The Winslow Family at Grace Abounding Farm: Zoey

Showing posts with label Zoey. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Dear Mrs. Winslow...

this is a letter I got in the mail yesterday. Such a blessing and encouragement. Written in better cursive writing than I could do it said...

"Dear Mrs. Winslow,
I'm praying for you and your family about Zoey. Mrs. Bennett tolled us about your family. I'm Alexys Licciardi. I'm in Mrs. Bennett's class. She's talked about you adopting children all around the world and we will pray for your family! :) :)

Love, Alexys :) :) "

This just made my day! Thank you so much Alexys! Her teacher, Mrs. Bennett, is one of my long time friends in the Lord. She teaches at the Christian school where Alexys goes. Thank you for sharing our story with your class, Cindy!! We love you!!!

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Celebrating Zoey...A video Tribute!!

We were soooo incredibly blessed to have our dear new friends, Maya Rowancak and Teresa Grersan, make this beautiful video tribute to our precious Zoey! What an incredible blessing!!

Take a peek and enjoy! They did an amazing job! It truly captures Zoey and her Joy Unspeakable!

Thank you all for your love and support!

Later today...

We will have a memorial service for our little Zoey girl! Madelyn and Grace will be singing this. Thought I'd share a preview of it with you! Just precious! Love you girls! Thank you!

Thursday, January 16, 2014

To God Be The Glory---It's a Girl!!!

Thank you for joining us and encouraging us on this amazing journey!! Filled with joy unspeakable, great sorrow, and amazing beauty rising from the ashes!!

May we announce to you this day...our precious Bulgarian blessing from the Lord that we hope to add to our adoption:

Introducing to you:

JoyAnna Deneva Zara Winslow

JoyAnna means: rejoicing, joy, favor and grace.
Deneva means: strong and determined
Zara means: blossoming flower, splendor, dawn, God has remembered!

She will be 7 in April.

She lives at the same orphanage our Zoey did.

We truly covet your prayers! God is moving mountains! Miracles have occurred which have even allowed us to put our adoption on hold of Jeremiah until such a time as our paperwork for JoyAnna is caught up. Our agency has told us: "prepare to travel on a first trip to meet her very quickly!". Please pray for open doors at the orphanage. For files of the precious children to be released! For life saving changes to be made!

*Due to the wonderful wording on our homestudy, there needs to be NO homestudy update (we first thought there would have to be!)

*Due to Zoey being in heaven, our USCIS officer says there needs to be NO extra fees paid to add her to our adoption!

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James 1:17

Thank you precious Zoey. Your life of amazing strength, and joy unspeakable has made an amazing impact on our family and on our world! Without ever leaving your crib, you were a shining light for ALL to see! Our little star! Now in glory...you shine eternal! We LOVE you!

Thursday, January 09, 2014

Thank you dear friends, we thank you!

Zoey is safe in the arms of Jesus! We love you!

Thank you all for the outpouring of love and support you have given us during this difficult time. We love you all soooo much! "We thank our God for you!" Phil 1:3

Thursday, January 02, 2014

Awesome Adoption Video!!

" Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift your hands toward Him for the life of your young children!" Lamentations 2:19

Please take a few minutes and watch this awesome video on adoption of special needs children and what God has to say about it! It's awesome!!!

Project Hopeful: Adoption is Redemption from Lantern Vision on Vimeo.

Happy New Year! And thank you for all of your love and support! We love you!

PS...only $4,629.00 needed to reach our goal and be fully funded!! Hooray! Thank you God!!!

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

"May the Lord God Reward You Fully For What You Have Done!" Ruth 2:12

On this last day of this wonderful year of 2013, we would like to say..."Thank You!"...from the bottom of our hearts!!

It has been an amazing year of our Lord's wonderful provision!

Thank you all for helping us to love orphans! Thank you for joining us on this journey!

The t-shirts are here! It's time for the kids to come home! Right??

By the way....it's not too late to make a donation to help us rescue our children!! Would you like to join us on this journey on this final day of 2013??

You can visit our family support page right here: Reece's Rainbow Winslow Page

We are soooooo close to our goal!!!

Thank you again! We sure do love you! Please feel free to share this with anyone you would like!

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Praising the Lord--OUR GREAT PROVIDER!!!

