November is National Adoption Month and National thankfulness Month:) I wanted to share our story of what put me on my road to our least of these ministry. I was a single outspoken teacher a few years ago:) I returned to my hometown to teach in the newly combined school system. There wasn't enough room for all the high school students in one school. The freshmen from the combined system were all sent to one school together. I was one of the science teachers. I started a service club to help unite the kids and give the freshmen a club. We decided to host a Christmas party for children in foster care and to provide Christmas for several needy families. I was also blessed to have an awesome young man in my homeroom who lived in a foster home at the rock ranch. We meet at Kmart one Saturday morning to shop for our Christmas families. Truitt Cathy happened to be at the Rock and dropped my student off at Kmart. He thanked me for encouraging my students to help meet the needs of others and gave me money to shop. I was blown a away. Having grown up a poor student myself, I assumed that wealthy people were concerned with themselves and having the finer things in life. At that point, I decided that if I were blessed with money I would use it to help children. I spent some time the following months volunteering at the Rock Ranch and knew my life would include foster/orphan ministry. I have never spoken to Mr. Cathy again, but his simple random act of kindness changed my direction in life and allowed me to be directly involved with helping hundreds of children. Amazing what $50 can do:) Love ya and be thankful for your Hero and I challenge you to be a Hero for a fatherless child. 

We are having a party!

We are having a birthday party to celebrate Nick's birthday. We also wanted to celebrate the fact that all our paperwork has been submitted to China and celebrate our successful fundraising adventure. We are getting closer to our fundraising goal. We are praying that we can raise the remaining $5,000 that we need by the end of Nick's birthday party. The party will be at American Pie on Tuesday, November 19th. You can drop by any time between 5 and 9 pm. Pick up a flyer from us and present it to the cashier when you purchase your dinner. At the end of the night, American Pie will give us a portion of everyone's bill that night. We will also be collecting your spare change, selling Hero t-shirts, and puzzle pieces. We will have a few drawings and give away t- shirts, 2014 farm passes, and a few other items. We will have a birthday cake!
If you cannot attend the party that night and would like to give Nick a birthday gift, you can send a tax detuctable donation to
Living Hope
P.O. Box 579

Fort Washington, PA 19034-3414

Include a note asking for it to be applied to Nick McDermitt's Adoption in celebration of his birthday.

Hope to see you at the party!

Latest news

I am thrilled to tell you that we were chosen by a small private foundation to receive an adoption grant. We are humbled and grateful for God's continued provision for Nick's adoption. We need less than $10,000 to have our adoption fully funded. Our paperwork is at the Chinese embassy waiting for final approval and our paperwork should be in China next week. Our time line for traveling to China is four to six months. We know that he is anxious to come home. Several people who have visited his orphanage have sent me pictures and he is always wearing his Ole McDermitt's farm shirt. We miss him like crazy. Please pray for an awesome farm season.

Fall Blessing

It is a huge blessing to be able to tell you that ALL our adoption paperwork has been mailed to our agency and that the first two fundraising phases are funded. Wow! I feel like things are finally moving! Our dossier will be on its way to China by the end of the month. Our immigration approval has to visit the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC and then our dossier will be complete. It is a huge blessing to have all that done before the farm opens. We miss Nick and are praying that we will be part of an adoption miracle and that we will be in China for Nick's eleventh birthday. The timelines are not favorable for that to happen but we serve a God who is in the miracle business. The fundraising is moving along and I have been amazed to see how God has covered every step. We are working on a few things to help us raise the remaining 17k needed. I secretly pray everyday, I guess it is not a secret anymore, that I will get a phone call from our agency telling us that our adoption is funded. One day, we will get that call! Our best personal resource for fundraising is the farm and we are planning to capitalize on that opportunity during the month of October. If you have some time, we would love to add you to the team.

Ole McDermitt's Farm Party

Ole McDermitt's Farm was established to support our orphan habit. The farm is a fun place to visit in the fall. Everyone loves petting the animals, taking a hayride, trekking through the corn maze, and playing in the corn box. The only thing that could make it better is spending time at the farm with fourteen of your closest friends. It might even be possible to enjoy the farm with just your small group. How much is that experience worth to you? How about $10! To help us fund our adoption and get Nick home we are inviting you to use the link below to donate $10 or more to our adoption fund. We need to raise $17,000 dollars to completely fund our adoption. For every $10 donation you make, you will receive one entry in our party drawing. Donations made using pAypal are not tax detuctable. Please use my email address to donate on line via paypal kaylamcdermitt@yahoo.com or use the link below. If you would like to make a tax detuctable donation, mail a check payable to Living Hope to McDermitt's Adoption, 102 Baxter Road, Carrollton, Ga 30117. We will give away one party for every $1500 we raise this month. Www.olemcdermittsfarm.com. A farm party will consist of admission for up to fifteen guests, fifteen drinks, fifteen boxes/ bags of popcorn and one pumpkin ( up to $15) for the lucky winner. Thank you for helping us give a ten year old boy his heart's desire, a family of his own.

