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