Another Place At MY Table/Fundraisers

In speaking with others who have been in my shoes, the decision to adopt is NOT for the faint of heart. It is instead, a series of hurry up and waits interspersed with roller coaster ups and downs, and mixed with a few stomach butterflies. The end is well worth it, but the effort to get there is an amazing feat filled with trials and tribulations, and haunted dreams that this will never end. I take heart in knowing that people have gone before me into this journey, but even they have trouble defining what is normal, as all of them seem to take different turns to get to the end result: bringing home a child.

The initial submission of documents to the US Department of State will cost $800. The second payment will go out for a home study, which will be good for 18 months, and will cost somewhere in the range of $2500-$4000.

Currently, I am filling out grant applications, and determining fundraisers available in the next month or so. There are a lot of options, but only so much time to get them done. Our church has announced that as Free Methodists, there is no fundraising. This means that cannot sit in the foyer of the church and make people aware of our cause, nor can we just put on a spaghetti dinner in the gym without renting the hall-to the tune of $200. This gives me the opportunity to put something together that will allow God to flex His muscles. In the meantime, I have to set aside money to buy hamburg, ground pork, rice, cabbage, and potatoes to make golabke dinner for our first fundraiser. I have found a hall for about $150, and just have to set a date, assemble a work team and try to get everyone I know to sell tickets for us.

Say a prayer for us!
John 6:1-14

6 Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), 2 and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. 3 Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. 4 The Jewish Passover Festival was near.

5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

7 Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages[a] to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother,spoke up, 9 “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks,and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” 13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

14 After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

Thank you and God bless you!

A Place At MY Table/ A Little Help From MY Friends

What does it mean to have a family? When a child grows up in an orphanage, he is constantly reminded of his deficit. How do you pass the time? What can you do to keep yourself from being plastered with iconic family images? Can you watch TV? Billboard or magazine ads are filled with family images,even the mall has families walking and shopping together.

How do you combat this and attempt to be normal? You pray and hope that one day, someone will love you and come and pluck you from that orphanage as the one that was always missing from their hearts. You get up in the morning as each day that hope is diminished a bit by statistics. And, these statistics are brutal.

We have been approved to host for the winter! Four weeks of providing warmth and comfort and assisting with learning life skills and what it is like to live with a family, rather than an institution. No one wants to spend Christmas in an institution.

FUNDRAISER:
Go to www. paypal.com falk_dogathotmaildotcom  (as you would normally write an email address @=at and dot=.) and put in the notes that it is for the cookbook and an email address where the cookbook can be sent.

Clean eating for our orphan hosting/adoption fund! Please share :-)

I have a cookbook filled with photos and 38 awesome recipes that I will give to anyone who donates $10 to Julie's fundraising efforts. I will also include a $10 coupon off anything I offer at www.jocoburn.com including my fall cleaneating...See More

A Place at MY Table

Here I am, all warm and cozy in my chair, wrapped in my blanket, checking my email and Facebook. I am sending messages on another kind of Facebook used in Eastern Europe.
Me: How are you tonight?
It's not really night there, but he understands the time difference, having been here twice before. Well, not to MY house exactly, but to my country, where my fellow countrymen have loved on him and treated him well.

The reply: My stomach hurts.
Are you sick? Hurt? Upset? What is the matter? All of these are things that can be comforted by words. The right sentiment, the right thing said to make everything okay. A quick prayer, "Please, Dear God, give me the right words to say".

The second part: Hungry.
Oeuf! A feeling of wind rushing from my lungs. Forced air, winded, gasping. How can he be hungry? He lives in a place where there are adults to take care of him, publicly funded, where there are people monitoring these things, surely.

Me: What was for dinner?
I have just finished chopping celery and carrots, then used my Cuisinart to chop up the onion so I would not be reduced to tears. I boiled the free range chicken I got from my local farmer in fresh spring water collected from a natural spring. Wafting from the oven is the tantalizing smell of fresh baked bread. Amish ground wheat flour, hand-kneaded, risen, and almost ready to dip in the hot soup, cooling it slightly so I won't burn my tongue.

The reply: Boiled meat and bad potatoes. I couldn't eat much.
What can I do? An ocean away, even if I sent him food right this minute, it would not arrive for two weeks, if it arrived at all. Two weeks is along wait for food.

I am sending necessities with another Mom who is traveling to adopt. her son. She has some extra room in her suitcase to hold necessities such as food, toiletries, and warm clothing.

In the meantime, I am processing information on spaghetti dinners, local craft shows, Both Hands Foundation and other fundraisers to try to adopt. There is extra in my house, and I am creating  A Place at MY table.

James 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained.

"> Please be sure to put for Falkowskis in the notes section