Christmas Hope

Merry Christmas from Joshua, Amber and Noah.

We pray this special blog post finds you wrapped in peace from the remembrance of the birth of Jesus; the greatest gift to all of mankind, bringing hope to the world.

We are eager to share our special announcement with you today. This name was long ago laid on my heart and we are excited to pray for our adoption and future daughter by name and encourage you to do the same. We will give her a new name when she is adopted but part of her middle name will be her African birth name; which we obviously do not know yet. The question mark is where we will place her birth name.

Without further anticipation we are excited to share that we will be naming our little one:

Noel Hope ____?____ Rohde

What does this name mean to us? So glad you asked J

Well, her name quite literally means “The hope of Christmas.” Christmas representing the new life we all were offered when Jesus came to the world. Born for us, and laying down His life for us. Hope, well that has been our central theme through this whole process!! Some of you have had a small connection to her name and didn’t even know it: Collecting loose change in your “Jar of Hope” or proudly wearing your “Shirts of Hope.”

The Old Testament  has numerous prophecies about the birth of Jesus (See the book of Isaiah) . Believers waited in anticipation for his arrival. For some of you it may be confusing why we are giving her a name now when we have not been "matched." However, that is where faith comes in for our family. We 100% believe we have been called to adopt and are waiting in anticipation for when that will happen. That is why we feel confident in sharing this with you all.

Joshua & I have a simple mission, to have a home filled with the peace and hope of Jesus Christ and to be agents of peace and hope to others. This is one of the reasons we named our son Noah, which literally means “Peace or comforter.” So, whenever our next little one comes home we will LITERALLY have a home filled with peace/comfort (Noah) and Hope, all given to us through the birth of Christ on Christmas (Noel).

May God bless you and your family with peace, comfort and hope this Christmas season and throughout the coming year.

Love,

Josh & Amber

Season of HOPE & Something to look forward to...

Dear friends,
  The Christmas season is upon us, December is all about hope and peace for us. When Christ was born, he came to give us all a new life in HIM and offer peace to those who believe in Him. As we pray for our adoption fundraising and our little girl we are energized by the concept of hope as it has absolutely no limits.

We are blessed today to have been encouraged in an unexpected way- check out our fundraising thermometer to see where we are!  Josh and I had set a goal of being 1/2 way to our fundraising goal by Christmas. That is only $6,000 away! I know it is easy to look at that and say, "wow, $6,000- that is a lot!" However, we don't look at it that way- We look at our goal as, "God, WHEN this is your will, help the support to come. We will trust in YOU alone." Thinking about fundraising in this way brings us great peace.

It would be amazingly, fantastically, wonderfully miraculous to us if we got to the half way point for Christmas. However, regardless of where we are with fundraising on Christmas Day we will be making a fun announcement. We have chosen our daughter's American name and have decided to share it with you all on Christmas Day, so that you can begin praying for her by name with us. Her first name at birth will be a part of her middle name after adoption, but, we will give her a new American first name & middle name. (Yeah- it will be a bit of a long name)  :0)

Thank you so much to all of our family and friends who have been there for us during this journey so far. Our hearts overflow with gratitude and we are energized by the hope you bring.

Love,
Josh, Amber & Noah

Update & a shirt reorder!

Good Morning to our amazingly supportive friends & family!
       Many things on my heart this week. I figured the best thing to do was put our thoughts & feelings out there so that our team of loved ones can be praying along with us. First, it has been an odd week for me (Amber). Here is why: So, if you have ever had a child and made a baby registry, you may remember that your mailing address gets shared with everyone. So, you start receiving mail from all sorts of baby venues. I remember when pregnant with Noah (and for the first year of his sweet life) getting numerous baby formula samples and coupons up the wazoo for formula. Those stopped coming shortly after his first birthday. Well, this week I received two separate mailings: One from Gerber, it is a lavender box with a baby girl on it. The box reads, "You've spent months preparing for your baby's arrival. Now we want to help you..." Inside are 2 cans of Gerber Good Start gentle formula. The special gentle formula for little ones who have tummy trouble (like most children do who are adopted from Ethiopia.... coincidence?)
 Then, I received a mailer from Similac that reads, "Your first moments, Our first priority", it has three $5 formula coupons in it for formula.
 THEN, on Sunday a sweet woman from church OUT. OF. THE. BLUE. came up to me and handed me a fleece "tie blanket" her and her friends made. She said they made this blanket and prayed over it and it was a gift for our little girl. It is sweet, light green with butterflies.
   All of these combined in one week feel- well, strange. I can't help but find myself wondering, "God, are you getting ready to MOVE big time here?" We are pumped about raising about $6,800 so far but the reality is that we still are in need of a little over $21,000. Of our knowledge we aren't "close" to going to the next step, but maybe we are and God is just getting us ready? I have to be 100% honest, after the blanket was given to me I had the passing thought, "Oh Lord, please don't tease my heart." But teasing is not the Lord's business- that is not His way. THERE HAS TO BE SOMETHING MORE HERE. Just wish I knew what it was.....  Would you please all join us in continuing to pray for a peace in our hearts for God's timing. Oh- and pray in the name of JESUS  for provision! NOTHING is too big for God to handle.

