Sevenly + Reece’s Rainbow = Supporting Adoptive Families

What a surprise today! As we near the end of this journey we have been amazed again and again at the way God has provided. We are convinced that God truly delights in providing a way for the orphans of this word to come home to their forever families. He has proved his faithfulness again and again throughout this process. If you are on the fence about adoption, especially if you are holding off because of financial concerns, we say…jump down off that fence and go for it!

Photo by: Madey Edlin

Today we found out that Sevenly is partnering for a third time with Reece’s Rainbow (the grant organization where we found Aubrey and Micah). If you are not familiar with Sevenly, they chose a new “cause” each week, design t-shirts to support that cause, and sell them for a limited amount of time to help raise money for that cause. This time around, Sevenly has decided to specifically support the Reece’s Rainbow families who are adopting a child with Down syndrome and are traveling within the next twelve weeks to pick up that child and bring him/her home. We are happy to say that we meet that criteria, and we will be one of several families who will benefit from the sale of the Sevenly products! To see all the Reece’s Rainbow families who will benefit and/or to support this cause go here: http://reecesrainbow.org/?s=s14.

Please consider purchasing one of these great t-shirts this week to support the families who are in the final push to the end of their adoptions! Also, there are lots of other items on Sevenly as well, not just t-shirts! We are so thankful for this blessing as we near the end of our own adoption journey.

We are also still in the midst of our shoe fundraiser. So far we have raised about 2,000 lbs. of the 15,000 lbs. needed. Today we received a huge pile of shoes from a generous donor…1,307 shoes in all! For those who are local, we will be at Dairy Queen in Meadville from 1-4 this Saturday collecting used shoes. They can be any kind, and as long as they are still “wearable” we’ll take them! Every little bit helps us get closer to our goal. If you could clean out your closet and bring us your old shoes, we would be so appreciative!  J

Sawyer climbing the shoe mountain!

Shoe Drive

Old shoes wanted!!!!

We are asking for your help to raise the last needed funds to help bring Micah and Aubrey home to us. This Friday, if all goes well, there will be a court hearing to officially make us the parents of this precious boy and girl. By early January, we should be on our way to get them and bring them home forever! We are so excited!

We are still about $4,700 short of the needed funds to make that happen. Compared to what was originally needed, that is just a drop in the bucket! God has met us at every turn with the necessary funds we needed for every step of the process, and so many of you have been a part of that provision. Thank you for giving as God prompted…we are forever grateful!

So, during our final fundraiser we are hoping to raise the money to complete our adoption, as well as provide a few items for Micah to d Aubrey’s orphanage that they are in need of. We would like to be able to purchase a wheelchair for a little guy who needs one in order to be able to go to school and we would also like to buy some baby food for the orphanage because that is a need of theirs as well.

We are happy to say that we will be partnering with the Kelliher family for this shoe drive. I know David and Julie from my time working at the Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School. They are a beautiful family, serving God, and traveling back to Eastern Africa for a second time to bring another young lady into their family. To read more about their adoption journey visit their blog at http://juliekelliher.wordpress.com/. Between the two families, we are hoping to raise about 30,000 pounds worth of shoes in the next several weeks! It is a big goal but we serve a big God!

Would you be willing to clean out your closet and part with your old shoes? Could you hold a mini shoe drive of your own, on our behalf, maybe by passing along our need to your church, your school, your neighbors, your family, or a civic group you are a part of? Could you share our need on Facebook?

We are hoping to wrap up the shoe drive in early /mid January or as soon as we meet our goal. Our shoes will be sent to CA through a company called Angel Bins, where they will be sorted and sent to various third world countries where there is a great need for used shoes. I love that this fundraiser helps two adoptive families but also benefits people in need of shoes around the world. So much better than ending up in a landfill here!

We have created a flyer (below) that can be distributed to anyone who is interested. It can be printed out or we can get copies to you.

We so appreciate all of the help from our family and friends as we enter this last leg of our journey!

 Blessings!

Erin

Fundraising Update—the Home Stretch

Many have asked about how our adoption is looking on a financial front and how our fundraising is going. Let us just say that we have been so blessed by so many of you! God has met our need in a way that we could not have expected! The funds from our adoption have come from many different places and people, and we are so honored that God has met us at the place of our biggest insecurity about adoption—how to pay for it!

