Good Morning and Welcome to the Saturday Morning Chat Group!

Welcome to the Saturday Morning Chat Group! It's been pretty warm up here in Michigan. The lake is thawing and we're supposed to have a lot of rain today. I'm planning on getting together Sophia's package for us to send to her orphanage this weekend. I am also nesting big time. I have been sending bags to Goodwill and Spring Cleaning. It's really sinking in that my girl is coming.


Amy and Michael are leaving for China to bring home LynnMarie this week. You are going to want to follow their journey and give them all of the support you can. Their adoption blog is 'When Love Takes You In'.


Robin is still in China bringing home Mia Hope and it seems like things are really going well. Mia Hope was grieving quite a bit for the first couple of days which is to be expected, but she has been smiling and opening up to her new family more and more each day.


Thank you so much for supporting the auction to raise funds for Sophia Jane. I am receiving some amazing donations. Quite a few items are going to come off this week though, so if you have anything hiding in a closet that you would like to donate, please let me know. Also, if you would like to place the sidebar graphic on your blog, that would be wonderful too!

**THE SAT CHAT HAS NOW CLOSED, HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND!

Thank You...

On behalf of my family and myself, I want to say THANK YOU. Thank you to everyone who has left a kind word from the heart congratulating us on the newest member of our family. Thank you to everyone who has donated to our fundraiser. Thank you to everyone who is making things and donating things to our auction for Sophia. Thank you to everyone who sent cards and left voicemails. Thank you to the ladies who are planning showers.

Thank you to my Dad who retired a little early and is coming here to help cover our bills while I am on FMLA leave from work with Sophia.

I am truly just overwhelmed by your kindness. When we accepted Sophia's referral, our agency gave us three days to pay $1050.00, we didn't have it right on hand. You all came forward and we had the money on time. I cannot thank you enough. I cried at my mailbox yesterday when I saw Sophia's shower invitation. This is such an emotional time for me and I just want you all to know that I really appreciate your efforts and your friendships and I am taking to heart everything.

Congratulations Nancy!

I snatched this photo from Kelly's blog. But here we are....Kelly, Nancy, Steffie and me. We all had dinner together over a year ago. None of us had our babes at that time, but now we are all finally matched. Kelly's little Ella is home. Steffie, Nancy and I have been matched over the past two months.
Nancy actually was just matched last week! Her blog is 'Asennd', it's private. She has waited such a long time. I'm so happy for you girl!

A Thank You From Amanda at the Starfish Foster & Cleft Homes...

I am in contact with Kimberley and Daleea often through email and so when I got word that there was a great need at the orphanage and once I made the decision that I wanted to take on the babies, I needed to fund raise to support my "addiction". The two of them were some of the first people I contacted.

They accepted my plea for help and went to work helping me to contact the many people who read their blogs and who support orphan care. Within no time they had a list of sponsors and a way set up to allow donations to be made directly to Starfish Children's Services. They worked tirelessly for days, through personal tragedy even, to allow me the blessing of welcoming nine little people into my home. My addiction to take care of the children had been satisfied for now anyway.

I want to publicly thank them so much for all of their help and extend my most grateful thanks to you who heeded the call to help. May God Bless you abundantly because you were willing to save the life of a child in a far away country.

The work here is never done and I am already looking toward getting more babies and filling up the cleft home, got to satisfy that addiction. Thank you so much for allowing me the financial freedom to bless the lives of the children that I find and to fulfil the purpose that I am here in China for. We all share in various ways in living the mandate we are given to take care of the fatherless and the orphans of the world. I hope that we will be exemplary in living this Christ-like quality.

Life, Love and Laughter,
Amanda

Starfish Children's Services
US Tax Number: 20-4682916
Xian China

Sunday...