Also- we are reordering more fundraising shirts! My heart soars when I see one of you wearing one of these and I find great comfort when I wear my own. Tell your friends & family about the shirts! Info below on ordering :)


Here is is:

The shirt is our new favorite quote: "Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of HOPE" ~Maya Angelou

Ready for more AWESOME news?? We will be offering the shirt in Adult sizes AND youth sizes! (The smallest we will be able to offer is 2T) So sizes available are:
Youth: 2T through (youth) large
Adult: (adult) small through XXL

So, how can you get your hands on one (or two or three) of these awesome shirts? Well my friends, I am glad you asked!

1.) email us at rohdeadoption@yahoo.com with the following information:
           Your name
           Mailing address
           Phone number
           Quantity and shirt size (make sure to specify if adult or youth size)

2.) Our fundraiser shirts will cost $20 each for adult sizes and $18 each for youth sizes.
     You have a variety of payment options for your shirt order:
* You can pay by cash or check if you see us in person
* You can mail a check to our home through USPS (just email us for our home address-
   we did not want to include that on the public blog!)
* You can pay with credit/debit card through our paypal link right here on the blog. Just   
   make sure to note in your PayPal payment that it is for shirts so we can make sure to
   separate it from the other cash donations.
*A note about PayPal: Just an FYI, if you can pay by cash or check that is great because we get more of the proceeds that way. If you pay through PayPal, they keep a small percentage of the money. However, if PayPal is easier for you PLEASE feel free to use it!! It will still greatly help us with our fundraising to bring our precious little one home. We just want to inform people of this info in case you are on the fence of how you want to pay. :)

We love each and every one of you and are grateful for your commitment to walk along side us; offering your resources, time, and most importantly your prayers.

Much Love

Post Ethiopia trip blog #1

To my dear Friends & Family,
   Well, I have been home from Ethiopia for 2 weeks now! The Bright Future Academy is ready for kiddos and is going to be changing lives! Time has flown in these 2 weeks, I thought that by now I would have posted a good 2 or 3 blogs telling you all about the trip down to the very last detail. Frankly, I find myself avoiding writing because....well, I just don't even know what to say.
  My world, my life, was shaken to the core. I really don't know if I could explain before the trip why we were feeling called to adopt from AND serve Ethiopia. I mean, we could articulate it nicely but the emotion behind it is difficult to pair with words. Now, I have seen; and my heart is broken. It was aching before, knowing that we were called to adopt but not being sure how it would play out or what the circumstances would be like when it happened. However, now.... there is a desperate ache in the bottom of my belly. I have seen the need- far greater than my imagination could conjure up. (No matter how many YouTube videos I watched or how much research I did beforehand.) Our daughter's birth mommy and birth daddy are out there, living in conditions that would be unfathomable here. I pray for them even more now. I pray that somehow they find comfort and peace in God's provision. I pray that when their time of desperation comes and they realize their daughter will become and orphan and maybe they find themselves crying out to God for her to be taken care of- that He reveals to them in a gentle whisper, "I already have."  Josh, Noah and I are the provision they will be praying for. Our daughter's birth parents may not know that God has gone before them and answered their prayers before it has even passed through their hearts; but we are here. We are ready. We are waiting.

Waiting on God's timing. We continue to pray that the financial aspect that goes along with adoption comes at just the right time- when our daughter is ready for us. However, I am human and it is hard being patient! We have been fundraising for a bit over four months now (almost nonstop) and from that perspective I believe we have done great in fundraising THANKS to YOU! However, I still look at how far we have to go and it is hard not to become discouraged.

Anyway- keep praying with us friends. I will be returning to blogging soon- first I need to figure out how I think and feel about my first Ethiopia experience so that I can put it into words for you.

Much Love,
Amber

Here we go!

