Blessed by Bracelets

We are SO excited .... actually excited isn't anywhere close to the right word.... elated, ecstatic, thrilled, jubilant, joyful.... all of this and more!!  We can almost share a little more about our son, almost!  God has been so faithful in revealing His plan to us.  And His provision has been such a blessing!  We have experienced great generosity from friends and family to help bring our son home.  Thanks to each of you that have donated and/or bought shirts, jewelry and journals - you are truly bringing our little boy home! 

Some have purchased items, some have donated money and still others have given of their time and talents.  A dear lady at our church is a talented jewelry maker.  She has generously donated 'conception' bracelets to sell for our adoption.  These are beautiful jeweled bracelets that wrap twice and reflect the birthstones for the month of conception and the month of birth.  A card of blessing is include with each bracelet as well.  I have one bracelet available for each month of the year, just let me know the birth month.  The bracelets are $35 each.  They are truly beautiful and have been designed and crafted by hand with much love!!



December

Thank you very much, Helen, for taking the time to make these bracelets and for the love you have shown to our family!!  You are a blessing to us!

Our Family is Growing

 It has been ONE year since we brought Aster home from Ethiopia.  The time has gone so quickly and at the same time we feel as though she has always been a part of us.  There is no doubt that God ordained her as a Porter long before we ever even knew Aster's name.  Many of you helped bring our Aster home and your prayers and contributions have blessed our family beyond what words can express.  Our faith has been deepened and the journey has been so sweet, that we could hardly wait to do it again!

 

Our hearts are full as we eagerly anticipate the adoption of our son, also from Ethiopia.  We look forward to sharing all the details, very soon, but for now all we can say is that he is a little boy, under the age of 5 and we are over the moon with excitement!!  We anticipate being able to share more in a few weeks. 

Between now and then, however, we need to do some MAJOR fundraising.  Fundraising in and of itself makes me very uncomfortable, but I also know that it is a beautiful opportunity to see God's faithfulness to our family, our son and hopefully you, as you witness our story.  In order to say 'yes' to our son, we need to raise $13,000 - by February 7th.  This is a BIG number with a short time frame, but our God is big and I know 'the One I've trusted in can take care of what He's trusted me to do right to the end.' (2 Tim 1:12 The Message).

Among other things, we are once again selling 147 million orphan t-shirts.  We have partnered with this organization in the past and appreciate all they have done to help us bring our children home.

These items are along the right side of this page.  Please let me know if you have any questions or need help with your order.

In advance - please accept our gratitude - our heartfelt THANK YOU!!

Fundraising Items

As promised, here are our new fundraising items, at least a few of them:


   Magazine Bead and Ethiopian Cross Necklaces

Our oldest daughter is handcrafting these beautiful necklaces. They have various colored magazine beads and an authentic Ethiopian cross hanging from the center.
If you have a specific color request, we are happy to custom make one for you!

red/brown

green/blue

            Personalized Scripture Journals

These are just 2 of many designs to choose from.  My sister-in-law owns a business that makes these amazing journals that have a personalized Bible verse at the bottom of each page.  For example one page has: Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, Aster, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Between now and Christmas she is donating a portion of the sale of each journal to our adoption fund.  Her website is: www.papersunday.com 
**On the address page of ordering there is a 'referred by' drop box.  Simply choose 'porterkids' and we will get credit for the sale**  

 

She also has adoption specific journals that make a fabulous and unique gift with scriptures specially chosen to reflect God's heart for adoption and the journey of an adoptive family.
You will not be disappointed in these truly AMAZING journals.

Let me just express how humbled and grateful we are to those of you that have already contributed to our adoption journey.  And share our gratitude in advance to those that will prayerfully consider supporting us through prayer, finances or time and energy.  We are blessed and our children are blessed by YOU!!

