Blessings

This week has been an emotional week. Our friends Jeremy and Amy Neel delivered their third baby. After the birth the baby faced life threatening conditions. His lungs had several wholes in them and collapsed.  He was rushed to a NICU in Pensacola. Then 48 hours later Amy was admitted to ICU having difficulties breathing. The paramedic  thought she wasn't going to make it.

Then within 24 hours and lots of prayers both the baby and Mom are healed and Doctors are amazed. It was a bad storm but in the end God answered every prayer.  It was amazing to journey with them and see the hand of The Lord move. It was also beautiful to watch the body of Christ rise up. All the prayers, gifts, hugs, meals and tears that were shared were priceless.  We are so blessed to have a church that believes in family. 

The Body of Christ is one of the most beautiful things.  It blesses me seeing the love of God being poured out by others.   It's very humbling and moving when friends and family rally to help you with a dream. Thank you all for your prayers, encouragement, and financial gifts.  This week we have been blessed financially 3 times by random checks in the mail, $550 in two days.  Also, many friends have given online and purchased a Tshirt.

Standing amazed at the faithfulness of Christ. The journey continues......

http://www.bonfirefunds.com/kanaday-chinese-adoption

HOPE'S TROPICANA SPEECH

Hope Kanaday

October 29, 2013

“Make Your Mark”

            Somewhere thousands of miles away there is a child sitting around with many other kids.  These kids don’t have a mother, a father, or even an uncle and aunt to stay with.  These kids live in all places around the world like Haiti, Ecuador, Ukraine, Scotland and even here in America.  These kids are orphans and they have totally different lives than us.  For this reason, my family is reaching out to the country of China to adopt a child.

           

            The CCAI is sending my family a galore amount of packets and forms needing to be filled out and signed.  First of all, I said the CCAI not the CSI television show.  The CCAI stands for the Chinese Children Adoption International.  The CCAI is the adoption service my family has chosen to use.  They have been in service for two decades and are rated number one in overall excellence worldwide by the China Center for Children’s Welfare and Adoption. Adoption costs over 30,000 dollars! That’s is about how much a Toyota 4-Runner cost. Wow, I wish I had that kind of money in my back pocket! We are not sure what gender we will have joining our family, but we do know some sad and unfair laws are unforced in China.  To begin with, the nation of China has a strict one-child policy.  This country threatens girls and favors boys!  China has 32 million more boys than girls because parents face strict birth limits.  This result means there are more females to adopt in China.  This is really sad.  Boys, you probably feel pretty awesome right now, but I assure you that girl’s rock.

            My family has always had the desire to adopt.  I am confident in this incredibly brave decision we have made.  I can’t wait to have another brother or sister.   Now that we’ve taken a bigger step into this process, I realize that it is going to change my family so much.  There will be many exciting days ahead for us but also some challenges as well.  One small challenge will be learning to share a room with someone you hardly know.  No one ever said that it would be easy making your mark from one nation to another, but we are ready to make ours.

Please help us raise the funds for adoption. Buy a cool T-shirt :)

https://www.bonfirefunds.com/kanaday-chinese-adoption/?r=6477

Why China?

 

I have had a lot of people ask me "why China?"

    Around 10 years ago I was watching The Oprah Show and it was about Chinese Orphanages.  The story was very heartbreaking to me.  A reporter had gone undercover into orphanages and recorded the horrific conditions.  The images have stuck with me to this day.  As I was watching the show I felt for the first time like I wanted to adopt from China.  I shared my heart with Jerimy and he was open to it.  

Then a few year later he and I went to a Steven Curtis Chapman concert.  This was before their terrible accident happened.  Steven spoke about adoption and it stirred up the desire even more in both of us.  Then a few years later, I read Mary Beth Chapman's book "Choosing To See"....If you haven't read that book you need to :).  This book confirmed my desire to adopt from China.

   Over the past few years we have been praying about this decision.  Our daughter, Hope had a vision one weekend in church about adopting from China.  She wrote us a letter describing what she saw.  Hope has always been a dreamer, the Lord speaks to her through visions and dreams.  She was very adamant for weeks that we had to adopt from China.  She asked us almost everyday.  Hope is also very determined :).  She kept asking us to pray about it.