Hello sweet friends and family,
  Well, the day is here. I am just finishing up some last minute packing for my first trip to Ethiopia. We leave Mishawaka at 1am and will begin our journey. It is a funny feeling- this bundled mixture of emotions I have this afternoon. I am very much looking forward to serving the children in Kechene. While at the same time, I know I will certainly miss my own little boy and husband who will stay home. I try not to let the "mommy guilt" get the best of me but it hasn't been easy. Just to make sure Noah's day was extra special, I took him on a lunch date (where he dazzled the staff with his ability to say "quesadilla") and then got him a SWEET toy story blanket and small travel size pillow so he can be comfy during quiet time on his first day of pre-school tomorrow.

While in Ethiopia, I won't be updating my personal blog. However, you will want to check out the Awake & Alive blog HERE.

Team members will take turns writing on the Awake & Alive blog every night (if we are able) so you can keep up with what we are doing and hear some highlights of the trip.  Keep in mind that we will be about 7 hours ahead of folks here at home. :)

I won't have my cell phone on (wouldn't even want to imagine that bill!) and I am not taking my laptop. I really want to "unplug" a little bit and focus on service.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Can't wait to share our stories with you when we get home late on the 16th.

Blessings,
Amber

Kisses from Katie

Hey friends,
   So, the "Project Presence" team traveling to Ethiopia with Awake & Alive this September (a team I am honored to be a part of) is reading through Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis. It is seriously hard to put down and there is an entire book full of quotes that I want to share with you all. However, just know that it should go on your "to read" list if it isn't already.

Anyway- a section I just read rocked my heart and I just wanted to share it with you. You see, sometimes I think I am absolutely insane (not something you wanna hear from a clinical therapist) HA! However, most of you know that what I offer here on this blog is real. It is sometimes raw and painfully transparent- but it is real.

I do though, (sometimes) feel insane for perusing international adoption. The process is so long, so expensive and sometimes even difficult to emotionally comprehend that our daughter could be out there in an Ethiopian orphanage or growing in her mommy's belly and we don't yet know who she is! Every great once in a while, I get struck by this fear that I wouldn't be a good mommy of two children and that maybe I should stick with our little family of three because I am comfortable there. Usually, God brings me right back to where I need to be- and that is the reminder that if I am following HIS word and HIS command- then even if things are difficult- I can be comfortable; just in a different way. I can be comfortable in resting in the peace of God, and that is the only comfort I need.

The following is from the end of chapter 7 of Kisses from Katie and is the exactly what I needed tonight. I hope it blesses, challenges and inspires you.

"The truth is that the 143 million orphaned children and the 11 million who starve to death or die from preventable diseases and the 8.5 million who work as child slaves, prostitutes, or under other horrific conditions and the 2.3 million who live with HIV add up to 164.8 million needy children. And, though at first glance that looks like a big number, 2.1 billion people on this earth proclaim to be Christians. THE TRUTH is that if only 8% of the Christians would care for one more child, there would not be any statistics left. This is the truth. I have the freedom to believe it. The freedom, the opportunity to do something about it. The truth is that He loves these children just as much as he loves me and now that I know, I am responsible."


Will you consider helping us bring home our little girl? Check out the blog post previous to this one & order your shirts of HOPE :)


Blessings,
Amber  

Unveiling the T SHIRTS!

It is time!

I have been very excited about the t shirt fundraiser and it is finally launching RIGHT NOW!

First of all, I'll end the suspense (that I just KNOW you have building inside) and show you the shirt before I get to all the ordering details!

Here is is:

The shirt is our new favorite quote: "Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of HOPE" ~Maya Angelou

Ready for more AWESOME news?? We will be offering the shirt in Adult sizes AND youth sizes! (The smallest we will be able to offer is 2T) So sizes available are:
Youth: 2T through (youth) large
Adult: (adult) small through XXL

So, how can you get your hands on one (or two or three) of these awesome shirts? Well my friends, I am glad you asked!