And so yesterday....we posted about our need. We asked you all to storm the gates and pray...thank you from the bottom of our hearts! This has been amazing! Today our Reece's Rainbow Account See It Here! went up by $1,940.00!!! Also..at church today...we were showered with gifts that totaled an amazing amount of $1,302.25!! Thank you all soooooo much!

And so take a peek at our thermometer over to the side of our blog! Yesterday morning we needed $13,500.00 to be fully funded. Now, just a tad over 24 hours later....(a bit more than one day!!!) we only need $7,135.00!!! Thank you God's faithful people from the bottoms of our hearts! You are helping us to rescue precious Zoey and Jerry!!!

Joshua 4:6--When our children ask.."What do these "stones" mean?" we will tell them! "God is good!"

8/6/2014 WE ARE HOME!!
6/23/2014--Our adoption was made official in Bulgaria Court! Welcome Jeremiah Albert Erol Winslow and JoyAnna Yanka Deneva Winslow to our family!!! Yay!!
2/25/14--Received our written referral today, and our travel dates! We'll be meeting JoyAnna on the 17th or March! Praise God!
2/11/14--Received verbal referral for JoyAnna! Now awaiting the Minister's signature for the written referral! Please pray for that to be soon! Last time it was 3 weeks in-between!
1/16/14--Offically added our daughter JoyAnna to our adoption! A Blessing From the Lord!
1/15/14--Received our 1-800 approval!!!
1/6/13--Received word from Bulgaria that our precious Zoey was with Jesus in heaven. Now she is more joyous than ever!
12/6/13-12/18/13--Took our first trip to Bulgaria and met and loved on our Zoey and Jerry! Wow!
11/21/13--Received our travel dates for our first trip to Bulgaria to meet our kiddos! Praise the Lord!
10/31/13--Received this email today: Your dossier was officially approved and the verbal referral issued yesterday at the IAC meeting!!! Now, you are waiting on the signature required on the referral so that you can receive travel dates. As long as these signed within the next few weeks, you will for sure travel before the end of the year. Toni's goal is to have you there in December, possibly sooner if the signature comes quickly.
8/23/13--Glenn and I had our physicals today and met our soon to be new family Dr.! Yeah!! We also sent the bulk of our dossier priority mail to our agency, too! Praise the Lord!
8/22/2013--TODAY WE RECEIVED USCIS APPROVAL!! HOORAY! WE'LL BE MAILING OUT OUR COMPLETE DOSSIER TOMORROW!! PRAISE THE LORD!
8/2013--Rejoice with us! We have been approved for a $1,200.00 adoption grant from the Rescued fund! Thank you Jesus!
July 11th, 2013--we go to our longly awaited finger print appointment. Glenn, Me, and Madelyn. Now it's off for USCIS approval! Please pray!
June 24, 2013--We received our longly awaited finger printing appointment from homeland security! Glenn, Madelyn and I will go to the NH office in Bedford on July 11th! Just a couple of weeks away! Hooray! Thank you Lord! One step closer to our babies!
June 4th, 2013--Picked up our notarized homestudy! Praise the Lord! Went to our state house and got one copy of it apostilled which will be sent to our placing agency, and then to Bulgaria for approval by the ministry of Justice there! Please pray! Sent another copy along with a treasurer's check and our i-800A paperwork to immigration in Texas! Please pray for a speedy immigration approval and fingerprint appointments for Glenn, Me, and Madelyn! Then, we can get approval to schedule our first trip!! Praising the Lord! Rejoicing!
May 31st, 2013. HOORAY! PRAISE THE LORD!! Our homestudy is FINALLY done and ready to be signed! It should be signed today, June 3rd! Then we can send in our USCIS immigration paperwork for approval and proceed toward our first trip! Rejoice with us! Thank you for your prayers!
March 18, 2013. Finally received updated homestudy and emailed it to our placing agency! We are praying this is the final revision needed!
February 23rd, 2013--Our placing agency sent the changes that need to be made to our homestudy back to the homestudy agency! Hopefully it will all be completed by next week!
February 22, 2013--We learn that our homestudy is complete! It was sent to our placing agency for review on February 15th! Thank you Lord!
February 12, 2013--We receive word our homestudy is almost complete. We fax our FBI checks to homestudy agency!
February 10, 2013--Dear friends begin a Go Fund Me page for us!
February 6th, 2013--We receive our apostilled FBI reports back from Washington, DC
February 4th, 2013--Received our renewed passports in the mail.
January 25th, 2013--We send our FBI checks to Washington DC to be apostilled.
January 24, 2013--Received our criminal background checks from the FBI in Virginia.
January 14, 2013--We sent out our passport renewals.
January 13, 2013--Glenn and I have our passport photos taken for our renewal. A real date!
January 5th, 2013--We have our first visit from the social worker who is doing our homestudy!
December 21st, 2012--We go to our local police department and get fingerprinted. We mail them to the FBI in Virginia
December 20th, 2012--We meet our newest friends in the Lord...The Pressler Family!
December 14th, 2012---We fax copies of all documents to our placing agency!
December 13th, 2012---We are featured on a local radio program and talk about our adoption!
December 7th, 2012--We bring completed contract to homestudy agency with money, and we go to our state house and have adoption documents apostilled. Our Reece's Rainbow account is approved!
December 5th, 2012--Our placing agency tells us about Edward, and a private donor who will give a large donation if a family includes him in their adoption. We say..."YES!!"
December 4, 2012--We say "YES!" to Zoey and commit to her. We send the $3,500.00 commitment fee!
November 29th, 2012--We find out about the need for a family for Zoey. We pray! We receive a call from a dear friend who says..."Did you see the post about Zoey?? I think she is supposed to be a Winslow!"
November 28th, 2012--We found out that Theodore was matched with the other family! We cried and prayed.
November 21, 2012--God provided us with a homestudy agency only 1/2 hour from our home that was willing to take all of our previous homestudies and compile them to help complete our new homestudy!
November 23rd, 2012--Began other fundraising efforts--to include the Winslow Warmer from the Dutch Candle Company! Thank you Jon!
November 15th 2013--Completed interview process with About A Child agency!
November 13th, 2012--$3,500.00 goal reached!!
October 20th, 2012--We received our first chip in donation!
October 20th, 2012--We set up a chip in fund to raise money for the commitment fee for one child of $3,500.00
October 15th, 2012--We contacted About A Child Agency and put in an official inquiry about Theodore!
October 13, 2012---After Adeye had put out a plea for several children...we prayed..and then we stepped out in faith and said "Yes" to Theodore!