Changes

Change seems to be the common thread that ties our days, weeks and months together over the past year. In the last several weeks my heart has reflected on all of the changes we have experienced in the past 18 months: we moved to a new home, traveled to Ethiopia 3 times for me and 4 times for Craig in a 9 month period, Craig left a very secure job that the world deemed succesful, we started a company together, and best of all we met and brought home our beautiful Aster. Like I said, BIG and wonderful changes in many areas of our family. Looking back over these changes, I realize that while they were difficult the place God has brought us to is amazing and rewarding and like nothing I ever imagined we would get to experience. I am SO grateful for a courageous husband who is willing to follow God's path and not the world's -- who is willing to go on this crazy journey of adoption with me and said yes to it AGAIN and for children that have embraced all that God has called us to with grace, humility and love. Their love for Aster is bigger and brighter than anything I have ever seen!!
And so, with all of these changes we are not content to sit still and settle into our newly fashioned life as we know it, we hear God calling us forward to more changes. For now, we are trusting God as we move forward with another adoption. We have been working on this adoption for well over a year now - in our planning it was supposed to happen at the same time as Aster's adoption, but God, in all His sovereignity has a different plan and a different child than we had originally believed. Heartbreaking as this week has been, we continue to trust and know that HE has a child already ordained as a part of our family and we wait with excited anticipation to see his/her face.
This adoption is much different for us because our financial situation is much different this time. While last time we needed to fundraise for some of the adoption costs, this time we need to fundraise for ALL of the adoption costs. Again, we choose to trust GOD, knowing He has it all covered. I will post our new fundraising items later this weekend, but as a preview, we will have newly designed necklaces and personalized scripture journals. We have an adoption jar that we are putting our funds in as a visual reminder of God's provision for our next child. I know and have seen that He will not leave them as orphans, He will bring them home.

Name Change ... Taking Votes

It has become very clear that Mary-Aster only acknowledges 'Aster' but does NOT acknowledge the 'Mary' part of her name - which is funny because most everyone else seems to acknowledge the 'Mary' but not the 'Aster'. So, at home we have her saying "Aster's milk" or "Aster's shirt", and her siblings all call her 'Aster'- but we have others in her life saying "Hi, Mary!" or "Come on in here Mary" and she looks at them like she isn't sure who they are talking to. We've decided it's time to get some consistency and we are probably following her lead and going with Aster. So, now the question is:
Aster Jolene (mom's middle name - don't make fun)
Aster Craig (this is how Ethiopia does names and her legal name now)
or
Aster _______ (your suggestion)

Next question .... how does one handle/announce a name change? Do we send Name Change Announcements? Send a Name Change global email? Or maybe we should register for gifts under her new name and have a Name Change Party!!

Blogging again ....

I have decided to start blogging again - not because I am trying to find things to do with all of my extra time but because it helps me focus on the joys of this season in life and find the humor in the daily craziness. I never imagined how busy life would get with a toddler in the house again - but busy it is.
Quick recap on the last 4 months:
- We officially finished our school year: Hannah completed 5th/6th, Luke completed 3rd, Katy completed 2nd/3rd and Emily did great with her Pre-K/K school work.
- We officially launched our own company - CRAZY!!
- Katy celebrated her 8th birthday (in April)
- We got new pets
- Mary-Aster turned 2 years old
- Luke is 10 years old today


Life is so full of laughter, energy, learning, craziness and joy!!! It is truly a blessed time for the Porters.

Mary-Aster is doing remarkably well. She is adjusting beautifully. Bonding and attachment seem to be going very well, her food issues have gone from not wanting to eat anything offered to eating a crazy amount (so much that we have to tamper it a little bit). She was just moved out of our room into a room of her own YAY!! She is talking TONS and bosses everyone around whenever possible. I love that she still uses a few Amaharic words and LOVES LOVES LOVES her injera. I am amazed at God's sovereignty -- she is perfectly Porter!!

Our most recent adventure is getting 2 baby pygmy goats as pets.   I guess homeschooling 5 children and running our company wasn't enough to keep us busy.  So now the Porters consist of 2 adults, 5 children and 2 kids.  Life is an adventure --- a blessed journey from God!

Pictures - Finally!!

I have been meaning to get these photographs posted for days, but am just now getting my feet under me with all of the transitions.
I know all you really want to see are pictures, so I'll keep the update short.  We are all doing GREAT!!! It is as though Mary-Aster has always been with us - hard to explain, but true.  We are SO SO SO grateful to all be together at home and we are absolutely LOVING our family.  Mary-Aster adores her siblings but not nearly as much as they adore her!  Honestly, it is hard to put into words how joy filled our days are - even with less sleep!!

And now, here are the pictures ....

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