Here is a little recap of some of the many things that have come together to help make our adoption of Micah and Aubrey possible:

v  We started out way back in February of last year, using Craigslist to sell many personal items

Trip #1

An update to our blog is way overdue. I’ve struggled a bit over the last week with several things—jet lag being one of them, as well as where to start in telling you all about our trip to meet our two children. Fair warning—this is a long one.

Adoption is a tough road in many ways. One of the things that is difficult, and I think most adoptive families would agree, is the waiting. There is waiting at every turn. And just when the paperwork and the fundraising seem to be taking over your life and things are seeming just a bit too hectic, you exchange that for a little bit more of…you guessed it…waiting. Honestly, I think I prefer the crazy seasons of paperwork over the waiting because at least in those seasons I feel like I’m doing something to help bring us closer to getting our babies home.

The waiting was long over the summer season, thus the reason that we did few blog posts. Honestly, there wasn’t much to report! Aubrey and Micah’s home country was having some political issues that kept adopting families from being able to move forward in the process. Basically, we lost a little more than two months just waiting for certain people to be given authority there to hold a meeting that we needed to take place, in which we would receive verbal approval to travel. Later, would come the written approval and then finally travel dates would be given.

After so much time, when our travel dates did come, it produced a flurry of activity. The email said that we could choose to travel on August 31 or wait until mid-October. Well, that made it a no-brainer for sure, but that meant that we had one week to get our plane tickets purchased, get plans made for our children who would need care here, organize care for our animals, buy what we still needed for our trip, get the house in order (I hate coming home to a messy house after a trip), and pack everyone up. We made two to-do lists—one for Cliff and one for me—and started tackling things one by one. By the end of the week things were looking good and we were already exhausted before the trip had even begun!

Mountains of Germany

Unfortunately, because we had such short notice, we had few choices concerning flights. We had a terribly long layover in Toronto both coming and going—8 ½ and 6 ½ hours. That doesn’t include the drive time to Pittsburgh, the 8 plus hour flight over the ocean, the two shorter flights, and the two

What is your passion?

Defend the weak and the fatherless Psalm 82:3a

Yes, I was bit by the adoption bug. It bit a long time ago and now it has grown into a passion—a passion that I believe God has put there for his purpose. I think God wants to give all of us a passion to change this world for him. Some will change the world in small ways—like bringing a hurting child into a home full of love, and for some it will be in big ways—you know, like the Billy Graham sort of big. But, I think when considering the passion that God has placed in your heart, it can’t be measured by human standards. To God each calling has significance, big or small, and each serves to further his kingdom here on earth.

Regardless of what your passion is, I can say with almost complete certainty that it probably isn’t an easy thing. He rarely calls us to easy things. He usually calls

Getting Closer…

As many of you know, we submitted our paperwork (our dossier) to Micah and Aubrey’s country at the end of May. Our dossier needed to be translated and then authenticated. After that it would be sent off to be reviewed by the Vice Minister at a meeting in which we would receive a verbal referral for our children. The problem was that there was not VM in place at that time and over the last two months none has been assigned. So, we waited, and waited, and waited some more. Then, last week we heard that the meeting would be held regardless of not having a VM to run it. Our hopes were up that we would get the verbal referral that we were waiting for. The meeting took place on Tuesday and we waited all day for news (despite the fact that we were told that we wouldn’t hear until Wednesday), because it’s just too hard not to check our emails a million times in hope! Wednesday we got word that our dossier had been approved, and we had our verbal referral for Aubrey and Micah! We are so excited!

From here we will wait for another official to sign off on our dossier (called the written referral). We have been told that this typically happens within three weeks of the verbal referral, but the timeline is variable because of all that is happening politically over there. Once we have the signature we will be invited over to meet our children for the first time. So, we are getting closer and closer all the time to meeting our son and daughter for the first time!

Twiddling our Thumbs…

We have not posted in a while because things are at a stand-still on the adoption front for us. Our dossier was submitted in Aubrey and Micah’s country on May 23^rd. That means that by now we should have gone through several steps within the adoption system there, and we would either already be traveling to meet them, or we would at least know our travel dates by now (we’ll need to go over twice—once for a week to meet them and then another week  to bring them home). Unfortunately, their country of origin is facing some changes politically, and the official who signs off on this step of our adoption process has not been assigned.

Car Wash Fundraiser!

