July 4th family fun

Wow! What a busy week for us. We had 14 people and four dogs at our house for the 4th of July. Great fun with family! We dont get together like that nearly enough.
My sister and her two girls were up from Florida for the week leading up to the 4th. All our children were in at least for the weekend. My parents came down and my brother was here also.

When we do get together, we go all out and make some seriously fun memories. Every year we do a Mystery dinner and everyone dresses up in character and really gets into the game. This year the theme was Gone with the Wind. Looks like next year will be a roaring '20"s theme.

We also had a pig pickin' and family games and lots of fellowship and fun times.

Happy Father's Day to each of you dad's out there!

Happy Father's Day to each of you dad's out there!  
I've played on championship athletic teams, walked across the stage to receive my doctoral diploma, and even jumped off a 40-foot railroad bridge into a Tennessee river (not smart, do not try this at home!), but nothing has ever been more thrilling than being a father...and I am serious when I say that, nothing!

I will never forget each time I first laid eyes on my children and felt the amazement of a new life.  The joy that I felt and continue to feel as they have grown is comparable to no other feeling in the world.  Baby's first steps, the first time they said that magical word (Daddy!), "Boys Club Weekends" and the annual Nutcracker recital are memories that, like the commercial says, "ARE PRICELESS"!

But what if?  Now that Karen & I are a little older, we have begun to realize that what we took for granted in our own childhood and what we've been able to pass on to our children, was not the life that every child has been granted.  Not every child has been fortunate enough to have a mom and/or dad to play with them, tuck them in at night, play ball with them or hug them when they hurt on the inside.  Unfortunately, there are some children who will never have a home and be a part of a family.

Some have fathered, but not all are fathers.  In my work as a psychologist, I often work with behaviorally troubled young adolescent males.  To my amazement, the modern day right-of-passage seems to be to father a child.  One 16 year old boy with whom I worked, had fathered 2 children already, had one girlfriend pregnant and was looking to find another willing partner at the time he was in my office!  He spent no time with any of his children, offered them no financial support, and provided no model of responsible living whatsoever.  He fathered children, but provided virtually nothing in terms of being a father.

The innocent pay the price.  While this boy was an extreme, who pays the price?  Unfortunately, it is the child who is left to face a world that offers very little support and personal care.  The foster care system is overrun with these children and orphanages all over the world are trying their best to provide for their basic needs. 

Be a part of something special this Father's Day.  As you know, Karen & I are in the process of adopting 2 of these children.  Both have spent their entire 7 years on this earth in orphanages.  Both want more than anything a family to call their own.  Both face prescribed, dismal futures should they not find their heart's desire.  But before this can happen, Karen & I must raise some $35,000 to finish the adoption.  Of that, $7,500 is due immediately.  After much thought and deliberation, we've decided to appeal to each of you for help.  In exchange, for your help, we are making available a very special Father's Day offer.

At the urging of our website and marketing manager, we are offering the following special offers for anyone making a donation this Father's Day weekend:

Anyone making a donation of $10 or more will receive Dr. Thomas' Turbo Charged Childhood eBook (a $14.95 value) AND Dr. Thomas'Weekly Inspirational Thoughts for Parents & Teachers of ADHD Children eBook (a $9.95 value).

Donations of $50 or more will receive the gifts mentioned above as well as Dr. Thomas' NEW book entitled "12 Pillars and a Prayer: God's Secrets to Success, Prosperity, and Wealth"* (see details below).

Donations of $100 or more will receive hard copies of both "Turbo Charged Childhood" and "12 Pillars and a Prayer: God's Secrets to Success, Prosperity, and Wealth", each personally inscribed by Dr. Russell Thomas.

These books are valuable resources for anyone's library.  Turbo Charged Childhood is full of non-medicine interventions for those challenged with attention deficit.  Written from a distinctively Christian perspective, 12 Pillars and a Prayer is for anyone who has ever had financial challenges, i.e., pretty much everyone!  In 12 Pillars and a Prayer I tackle the question of "Does God really you to be successful, prosperous and wealthy"?  I think you will find both books to be easy, enjoyable reading that stimulates you to think outside of the box for both attention deficits and your finances!
 