1.) email us at rohdeadoption@yahoo.com with the following information:
           Your name
           Mailing address
           Phone number
           Quantity and shirt size (make sure to specify if adult or youth size)

2.) Our fundraiser shirts will cost $20 each for adult sizes and $18 each for youth sizes.
     You have a variety of payment options for your shirt order:
* You can pay by cash or check if you see us in person
* You can mail a check to our home through USPS (just email us for our home address-
   we did not want to include that on the public blog!)
* You can pay with credit/debit card through our paypal link right here on the blog. Just  
   make sure to note in your PayPal payment that it is for shirts so we can make sure to
   separate it from the other cash donations.
*A note about PayPal: Just an FYI, if you can pay by cash or check that is great because we get more of the proceeds that way. If you pay through PayPal, they keep a small percentage of the money. However, if PayPal is easier for you PLEASE feel free to use it!! It will still greatly help us with our fundraising to bring our precious little one home. We just want to inform people of this info in case you are on the fence of how you want to pay. :)

Other important stuff you wanna know:
We will be collecting orders & payment for the next several weeks (4-6 weeks depending on how sales go) and then we will submit the order to the printer

Once we submit the order to the printer, your shirts will be available in approximately 2 weeks

If you do not live in the area we will gladly mail the shirt to you. If you know your shirt will have to be mailed, it would be great to stick and extra dollar or two in your payment to help us out with mailing costs. If you are local, we will try to get your shirts to you in person to save us on shipping costs.

Shout out and many thanks to St. Claire Apparel in South Bend for helping turn this idea into a concrete design! They have been absolutely wonderful to work with thus far and I highly recommend them for all your printing needs! (and no, I didn't get a discount for saying that- I really mean it!)

Hmmm- I think that is about it! We can't wait to see everybody in their "Shirts of HOPE!"

If I forgot anything or you have any questions feel free to leave it in a comment here or email us!

Blessings,
Amber, Josh & Noah

P.S. I have no clue how/why the spacing in my posts get all goofy between writing and publishing the post. (If you know how to fix this fill me in!)  :)

Answering YOUR most popular questions! Question 3: Do you know who she is??

It is that time again! Time to tackle one of our most commonly received questions.

Today's question: I hear you guys talk about "her," have you been matched with your adoptive daughter?

Answer: We have not yet been matched with our wonderful, beautiful adoptive daughter. Frankly, this is a relief to me at this point in our fundraising. I could not imagine getting an email announcing that we have been matched with a child in Ethiopia who needs a family and then not be able to go and get her because we are not far enough along in fundraising. Very few things rock parents deep to the core, and not being able to "provide" for your children would be one of them. I couldn't imagine the emotional toil Josh and I would experience looking at our daughter's picture, knowing that she was waiting for us on the other side of the world, but not having the money to go and get her. So, for this reason we have decided to engage in a full out fundraising phase of adoption first. Then, when we are about 3/4 of the way to our goal we will begin the home study, paperwork and application portion of the adoption. This is when we get on the list to be matched with a waiting child.

When I talk about "her" it is because Josh and I will be applying to adopt a female who is 0-12 months old. It feels more personal to say "her" than "our future child." Using that terminology helps us pray for her. It also is nice to talk to Noah about his "little sister", instead of his "future sibling."

I think that is about it for that question! :)  Short and sweet this time.

Please keep praying with us, specifically for patience, a reassurance in God's timing and praying against discouragement. We are so grateful for you all who support us with your prayers and your resources.

Blessings!

oh- and don't forget! We are still rockin' the Village Key fundraiser! Tell your friends in the Michiana area to get one Here: http://thevillagekey.com/rohde

Praying for our daughter and questions answered by Noah

To our future daughter,
    I woke up this morning thinking about you and your birth mommy. When I think about you, it is usually easy for me to get anxious about how the two of you are doing and worry about the fundraising; but not today. Today, your brother Noah and I took time out to talk about you and pray for you. Noah loooves babies, so I asked him a couple questions about how he feels about this whole process:

Me: Noah do you like babies?
Noah: "aaahh babies yesh"

Me: Do you want us to have a baby in the house
Noah: "yesh babies yesh"

Me: Would you be gentle with a little sister?
Noah: *Having some practice in being gentle with his cousin Violet he (whispered)
           "pat pat baby" as he gently patted his hand on my arm (seriously-did your heart  
           melt?!?)

Me: What would you feed the baby?
Noah: 'kay cake a-wup" (that is how he says pancake and syrup)

Me: Would you share your Buzz (lightyear) with the baby?
Noah: furrowed brow.....followed by stare  (HA)

So, my dear sweet daughter, wherever you are, Noah and I are praying for you this morning. He will be an amazing big brother (even if he doesn't want to share his Buzz Lightyear).


Have a blessed day everyone!

Gratitude

Just a quick note of gratitude to the two folks that purchased a Village Key from me yesterday in the middle of Scoobies Sub Shop while there for a working lunch. I don't know who you are- but wanted to express how encouraged I was through your willingness to A: talk to a stranger in a restaurant and B: buy something from a stranger in a restaurant. 

