"But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled.
If it seems slow, be patient! For it will surely take place. It will not be late by a single day." Habakkuk 2:3

Monday, December 28, 2009

SWEET SISTERLY LOVE


SO, MY SWEET SISTER KELLY, WHOM MOST OF YOU KNOW IS ADOPTED (OUR FAMILY GOT HER RIGHT FROM AN OREGON HOSPITAL AT 2 DAYS OLD) AND WHO STARTED ME, THEN AS A 6 YEAR OLD CHILD, ON A JOURNEY AND DESIRE TO ADOPT THAT WILL CONCLUDE WITH BRINGING OUR BABY GIRL, WROTE ME A SPECIAL POEM FOR ABILGAIL FOR CHRISTMAS-I THOUGHT IT WAS SO NEAT AND I WANTED TO SHARE IT.





Adopting Africa


Lord keep us mindful as we wait,
Your time is perfect.
You are never late!

Our hearts are full of longing, loving,
as we wait for our Little One's coming.

Keep our babe in grace and care.
Give health, strength,
as You form her there.

For there she is in another's womb,
knit together by Your loving hand
to come home to us from another land.

A land of heat and pain,
savannahs and hunger,
of thirsting in vain.

So give us faith, Lord, as we wait
for that blessed day
when we know
that Africa is on her way.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

IF YOU MISSED ORPHAN SUNDAY-WATCH IT HERE!

COPY AND PASTE:

http://www.gospelmusicchannel.com/orphansunday

Amazing video from Georgia Football Head Coach

BYE BYE CHRISTMAS TREES FUNDRAISER


WELL, WE SOLD THE CHRISTMAS TREES AND NOW WE ARE GOING TO TAKE YOUR USED ONES OFF YOUR HANDS AS A FUNDRAISER FOR OUR ADOPTION!

DROP THEM BY OUR HOUSE ANYTIME-

IT IS ONLY $5 PER TREE.

CALL US IF WE ARE NOT THERE AND WE CAN TELL YOU WHERE TO LEAVE THE MONEY-
THANK YOU! OUR CHRISTMAS TREE SALES WERE A GREAT SUCCESS!

ADAM AND AMBER STUTZMAN

503-881-4633

Friday, December 25, 2009

TREE TALLY IS IN!!


We ARE SO EXCITED-WE ARE SO BLESSED! Merry Christmas from our family-
We totaled up our tree sales and can't even begin to show our gratitude and thankfulness to each one of you that gave to help bring our little girl home! When we started, I had set a goal of about $500-but we totally surpassed this!
Dada Da........We sold 170 trees and with all of the extra donations, made $2,300 after we pay for our part of the trees!!!!!!!!!!!!
We can hardly believe this and have now paid for all of our "referral expenses" for when we accept our baby girl's referral, as well as part of one airline ticket. We have about $7,000 more to go but this is a huge jump on our travel expenses. Thank you again so much for all of the support -we hope that you enjoyed your trees!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

THE THREE TREES~MERRY CHRISTMAS


As I walked outside tonight and saw that we only have 3 threes left to sell from our Christmas Trees for Abigail Sale, I was reminded of a story that our Bible Study Group recently read-it is called, "The Tale Of The Three Trees". I thought I would share it with you all now-it is worth the time to listen to it and reflect on the fact that God is in control of your life and He will put you where he wants you to go. Love to you all-Merry Christmas!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

LOCAL NEWSPAPER DOES ARTICLE ON US!






Adoption fundraiser: Family sells trees to help bring baby home
December 2009 Posted in People
By Mary Owen

It’s very possible that Abigail Stutzman hasn’t seen many Christmas trees, if any, but her family has a backyard full of them at their Silverton home.

The Stutzmans are selling the trees for $15 each to raise funds to adopt their Ethiopian daughter, even though they’re not sure who she is yet or if she has even been born. The family applied in January of last year to adopt a baby girl through All God’s Children, a nonprofit Christian agency in Portland. In October, clearing most of the pre-adoption hurdles, the Stutzmans were placed on the waiting list for one between the ages of 1 day and 12 months.