As we make our finally push to become "fully-funded" to bring our two little ones home, we will be hosting a car wash this month at Hunter's Inn in Guys Mills, PA.

The best part of having your car washed at Hunter's? You can head on inside while you wait and have some WINGS!

Hope to see you there!

Thank you for your continued support,

Cliff, Erin, Olivia, Sawyer, Collin, Aubrey, Micah, and Makena

Adoption Update!

Things are getting pretty exciting around here! We found out today that our dossier was sent to Micah and Aubrey’s country late last week and has been received in country. The dossier is a big collection of paperwork that includes our home study, approval from the USA to bring the kids here as US citizens, FBI clearances, medical clearances, family pictures, as well as various other documents. It’s kinda scary to stick all of that in the mail, knowing that it represents months of gathering information and documentation! So we are so happy to know that it got there in one piece!

 So, from here it usually takes about two weeks for the dossier to be translated and another five days for it to be authenticated. After that, it is submitted for review and we will need to wait a week or two for

Aubrey Joy

If anybody understands

God’s ardor for his children,

it’s someone who has rescued an orphan from despair,

for that is what God has done for us.

God has adopted you.

God sought you,

found you,

signed the papers 

and took you home.               

~Max Lucado

These are the rest of our pictures of Aubrey! Every picture is an absolute treasure when there are so few! We also got a video of our sweet girl WALKING! We weren’t sure until today if she had acquired that skill yet or not, so we are so happy to know that she is on the go. Now, whether or not we’ll still be happy about that when she is home and getting into everything remains to be seen!  

When we look at her we keep saying, “she really needs a Mama and a Daddy.” 

Hold on Aubrey, we’re coming for you!

Aubrey's Latest Pictures!

When we committed to Aubrey a few weeks ago our one regret was that we only had one little picture of her that was a bit unclear and her head was covered up with a big winter hat! The process to get new pictures taken of children in the orphanage is a lengthy one and we have waited these past few weeks to be able to see her cute little face more clearly. We are amazed at how big she is--she'll be four soon! In our minds she was the little baby in the first picture and now we can see that she has indeed grown up so much since then. Enjoy some of these new pictures of our new daughter. We've been told that there are more on the way, so stay tuned!

Behind the Scenes

One thing we have realized in this past week is that God is ALWAYS at work in our lives even if it is behind the scenes in ways that we don’t see or even understand!

Our adoption of Aubrey and Micah is moving along very rapidly. We are amazed at how quickly things are going, and even on the days when we feel like it will be forever before we get the joy of having these two treasures join our home, we know that God has been speeding things along on our behalf and theirs. 

So here is a little update on our process: as of last week we were waiting from the okay from USCIS Immigration Services here in the USA to give us the okay to bring two orphans into our country. There are several steps to this part of the process including some paperwork,

T Shirts NOW AVAILABLE!

Help raise support for Micah and Aubrey, 

and raise awareness for Adoption as well!

We are taking "pre-orders" now to help us with selecting the sizes we need to meet our 50 piece minimum from our local screen printer. We will be ordering them in the next few days, no matter how many "pre-orders" and will be able to get them into your hands within a couple weeks (hopefully sooner).

We are asking that if they need to be shipped to please add a 3.00 shipping charge to help cover costs.  Please send payments to our paypal account at cliff@newbeginningschog.com or you can always send a check. If sending a check please email us so we can order your shirts before your check arrives. REMEMBER to let us know what size(s) you would like.

Cliff Forbes
10119 Beuchat RD
Guys Mills, PA 16327

Thank you for your support as we continue to get closer to bringing our two little ones HOME!

A God Story

So, we have a new story to tell…it’s a long one, but I promise it is worth the read!

 When I told the story you are about to read to a man whom I had just met at an orphan care conference his response was,

Redemption is not possible without sacrifice.

God reminded me of this truth this week when I was traveling down the road. At first I was reflecting on Jesus, but as often happens these days, my mind wandered to Micah and to adoption in general. You see, when Christ redeemed my life it was with a great price. The price was his life. Jesus set aside the glories of heaven to dwell with men and become the living sacrifice for me. The price was high, but it was paid for the sake of love. This got me thinking to the sacrifices made in adoption.

