Cap Creations

Not too long ago, our family was joined by Worthy of the Prize www.worthyoftheprize.com and Cap Creations www.capscreations.com to raise funds for our adoption.    Cap Creations makes wonderful and creative hand stamped jewelry.  Their "chosen" necklace is part of an adoption fundraiser ran through Worth of the Prize.  For each necklace purchased, $10 will be donated to our family.  Every quarter, the money in our 'account' will be sent directly to our agency, All God's Children International. 

If purchasing one of these necklaces, you will need to specify 'The Swanson family' during the order process.   

We ordered these necklaces for our girls for Christmas. (Before we partnered with WOTP and Cap Creations).  We loved these necklaces because they represent that our girls have been CHOSEN by God.   The necklaces are so sweet....not to mention, our girls finally have something with their name on it!  (this is what happens when your mom includes a 'Y" in your name).    

Prayer Requests

Hey Everyone, We have made up a list of 60 prayer requests for our child to go in our adoption time line.  I thought it would be good to share them with you....so my mom gave me the job of posting them.  Here are the ones for the month of January:

60. FDL approval would come soon.

(this prayer request has been answered.)

59. The Lord would capture the hearts of your birth parents.

58. The Lord would be all your birth parents need; bringing them comfort and healing.

57. Even now the Lord would begin to draw to you himself.

56. That the initial orphan investigations would be complete and accurate.  No mistakes!

Thanks for taking your time to pray,

Myriah

Waiting List Count Down

Over Christmas break, the family worked on creating our Waiting List Count Down.  (above  photos.)  Each card has a number on it as well as a prayer request inside.  As we move down the wait list, we will pull out those prayer requests for the numbers we moved on the list and pray for them until our next 'wait list' update.  (I know...it can get confusing but hopefully the picture will help.)  Our count down time line turned out bigger than we thought but thankfully, we had an empty wall to hang it on.  Just looking at it brings sweet thoughts and a continual reminder that there is much to lay at the throne of God Almighty. 

In November we started at #60 on the Waiting List for a little boy so that is where we started our count down.  (see the #60 above)   The prayer request are to keep our minds focused when the waiting gets hard.  (and it will get very hard)   

January numbers are....#56 boy; #31 sibling set; #75 girl.  Note to self:  hold wait list numbers loosely.  All in God's perfect timing.

God's Provision

We are again rejoicing at God's faithful provision for us.  Last week week received news that our family has been awarded a grant from SHOW HOPE!!!!!  We are so amazed (and grateful) to the ways that God is going before us to make rough places smooth.  With the grants that we've received our referral fee for one child should be covered.  A sibling referral will require additional funds but that is a BIG unknown.  We will now begin praying and saving towards our travel expenses with the confidence that God will make a way.   Would appreciate your prayers to that end.  




Soon to come....pictures of our Adoption Countdown Time Line and our January waiting list numbers....

Statistics

There are approximately 147 million orphans worldwide...

and over 5,700 children become orphans every day.

Every 14 seconds a child becomes an orphan.

1 billion children are deprived of one or more services essential to survival and development.

Every 2 seconds another orphan dies from malnutrition.

101 million children are not attending primary school, with more girls than boys missing out.

15 million children have lost one or both parents due to AIDS.

1.2 million children were trafficked each year as of the year 2000.

150 million children between the ages of 5 and 14, are engaged in child labor.

25,000 children age out of the foster care system every year.

11 million children under the age of 5 die each year from preventable diseases.

* statistics from: AGCI, UNICEF, UNHCS, and Take Part