Meet our eldest daughter and her beautiful family!

It is such a blessing to have received these beautiful photos in my inbox the other day! Our eldest daughter and her husband and our two grand daughters went to the ocean on Saturday to collect seaweed to place in their garden before winter! The benefits of adding seaweed to your garden can be found:  HERE Check it out! They had a beautiful day for it, and were able to fully enjoy God's creation and fellowship with each other!

Chris and Brittany and Marlie and Annie Bea!

Chris and Marlena Joy!

sisters!

Chris and his girlies! What a blessing!

November is National Adoption Month!

Each year we love to celebrate National Adoption Month with some of our favorite people in Concord! This year it was in the Governor's chambers at the state house. The kids all LOVED going and sitting in her chambers, and best of all, we got to meet NH's governor Maggie Hassan. She is actually quite a lovely woman and was VERY excited to meet us!

 Here the kiddos all wait to be allowed into the chambers. The governor wasn't ready for us yet! We were honored to all sport our orphan t-shirts! They were quite a testimony to the Lord this day!

 Here we are inside the chambers. It's quite ornate! Maddelyn was working so she couldn't join us for the first time in 6 years! Sigh....We visited her after, though!

 Rosie wasn't so sure how to act in the governor's chambers! Oh Miss Rosie...you are sooooo full of energy!!

 Channel 9 was there. They are launching a new initiative with DCYF and going to feature one waiting child per week similar to Massachussett's Wednesday's child. That is soooo exciting!

 Miriam Roeder, a favorite worker of ours was given a special award in honor of her over 40 years of service with DCYF and she's retiring this year!

 This woman gave a special presentation about how she adopted her grand daughter! Such a blessing, and even more of a blessing was that she gave all of the honor and glory to the Lord!!

 Each of these bears (given out to all children yesterday) represent one of my children. The 7 here now, and the 2 coming soon! Thank you Lord!

God was truly glorified at our state house yesterday!! To God be the Glory--Great things He has done!

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood!

We just had to get out and enjoy such a beautiful and sunny day last week, so we went for a walk! It was such a blessing!

How much is left to raise?

Recently we were asked how much money we officially had left to raise for our adoption of Zoey and Little Eddie, our Bulgarian blessings God has given us. Well...we got out pencil and calculator, prayed, and came up with a total of $14,000.00. This includes our transportation and lodging costs for our first trip to meet the children and officially accept the referral of them, as well as our final trip to go and get the children and bring them home.

Okay...so since we figured that out, and let our friends know the total, $2,170.00 came in just yesterday! Such a blessing! So...we decided to put a thermometer gadget on the side bar of our blog to keep everyone updated as to how God is providing and what is still needed! Keep checking in!

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support! It truly is priceless!

Provided byFund-Raising-Ideas-Center.com

Please pray oh faithful prayer warriors!

Please pray for our dear, dear NH adoptive friends in the Lord!! I know you will! Thank you all so much!

"Hello Friends... this is going out to ya'll that know how to storm heavens gates.

As you know our adoptions are on hold due to the a temporary country shut down. (watch "Stuck" on Netflix, yeah. seriously.)
I kindly ask that you storm heavens gates for two big things... the country and our little boy. 

PRAY FOR THE CONGO THIS NOVEMBER. There are representatives from5-6 agency gathering in Kinshasa this month... starting this week and will be there till thanksgiving hoping to work with the government there at finding a way to open the country back up to adoption. Pray Pray pray for this group of people.

In the last few months the little boy (with untreated hydrocephalus: water on the brain) we are seeking to adopt has become much worse... in the last week is worse still. He has had another seizure and requires a lot more help with daily things than before...like sitting up and eating... NOT good. This has become an emergency situation. Please keep M in your prays Lift him up before the Father over the NEXT FEW WEEKS that he can hold on while we get the paperwork in order to bring him here with a Med Visa. If we can get the paperwork in order our agency rep there in the Congo right now will bring him back with her....he will be placed under our guardianship (this is not an adoption) we have surgeons lined up to and ready to put him in an OR as soon as we get him here, to relieve the pressure off his brain.

Our insurance should pick him up since we will be guardians so that is fine. If we can not get it all in order, or the country is slow in processing the Med Visa then we will need to travel to pick him up hopefully no later than December. 

The other yucky part is because the adoption is all on hold we have to leave his sister behind. So pray the country opens soon so that we can finish the adoption of both children and get her here asap to be reunited with her brother.

