"When Love Takes You In"

 I found these lyrics to a song while searching for songs and poems about adoption. I had never heard the song before, but the words are moving--

I know you’ve heard the stories
But they all sound too good to be true
You’ve heard about a place called home
But there doesn’t seem to be one for you
So one more night you cry yourself to sleep
And drift off to a distant dream 

Where love takes you in and everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
When love takes you home and says you belong here
The loneliness ends and a new life begins
When love takes you in 

And somewhere while you’re sleeping
Someone else is dreaming too
Counting down the days until
They hold you close and say I love you
And like the rain that falls into the sea
In a moment what has been is lost in what will be

When love takes you in everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart 

And this love will never let you go
There is nothing that could ever
cause this love to lose its hold 

When love takes you in everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
When love takes you home and says you belong here
The loneliness ends and a new life begins
When love takes you in it takes you in for good
When love takes you in

-- Steven Curtis Chapman

Just a quick update on our progress-- The Lord provided the rest of the money we needed in order to turn in our stack of documents (dossier)!! We are making one change to the age parameters we set before sending it in, and have to get the last 2 documents apostilled, then it will all be ready!

 We are so excited. =) Please continue to pray for us through this process, for the paperwork aspect to go smoothly as it has to this point, and for our children who only God knows at this point (for their health and safety and for God to be preparing their hearts to be adopted into our family).

Father of the Fatherless and Protector of Widows

This past Saturday the 26th, we along with several volunteers from our church had the privilege of ministering to 2 widows in our community who needed some help on their houses. We were partnering with Lifesong for Orphans and Both Hands Foundation (one hand for the orphan, one hand for the widow) as a way to raise money for our adoption expenses while serving these widows. Our volunteers sent out sponsorship letters to their friends and family, similar to a charity golf event or 5K run. All the donations are tax-deductible and go to Lifesong for our account there. Then we found these 2 widows who needed help. It's a living out of James 1 :27, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction...".

Project #1-- Grandma Sugar... her porch and stairs were old and in desperate need of replacement. Her family wouldn't even go out onto the porch because it was unsafe. Here are the "before" pictures:

taken April 2nd

We are thankful for the 7 men who took this project and ran with it (who had the knowledge and skills to complete it too). Here are some pictures during all the work:

tearing it down

Grandma Sugar was entertained by watching it all

ready to go to the dump!

new stairs and railing

They worked all morning and all afternoon, and here's the final result:

It turned out great, and Grandma Sugar loves it!

Project #2-- Helena needed her basement cleaned out and insulation installed in the rafters to keep her main floor warmer. The rest of us who volunteered went to help with this project since it did not really require any skills. =)

the basement

the rafters that needed insulation

1 load to the dump in this trailer...

sorting through it all at the dump

6 loads to the dump in this truck!

Although we didn't clean out the entire basement, we were able to clean out 6 truckloads and 1 trailer full as well as insulating underneath her entire main floor!

one of the cleared out areas

the insulation!

me and Helena

If you would like to be apart of this great project that blessed these widows and is raising funds to help us bring our kids home from BG, you can click on the yellow "donate" button on the right sidebar, or visit our project page at http://www.bothhandsfoundation.org/tim-cindy-abbott.aspx , or you can mail a check with "preference Abbott adoption #2708" in the memo line to:

Lifesong for Orphans

PO Box 40/ 202 N. Ford St.

Gridley, IL 61744

All donations are tax-deductible.

"Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God settles the solitary in a home." Psalm 68:5-6a

USCIS Approval!

We received our USCIS approval letter in the mail today! This was the last piece of documentation (and the most important) we needed to complete our dossier! We are thanking the Lord for moving this particular part of the process along smoothly. Now we just mail this letter to Juneau for apostilling, which won't take long at all. We are very close to submitting the dossier to our agency then on to BG!

Fundraiser Results!

Thank you to everyone who took the time to participate in this fundraiser-- those who donated the gifts as well as those who donated money. We are very grateful for your love and support. In the past 2 weeks, a total of $1760 came in to either our paypal account through the Chip-In box or to our Lifesong for Orphans account. God is providing $1 at a time, in His perfect timing, through people like you. Thank you!

Ok. Now we get to the part you want to see. These winners were chosen randomly through an online automated number generator.