Our prayer to the Lord and other Winslow Prayer Requests!

*Please pray for God's will in our family in 2013 *Join us in praying for our newest additions coming this year to our family. Handpicked by God! Zoey and Little Eddie. They are from Bulgaria. What an amazing journey God has us on! *As you know, my Mom is in heaven now after a 12 year battle with cancer. We miss her so much! Please pray for my Dad, David, and his adjustment to being without his life partner of 50 years. Please pray, too, for all of us as we adjust to life without my beautiful Mom. It truly will never be the same! Pray that we will grow closer to the Lord during this time! *Please pray for continued carpentry work for Glenn. *Please pray for our daily homeschooling. *Please pray for our married daughter Brittany and her husband Christian and their 2 old daughter Marlena! We are praising the Lord they live in NH, now and we get to see them more often. Pray for them as they just welcomed their newest addition, Annalie Beatrice yesterday...October 5th! Everyone is doing great! *Please pray that we would all grow closer to the Lord and strive to walk closely with Him each and every day.

Our Favorite Read A-louds!

We LOVE to start our day each day with a read a-loud. It's become a tradition in our homeschool. I read each morning after breakfast. We have read some of the best books this way. It started 10 years ago at the beginning of our homeschooling journey. We started with Anne of Green Gables, the complete edition. That took many years to read. Since then, we've read many other wonderful books. Here are some of our favorites from this last year:

Christie's Organ

The Exact Truth by: Isabella Alden

First Impressions of God by: Ann Wells

The Cheerfulness Character Book

Godliness is Great Gain

Wisdom and the Millers

Storytime with the Millers

Two Roses

Walking with The Living God

Even Donkeys Speak

The Long Winter

The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew

Little Daisy and the Swearing Class

Godliness is Great Gain

The Bible in the Wall

Tampering With Temptation

The Bulletproof George Washington
Wandering May

We also like to try and read one chapter of Proverbs each day making us read the entire book of Proverbs each month. What a wonderful gift of wisdom God has given us in the book in the Bible!

Current read aloud: The Weed with the Ill Name
(from the Grace and Truth book series)
We are now reading the Then and Now missionary stories. We loved reading Hudson Taylor and are now reading George Muller. Such amazing stories of strength and provision from God!