It was just the reminder I needed (and unfortunately often need) to not allow myself to get discouraged when I have a "slow" fundraising week because God is in control & He knows where and how every penny will come.

Have a great Day

 

Answering YOUR most common questions: Question 2

Another week has almost come to an end and I realized it is time to lay out another question for those of you on this journey with us.

Here we go: the 2nd most common question we are receiving is: Why Ethiopian adoption? Why not domestic adoption?

Answer:

   Frankly, this is a tough question for me to answer sometimes. However if you haven't noticed already, I try my best to be 100% authentic and transparent with the position of our hearts, so I'll do my best here. Although, sometimes that is difficult when not everybody seems to agree on this topic.

So the main reasons we are pursuing international adoption instead of domestic adoption:

1.) "Poor" in the United States is not really poor in the grand scheme of humanity. Orphans across the globe are simply not able to be cared for equally. Our personal desire is to serve where there is the greatest need. We are well aware of (and have been reminded a handful of times this month)  that "there are plenty of orphans here for you to adopt" and our hearts break for all the orphans & children both here and abroad! The reality is: orphans in the U.S. usually still have their own place to sleep and are not sharing a crib with another child (or two); orphans in the U.S. don't ever have to think about not getting 3 solid, well rounded nutritious meals a day. The orphan to volunteer/worker ratio in the U.S. is lower than abroad. In orphanages abroad, it would not be uncommon for bottles to have to be propped up on blankets or pillows for the babies to feed

Now- please here me on this. What I outline above is in NO WAY intended to imply that international adoption is more important than domestic adoption! We simply want to do our best to explain how our family came to the conclusion that international adoption is the best match for OUR family. Just because this is the correct match for us, doesn't mean it is the answer for you. There is great need here in the U.S. for families to become foster parents and agencies out there that will assist and equip you with whatever you need to do so!

2.) When we decided to pursue international adoption, we specifically chose Ethiopia because  we liked the idea, that through Ethiopian adoption she could have a connection to her country of birth through her home church here in Indiana. Some of you may know that as a family we attend Epic Church in Mishawaka, Indiana. Amber is a partner at the church (that's what we call staff) serving at the Director of Counseling through Epic Counseling. Anyway, Epic has partnered with a fantastic organization called Awake & Alive that is opening a school for young orphaned children in Kechene, Ethiopia. We believe this will be a long standing partnership and people from the Epic Church family will likely join Awake & Alive on trips to Kechene on an annual basis. 

So, when our little girl begins asking questions about her adoption and wants to know more about where she is from, it would be wonderful to be able to take her back to serve and love widows and children of Ethiopia through Awake & Alive. She will be able to have a connection to her country and culture of birth, while being supported by people that know and love her from her home church.

So anyway- in a "nut shell" that is why we have decided to pursue Ethiopian adoption! Keep your questions coming!

Thank You for your continued prayers and support. Oh- and if you think of it, send us your vote for what color to use for our T-shirt fundraiser later this summer! We want a color that both guys and gals would like (and be willing) to wear! 

Keep sharing the blog and the Village Key fundraising site with your friends. Together, we will bring this little angel home!

Answering YOUR most common questions: Question #1

So I thought I would start tackling the most common questions we have received over the last couple of weeks. All of them VERY good questions- just too many to write about at once!

So todays question (and one of the most popular) is: You have to raise HOW MUCH!?!?  Why is Ethiopian adoption so costly??

Answer:
   So, yes $28,00 is a lot of money, however when it is broken down, it really brings clarity as to how quickly the dollars add up.
  Here is a breakdown of most of the fees:

     Agency application fee: $250
     U.S. Adoption Agency fee: $6,200
     Home study review fee: $100
     Ethiopian "in-country" fee: $10,000
     Home study: $1,500- $2,500
     Dossier (documents) fees: $750
     Post-adoption reports: 300 (x3)= 900 (these are done at 3,6, & 12 months post adoption)
     Airfare: $1,700 each (x2 parents and 2 trips) = 6,800 **Ethiopian adoption requires 2 trips-
     1 for court & 1 to bring the child home 6 weeks later
     Lodging in Ethiopia: $400 (x2 trips)
     USCIS fee: $720
     FBI fingerprinting: $85 x2 (one set per parent)
     Entry visa: $70 x2 (one per parent)
     Child's visa: $230


There you have it!  The above costs actually total $29,560.  We have the goal of raising 28,000 as more of the minimum we need to make it happen. If we raise 28,000 I (Amber) will still have to travel alone on the first trip for court and then Josh would join me for the second trip. That would be very difficult (for many reasons) but if we need to do that we will!

