Because Every Mother Matters

Its no secret to most people that know me now, I love adoption. I think adoption is beautiful and a blessing to both the parents and the children. But what if there wasn't a need for adoption? Huh? What if there weren't any orphans? What if parents were able to stay well and be able to care for their children? I LOVE adoption but I really wish there wasn't a need for it! Last Friday I came across an awesome organization, Because Every Mother Matters, that is trying to help reduce the amount of orphans in the world by helping mothers around the world stay healthy! Isn't that awesome?!?! I also found our that they are doing a fundraiser to fund an ambulance that will service 10,000 people and save 20 lives a month! But thats not it! With this fundraiser they are also donating to 11 adopting families!! Here are the details:

THE CURRENT PROJECT: raise $20k for a 4 wheel drive vehicle, that will save mother's lives, and prevent further orphans from entering the world.
THE BENEFIT FOR ADOPTIVE FAMILIES: If you or anyone you know donates $20 for this cause, you will be entered to be gifted 25% of what we raise thru this initiative, up to $10,000. You could be given up to $2,500 toward your adoption!
if we reach the $10k mark, the rules change a little bit for the remainder of funds... for every $1k we raise, you will be entered to be gifted 50%! if we make our goal of $20k, that is 10 families who could be given $500 toward their adoption!
that is 11 chances to win!!!
WHAT IF I AM NOT ADOPTING? CAN I STILL GIVE? absolutely! if you are not adopting but know someone who is, you can donate the $20 in their name, and they will be entered for the $ gift. if you don't know anyone who is adopting that is fine too, you can still donate toward the ambulance!
FUTURE PLANS: we at BEMM are all about helping mamas. there are women, in ethiopia who need our help all the time. if this campaign is successful, we will do adoption $$ give aways on a regular basis!!!
CONCLUSION: the more $$$ raised, the more $$$ going toward the ambulance, and the more $$$ going toward bringing home a current orphan! it is a win/win for everyone!!!
spread the word! tell your family, friends, co-workers, teachers, barrista, whoever! you only have one more week to enter!!!!
http://www.bemm.org/

This is such an awesome fundraiser! Can I ask you to donate toward this? This fundraiser ends 9/4 (this Sunday) and they NEED this ambulance to save mothers and babies. If you like you can enter our names in the comment section to add us into the drawing, but if not thats ok, I just REALLY support this! Just go to the link above and click on the "donate" tab. In the "notes to seller" tab enter "ambulance Chris and Abigail Newton"!

You can also get more info from their blog at http://toliveloveandlaughtoday.blogspot.com/2011/08/adoptive-parent-talk.html

~Abbey

I know, I know...

I know no one wants to hear even more about money but well I have decided that you can rarely talk about adoption without talking about money. Stinks I know. But since this IS an adoption blog its only fitting to talk about money right?? (Blech!) As I said in our last post, our home study is completely funded (YAY!) and while we are ecstatic about this we now have to move on to MORE fundraising. I'm learning quickly that in the adoption world you have many hills to conquer and you only have a minute to celebrate each one because the next hill is bigger and badder. Well our next hill is $7700! Yep you read that right! The $7700 is for the dossier submission that we are hoping to do in January. (please refer to http://theadventuresofthenewtons.blogspot.com/2011/06/adoption-costs.html for the adoption costs breakdown) And on top of that there was a mistake with our taxes (my error...) and we owe about $2800 by October 15. Thankfully I am already saving for the taxes but it so hurts my heart that I have to subtract that from the adoption funds! So why am I telling you this?? Well as I have said before (and I will keep proclaiming), God funds what God favors and He uses His people to do so. No that was NOT a guilt trip I promise, instead it is a plea to help us bring Z home! ANY amount helps (remember the coin jar...) and we have been sooooo blessed by all our donations so far! Also all of our fundraisers benefit our donors too by being able to buy good quality products! Here is a list of our current fundraisers:

Just Love Coffee: https://www.justlovecoffee.com/newtonfamily Love Roasters takes the two passions of its founder, ORPHANS and FAIR TRADE COFFEE, and incorporates them into one company. Their mission is to offer quality Fair Trade coffees and to use these coffees to help orphans and their forever families. They have created a fundraising program where we are able to set up our own online store! I have tried it and it is VERY good! With each bag sold, $5 will go directly towards our adoption. Your coffee is delivered to you by USPS and you get to help us adopt or child (or children)!Proceeds to Our Adoption:• Coffee: $5 will go towards our adoption• T-Shirt: $5 will go towards our adoption• Travel Mug: $3 will go towards our adoption• Tote Bag: $3 will go towards our adoption• Hat: $3 will go towards our adoption• Coffee Scoop: $1 will go towards our adoption

A Novel Idea Crafts: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ANovelIdeaCrafts I have been making jewelry for about a year and now all proceeds goes into our adoption fund!

Scentsy: https://abbeynewton.scentsy.us/ A friend of mine did a Scentsy fundraiser for us last month to raise funds for our adoption and now I have joined her team and am a Scentsy consultant! All commissions go into our adoption fund!

Simply Love T-shirts: In June I decided that I wanted to sell t-shirts to help raise more funds AND to orphan care awareness! Thanks to Kari at mycrazyadoption.org we are selling Simply Love T-Shirts to help bring our child home! We originally offered totes, hats, and shirts but after about a month with only 2 requests we decided to narrow it down to just shirts. I now have these in hand and are available ASAP!

Here is the Men's green shirt (the back says "Man up. Protect and love the fatherless") I have 2 Smalls, 5 Mediums, 7 Larges, 7 XL and 2 XXL. You can order them with the Paypal link to the right.



Here is the Women's black unisex shirt. I have 5 smalls, 6 Mediums, 7 Larges, 2 XL and 2 XXL. You can order them from the Paypal link on the right.

We are so blessed by all the support we have from our friends and families. It overwhelms me some days and I am humbled. Please know that we are pinching from our budget everywhere we can and we don't ask for donations without first taking from ourselves. In fact the thermometer to the right is not just donations but donations PLUS our own savings. No monetary sacrifice it too much to bring our sweet Z home!

~Abbey

Some updates

Sorry for being kind of MIA! I tend to do that when I feel a little discouraged and I've been feeling that way for the last few weeks. I just feel like we are taking FOREVER to submit the homestudy stuff. I've seen a lot of other families do this way faster than us and I feel like its all our faults. But I know that things are going at the speed they are supposed to go (or atleast I hope so!). Also it seems like we are ALWAYS busy and when we finally have a break to work on the paperwork, we decide to be lazy instead. No more though, its crunch time because I am happy to say that our homestudy is FULLY FUNDED!! Whoohoo! Its really funny because a few weeks ago i was really upset because we weren't able to save as much as I thought (from our own income) and I was certain we were almost a month away from being about to pay for the homestudy. But God is awesome and over the weekend we received a few donations from various places and BAM we are over funded!! Praise God!

~Abbey

Adoptive Families for Famine Relief...Update!

Praise God over $4000 was raised for famine relief!!!! In one day!! This is amazing!!Approximately $190 went to the World Food Programme, $425 to Doctors Without Borders, $1,085 to Children's HopeChest (most of that earmarked for the well at Trees of Glory), and $2,195 for World Vision. A few donations went to Samaritans Purse and Catholic Relief Charities. Thank you soooo much to everyone that gave!! The website is still up for anyone that still wants to support the organizes we have listed!

~Abbey

Adoptive Families for Famine Relief

Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya are currently in the grips of the worst drought and famine in decades. Today, more than eleven million people are in need of food assistance, and unfortunately, the situation is only expected to get worse in the coming months. It is estimated that at least 29,000 children under the age five have died in the last 90 days in Somalia due to this horrible drought!