Winner Gift #1 ($200 gift card of your choice)-- Faith White
          You can contact me through FB to tell me your choice. =)

Winner Gift #2 (2 nights at George Washington Inn)-- Colin Bodell
           We will inform the owners that you won, and we will email you with the info.

Winner Gift #3 ($250 Amazon.com gift card)-- Trisha Priebe
          We will give the donors of this gift your contact info.
           Sorry you can't buy a plane ticket to Alaska with it. =)

Winner Gift #4 (4 Guest Passes, the Creation Museum)-- "Our Adoption Journey to Eastern Europe"
           I will email you with the contact info of the gift donor. =)

Winner Gift #5, (Handcrafted lighted church, 2 "Simply Love" shirts,
           and Kisses from Katie hardback bk)-- Garth and Becky
           I will contact you. =)

Exciting Fundraiser Giveaway!!

Ok. Here it goes! This is going to be fun! A BIG thank you goes to those who donated these wonderful thank you gifts for our donors. We wish we could give each one of you all who donates a big thank you gift, but that would be impossible. Just know that we, as well as our children, will be forever grateful for each of you who helps bring them home. You are making an eternal investment with eternal rewards!

In case you are new to this blog and here from word of mouth, I will put simply what this is all about: We are adopting 2 siblings from Bulgaria with mild special needs and we still need to raise $25,000 to bring them home.

I don't have heart-wrenching pictures of our precious kids or a gripping story about them to motivate you to donate. The only pictures I have of them right now are in my heart, and only they and God know their story. But that does not make them any less real or their cause any less desperate. They are orphans living in an orphanage on the other side of the world. No family. No one that's said, "You are mine, and I love you." They are waiting, wondering if they will ever have a family, will ever have a mommy to tuck them in at night or a daddy to take them on fun adventures and teach them new things.

The only thing that separates us from them is $25,000 and about 6-9 months of waiting. Then we will be able to see them, hold them, and say, "You are ours, and we love you!"

Will you help us?

For this fundraiser, we have set a smaller goal of $10,000 that will help us with more immediate expenses, most of which will be due soon after this fundraiser ends in 2 weeks.

Here is how this will work:

• All donations are welcome and appreciated. However, to be entered in the drawings for the various gifts, we are suggesting a minimum $20 donation.
• Click on the "Chip In!" button in the box below to donate via Paypal or a credit or bank card. You do not need a paypal account to donate by credit or bank card.
• If you want to make a tax-deductible donation instead, you may donate through the yellow "donate" button on the right side bar under our fundraising thermometer. This donation goes to Lifesong for Orphans toward our account.
• When you donate a minimum of $20, you get 1 entry into the drawing of your choice.
• When you share this blog and the fundraiser on your blog or facebook or twitter or any other (and all!) social networking site, you get a second entry into either the same drawing or a different one of your choosing. 
• To enter into the drawing for your desired gift, you must leave a comment on that particular post (each thank you gift has its own post to make it easy to keep them separate) saying that you donated, then a second separate comment stating that you shared this fundraiser and link on your social networking site. Please give your name so we can identify you if you end up winning the gift.
• This fundraiser will end Friday, May 4th . 
• Winners will be chosen with an online automated selection program, and will be announced on this blog the following day, Saturday, May 5th. You are responsible to check back to see if you won. Then winners will have not more than 1 week to contact me so we can get you your gift. I will leave my email address on the announcement post so you can email me. If the original winner does not contact me within a week, a new one will be chosen.
• The gifts are listed and explained in the following posts. Keep scrolling down until you run out of gifts! Personally, I think they're all pretty awesome!

Please help us bring our kids home! The key to this is SHARING with your friends and everyone you know to get maximum involvement. It's hard for a few people to raise this much money, but when everyone does SOMETHING, a lot can be accomplished! Thank you!

* Update-- As of 5/3, a total of $1560 has been donated, including donations to our 
Lifesong for Orphans account. Thank you to everyone who has given so generously to help us!

Thank You Gift #1

$200 Gift Card of Your Choice!

We received a generous $200 donation to add another prize to our giveaway, so we're going to let the winner of this gift choose to which retail, specialty or online store you would like to have a gift card. It can't get much better than that! The winner will specify which store they would like, then we will buy the gift card and mail it.