Hope

Still praying for a miracle. Our God is still good and still in control.

Faith

Is it possible to feel so incredibly elated and completely discouraged at the same time? Since introducing our sweet Megan I have been flooded with overwhelming encouragement from friends, family and strangers who have loved Megan for years before us. This sweet girl had an army looking out for her! Feel free to follow some of the links above to see some amazing stories of support for her! I am in awe of how much God has done to care for her in preparation for just the right moment when Dale and I were ready to be her Mom and Dad. Finances have flooded in, prayers have been offered, awareness has been promoted and I read even just now that one sweet little girl asked Santa to find Megan a family for Christmas. Not only will she be loved, she IS very loved already. 

We are elated, blessed, and desperately wanting to run straight to her right now, and hold her. 

And yet, at the same time we are desperately praying for God to intervene on her behalf one more time. If you don't already know, very soon adoptions between Russia and the US may be closed. As soon as we committed, as soon as prayers were answered, and as soon as Megan had a family......it may very well be taken away from her. Before she even got to be held once, and told I love you. We are heartbroken and discouraged! And we certainly don't understand. Why would God allow a politician's pride to get in the way of the most vulnerable of us all, the orphan. 

"But have you already forgotten what I have done?"

Hmmmm.....it looks like there is a big lesson here He is wanting me to learn. 

"Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. My Soul clings to you;  your right hand upholds me." Psalm 63:7-8

"He will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy" Psalm 72:4

"But as for me I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteousness, of your salvation all day long, though I know not its measure. I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, O sovereign Lord; I will proclaim your righteousness, yours alone." Psalm 71:14-16

I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I serve a VERY mighty God. And I trust his perfect will. I will pray for his hand to intervene. And just like three very brave men in the book of Daniel, even if he doesn't I will continue to trust his perfect will. As for our adoption journey, God has confirmed in my Husband and my heart to not run away or stay in the boat. We are stepping out in faith and continuing our journey. We are coming for her, Lord willing, as soon as we can. 

PLEASE keep praying! We need your support now more than ever. In the mean time we have some very specific costs that we are humbly asking for your help for. Megan's grant and the money that has been recently donated is truly an enormous answer to prayer. It makes all of this even possible. But it is not available to us until after our dossier has been submitted. That means we have some large expenses upfront. Our goal is to raise $8,500 to cover our adoption agency fees and dossier costs. We very humbly request for your help in this. If you would like to donate to these initial costs please choose the pay-pal account labeled "Bradford Adoption" to the right. Thank you for everything! We are humbled, blessed beyond measure, and waiting in faith. We pray your Christmas offers you the same!

Sincerely,

Carrie

INTRODUCING...........

We are absolutely thrilled to introduce you our precious girl! I honestly thought I was going to have to wait longer to announce it, but I am overjoyed we can introduce you to her now.

This is Megan. She just turned 7 and is currently residing in a Special needs boarding school for kids her age. I cannot tell you what an answer to prayer that is as opposed to the rough life of an institution. Apparently she is a lovely and happy little girl and we just cannot wait to meet her! 

Thank you so much to everyone that has been praying for her! I know she has been on a lot of people's hearts for a very long time. 

If you would like to donate to her adoption you can donate to Reece's Rainbow at the link on the right. RR asks that if you plan to make a donation of larger size, that a check would assure that none of your money gets spent on pay pal fees. This donation is tax deductable. Simply let me know if you plan to do this and I will give you the address.

We also have some upfront costs before any of these donations are available and if you feel led to help with those specifically we are grateful for the kindness.

 In that case you can donate

directly to us. 

We are so grateful for all those that have loved and prayed for our little girl long before we were even aware of God's plan. Please keep praying! There is much to do before she is home!

Sincerely,

Dale and Carrie

T-Shirt Fundraiser

As promised here is our first fundraiser. This will go specifically to the fees of compiling our dossier. I will be taking orders for t-shirt blankets! I have always had an abundance of t-shirts lying around that I never seemed to want to donate as they commemorated a special event or group I was involved in. So this became the perfect solution. Perhaps you have a teenager who would enjoy taking this to college? My own is double batted and incredibly warm. We use it during the summer for picnics and to snuggle up in the winter. On average you need to provide between 20-24 shirts. I can use both front and back if you are short a few. And the best part, you will be contributing to the ransom of a precious child! We are asking $55.00 a blanket and would prefer the cost up front to cover batting and back material. It should take me a week to complete your order depending on the level of interest I receive. I would be happy to ship it directly to an intended recipient if you so choose! Thanks so much!

Redeemed

This has been an incredibly difficult blog to begin, and challenging post to write. The coward in me fears what people will think if I share openly about what our family is doing right now. Ever the people pleaser, I think "what if people think I'm selfish?", "what if people question my motives?", "what if we recieve critisism for the specifics of our choices in this adoption?", and lastly "what if I am thought of as unworthy to do this?".

That last question caught me off guard in my head. My Father tapped on my heart. "Have you already forgotten what I have done?"  he whispers. Of course not......but I have. Let me be honest here.

I am absolutely unworthy. I have fallen short a hundred different ways as I have lived with the challenge of wanting to serve Jesus and batteling with the brokenness of my sinful condition. I have been selfish. I have misrepresented myself before. I have done things with poor motives. I have sinned in blatent rebellion of the Holy Father who loves me. I have lived the life of a broken child in desperate need of the Grace provided through the cross of Jesus Christ.

"Have you already forgotten what I have done?"

No, for I KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that HE has redeemed me. The last few years of my life have been a radical journey for me. God got ahold of my heart and asked for my devotion. He showed me how very much he loved me, and asked for my love in return. He has transformed so many aspects of my life that I can scarecly catch my breath. He has asked for sacrifice that was sometimes incredibly painful. He has replaced every piece of my life He has asked me to surrender with overwhelming love and compassion. He has left me breathless, asking Lord, how can I thank you?

So here we are. Broken but obediant. So much in our lives have led to this point. An example early on as my parents were obediant in foster care. A special needs sibling, inspiring a life devoted to the least of these. A passionate church, surrendered to the call of James 1:27. And thousands of oppurtunities to see the great need, and the truth of what breaks the heart of God.

About a month ago we fell in love with a child through the ministry of Reece's Rainbow. And so we are beginning the process of adoption. We are currently doing our homestudy, and when it is complete we will excitedly introduce you to the newest member of our family. In the mean time we have much to do and prepare, and we are asking for your help. If God is pricking your heart, do not ask if you are worthy. None of us are, but let your love be an outpouring of thanks to Him. If God is asking you to pray for our family, Thank you! We are blessed and honored by it. If he asking you to donate to help bring an orphan into a forever family, then Thank you! We are blessed and honored by it. And if God leads you to great need that breaks his heart in other ways besides our adoption, then Thank you! We know his plans are best, and we are blessed by that too. I will be posting more with some of our fundraising oppurtunities and keeping those watching updated as much as possible. For now we have set up a pay pal account linked on our blog. Thank you for visiting our blog. We can't wait to see what God does next!

Sincerely,
Dale and Carrie