“We had 25 families ahead of us,” Amber Stutzman said of the adoption list status a couple of weeks ago.

“We are expecting our baby referral to come sometime around this March or April. After that, we will travel to get her about two to four months later.”

Meanwhile, the Stutzmans are excitedly preparing for Abigail’s arrival, which began years ago when Amber and her husband, Adam, who works for the Oregon Department of Transportation, signed up to adopt a bi-racial baby from the United States while going through several years of infertility treatment earlier in their marriage.

“But after getting pregnant with twins, we had to pull our application,” said Amber, mom to five children: Jacob, 11, Cassidy and Zachary, 7, Noah, 6, and Logan, 4.

Amber’s desire to adopt began early in childhood when her own sister was adopted as a newborn. Amber, a Salem Academy graduate, shared her interest in taking in her own baby girl with Adam, a Silverton High School graduate, while the two were dating.

“We both agreed that even if we had children, we would like to open our home to a child that needed a family,” Amber said. “We looked into domestic adoption and then through much thought and prayer, were draw to one of the poorest countries with one of the highest needs for families –Ethiopia.”

Ethiopia is one of the four poorest countries in the world, according to a government Web site. The African nation has 85.2 million people, of which almost half live below the poverty level. Malnutrition, poor health conditions, disease including HIV/AIDS, lack of education, high mortality, and other factors contribute to the number of children who are either on the streets or in orphanages.

Married for 15 years, the Stutzmans attend Emmanuel Bible Church. Now that their dream is about to become a reality, the entire miracle of adoption has hit full force, Amber said.

“Most likely another woman somewhere across the world is pregnant right now with our daughter, and that just gives me the chills,” she said. “We continue to pray for the mom and the heart-aching decision that she is going to have to make. Giving up your child so that they will not grow up in poverty is one of the most selfless things that a person can do. We are so thankful to her!”

Amber, who works two days a week as a delivery nurse at Salem Hospital, knows the emotions young mothers have when giving birth and the difficulty that is attached to giving that child up for adoption.

“It is so hard to wrap my mind around it,” she said of a young mother’s sacrifice.

But it won’t be hard for her to wrap her arms around her new daughter, she said.

To cover the $25,000 cost of bringing little Abigail to Silverton, the entire Stutzman family has carried out projects throughout the year and has others in the works.

“We started off in the summer when our oldest son, Jacob, parked cars in our yard during the Homer Davenport festival, the Art Festival and the Father’s Day Strawberry Shortcake day,” Adam said. “During Homer days we also had people donate stuff that they didn’t want any more, and we had a huge yard sale. Our daughter, Cassidy also did a bake sale.”

In September, the Stutzmans conducted a pop can and water bottle drive, a project that is ongoing. People are welcome to drop of cans at 404 Charles Ave. or call for pick up.

“Zachary has been the one doing this, and he actually loves taking the coins back,” Adam said. “So far he has made about $300 for his little sister.”

The family started a Baby Bottle coin drive last month, whereby families, coworkers and friends fill the bottle with spare change.

“We hope to collect them around the first of the year,” Adam said.

And then there’s the tree sale – a chapter to write about in Abigail’s adoption journey book, Adam said. Brad and Mary Jo Young of Scotts Mills provided the trees at a highly discounted rate, and the Stutzmans are selling them at their home. They’ll also take families who want to cut their own to the Young’s farm, and recycle trees after Christmas for $5, Adam said.

“Our family and friends have continued to support us in our fundraising, child care and prayer,” he said, commending folks for their friendliness and caring. “People we don’t even know have been willing to help us out.“

In the planning stages are a community car wash, silent auction, dessert fundraiser and maybe a bowling night at the Silverton Silver Creek Bowling Alley.

“More details will come as we continue to plan these events in the future,” Adam said. “We know that God laid it on our hearts to adopt this baby, which we know also means that ultimately he will provide. We are just thankful beyond words for the generosity of everyone that has helped us to bring our baby home!”