    I began researching how to adopt and felt very overwhelmed with the information that I found.  I met with my friend from church who had adopted and she gave me some leads.  Jerimy felt like we needed to wait... it just wasn't the right time (this was about a year ago).  

Then this year after Easter when we went to Nashville, TN we found Steven Curtis Champan's ministry, Show Hope.  We went in and spoke with a lady and she guided us to CCAI Adoption Agency.  We finally felt released to move forward in the process. 

We just kicked off our T-shirt sale click here if you'd like to help us bring home a child

https://www.bonfirefunds.com/kanaday-chinese-adoption/?r=6477

Ladybug

Why a ladybug?  

After Jerimy and I decided to move forward in adopting last Spring, I kept seeing ladybugs everywhere.  I would see one in my car, on my car, sitting at a restraurant.... On and on.  I began to wonder why? I asked God, asked Jerimy and of course googled it :). I heard and read things about Trusting God. So I held on to that and everytime I see one, I remind myself to trust Him. Well a few weeks ago at church, I shared with a couple (Dan and Liz Steinberger) who adopted a little girl from China, that we were beginning the process. Dan imediately said "Have you been visited by the Ladybug yet?". I almost burst into tears! I was like "You mean actual ladybugs?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. They went on to tell me that as soon as they began the process of adoption they saw ladybugs everywhere. They also told me that several couples they talked with had the same experience. 

I am not one to chase signs but I truly believe that God is using it to show me he loves me and I can trust Him. Also, that he loves a child somewhere in China that needs to come home to our family. 

So when we went to design our T-shirt I asked them to put a ladybug on it.  So if you are ordering one you can remind yourself to Trust God and that he loves and cares for all the small details of our lives.. Just like the beautiful detail he put into a tiny ladybug.  www.bonfirefunds.com/kanaday-chinese-adoption

 

We are having a T-Shirt sale to help us reach our goal!  Go to:  T-Shirt Sale to check them out.  They are only $15.00 if you want to help us you can sell 10 and get yours free :)  The fundraiser will end December 5th.

Exciting News

We have exciting news!  We are adopting from China!!  This is something that has been on our hearts for many years.  This summer the Lord has opened up doors to help us make this dream come true.  We are going through an adoption agency called CCAI.  We found this agency while we were in Franklin, TN a few months ago on vacation.  The Lord put us in connection with Steven Curtis Chapmin's organization called Show Hope.  We were able to sit and talk with someone and she directed us to CCAI.  CCAI uses an orphanage called Maria's Big House of Hope in China, which is from showhope.org We loved the idea of partnering with this organization.

We are in the beginning phases of this adoption.  We have been accepted by the agency and now we are working on the home study.

We are partnering with www.bonfirefunds.com.  We have created a T-Shirt and will be selling them soon

We will also have other opportunities to partner with us in the future.

Thank you for your support and prayers.

The Kanaday's

Pure Charity

Family Photo Shoot

Photo Shoot with my talented sister.. www.amandasuanne.com

Last week my sister, Amanda took our pictures to help announce our Adoption!  We went to Watercolor, FL a few miles from our home.  It was a beautiful fall afternoon... I love where we live!
I am so blessed to have an incredible photographer as a Sister.

We are still in the beginning phases of adoption but are very excited about our new adventure.  We are awaiting our Orientation with CCAI (adoption agency) and then our next step is our Home-study.  For those of you who know a little about adoption we have started the Dossier.  So much paperwork!

I feel so blessed that our whole family is on board with this.  Hope and Josiah can't wait to have a new brother or sister.  Hope even wrote a speech for school about the adoption... (I'll post that soon).  Josiah loves kids and really hopes we get a boy so he can share his room.

Jerimy and I are growing.....The Lord is stretching us in so many ways.  This is totally a FAITH move. It doesn't seem real at times.... that God is allowing us to be a part of a new journey.  We are excited and nervous all at the same time.  Can't wait to see all that the Lord does in us and through us.

Shannon