Weepy days

I am so excited about our immigration approval that we are expecting to get within the week. I found out on Monday that our case number was number 35 and that we would be assigned an officer soon. I really want to call back today and check our status in line but I will exercise some self control. It has been a long process and knowing that our paperwork for our dossier is almost complete is exciting. Our fundraising has been great. We have raised right at $15,000. It has come in many diffent ways. When we added up the numbers and realized how much God had provided, I was surprised at the amount. I have just been paying the smaller bills and saving for the bigger payments that are on the horizon. We have always had exactly what we needed when payments were due. I have no doubt that God will continue to provide for Nick's adoption. I have had several weepy days the last few months. The weepy days are the days that I spend hours in my room, as my heart threatens to explode from my sadness of not having him home. I was blessed with a new picture of him two weeks ago, I was thrilled to "see" him again but sad to see how much he has grown and changed. His face is losing the little boy look. It is a reminder that he is growing up far to quickly in a place that is far from his mother. I received another surprise picture this morning. Yes, he is growing up....but the smile on his face as he knew that picture was for his mother was priceless. His entire face glowed! The trust that he has in me to complete the work to get him home, is what snaps me out of my weepy days. The waiting required at each step is painful at times. I just keep trusting and believing that the reward of having him home will erase the work, pain, frustration and heartache.... Sorta like child birth;) Keep praying that God will find favor with us and that He will rush the remaining steps to get Nick home to his waiting mother. I love each of you. Thanks for your continued prayers and support.

Ole McDermitt's Farm Party

Ole McDermitt's Farm was established to support our orphan habit. The farm is a fun place to visit in the fall. Everyone loves petting the animals, taking a hayride, trekking through the corn maze, and playing in the corn box. The only thing that could make it better is spending time at the farm with fourteen of your closest friends. It might even be possible to enjoy the farm with just your small group. How much is that experience worth to you? How about $10! To help us fund our adoption and get Nick home we are inviting you to use the link below to donate $10 or more to our adoption fund. We need to raise $3,000 dollars in the next three weeks to keep our adoption moving forward. For every $10 donation you make, you will receive one entry in our party drawing. Donations made using pAypal are not tax detuctable. Please use my email address to donate on line via paypal kaylamcdermitt@yahoo.com . If you would like to make a tax detuctable donation, mail a check payable to Living Hope to McDermitt's Adoption, 102 Baxter Road, Carrollton, Ga 30117. We will give away one party for every $1500 we raise this month. Www.olemcdermittsfarm.com. A farm party will consist of admission for up to fifteen guests, fifteen drinks, fifteen boxes/ bags of popcorn and one pumpkin ( up to $15) for the lucky winner. Thank you for helping us give a ten year old boy his heart's desire, a family of his own.

Making progress

It seems like it has taken years to get all our paperwork completed. It has taken us five months to complete the home study and all the dossier documents. We completed our fingerprints for immigration approval yesterday. We are waiting to get our immigration approval which is our last piece of paper. Once we receive the approval, we will overnight it to our adoption agency. The agency will send it to the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. Once it returns to the agency with Chinese seals, our file will be on its way to China. I cannot even express the joy and excitement that I feel thinking about our paperwork arriving in China. It has been a long road. The home study we had hoped to complete in a month took almost four months to complete. Why the long wait? I honestly have no idea. We could never catch a break. It took six weeks to get an appointment for our physicals. We encountered obstacles at every turn. There were days that I just sat in the floor and cried. Every delay meant more time passing before we could see Nick again. It breaks my heart to think about him just waiting on us to come to China and bring him home. We continue to pray that God will hand walk our file through the upcoming steps of the adoption process. The time frame for the next few steps varies greatly. No one really understands why it takes some families one month for dossier translation and other families three months. I have heard the average wait to get your letter of approval is sixty days... The shortest time frame I have heard is five days and the longest well over a hundred. It is our prayer that our long wait at the beginning of the process will be followed by an expedited time frame at the end. Please pray that God would find favor with us and allow Nick's adoption to progress at record speed. I really miss his sweet smile.