There are financially a large range of items that will need covered~ take a look at our list and see if you could "adopt" one of the items for us!

Blessings!
Amber

Keep checking back for  the next question/answer post about this journey we are on. The next question we will tackle is "Why Ethiopian Adoption? Why not domestic adoption?"

*note*
the above financial information is gathered from the agency we will be using to adopt our little girl once we have the funds. The agency is Celebrate Children International (CCI). We share it here strictly for informational purposes and in no way intend to portray ownership of the above information. Thanks!
   

Your courage asks me, "what am I made of?"

Hopefully this will bring a little perspective to your day. This song is simply beautiful and has been running through my head over the last couple of days. (It is worth waiting through the 10 second commercial at the beginning that YouTube puts on there.)

My heart breaks a little when I think about our little girl and the uncertainty that lies before her in her life journey leading up to the moment that she becomes an orphan. Mommy and Daddy are working hard to raise the money to come find you my little angel, when I get discouraged I sing a part of this song to myself:  "Your courage asks me, what am I afraid of- Your courage asks me, what am I made of- and what I know of love."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt_WpluguwE


I don't yet know who all is helping us this week- but thank you.

Thank you for a great 1st week!

So tonight brings to the close of our first official week of fundraising for our little one to come home from Ethiopia!

We have updated the thermometer to reflect our fundraising up through today. This includes Village Key sales, personal cash donations and PayPal donations from the blog. We simply want to take a moment to THANK YOU all for getting us off to a fantastic start! We are humbled by everyone's kinds words, encouragement and prayers (and of course your donations as well!)

On a personal note: 

This week has been a bit of an emotional roller-coaster. I (Amber) have experienced gitty excitement, gratitude and amazement at the amount collected in our first week. While at the same time battling fear regarding the total we will need. I can be a bit of a "control freak"..... not exactly a shocker for most of you  HA! Anyway- I have discovered that I will DAILY have to surrender this process to God and not attempt to white knuckle grip on to it. Our family is God's to begin with, everything is in His timing and I am learning quite a lesson here in trust. As our good friend Erica says- I am being "stretched"  :)

To our team of family and friends who are lifting us up in prayer: Keep on praying! Your support is sincerely invaluable.

To recap where we are in fundraising & how you can help:
     1.) Purchase a Village Key to get discounts all over town here:
        http://thevillagekey.com/rohde
        or you can purchase your key directly from Josh & Amber.

     2.) Donate gently used books to out "books into cash" fundraiser.

     3.) You may make a contribution via the PayPal "donate" button on the right hand side of
           this blog



Much Love

Awesome Day & A GIVEAWAY!

I am overwhelmed with excitement on this beautiful Monday!

Two major reasons for this:

1.) It is our wonderful, amazing, handsome, smart super cool son’s birthday today! Noah turns 2 today! And- what is even more amazing is that we have made it 2 whole years without him needing stitches or a cast! HAHA  Those of you that have met active little fella know this IS reason  to celebrate!

2.) We are ECSTATIC to announce that we have the privilege to partner with VILLAGE KEY !!! We are the very first fundraising effort partnering with Village Key and cannot believe the generosity of this AMAZING company in inviting us to partner with them to raise funds to bring home our child from Ethiopia.

If you have not heard of Village Key yet, you have got to check it out. It is the hottest business concept to hit the Michiana area in quite a while!  You have to check it out and get more information here: http://thevillagekey.com/rohde  Basically- instead of buying one “Daily Deal” like other companies that sell a discounted daily deal. You buy a plastic key (that goes on your keychain) that “unlocks” daily deals with shops, restaurants, golf courses etc and you get to use it for an entire year, as many times as you want!! The amazing part is that the key is only $20 and ALL of the participating shops are in our community!

I know that many of you in the South Bend/ Mishawaka/ Granger area are going to be picking one of these up anyway, so we would love it if you would simply make your purchase through our fundraising page! When you do, we get 50% (ten bucks!) of the cost of the key put into our adoption fundraising account!  Even if you don’t live in the Michiana area please share this with those you know who live here!

*Buy a key!

*Tell all your friends about Village Key!

*Share the link to our Village Key fundraising page on your facebook/ twitter/ whatever social media you use page so that all of your friends buy theirs AND help a good cause!