Committing it all to the Lord. We feel that He has lead us to these children and we known from the beginning that it would be a struggle. There have been many spiritual attacks and our faith has been stretched to what feels like our outer limits, yet we have peace and joy because we know our God. We know He dearly loves these children, there is a plan for them.We also know that He is there with them in the mist of their pain and loneliness. We are humbled that God chose us to be a part of their lives.

Trusting, Praying, and expecting great things... the duty is ours, the outcome is Gods, for our good and His Glory.

Thank you for adding this situation to your prayers.
Joy and Kevin
"God sets the lonely in families" Ps 68 : 6"

"...care for the orphans in their distress" James 1:27

Yesterday, November 3rd, was Orphan Sunday.  Glenn was the teaching elder at our church yesterday, and he decided to speak on the orphan. It was such an encouragement and blessing to everyone there! He shared these statistics:

**There are approximately 163 million orphans in the world.

**That is 19 times the population of New York City. No country is unaffected by the orphan crises.
**Approximately 40 million orphans live among the top 
100 Unreached people groups.
These people have no access to the gospel, no Bible in their own language, no church. More than 15 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS.
**Africa has the largest population of people affected by AIDS.  AIDS..that’s a whole other message right there.
**There are approximately 800 million born again Christians in the world.
So if each born again Christian were to help out with caring for the fatherless in one way or another, the orphan population would be taken care of almost 5 times over! Just imagine.
**In the US there are approx-
imately 500,000 children in foster care.
There are approximately 300,000 protestant churches in the United States. It is estimated that 4,000 new churches are being planted each year in the U.S. Foster children need the church. There are also 130,000 children in the US Foster system that are currently available for adoption at little to no financial cost

What does God’s word say about the orphans, and the fatherless, and caring for them, and adoption??
All Christians have been adopted as children of God and freed from the law. To adopt a child is to follow the lead of God who has adopted so many. There are several examples of adoption in the Bible to include Moses, Esther, and even Samuel, too. Adoption of children is a wonderful thing and God directs us to take care of the children and welcome them in. There is no better way to welcome a child in then to adopt him or her.

Here are some Bible verses that he shared:

God loves children
Mark 10:13-16
People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.
Luke 9:46-48
An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. Then he said to them, "Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all - he is the greatest."
Psalms 8:2
From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise.
God has great compassion for orphans and fatherless children
Exodus 22:22
Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do, and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry.
Deut 10:17,18
For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.
Psalm 27:10
Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.
Psalm 68:5
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.
John 14:18
I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you.
James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
God also has compassion on the childless
Psalm 113:9
He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children.
Isaiah 54:1
"Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child, burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband," says the Lord.
We are not born into the family of God, but adopted!
Eph. 1:4-6
For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will - to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves.
Romans 8:23
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Rev. 21:7
He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
 
Then, one by one, our adopted children all got up and shared what was on their heart. There wasn't a dry eye in the house!

Then Madelyn got up and read this story book:

God Found Us You: (it's her Christmas gift to Rosie! sssshhhhh)








Oh my...then..there was a great need for tissues!!! What a great story! Then he showed this video to everyone:

I Am Loved: Watch it HERE  Okay..so then everyone was needing tissues for sure! To close out his message everyone sang Jesus Loves Me as our first hymn!! What a blessing our whole day was!

To make it even more special, our whole family donned these t-shirts yesterday at church. A gal from our church was selling them as a fund raiser for her mission's trip next month to Nicaragua to work in an orphanage. They say on the front:
 153 Million Orphans--Love one.
On the back they say:  Pray for one
                       Advocate for one
                       Foster one
                       Adopt one
                       Sponsor one
                       Visit one

"We love because He first loved us" 1 John 4:19"

An awesome way to be a testimony when we are out and about!!!

Reynwinman!

So what do you get when you have the following:

Benwinman------minus the Ben
                            plus the Reyn???


I'll tell you! You get Reynwinman!! Yup! We certainly missed the Ben (the beloved Bennett family who have daytime commitments now that they didn't the last few years). We invited the Reynolds family, who gladly joined us, and that gave us:

REYNWINMAN!!

What is that exactly you ask?? Great question!! It's a fellowship time of 3 homeschool families. We share fun, and a pot luck lunch, and great fellowship, too! Take a peek!

 The Lowman family were gracious enough to host our first Reynwinman event! What a blessing to have Darrell Lowman join us!

 The kids had a blast playing outside!

 Pretty sure I heard Mrs. Lowman say..."Don't go in the fort everyone!"...oops....

 Everyone had a wonderful day, and loved having it end by watching a Veggie Tales movie!

Fellowship and Friendship and Fun! Who could ask for more??