Adoption Puzzle Fundraiser

It seems like just yesterday that I was plotting and planning on a way to pay our $2900 agency fees. Nick loved putting puzzles together while visiting us. It seemed like an awesome idea to have a puzzle made from one of Nick's pictures and for a $10 donation put a person's name on the back of a puzzle piece. The math was easy, 300 times $10 would easily cover our agency fees. Once the puzzle was completed, we would have it framed between two pieces of glass. I have been amazed at how God has used the puzzle to raise more money that I ever imagined. We have currently sold 122 pieces and raised over $7000. I would love to sell the remaining 174 pieces for $10 each. My goal was to have a fundraiser that was not out of anyone's financial reach. If you are still wondering how I raised over $7000 selling 122 puzzle pieces at $10, some folks purchased more than one piece and then told me to put their name on one or two and resale the other pieces. It has really worked out great! If you would like to be a part of Nick's adoption puzzle donate using the link below or if you would like to make a tax detuctable donation mail a check payable to Living Hope to McDermitts, 102 Baxter Road, Carrollton, Ga 30117. The agency fees were just step one in the fundraising process, the estimated cost to finish funding Nick's adoption is about 22k.

Fundraising update

Phase one of our fundraising is behind us! Due to the generosity of family, friends, and strangers we quickly breezed through phase one and raised $8500. We are currently chipping away at phase two. We have raised $1500 of the $8000 needed to fund phase two. We are working hard. We invested about one hundred and fifty hours in our yard sale. We have about six weeks before we need to pay the phase two bills. As soon as we complete phase two, we will begin fundraising for phase three. The estimate for phase three is $16,000. Phase three is needed just before we travel to China to bring Nick home. We are praying that will be in November. Today's balance to complete Nick's adoption is about $23,000. I know all things are possible for him who believes. Please continue to pray for God's provision. I have no clue as to how we can raise the remaining funds. The exciting part of the fundraising is being in a position to watch God work. We will have round two of the yard sale this weekend, we still have about 195 puzzle pieces to sell, and we are working on some adoption grants. Those are all the tricks that I have up my sleeve:) This is the third time that we have stepped out in obedience and adopted internationally. God has always provided the funds in some way. The first adoption was completely paid for about two years after it was completed and the second about three years after it was completed. It is our prayer that this adoption will be funded before we board the plane to China. We are praying for a funding miracle but are willing to take on a long term payment plan if that is what it takes to get Nick home. If God has blessed you with more than your daily bread, please pray fully consider sharing a portion of that to help us bring our son home. Tax deductable donations can be made to Living Hope Adoption agency. Please write Kenny and Kayla McDermitt on the memo line and mail to: Living Hope Adoption Agency Attn: Tanya Pokorney 449 Pennsylvania Ave. Fort Washington, PA 19034

Yard sale update

So excited to report that we made $848 in sales and $490 in cash donations. We have the funds needed to submit our paperwork to immigration. We hope to submit those this week. We were blessed to have the yard sale in building that we could lock and leave until this weekend. We plan to continue with a second weekend of the yard sale this week.

Yard sale

Today, I will continue to work on the yard sale. This will be day three of sorting and pricing. The yard sale is tomorrow, June 1st. My goal is $800. Praying that we will make that goal. I could not do this without lots of help! Thanks to those who have donated your stuff, those who have helped organize the stuff, those who have been praying for its success, and to my children. There is no way that I could pull this off without the help of the McDermitt children. I know that they all see the Facebook posts of other families enjoying the beach, cruises, swimming pools, awesome graduation gifts, senior trips and other fun summer activities that are simply out of our financial reach. I see the huge sacrifices that they make so that we can continue to open our homes and hearts to the least of these. It is such a blessing that they are content with a trip to the marathon for ice cream and that they enjoy the treasure hunt of digging through boxes of donated yard sale items:) Our little family secret is I have let the each bring a treasure or two home:)