How to help
Donations to the adoption fund may be made
in the Stutzman’s name (their name must be
designated on check) at any MaPS Credit Union.
For information call the Stutzmans at
503-873-6934
check their blog at:
adamandamberstutzman.blogspot.com

Sunday, December 13, 2009

SHOT TIME~OUCH!






















Well, one more thing crossed off our list-our travel shots-Jacob, Adam and I went and got our multiple shots for our trip to Ethiopia-glad that's over....check out my blood pressure right after the shots....Adam won and had to get 5! Jacob needed 2 and I had 3....look at our sad faces and feel pity! We are very sore today-but glad it's over. We actually were blessed because Adam's insurance actually covers travel immunizations-this is VERY rare because they cost several hundred dollars each. We all had to either get or make sure that these were up to date: meningacocal, yellow fever, typhoid, tetanus/pertussis, MMR, varicella, Hep B and Hep A, and PPD for tebuculosis.

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree























Wanted to share some pictures with you of our Christmas Tree adventure! We are still going strong-but what a huge amount of work it is! Adam is working so hard on this and I am so thankful to have such a great guy! And YES we still have trees-we go cut more every few days!



Thursday, December 10, 2009

Above and Beyond All that we could ask for!


Today I am just reflecting a bit and thinking about this last week and a half. As most of you know, we are selling Christmas trees as a fundraiser for our adoption. This fundraiser has gone so far above and beyond anything that we ever thought it would! I was thinking that maybe we would sell a few trees and that would be it-well, you all had other ideas! :-) We have only been doing this for not quite 2 weeks and already have sold over 140 trees. People that know us and people that don't have all come together to support us and this adoption adventure and we are SO grateful! Family, Friends and even TOTAL strangers are often giving us checks for $25, $25, or even $50 for ONE tree-it has been unreal! One anonymous lady saw our sign at the Pill Box Pharmacy here in Silverton and left $15 for us to give someone who didn't have a tree one for Christmas-that is the 2nd person to do that! We have had people from out of town stop and get trees, we have had people that saw our add about it on Craigslist drive from South Salem to get a tree and they don't even know us, but wanted to support our adoption. To think that people we don't even know would go out of their way to help us has just made me speechless. I am so inspired by the generosity of others and there are not words to say to thank everyone!
People from Silverton, Salem, church friends, family, people from our work and the PD have all come together to make this thing so much more than we ever thought-thank you again and again!
Last weekend, after Adam came back from cutting 10 trees, they were all gone within an hour! I had to take 5 peoples names and numbers and they hung around Silverton for an hour and a half until Adam got back here with more trees! Then that night, Adam had his friend, Spencer, help him, borrowed a truck and borrowed a larger trailer and cut 39-well, within 48hrs. we had 2 left!!
To say that Adam is exhausted is an understatement, but he is also excited as well-he is running back and forth-especially on the weekends and can only get about 10 trees in our small utility trailer-so he may try and borrow a truck and larger trailer again and do larger loads for this weekend.
We haven't heard of any new baby referrals this month and are hoping that we start hearing some soon-we can't believe we are in the 20's but now the teens are looking good! :-) Hopefully with the courts just opening up and now new travel groups getting their children the last few weeks, the referral's will start coming.
thanks you all once again for your support-it means the world to us-love to you all!
We are excited to see what these last 2 weeks before Christmas does-we will be selling trees up through the 23rd-so if any of you or someone you knows wants, one, stop by or let us know and we can deliver it. We have been told time and again that they love these trees and all the praise for them goes to our friend Brad Young of Scott's Mills who is selling them to us for $4 each. They are beautiful trees and are ALL Nobles. You can get any size for $15.
Some of you know, but we are blessed to be having a story on our family, our adoption and our tree sales come out in the paper that gets mailed to every house in Silverotn and it should come out this week-this was a true blessing from the Lord-and hopefully we will get the word out there more and sell more trees!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

THE BEST BOOK I HAVE READ IN A LONG TIME!

This is by far the best and most meaningful book that I have read all year-It is amazing and SO true. It challenged me to no end! It is a must read for Christians!
http://www.theholeinourgospel.com/


Friday, December 4, 2009

OUR DECEMBER # IS IN!


