Happenings....

It's been a long couple of weeks!! Kids are back in school so things are starting to settle down a little bit I guess :-/ Here are their pics :)

Jordan's first day as a Senior!

Jonathan is a freshman!!

Jacob is a middle schooler this year!!

Jasmine: 3rd grade!!

And of course sweet Jewel...Preschool 2014 :)

LOVE THESE KIDS SOOOOO MUCH! I'm sad summer is over for this year :-(

I wanted to start off by talking about a friend that has stepped forward in a HUGE way for our family... TOM WILFONG!! Tom and I graduated from High School together, although we weren't close friends. We got along fine, and talked occasionally, but not much more than that. I obviously was missing out on being closer friends with someone very special!

When I first posted my GOFUNDME page here on this blog, Tom made a generous donation with God Given timing. Here is the message I sent him to thank him....

"Tom, Have you ever seen the movie "Facing the Giants"? If you haven't, you NEED to see it. Anyway, there's a scene in the moving where a parable is told about 2 farmers who both are praying for rain. After praying, only one of the farmers goes out and prepares his crop... The one who has faith.

I've been praying for this adoption, but struggling with the faith...until today. I have a check that needs sent to our agency to start the adoption process. I'm not sure how we're going to cover this check so I've been hanging on to it... Not "preparing my crops". But today I got your donation and I cried. It meant so much to me and I can't thank you enough. You have made a difference Tom, and my check will be in the mail to our agency tomorrow. Tell Cindy "Thank you" as well. God Bless you both"

Tom replied back saying he felt led by God to give us that donation... HOW AMAZING IS THAT?

Then, not too long later, I see this post on his Facebook Page... "Please bear with me and read this post in its entirety. This has been weighing heavy on my heart the last week or so. I have a couple of friends that I grew up with, went to school with, and graduated high school with one of them that are embarking (again) on the journey of adopting two little girls from China who are blind. These two have three biological children and have already adopted two little girls from China who are blind. They have unconditionally loved and welcomed those little girls into their home and their hearts. Now they are once again stepping out on faith and opening their hearts and home to another two blind girls from China. As you may or may not know, adoption is very expensive (especially from China). They need to raise a significant amount of money as a minimum to be able to get these girls to home where they will be loved and cared for like they deserve to be. I have seen many videos posted about people doing challenges to raise money for different things. I began to think what if there was a challenge issued to help raise money for this worthy cause? There would be no ice water, no cinnamon, no fire involved; nothing more than giving at least $5. How many of us drop $5 on a Starbucks coffee or a fast food meal or other unhealthy items (alcohol and tobacco) without even blinking? If every one of my FB friends would donate at least $5 and then challenge their friends to do the same, we would be able to raise that money in no time so that they can bring those girls home and not have to worry about how they were going to do it and hopefully be able to help cover some of the cost of their medical care and other things.

So here is the challenge, I challenge each and every one of you to give at least $5, you can give as much as you would like but $5 is the minimum. Fellow Rovers, especially those in the classes of '92 and '93, we need to rally behind one of our own and show them how people from Rootstown take care of each other, especially in their time of need. I am posting the link below to the page you can go to donate. If you do not feel comfortable donating online through the site, I am sure they would accept a check from you ( you would just need to contact them to get their mailing address). Please don't just read this and keep on scrolling. Copy and paste or click on the link and help to bring these little girls home!! Read, act, share...Thanks!
-www.gofundme.com/cumgxs-"


Because of Tom's "plea", enough money was donated to pay for our initial application fee as well as our first payment toward our homestudy. We are so grateful to him, and he continues to feel led to help our family and our girls. Thank you Tom. We are so blessed to call you our friend.

In other news...lol

I have met a Facebook friend who is VERY CLOSE (2 weeks!) to bringing home her son from China. Her son happens to be in the same orphanage that Jenny is in, so she has offered to deliver a gift from us to her! I'm again falling on faith that GOD is going to work this out for us because this sweet girl is going to find out she has a family!! Here is what she will be getting...

I hope someone can translate for her! I love her so much already! <3 <3 As I was taking pictures of Jewel for her first day of school I realized she was reminding me of pictures of Jenny I have from about a year ago. These 2 were meant to be sisters!

And I'm not forgetting our soon to be youngest, Tamara.. (pronounced like "tomorrow" but with and "uh" on the end instead of "oh") I worry about her so much!

I'm apologizing in advance for all of the fundraising we are doing from now until the girls come home. We honestly have NO EXTRA MONEY to put toward their adoption. We are holding on to our faith in GOD and know in our hearts that these girls are ours. We need to fundraise to get them home ASAP. I would hate for them to spend any amount of time longer in their orphanages than they have to.. just because of money. The only reason I'm not panicking is because God's got this. I'm sure of it. Please continue to pray!!

Speaking of fundraising.. please message me with any questions about AVON or AVON orders. Visit my AVON link on the right to order online! This will help a lot!

Thank you so much. God Bless you all!!

~Tammy