** When you buy your Village Key you must purchase it through our fundraising page in order for us to get the proceeds! Purchase here:  http://thevillagekey.com/rohde/

They say, “It takes a village to raise a child” We are taking this literally- purchase a key to the village to help us bring home our child!

The Giveaway!

Share this fundraising link via your facebook page or email to your friends and you will be entered into a drawing to win a $20 gift card to the restaurant of your choice.

Share the fundraising link AND purchase a Village Key through our site and you will get two entries into the drawing.

Simply send us a Facebook message or email us to let us know what you did to help and your name will go into a random drawing

Blessings,

Amber

I'm going to Ethiopia in the fall! (Trip 1 of 3) :0)

WOW, all I can say is wow! 

    So, in my first post about our family plans to adopt a little one from Ethiopia, I briefly mentioned wanting to serve her country of birth, get my hands dirty and do something to help! We want her to understand that we love her dearly but that we ALSO love where she will be from. The need for people to love and care for the widow and the orphan in Africa is astounding and I couldn't imagine proceeding with fundraising for this adoption without recognizing and aiding some of the widows and children that can't come stay at my house :)

    So, this September I will have the honor or serving for 10 days in Kechene, Ethiopia. I am seriously in AWE that this is happening. I honestly thought it would be a HUGE long shot to be able to go on this trip but the finances to go have been very generously provided. I should know better than to think ANYTHING is a "long shot" for God.  When I started telling people about needing to fundraise the 28,000 for adoption costs, which includes 2 trips to Ethiopia, one for court and one to bring her home. I almost felt guilty explaining that I also wanted to go to Africa for a third trip to serve widows and children and that would add about $2,800 to the fundraising efforts. However, now it is done and taken care of. I will have the opportunity to serve, and now, the fundraising efforts 100% focus on the adoption :)

  AAHH! (can you tell how exuberant I am?) It is difficult to put into words really.... but I am flooded with gratitude and am humbled that this gift has been given for me to be able to go.

   If you don't know about the organization Awake & Alive yet- YOU SHOULD! Learn more about the awesome work they are doing here: http://www.awakeandalive.org/ There is a link to their blog on the web site- you have to check that out too! Through reading the blog you really get the opportunity to see the heart of two amazing women, Jolene & Danielle, who started Awake & Alive. These are the folks I will be traveling to Ethiopia with in the fall.

Before I go- I wanted to thank everyone who has donated books for us to sell as our first fundraiser (see previous post). We are in the process of sorting through them and seeing what can and can't be listed/sold. We also have another VERY cool fundraiser coming up (hopefully Monday) that a good friend is offering to us through his AWESOME business that you will definitely want to be a part of! (stay tuned.....)  Until then- if you find a suitcase laying around filled with extra money that  somebody didn't have a use for- let us know :) 

Let's bring Noah's sister home!!

Blessings!

Amber

Books into CASH!!

Hey there friends!!

     Josh and I are pumped to announce our first fundraising endeavor to start raising the money needed to adopt the next member of our family from Ethiopia! And the great news-- YOU can help without spending a single penny!! That's right, you can help with this particular fundraising effort without spending a dime! Here is how:

    Okay, so I know many of you are nerdy like me (Amber) and have tons of books! Many I am sure you have enjoyed, but now don't know what to do with them. Some of your books you haven't read, but  they have been sitting on a shelf for a year or two and you know that the likelihood of you actually reading them is zilch! So, we are asking that you send your books our direction!! We will take almost anything! (NO porno or books on witchcraft please!) Fiction, non fiction, textbooks etc.

   Students- consider donating your textbooks for a semester instead of participating in a book buy back program. Non-students, clean out those bookshelves to make room for your next trip to Barnes & Noble! 

   What we will be doing, is selling the donated books online for a reduced price to help them sell and then 100% of the profit goes into our fundraising account! One hundred percent people! That is huge in the land of fundraising!

   If there are books that are donated that do not sell over the course of 12 months, we will donate them to a different good cause so the books continue to bless others.

 Won't you please consider helping us out?? We are so grateful for your prayer support and the kind words sent our direction after making the "announcement" to adopt.

   If you are interested in donating books please email me at arohde@epic-church.org and we will work together to get the books to my house. My mom has already secured about FIVE boxes of gently used books to get us started! (Insert Kudos to my mom for coming up with this fundraising idea!)  Anyway, tell everyone you know & get us your books!

Blessings,

Amber

P.S.  