Nick's Adoption Puzzle Update

Nick loved putting puzzles together when he visited our home in March. We took our favorite picture of Nick and had it made into a 300 piece puzzle. Our goal was to sell each puzzle piece for $10 and make $3000 to cover about half of phase one fundraising. We wanted a fundraising option that was not out of anyone's price range. We sold ninety pieces and had a total of $6570. We were amazed by the love of God's people. One family donated $2,000 for a piece of Nick's puzzle. This family adopted several years ago and saw God raise the funds that they needed to bring their children home. They wanted to pay it forward and helped us with our adoption. Other puzzle pieces have sold for $10 to $1,000 dollars. Our goal was $10 for each of the 300 pieces. We are now in phase two of adoption fundraising. We need about $8000 to finance phase two. We think we have six to eight weeks before our next payment is due. We are waiting to receive our home study and then get our acceptance letter from immigration. The immigration approval will be the final part of our dossier. The dossier is the paperwork that we send to China. We have already sold a few pieces this week. We have 201 puzzle pieces left to claim. For a $10 donation per puzzle piece, we will write your name on a piece of Nick's adoption puzzle. Once the puzzle is complete, we will frame it between two pieces of glass. Nick will get to see the names of the people who helped bring him home to his family in America. If we can sell each one for just $10 each, we will have about a fourth of our next payment. To claim a piece of the puzzle you can donate via paypal. If you want your donation to be tax detuctable, you need to make your check payable to Living Hope and mail it to McDermitts, 102 Baxter Road, Carrollton, Ga. Make sure to tell us the name/s that you would like on each puzzle piece.

Merry Month of May

I never intended for so much much time to pass between posts. May has been a super busy month here on the farm. I have been juggling many balls and keeping them all in the air has been a challenge. We finally, I hope, answered all the questions and filled out all the forms needed for our home-study. It is currently sitting on someone's desk at the adoption agency waiting on final approval. Please pray that it will be in our hands by the end of the week. As some of you know, I agreed to take on the fancy title of New Horizons for Children Regional Coordinator for China. Kenny teases me about my full time volunteer position on a regular basis. I had no idea about the time commitment that went along with my fancy title. I feel like I lost an entire week in the month of May. The week of the hosting deadline is a blur. I talked to people from New York to California. At one point that week, I was communicating by text, phone conversation, email, and Facebook chatting with six people at one time. My family went on autopilot for a few days. Kenny was also out of town on business that entire week. The dishes and laundry piled up and a few of those days I never made it out of my pajamas. It was one of the best weeks of my life. I made some new friends who share my passion for the least of these. I show God operate in a variety of ways. One of my favorite stories from the week involved an orphan boy named Peter. A grandmother saw his picture and thought he looked like her grandson. Peter is one of our last chance kids due to his age. The grandmother wanted him to have a chance to experience the love of a family. She made a nice donation to help with his hosting fees and and started advocating for a family. In just a few hours, the entire amount needed for his hosting fees had been donated online to NHFC. Peter will be experiencing the love of a family this summer just thirty minutes from my home. The highlight of the week was that we found a host family for every one of the children available for the summer program. If you have not visited the photo listing, that fact might not like seem like such a big deal. If you did visit the photo listing, thank you for praying for the cutie pie with no arms, the children with Down's syndrome, the deaf/mute children, the girl with burn scars covering her face, arms, and legs, the boy with ms who will be wheelchair bound by his mid teens years (and whose life expectancy is mid twenties at best), the kids with various developmental delays, and the healthy older boys and girls. God provided a host family for everyone of them. I went on the interview trip to China, I met each one of them, I prayed and prayed for them by name. There is no way for me to convey to you the feelings that overwhelmed me then and now as I reflect on God's love for the least of these. Our family also experienced some personal adoption issues. I met a set of precious twins while in China. We tried everything possible to be allowed to adopt them at the same time as Nick. Our efforts were fruitless as they were adopted by another family. I am thrilled that they were adopted but heart broken that they will not be living here on the farm. A second adoption issue crept up with an older boy that I loved. His adoptive family ran into some major family emergencies and there was no way for them to complete his adoption before he aged out in November. Kenny and I contacted the adoption agency and offered to adopt him. We were nervous that we would not be able to complete the process before his birthday in November. A good friend of mine who was a head of us in the adoption process stepped forward and her family is adopting him. Our family celebrated a milestone event with our two oldest sons this month. Kevin and Ty graduated from high school this past week. We completed Kevin's adoption from Latvia three and a half years ago. It has taken lots of blood, sweat, tears and prayers for him to accomplish this goal. He has only been speaking English for four years. I am still amazed that Kevin was able to accomplish this goal in such a short period of time. We had several nights of senior projects and studying the last few weeks. Ty's hard work paid off and he graduated Valedictorian of his class. Several days were spent drafting his speech. The biggest blessing of the month as been the addition of a little person to our daily routine. We agreed to help out a family experiencing some family issues and took on the care of a precious little boy. He was injured in an accident and needed to spend time with a family who could attend to his medical needs. His outgoing personality has been the highlight of our days. He has helped us to laugh and not take life quite so serious. He adores the older McDermitt children and the variety of animals who live on the farm. He is a bit bossy and will not let you forget that he is around. He loudly lets you know when an animal is in sight, that he is hungry, that he is thirsty, that he is hot or cold, that he needs to use the rest room, and most importantly that he is done. Snuggling on the couch with a book or plastic dinosaur in hand, has provided many hours of entertainment for all of us. My children have been more than amazing during this entire adventure. The past month has stretched me to a level of exhaustion that I have never known while at the same time moving my relationship with the Lord to a level I never could have imagined. He has been my rock and my refuge in the storm. He has sustained me and energized me. He has loved me and carried me. He has chastised me and blessed me. It has been a roller coaster ride and I am thankful for his constant companionship. This week, I am back in the fundraising mode. We have a yard sale planned for Saturday, adoption puzzle pieces available, a sweet friend hosting an online Avon party, grant writing, and several other things in the works. The thing that keeps me moving is the sweet little voice that I hear coming from a cell phone in China each week that says, "Mother, I love you and I "mess" you too".