God has reminded me that he is using our family—to redeem Micah’s life. Not necessarily in a spiritual sense, although we’re hoping that Micah will come to know Christ, but rather in a physical sense. This will not be without cost. If foster care taught our family one thing, it is that the blending of new people into an existing family is not easy. We are no longer naïve to the difficulties of merging together as a new (but improved) Forbes family. We realize that the waiting that we are doing right now, all the fundraising, and all the paperwork-- that’s the “easy” part! The days of adjusting on one another, everyone re-finding their “nitch” in the family, bonding with one another—these are things that are a little more difficult and require reliance on God to make it happen. They say it takes at least one full year (and maybe more) after the adoption of a child for the family to find normalcy again. Maybe God has allowed us to walk some of our foster care paths to prepare us to do that part of it again. Redemption requires sacrifice. 

God gave us a passion for orphans many years ago and that passion has never faded. Actually, it continues to grow all the time. We know, that we know, that this is the right decision for our family. And, because we trust God’s plan for us, we know he will work out all the details—for Micah, for our other children, and for us. There will be hard days, but we trust that God will carry us through. We are in the palm of his hand and we won’t be doing this adoption journey alone. Much the opposite! Instead we will strive to let God lead the way. 

Although we do believe that the redemption of this child’s life will require sacrifice, we also believe that it will be more than worth it! And make no mistake, Micah will sacrifice as well. As inferior as orphanage life is compared to life spent in a loving family, the orphanage is all that Micah has ever known. So, to gain a family, Micah must sacrifice as well, although his sacrifices will be different from ours—he will sacrifice his familiar caregivers, his familiar bed, food, and the sounds and sights that make up his world. Without knowing it is coming, he will be thrust into a whole new world—an unfamiliar and scary world. Redemption requires sacrifice. 

In one of the videos that we plan to share at our adoption luncheon in a few days, an adoptive dad says this: “There is no physical thing that you can buy that’s actually going to give you true peace and happiness. And the pure joy that will come from a rescue and a ransom of a child’s life is probably the most satisfying thing you can imagine.” Micah’s life is worth more than any sacrifice our family will make. And I’m praying that once Micah is settled here, that he too will recognize that joining us was worth all the things he had to leave behind. Jesus’ example reminds me that redemption is his plan—for me, for all people who trust in him, for Micah, for all orphans who long for a family.

Erin

Things are moving forward!

We got news from our social worker that our home study is done. This is the first major step of our adoption journey--finished in six weeks! Now that our home study is complete, this frees us to move forward in several ways. We will now be able to begin working on our dossier (the big bunch of paperwork that will need to be sent over to Micah’s country). There are several steps to that process, some of which

The process

The waiting game is not always a fun one but we’re hopeful that all this waiting is going to mean that our whole family is prepared for Micah’s arrival. Many of you have asked what the time frame is for our adoption. We have been told that it can be anywhere from eight months to a year. Of course, we’ll be praying that God will expedite the process!

We are really just beginning to understand the process of adopting internationally as we go: learning lots of new terms for things we never knew existed, watching the blogs and posts of other families who are traveling the same road only a little ahead of us, and

Micah Video from Erin Forbes on Vimeo.


If you would like to help bring Micah home, please click HERE.  Thank you for your support!

How it all started...

We are so excited to share with all of our family and friends that we are adopting a precious little boy from Eastern Europe named Micah. We cannot wait to bring him home. We’ve never done a blog before, so this will be something new. We want our first post to be “our story” so that you can follow along in this journey from start to finish. It’s a long one, but for those of you who are curious about how we got to this place we hope to answer your questions…

I remember as a little girl being really interested in adoption. It was something that would enter my head from time to time for no particular reason. The older I got, the more I felt that someday, sometime, I would adopt. When Cliff and I met in high school and started talking about getting married I remember telling him that I hoped he would want to adopt someday because I felt that God had called me to do that. Honestly, I can say that the thought crossed my mind that maybe God has placed this burden in my heart for kids without families because I was not going to be able to have biological children. This particular thought nagged at the back of my mind for many years. About a year after Cliff and I got married I started investigating the idea of adopting internationally. At my first teaching job I had had a little girl in my class who had been adopted from Guatemala. This was my first experience with international adoption and I was very intrigued. Once I started investigating, I realized that we didn’t meet ANY of the requirements at that time in our lives—we weren’t old enough, we hadn’t been married long enough, and we didn’t meet the income guidelines. So, although it never left my mind, the option of international adoption was put aside.