! So far everything is right on track, we hope that it stays on track, however, if we do come across a road block, we pray that God will continue to let his light shine through us and we continue to build our faith in Him!!

This is just a little note that I shared on Facebook this morning...
Last night Steve and I were discussing that our house is not decorated like it usually is every year, one tree has nothing but lights on it and all of our fun decorations to sit out are still in boxes in the attic, our outdoor decorations are not out, a wreath fell off the window and still sitting on the ground, we have not mailed out Christmas cards just yet, however, the work and time that so many have put into making all those fabulous handmade crafts has paid off!! It does not bother us not to have ornaments on one tree or a decoration not on that step, because next year, we will have another precious angel to celebrate the real reason of Christmas, Jesus Christ!! With that said, we have made our next goal and are a step closer to bringing home our China baby!! Without him, nothing is impossible!! We want to thank everyone that has had their hand in our journey thus far and also thank everyone for the prayers!!

Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always. Psalm 105:1,4


We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Just remember the reason for Christmas, it is not about how many lights you can get up or how many tree's have all the ornaments or just how many presents you expect to get, it is about our one and only Saviour, Jesus Christ and what you can give back!! Please continue to keep us and our journey in your prayers! This time next year we will be celebrating the birth of Jesus with a precious little one and there will be one less!!

Praise to be the Lord!!

Blessings and Love!!

Julie