A mother's love

People are always asking me how I can foster and host children and then let them go. The number one concern that people have about fostering and hosting is the ability to let them go when the time comes. I understand that fear and concern. I have lived through it many times in my role as foster and host mom. As difficult as it is for me to let them go, I understand what the children take away from their experience in our home. How do I understand it? I unlike the children who come to visit am blessed to have a mom who loves me unconditionally. She has been my biggest cheerleader for the forty-five plus years that I have been on this earth. I know what it is like to have experienced the love of a mother. I am blessed that she is a phone call away when I need her. There have been times in my live that I have done or not done something because I knew exactly how my mom would feel about the situation. My desire for all the children who cross my path, is that they too would experience the unconditional love of a mother. God has blessed me with the ability to love them like my own while they are in my presence. I have been involved in this ministry of Motherhood for a number of years. A ministry that I did not think belonged to me. I had other aspirations for my life. I wanted to be a physical therapist or a lawyer. God worked in my life in ways that consistently put me in path of children. Not only was it children but children who where rough around the edges and needed a mother's love. I was mothering before I was married to Kenny. I tutored the football, basketball, and baseball players who needed help to stay on the team. I went to their games and cheered them on to victory. Being in the school hallways, I knew who was doing what on the weekends. I was not shy about reprimanding them for their choices that did not make me proud. I mothered the team of misfits as a twenty-two year old first year teacher. I loved them with everything I had. I once found myself in the middle of a drug deal gone bad as I fought to keep my boys out of trouble. As guns were drawn, my boys stood in the gap to keep me safe. It seems that I made a lasting impression on both sides, as very few of those boys had ever had someone love them just for being them. The gift of mothering the least of these has continued to be a part of me. I am constantly asked when I will be done fostering, hosting, advocating and loving the least of these. I will be done when I am either no longer breathing or when they all have a mother to love them. The highlight of my recent trip to China was meeting Nick's Grandfather and Father. The visit to his home place was a wonderful experience for me. Nick's father would not talk to me. Nick's grandfather had lots to say to me. One of the things he expressed to me was there are no women left in the home. I think that he understood the importance of a mother's love in the life of a young boy. Nick was blessed to have known his mother. She died when he was five or six years old. The cause of death was listed as tumors of the liver. I have no idea about the details of her death. If is was sudden, or if Nick slowly watched her die. I do know that he loved her. Nick and I talked about her while he was visiting with our family during the hosting program. The language barrier limited our conversation. I asked him if she was beautiful? His face lit up with the biggest smile as he replied, "yes." He experienced the love of a mother and wants to experience that again. As Mother's Day approaches, I ask you to prayerfully consider how God is asking you to practice true religion. James 1:27 commands us all to come alongside orphans in some way. How can you help a child experience the love of a mother for the first time or maybe again? I am blessed that God has given me the ability to minister to the least of these in numerous ways. It is my prayer that mothers and people who are blessed to have an awesome mom will come alongside me to help me do what it takes to get my son home.... and help me connect other boys with their moms.

