Nathan Turns 15!

Amazing!

Nathan turned 15 on Sept. 21st and he hasn't left this spot....

We got him this guitar in celebration of the awesome son that he is and he plays it - at all times! School, sleep, and eating are getting in the way just a little and he hasn't figured out how to clear his schedule, but that will come....

We love you Nate! Keep up the great work!

A New Name!

Tuesday, September 14th David took his three girls down to the court house for what we thought would be just another formality in the last steps of our "post placement" adoption process.

But as we stood before the judge with our right hand raised, a heavy....joyfull....amazing feeling came over us.

The judge began to speak of our commitment to raise Acacia as though she had been our own from the beginning of her little life. He declared that her name would now legally be - from here forward - Acacia Grace Shore, and that she would be entitled to any inheritance in equal portion.

Before leaving the court room we were invited to have a picture taken with him. As he gave the girls a piece of candy from his desk and shook our hand, Acacia spontaneously leaned over and kissed the judge on his cheek. It was perfect!

We gathered our things to leave and in one more tone of declaration, the judge said, "Now go celebrate! This is a great day!"

David's eyes filled with tears as laughter came over me, and we left so impacted by the completion of our little girl being given a new name!

Our Family Tree...

A very talented young lady named Sarah Sidwell, is an art major at Belmont University and making her mark in the world of photography! She recently went on a missions trip to Africa and returned home so impacted, she just had to do something to help spread the word about the need for adoption in the lives of so many little children. So Sarah decided to use her gift and take photos of families who have adopted a child and capture the amazing beauty of being grafted in....

You can contact Sarah and see more of her work through:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarah-Sidwell-Photography/128723460499582?ref=ts

Thank you Sarah and may God bless all that you put your hand to do!

Jake's New Smile!

Well, here he is!

Today we finally received the photo Isabel has been SO excited, and sometimes patiently waiting for. This is Jake, the little boy who got a new smile because of Isabel's efforts to raise $250 for the surgery he needed on his cleft lip.

Jake is 1 year old. He lives in a very poor area of the Philippines. His parents could never afford to pay for the surgery their son needed. But someone told them about a hospital that had a free cleft surgery program for poor children. They took Jake to St. Elizabeth's Hospital and a few days later he received surgery from Smile Train surgeon Dr Ramon Gonzales on May 5, 2010. His surgery took under an hour!

We want to thank everyone who gave pocket change, sent a check or bought some lemonade!

Jake's smile is the best reward. What a handsome little guy!

Lemonade for Lives....

Last months fundraiser for "Smile Train" was such a huge success, that we decided to raise money once a month for a different ministry organization.

Isabel had her 2nd Lemonade -4- Lives fundraiser in support of "Drawn From Water" organization.

It was a beautiful day watching people come for a cup of lemonade and leave impacted by Isabel's heart and efforts for children in need. The $50 she will send is a small amount compared to the need, but we pray that many will visit the website and give financially to this group of people who have given up everything to save the lives of these little ones.

For those of you who did not make it to Isabel's lemonade stand last weekend....please go onto the www.drawnfromwater.org website and watch their video!

A New Friendship!

I met Lisa through a "divine appointment" while searching for last minute travel items at Target two days before David and Caleb were leaving to pick up Acacia. Within a few sentences into our conversation, we found ourselves staring at one another.... SHOCKED to find that she and her husband Mark were traveling on the same flight to Ethiopia to pick up their little girl!

Since everyone arrived back home last February, we finally got around to spending some time together. We watched the kids play, shared a meal, talked about our experiences so far, and just had a wonderful time getting to know each other!

It will be so sweet to see these two little ones grow.

Lemonade for Lives....

Fundraising efforts in support of a child through the "Smile Train" organization have been completed and Isabel did an amazing job!!! Not just raising the $250 to give a child a new smile, but more than that, she opened up the hearts of so many people to what is on the heart of God!

Isabel began raising this money because she was so heart broken by the magazine clip Grandma Judie had shown her of some children who would be forever changed by a simple surgery on their cleft pallet - giving them a smile. Isabel was set into motion! She started off by taking the article to school and sharing about the cause. In one day she came home with $12 of pocket change from teachers and students that had planned on using it in the snack machine.