Just a little something to think about: to adopt a child from Ethiopia, we will be raising support to the amount of $28,000. That looks like a HUGE amount of money; however about 180 of our friends & family read the blog post about our announcement to adopt- that could potentially break the $28,000 down to about $155 bucks a person if everyone who read it donated! Donating $155 could come from giving up a latte 1x a week for one year!  This doesn't make the $28,000 so impossible anymore does it?? :)  If you are attached to your books and want to help us with a cash donation instead; feel free to email me about that too!

Big News!!

Big news coming from the Rohde house today! Before we get to that however, I would be negligent if I didn’t mention something about my mother-in-law, the beautiful Jeri Lee Rohde. We were planning on making this announcement last Monday but apparently the Lord had other plans. Instead, on Monday we spent the day rejoicing in Jeri’s “new birthday” as we laid her earthly body to rest and celebrated her transition to her new home in heaven. It was difficult to think about how long to wait before coming out with this news because I didn’t want to take away from the beauty of celebrating her life as well as the sting of pain for those of us left behind. However, the urgency we feel in regard to this matter does not deserve to be put on hold simply because we are sad in her passing. If anything, I hope that pressing forward will honor Jeri and be a testimony to the greatness of Christ as she taught all of her children to diligently pursue. So…. without much further ado….

Josh, Noah and I are beginning a long journey of bringing our next beloved child home to us. Lord willing, we will be adopting a little girl from Ethiopia. There is a lot that leads up to this announcement, and I (Amber) could not possibly fit everything in our hearts into a single blog post to explain how we got to this point. So, in the coming weeks I will continue writing and sharing more and more about this long process, and the journey we are about to embark on.

We want to love and serve the people of Africa and adoption is just one of the ways we are going to do so. I (Amber) am also hoping to go on a service trip to Ethiopia this September for 10 days with the AMAZING organization called “Awake & Alive” (I’ll write more about this in a later blog post) We want our little angel to know that we love her country of birth and genuinely care for the people living there who are struggling to survive.

We are at the beginning friends, and I am sure this blog post leaves many questions unanswered. If you have any immediate questions feel free to email me at arohde@epicmishawaka.org

How you can help!

1.) Right now we covet your prayers and emotional support! We fully know that we cannot do this alone and would love for some of you to commit to come along on this journey with us in praying with/for us and Baby Girl Rohde.

2.) Start brainstorming!! We are going to need some of you creative folks to help us with fundraising ideas. As most of you know, international adoption is extremely expensive. Joshua and I do not have the means to do this on our own, so we are going to be doing a lot of fundraising to help pay all of the fees and travel costs associated with international adoption. The total cost (covering EVERYTHING start to finish) from the initial home study, all the U.S. government paperwork, adoption agency costs, Ethiopian government costs, travel costs etc is approximately $28,000. When you think of fundraising ideas, send them our direction! We will consider anything (short of sin) to bring our baby home.

3.) If you know people who have had success with getting adoption grants to help pay for international adoption put us in contact with them. The process can be a bit overwhelming!

4.) Please pray specifically for our precious little girl. This whole process is in God’s timing- not ours! We will share however, that when talking it through, we are hoping for the fundraising process to be no more than one year then the adoption process is approximately one year. If that timetable is close to reality, our little blessing may be growing in her birth mommy’s belly right now! Please pray that her birth mother discovers that she is expecting and that she possibly finds some form of prenatal care. My heart breaks for our little girl and her birth mother- children in Ethiopia (and all around the world) are orphaned for a variety of reasons and only God knows the circumstances; but please be in prayer, not only us, but for them as well. Starting now!

Thank you in advance for your prayers and support…. Stay tuned J

Dear Abandoned Blog

So at least I know I am not the only one out there terrible at updating blogs in "blogworld."  When I logged in, I noticed the few blogs I follow haven't been updated in quite some time as well. (shew)

Anyway, several updates here at the Rohde house! I'm not sure where to start but just know that I'll have this blog up and running again soon-

The last post in here was about starting a running program. That was a gigantic FAIL!. Not because I chickened out and stopped, but because a few days after that blog post I broke my foot in a nasty spot and have been "benched." Here we are 8 months later and it still isn't working right. A recent MRI and a new Ortho specialist should have me jogging within the next 4-6 weeks (at least that is the latest news as of this week.)  I still feel this strong urge and leading from the Lord to work feverishly to take good care of my body and get stronger. I have no clue what for.... but feel like I am needing to prepare for something. Not sure what for yet but am okay with waiting on God's .

Oh- and even though my foot was being a big meanie, I lost about 35 pounds :)  yahoo! So the road to health and wellness is off to a good start.
More to come.....

Blessings