Home study update

We are still working on the home study. We had hoped to have that behind us this week. We uncovered a small hiccup in regards to character references and are diligently working to resolve that problem. Just glad that we found it sooner and not later. I always offer my assistance to my children as they complete writing assignments. Helping Kevin and Ty write character references on their parents is a bit awkward. I know that I could help them give glowing reports on their amazing life on the farm. The problem is that is not allowed. They need to complete that task all on their own. I am bugging a few other people to do or redo their references to get them in the correct format to include in both our home study and then our dossier. Everything up to this point has been paid for in same fashion. It has been fun watching to see all the different ways that God has provided for the funding. As soon as the home study is complete, we will have the needed documents to apply to immigration. Praying that will be in the next ten to fourteen days. We will need additional funds at that time. The current fundraising projects that we have underway include the puzzle and an auction on my face book page. I was blessed with some shopping money on my trip to China. The items that I purchased are now for sale or auction. We are also collecting yard sale items for a yard sale. The yard sale will be at the beginning of June. We will start the grant writing process once I receive a copy of our home study. We missed the deadline for the first quarter grants for 2013. We will hopefully be near the front of the line for the next grant period. Be praying that we will be blessed with a grant. We are also in communication with an adoption group in north Georgia about a possible grant from their organization. Our fundraising needs in a nutshell, funds to file our paperwork with immigration, in ten to fourteen days. The next step is a huge chunk of change needed to send all our paperwork to China, needed as soon as we get immigration approval, thirty to sixty days from now. The final step will be the funds needed just before we travel to China. I hate to say out loud that it will most likely be six to nine months before we travel. I was hoping it would be much sooner but the reality is six to nine more months. We cannot travel in September and October due to the farm being open. The good thing that I do have some ways to communicate with Nick. I have a friend who teaches English classes at his orphanage, she gives him a hug from me on a regular basis and sends messages between the two of us. I also try to talk to him on the phone each week. The conversation is brief due to the language barrier, but he knows that we love him and are working to get back to China. Thanks for your continued prayers and support!

Feed my sheep.... part one

For a season of my walk with the Lord,my disciple mentor was Peter. The two of us were cut from the same cloth. We have both been a bit zealous and loud about our relationship with the Lord. My personal calling from the Lord as been to advocate for the least of these. That calling has taken on many shapes. Looking back on my life, I was advocating for the least of these before I even knew that was my calling. My journey with the least of these has had its headaches. Several times we have opened our hearts and offered ourselves to the least of these. We have stepped out in faith and ask some orphans to accept us as their forever family. The offer was refused. I cannot begin to explain the pain in my heart that accompanied those refusals. After one rejection, I was reading my Bible and my friend Peter was at the center of the lesson. He and Jesus were having a bit of a heart to heart. The Lord clearly wanted Peter to hear his words, as he told him three times to "Feed my Sheep". I admit that I was crushed and thought that Jesus was playing a cruel joke on me. Had I not just had my heart stomped on as I tried to do that very thing...Feed His sheep. I spent a bit of time reflecting on what I know about sheep. We have raised a few during my years on the farm. We are known as the sheep family in our town. Some days I think that we have spent more on the four legged sheep that call our farm home than the two legged ones. One thing I know about sheep is sheep clearly know their master's voice or even their master's car. For a few years, Kenny drove an old rust colored volvo that had a distinctive sound. I knew he had turned on Baxter Road each day when the alarm sounded. The alarm was the thundering feet of the flock. They knew that their master was home and it was time to eat. They ran to the gate to meet their master. I started wondering if that is what God wanted from me.... to run to the gate when I heard my master's voice. God was clearly telling me that my role was to be ready when he called me. My assignment was to Feed His Sheep. The feed choice for his sheep has varied over the years. Sometimes the only bit of nourishment that I have set on the table has been prayer for a particular lamb. I never know what becomes of some of the lambs I just pray and stand ready for God to use me in the life of that lamb as he sees fit. Some of the lambs have spent some time on the farm. Some of them have been added permanently to the family flock.

God's amazing provision

We have 78 pieces of the puzzle claimed! We have had donation amounts from $10 to $2000 for a single piece. I had hoped to sell the 300 pieces and have $3000. God has been amazing and we have received $6400 for 78 pieces. We have paid the home study fees, agency fees and post placement fees! There are no words to express our thankfulness! Selling the remaining puzzle 220 pieces for $10 each will generate a total of $8600. The estimate to fund the entire adoption is 35k.

Be a piece of NIck's adoption puzzle

Fundraising update: I sat at my desk on Friday, April 12th going through the stacks of adoption paperwork. As I crunched the numbers on the contracts sitting in front of me, I realized that we would need close to seven thousand dollars in about 30 days. I was a bit overwhelmed:> I had already started the puzzle fundraiser and quickly realized that selling the 300 puzzle pieces for $10 each would not fund what we needed in 30 days. In the next four days, we raised $2500! I talked to the agency on Monday and we were given a later due date for one thousand dollars. In four days, I we had gone from needing seven thousand in thirty days to $3500 in the next twenty-six days. Donations continued to trickle in and here we are are at day eleven and we only need $2900 in the next nineteen days.The cool part is I have only "sold" forty-one puzzle pieces. How did that happen, you maybe wondering? I had two sweet friends, purchase a puzzle piece for one thousand, yep, two thousand dollars for 2 pieces. A few other people donated more than $10 and told me they only wanted their name on one piece. They just wanted Nick to know that they helped get him here. The bottom line is we only need to sale the remaining 259 pieces for $10 to fully fund the amount we need in the next nineteen days. At that point, we will have to start on the next fundraiser to get the dossier to China. To donate quickly and painslessly on line, click on the following; Thank you!