Another adoptive mom has put together a website to help provide relief for Africa from this horrible drought they are experiencing. It breaks my heart to think of my child over there right now suffering along with so many others. We are asking that you help us by donating to one of the recommended organizations on the website below. Several families (including us) have donated items for you to chose from if you donate $25 or $50. This drive is only for Thursday, August 11 and ends tomorrow night. Please give if you can!!

http://adoptivefamiliesforfaminerelief.weebly.com/index.html

For more info about the drought check these links:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/interactive/2011/jul/04/somalia-hornofafrica-drought-map-interactive

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/04/somalia-famine-children-dead_n_917912.html

http://youtu.be/pjVE4GEHW8I

~Abbey

Running to Z

I'm going to be honest, I have no idea how this post is going to end up, maybe a ramble or maybe I will actually compose something that makes sense to others? Who knows but I feel the need to write, to get some feelings of my chest as well as some updates. First I will say that we are so thankful for all the support we have had so far! I know a lot of people in the adoption community that have had some bad reactions to their decision to adopt and I can honestly say that we have not had that experience! We are surrounded by such amazing people! I know that we will have opposition for the rest of our lives but with the support system we have, I know we will get through it.
Right now our adoption process has kinda stalled. Yes we are still moving forward and nothing has really changed, it just seems that suddenly we are at a place where we have to wait. We have to wait on a few things before we can keep moving and it kind of feels like our feet are glued to the ground. Like no matter how hard we are trying to make a forward step, we just can't move. Thankfully though I know this is just temporary. I know we will very soon have the funds to send our social worker the check to pay for the home study, the doctor will re-fill out and re-sign our medical forms and Chris' social security card will arrive in the mail (well I hope it will!). But until all these things happen we can't move forward with our home study and this means we must wait. Anyone that knows me well knows I am horrible at waiting, seriously I'm BAD at it! I'm even worse at it if I think that I could be doing something about but can't. The worst part about my impatience is that I start to close up, especially to God. As I pull myself further from God I realize that a lot of the feelings that God has shielded me from are starting to creep back in. This scares me, I don't want to be back in that place. I KNOW what God wants for our family, for our future but slowly I feel like I'm forgetting. The feelings of loneliness and inadequacy have been trying to steal my joy about our future, trying to make me feel like adoption will never be "good enough" for me, that I will never be satisfied until I have a little baby in my tummy again. This saddens me for many different reasons, I WANT to adopt and I don't want anything holding me back from our future children, future as a family and from God and His plan. I want this to be more then just about us and our family! I just wish I wasn't so human! But even as I am writing this I can feel God's loving grace surrounding and reminding me of not only what I want but what HE wants (ha no joke the song that just came on my iPod is "Running to You" by Newsboys).
One of the few things that does help me with waiting is to have a tangible goal. Well of course with adoption there is a tangible goal, but right now the "goal" in my mind is a faceless, nameless child and well that hurts my heart! I want so badly to see his/her face and hear their voice. I'm so tired of say "his/her" so instead we are calling them Z! Yep Z! Why Z? While trying for baby #2 Chris and I were pretty set on girl name and a boy name but for some reason as we have transitioned into the adoption process, I keep coming back to a different boy name, Zachary (Zoe is the same girl name but for a different reason) and finally we decided that we will keep these names when we finally bring Z home. Both have great meanings and I feel are perfect for our child. Zachary comes from Zachariah which means remembered by God. I want our child to know that even though at one time he was an orphan, he was remembered and loved by God. Zoe means life and I want my child (well all children of course) to LIVE a life of love and fulfillment!
Something I keep saying and keeping trying to remind myself of, is that adoption, through God's lead, will ALWAYS happen on God's timeline. Every holdup and stall is for a reason. Our child will come home when God is ready for them to. I can either let it hold me down or I can use this time to prepare for the race ahead of us by praying and drawing closer to God. I choose to run to Z!!

~Abbey

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11