Next we sent out an email.... Thank you all who are so far away for responding!

Then she finished up her efforts with a lemonade stand that brought an awesome response from people all around the neighborhood!

One women we didn't know who stopped for lemonade began to cry as she heard Isabel share about the children in need. She was so moved that she came back two more times to give a larger donation. Come to find out her oldest son was born with a cleft pallet and had 7 surgeries to complete the work he needed.... he is now 23 years old.

Many people were compelled to give much larger donations than the 25 cents a cup that Isabel was asking for.

Below is a picture of Isabel with one of her favorite costumers - Papap! Finishing up with his Saturday mowing he pulled up for a little drive-thru service. Mimi and Papap live next door to us and they mean a lot to Isabel! Thanks so much neighbors of Chestnutwood!

The Flood

As many of you are aware, Nashville experienced unprecedented rainfall on May 1st and 2nd of this year. The flooding that followed destroyed thousands of homes, businesses, and sadly, took several lives as well.

Our business, of 19 years, was nearly destroyed from flooding associated with Mill Creek. We are so thankful for God's awesome protection on 5 employees, who voluntarily showed up to try and save our plant inventory. They lost their personal vehicles and nearly lost their lives as they had to be rescued from our facility. Thank you to so many people who helped us raise money to replace their vehicles.

Words cannot express our most sincere gratitude to all of you who prayed, volunteered, contributed funds, and encouraged us through this entire experience. It has been a life changing.

To you and me....

June 9th, 2010 marked the 20 year anniversary that David and I have been married.

God's grace and mercy has been poured out on us - to preserve us and continue His work in our lives together. We want to give Him honor and glory for the beautiful gift of our marriage He has blessed us with.

We celebrated this mark in time with some much needed rest, quiet and sharing story after story of our lives together.... bringing to remembrance all that we so love about the other.

It was simply beautiful!

Acacia's Story....

Early in 2008, God began to put international adoption on our hearts....well actually, it was more like He kept putting it right in front of our noses and we just couldn't see around it. In July of that same year we started the application process through America World Adoption Agency.

During the long, emotional "paper pregnancy" we heard from Heavenly Father what we would name our new little girl....she would be re-named: Acacia Grace Shore. We fell in love with the name! With the Acacia Tree being native to her country (Ethiopia, Africa) we felt that it was a beautiful fit, but we had no idea how significant her name would prove to be, and how specificly God was speaking to us. This was HIS name for her....and His confirmation that this was our little girl!

While we waited, we learned about some of the attributes of the "Acacia" tree.... and it began to give us insight into her little spirit: strong; able to survive harsh environments because it's roots grow very deep; the sap is still today used for medicines and is referred to as "the healing tree"; (and the most significant) it is not prone to disease....

Finally, in October of 2009 we got the phone call that we had been longing for....our referral. David and I both listened on the phone as they shared with us about a little girl they had matched us with. She was a healthy, 8 month old baby girl. She was a surviving twin who had been born to a mommy and daddy who both had Aids....but she did not!

As her story was shared with us, tears weld up in our eyes. We stared at one another in amazement....God's hand withheld that disease from her!!! And His name for her was clearly our confirmation....she was not prone to disease! We were beginning to catch a glimpse of the understanding that our little girl was impacting our lives as much as we were hers. We were simply honored to be a part of this adoption that was SO on the heart of God.

We had four months until we would travel to bring her home, and it was almost unbearable! During this time, God began to show us that our little girl was a representation of us....His children. Reminding us that we all have been rescued, adopted, grafted into His Kingdom/family through His son - Jesus.

"The Rescue of the Lord" became the theme in prayer as we packed and prepared for David and our oldest son Caleb to travel and bring little Acacia home.

Watch video below -

"The Rescue"

Nathan put this video together of the journey to bring home our Acacia.

Our New Addition!!!

Welcome home Acacia Grace.....

We are so blessed to have you, our new little girl.