WE ARE EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE THAT OUR DECEMBER NUMBER IS 27 AS YOU CAN SEE-WE MADE THEM OUT OF OUR CHRISTMAS TREE BRANCHES-WHICH IS ALSO A REMINDER TO COME BUY A CHRISTMAS TREE FROM US! :-) we ARE TREKKING ALONG AND CAN'T BELIEVE THAT WE ARE ALMOST 1/2 OF WHAT WE WERE WHEN WE STARTED! PLEASE PRAY THAT IT WILL GO QUICKLY FOR US AND THAT OUR BABY GIRL IS HEALTHY AND THAT HER MOM IS ABLE TO HAVE PEACE ABOUT THIS DECISION.
WE ARE TRULY HUMBLED AND SO VERY GRATEFUL TO EVERYONE THAT HAS E-MAILED, CALLED OR STOPPED BY. EVEN TOTAL STRANGERS HAVE HEARD ABOUT OUR TREES AND COME BY TO GET ONE AND WE HAVE EVEN HAD PEOPLE ASK US HOW THEY CAN DONATE MONEY TOWARD OUR ADOPTION-WE HAVE A LINK ON THIS PAGE AND IF YOU CLICK ON IT YOU CAN DONATE IF YOU HAVE A PAYPAL ACCOUNT. WE ARE TRYING TO STILL RAISE ABOUT $8,000 FOR OUR TRAVEL EXPENSES AND THIS SEEMS LIKE A LOT, BUT WE KNOW THAT GOD WILL PROVIDE FOR US AND THAT WE WILL GET THERE.
ON ANOTHER NOTE, WE HAVE BEEN ASKED FOR INFORMATION ABOUT OUR ADOPTION AND OUR CHRISTMAS TREE SALES SO THAT THE OUR TOWN NEWSPAPER CAN DO A STORY ON US-I THINK IT WILL COME OUT A WEEK FROM THIS WEDNESDAY-IT GETS MAILED TO THE WHOLE TOWN SO THIS WAS SIMPLY A BLESSING FROM GOD! WE ARE THRILLED AND THIS IS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO GET OUR STORY OUT THERE AND LET MORE PEOPLE KNOW THAT WE ARE SELLING TREES. THANKS FOR EVERYONE WHO IS SUPPORTING US THROUGH THE BABY BOTTLE COIN DRIVE AND THE CHRISTMAS TREE SALES AND IN MANY OTHER WAYS-WE WILL FOREVER BE GREATFUL TO YOU ALL AND SO WILL OUR BABY! WE LOVE EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

WE STILL HAVE CHRISTMAS TREES!





wE ARE DOING GREAT ON THE CHRISTMAS TREE SALES, BUT WE STILL HAVE MORE AND WILL CONTINUE TO SELL THEM THROUGH THE 23RD....SO TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW THAT THEY CAN GET A BEAUTIFUL TREE FROM US-THEY ARE ALL NOBLES AND ANY SIZE IS ONLY $15!
503-873-6934

Our Airport Homecoming for our 2nd Adoption~

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Our Journey up to our Referral

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Seble's Referral Video

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"Although it may not always be obvious to us, there seems to be one distinct moment when God begins a new story in each of our lives. He writes words on our hearts that long to be spoken and strain to be lived out. Then with His own great hand, He begins to write the script. Experience by experience through seemingly ordinary days, He supernaturally orders our lives. Only when we look back and reflect on what appeared to have been the ordinary events of life does it become clear what a miracle the Lord has performed." Jan Beazely

Amazing Adoption Story!

LUCY LANE-AGCI-ADOPTION VIDEO! This inspired us to follow our dream!

WHY WOULDN'T I....WHY WOULDN'T YOU?

What Adoption is About! What a Testimony! Lundy's Adoption

We Love this family and this video is inspiring!

HANNAH'S HOPE ETHIOPIA

FATHER, BREAK OUR HEARTS FOR WHAT BREAKS YOURS~

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