I would like to close by inviting you to be a part of something special this Father's Day Weekend.  Make a difference to 2 young boys' lives and at the same time enjoy 2 of my special books!  Won't you please go to:

 

http://www.simplesolutions4.com/

and make a donation today?  The need is immediate and with your help we can make this a very special father's day!  Please share this opportunity with anyone that you think might benefit from my books by forwarding this email on to them.

Until we talk again, have a great Father's Day and I would that you prosper and be in good health,

Running the Race

This week has been a wonderful week!  The saying is that flowers don't grow without rain and people don't grow without challenges.  What that means for us is that we grew leaps and bounds this week!  The home study site visit is in the books and we completed a myriad of forms and paperwork.  While we are somewhat exhausted and weary right now, we also have the assurance that everything is as it should be and that God is in control of our adoption, not to mention lives!  We're at that point of the race where we've covered some ground, enough to feel a little exhaustion, but still have much race left.  If you look too far ahead there is a sense of being overwhelmed.  So the thing to do is to break down the race into smaller "chunks" of tasks.  This next week we accomplish several "next things" on the task list.  Then, this time next week those things are completed and we're that much closer to getting our boys.  When I (Russell) get to feeling a little exasperated with the process, I simply go into the boys' room that Karen has so wonderfully prepared for them,(see previous post) and I get a different feeling.  Its one where I imagine the boys being in there safe, happy and part of our family and I get a sense of peace and joy...until next time...

The room is ready for the boys!

If only the rest of the adoption process was as easy, or fun :-) Fixing up the room was so much fun!

I guess the first step in the process is preparing a place in our hearts for the children we are going to adopt, which we did and then came the legal steps to follow, now it is mostly waiting on paperwork to be approved and decisions to be made that are out of our control.....so what to do while we wait? Prepare a place in our home.

It was so much fun to go through toys and find age appropriate things to fill the room. We chose to go with a transportation theme b/c all boys love cars and trucks no matter what country they live in. We set up the train table and tried to make the room as kid friendly and inviting as we could. The map on the wall has a marker where each boy is from and where we live. The Bible verse above the map is Isaiah 43:5 in Chinese. It says "Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west." We felt like that verse is appropriate for our adoption.

Homestudy

Its been a long process and one that has required a combination of endurance, patience and focus.  Because we are adopting 2, basically all our paperwork has been doubled.  It seems like such a cumbersome process and we often find ourselves either overwhelmed or exhausted with the process. Its tempting to just take some kind of “lesser route” at times, but we know what God has spoken to our hearts so we ask for perseverance and strength to run the race.

This week we will have our long awaited homestudy.  We ask that you pray for us as we complete the homestudy and that the process may move forward quickly.  Our complete dossier must be to China by July 15th.  This is now a tight deadline.

Walk a Thon Fundraiser

We have been blessed to have a local high school senior choose us to participate in her senior project. She has been working on her project for quite some time. The project is on adoption and she is hosting a  Walk a Thon to raise funds for our adoption. We are honored and blessed to be a part of it and hope to get a big turn out for her as well. Here are the details:
Walk for Adoption! Torie's senior project.
Wrightsville Beach Loop
Saturday April 24th 9:00 AM
This is a beautiful walk on Wrightsville Beach, the weather will be perfect and this is a great time to get out and enjoy the area and the company. Come walk the loop with friends and help us bring our boys home! You can get sponsors ahead of time or bring donations on the day of the walk, or you can donate through paypal.

The holidays have come and gone.......

....It was a quiet season for us that was filled with mixed emotions. Joey, our 18 almost 19 year old, has moved to Orlando where he is pursuing his education in culinary arts. We found ourselves rejoicing in one minute and in tears the next. It was difficult to say goodbye to Joey. The holidays were filled with mixed emotions for other reasons as well. Often we would think about our boys during the holidays and wondering what Christmas was like for them...or for that matter, did they even know about Christmas? Tears often filled our eyes for them as we prayed for favor in the adoption process that it might be accelerated. Certainly that prayer has been heard as we have been filling out papers, updating passports and participating in fund raisers at an enhanced pace. Jeffrey, our 10 year old, is ready to go to China today and bring back the boys. Its hard to tell him to be patient when we feel the same way ourselves. But at this point we must do one day at a time and one step at a time. The next step being home study! We'll keep you posted...