Two Fishes and Five Loaves

Saturday was a whirlwind of activity at the McDermitt home. We found out late Friday that our caseworker was coming for our first home study visit at five on Saturday. We made the decision to let the first meeting include the home check and interviews with all nine of us. There was lots to be done. We wanted to make the best first impression that we could make. There was one little hitch in the schedule. I was already committed to spending part of Saturday at Belk selling Charity Sale tickets. Kenny and the rest of the crew would have to get the house ready without me. I felt terrible about leaving them to accomplish the house cleaning task. I prayed that God would multiply the work of their hands and that my time away would be fruitful. I did not have the luxury of "wasting" a Saturday. I had no idea what my day would hold. I stood at the entrance of Belk for over three hours selling tickets. All the money I raised was for our adoption. I was a bit nervous and spent the first thirty minutes experimenting with what to say. I got in a groove and sells picked up. I continued to get bolder and bolder and started using the opportunity to talk about my relationship with The Lord. I asked numerous people to pray for God to multiply the five dollar bill that they were giving me for their ticket. During one conversation, a man overheard me talking. He told me that he did not have any cash but he would be back with some. I had heard that several times already. Some time later, I looked up and he was smiling at me. He had five one dollar bills in his fist. Smiling, he said, "I told you I would be back." I thanked him and asked him to pray that God would multiply his efforts. He told me that we would be praying together. He nodded for me to step away from the table. He spent a few minutes talking to me about The Lord and his faithfulness to his children. We bowed our heads together and he started praying. I felt like I was in the presence of one of God's greatest saints. He went to bat on our behalf with Jesus. I think his t-shirt and Bermuda shorts were damp with perspiration when he had finished praying. The sweat on his gold chain was glistening in the sunlight. He reminded Jesus about he once fed 5000 men, not including the women and children, with two fish and five loaves. He then asked Jesus to take his five one dollar bills and multiply them to the exact amount that we needed to complete our mission. He also thanked God for my faithfulness to God's call for my life. Wow! I was speechless for a few seconds. He smiled and left. I returned to my station and finished up my time slot selling tickets. I sold close to fifty tickets that day. Way more than I thought I would. I also made a few connections for the hosting program and was told to stop by a local business on Monday to pick up a check for our adoption. I came home to a check in the mailbox and donations in my paypal account. As for the house, Kenny and the children did an awesome job getting it ready for our first home study visit. God had given us another fruitful day and I was the one who came away with the blessing.

Be a piece of NIck's Adoption Puzzle

We invite you to be a part of our adoption journey by purchasing a piece of Nick's adoption puzzle. Nick loved putting puzzles together while he was visiting us over the Chinese New Year. We created a 300 piece puzzle with his picture. You can purchase a piece of that puzzle for $10 and we will write your name on the back of a puzzle piece so that Nick can see who helped bring him home. Use the donate button to easily purchase a piece of Nick's puzzle. Check back for pictures of us putting Nick's puzzle together. If you would like to make a tax detuctible donation, please mail a check payable to Living Hope to Nick's Adoption Fund, 102 Baxter Road, Carrollton, Ga 30117. Thank you for being a piece of Nick's Adoption Puzzle! We have sold fourteen pieces already!

Two Steps Forward

I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with the daunting task of fundraising eight thousand dollars in the next thirty days. In my mind, I was trying to invision how those sixteen much needed steps in the adoption journey would happen in such a short period of time.  I packed up my Bible and headed to my Bible study this morning. My mind and my heart were in a slight tough of war on the short drive to church. My heart knows that God loves me and my head wanted to make a fool proof plan for making sure we had the needed funds for the next round of adoption payments. I was having an internal battle with myself. Should we investigate the option of borrowing from Kenny's retirement fund or should I just remain calm and wait for the Lord. My heart longs for Jesus to come riding in on a big white stallion and save us from our fundraising woes. My head is thinking that I need a back up plan for the big guy on the stallion. I settle in for the Bible study and I soon have the feeling that I am in an audience of one. Me, just me, sitting at the feet of Jesus as he tells me via 2 Corinthians 20:12-22 to give thanks and to wait on him today. I am praying that I am hearing him straight this morning. Today is day one in operation mark off sixteen steps (remember each step represents five hundred dollars) in thirty days and I do not have a second to spare. I have a few errands to complete on my drive home. At all three stops, God has a person waiting to ask me about our adoption journey. I asked them all to pray for God's provision and grace for our journey. Two out of the three agreed to pray and offered words of encouragement. The third was trying to nicely tell me that I was out of my mind to even think about adding one more to the fold and even more crazy to think that people would actually support my plan with their checkbook. I made the choice to  pray for her, silently of course, and to keep smiling and nodding my way back to the van. I closed the door to the van and was to afraid to think about anything. I did not want one ounce of doubt to travel home with me. I turned onto Baxter Road thinking that Day One was behind me and that I had not made much progress on the adoption journey today. I stopped by the mailbox before turning into the driveway and  uncovered an envelope addressed to me. Inside, two steps of our adoption journey covered! I cried for an hour! God gave me a few other gifts on my travels today and I am going to bed tonight, $1045 closer to having Nick home. All He asked from me today was to give Thanks and to wait. I serve an awesome God!

Summer hosting

I returned from China and headed to the mountains for a spring break trip with the McDermitt children. It was such a blessing that we had planned and paid for the little trip months ago. I had no idea that I would spend so much of that time matching the children I met on my China adventure with their summer host families.I was blown away with God's provision and we matched thirty-three orphans during the first day! It was a long day. I wondered into the kitchen in my pjs about 9 am to start checking emails and returning phone calls. I only left the kitchen for potty breaks, never got out of my pjs and worked until one am, sixteen hours straight. I had no idea that my day would turn out that way. My children were amazing! They pitched in along with MeMaw, and allowed me to dedicate my day to connecting orphans with families. I am in awe of the love of God's people for the least of these. I talked to some great people all across the United States and made some connections with some families who I now consider my friends. There are still some great children available for summer hosting. If you are interested, visit www.NewHorizonsforchildren.org for hosting information.

Whirlwind

The last four weeks have been a whirlwind! I have been to China and back, spent some time in the mountains with the McDermitt crew, spent hours connecting orphans from China with summer host families, marked off a number of items from the home study list (including medicals for six two legged family members and fourteen four legged ones), spent a day in the emergency room, three days recovering from a respiratory infection and spent hours trying to decide how to tackle the daunting task of raising thirty-five thousand dollars, give or take a few thousand! Being a visual sorta girl, I need a picture to make it happen! My picture, a mountain with seventy steps. The mountain represents the location of Nick's family home in China and the experience I had on that mountain (promise to share that story). Each of the seventy steps represents $500. Thanks to God's provision, I climbed four steps before I left for China. A family who shares my passion for orphans volunteered to cover the cost of our home study. Four steps, two thousand dollars the day after Nick boarded the plane for China. It was covered before he made the journey back to the orphanage! During the last week, we have almost taken another step. I am so excited to see how our experience will unfold. I spent a few hours during my visit to China at the Great Wall. The height of the steps on the wall are not all the same. Some of those steps gave my short legs a challenge and others were easy to master. I expect the seventy steps separating us from Nick to be the same as my Great Wall climbing experience. Some steps will threaten to stop the climb and others we will take two or four  at a time.
We start our home study visits this weekend. It is expected to take thirty days, maybe less to have it completed. I will need to climb sixteen additional steps before I can hold that all important piece of paper in my hand. We have to pay agency fees and post placements deposits before that document will be ours. Pray for God to make those sixteen steps doable and not to challenging, we are still early in the climb. We need eight thousand dollars in thirty days!

The Journey Begins..... again:>

We are excited about our new adoption journey. We are blessed to have ten children. Seven who live on the farm, two who live in heaven, and one who currently lives in an orphanage in China. We invite you to join us on our journey to bring Nick home to the farm. Nick will be the fifth child to join our family via adoption. Nick spent five weeks in our home during Feb. and March as part of New Horizons for Children's First China hosting program. We have hosted a total of sixteen children in our home during the last seven years. We met our oldest son, Kevin, on the hosting program four years ago. Nick returned to China on March eighth, and part of our heart returned with him. I was blessed to be a part of the New Horizon's Mission team that traveled to China March 17- 28th. I spent two days at Nick's orphanage during the mission trip. He was excited to see me again. We are counting down the days until he returns to the farm as Nick McDermitt! I was blessed to meet his father and grandfather on my trip. I will share that wonderful story in my next post.