Now Taking Orders for Ethiopia Adoption T-shirts!

We have officially started our first big fundraiser. We're selling t-shirts! I hope you like them, because I (Jennifer) designed them myself and I've never done anything like this before. I'm excited to see friends and family wearing my design, but even more excited as to what it represents. Seeing you all wearing the shirts will mean we are one step closer to bringing our little one home. One step closer to providing a loving family to a child who might otherwise never know what that is like. One step closer to sharing and living out the gospel with a child who might have never heard the name Jesus. You see, these t-shirts are only the first step, but they are an important step in a journey that God has called us on.  As Christians, He has called us all to care for orphans. If you would like to help support our journey by buying a t-shirt, making a donation, or committing to pray for us, I'd love to hear from you! 

T-shirts are $15, available in steel blue or rich red. Shipping is available for an additional fee. Thanks for supporting our adoption!

The Journey Continues

We have a very exciting announcement to make! After a year of mourning, healing, praying, and seeking God's will for our family, we have decided to start the adoption process again. After a lot of thought and prayer, we have decided to change course and pursue adoption through Ethiopia this time. We again want to thank all of our family and friends for the love and encouragement you have shown us through this whole journey. And since it is not over yet, we ask that you will continue to pray for us. Please check back as we will be updating the blog as we have new information. We will also be posting about different fundraisers we will be having to help us bring our little one home.

Adoption Update

Everyone,

We want to thank everyone for their support in our adoption process.  Many of you have supported us financially.  Some of you have watched our children for the many appointments.  Some of you have prayed for us, and all of you having been waiting in anticipation with us to bring our new addition home.  Please know that we love you and have been so blessed by your support during this time.  You have been a partner with us in this journey, and we are so grateful.  Not one penny or prayer or inquiry has been taken for granted.  All of those precious acts have shown us the love of God.

It is with a very heavy heart that we share this news with you.  The birthmother gave birth over the last fews days and has decided to keep the baby.  She did not call the advocate or the lawyer, so we know almost nothing at this point.  We have no idea if it is a boy or a girl.  We have no idea if he/she is healthy.  All we know is that this is not the child we will be adding to our home.

As you can imagine, we are taking this very hard.  Please be praying for us.  God has already shown us immeasurable mercy and grace, and we know that He will continue to.  In so many small ways over the last 24 hours, we have seen the hand of God upon our family.

Again, we thank you all for your support and want you all to know that we love you very much.

Please feel free to share this information to whomever you think may need to know.

Lafleur Family

NEW Lifesong DONATE Button!

If you've visited our site before, you may notice that we have removed our yellow Paypal Donate Button. We replaced it with a link that says DONATE through Lifesong. Although it may not be as "eye-catching," it is a wonderful thing for our family. Through God's provision, we have been approved for a matching grant, through Lifesong! That means every time one of you generously donate towards our adoption, whatever amount you donate will actually be matched 100%, helping us meet our goal even faster! We want to thank those of you who have already given, because we would not be this far in our adoption process without the support of our friends and family. If you are still considering making a donation, click on the DONATE through Lifesong button, then click DONATE on the Lifesong page. Once you're on the Lifesong Paypal screen, please indicate that your donation is for the LaFleur family adoption. Thank you so much!

Another Reason to support Adoption

I found this link on one of Al Mohler's blogs.  It is a collection of abortion statistics from May of this year.

http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html

Some of the information is incredible.  This was Mohler's take:

http://www.albertmohler.com/2011/01/13/chilling-almost-beyond-belief/

"Americans generally know that abortions happen, but the reality of abortion is kept out of sight and, for most, largely out of mind. To acknowledge that abortions do occur does not require any actual knowledge of the numbers of abortions performed and the scale of the catastrophe. News reports that emerged in recent days will make that evasion harder to justify."


Both links above are worth your time.  It is incredible when you consider just how many abortions occur and why many mothers choose this route, "three-fourths say they cannot afford a child."  This is just one of the many reasons why Christians should be pro-Adoption.  Welcoming a child into your home gives that mother a better option.    


Thanks again for your support!!


Please consider linking our blog to your facebook or twitter accounts

Coming Down to the Wire

Dear Friends and Family,

Our baby is due very shortly.  Given the dates we have, our baby could come at anytime.  Because of that, many of the funds that are required to finish our adoption are starting to come due.  At the present time, we do not have all of the money that we need to complete the process, so we are asking for many of you to prayerfully consider making a donation.  The process is very expensive, and we have been incredibly blessed by so many of your prayers and gifts up to this point.  None of this would have been possible without your love and support. 


We know that God is faithful to provide, and we are excited to see how He will take care of these next few weeks. If you would like to make a donation, you can do so by credit card through this blog by clicking on the donate tab on the left of the page, or you can mail a check to : 7506 Astrid Way, Louisville, KY 40228


Please also consider linking our blog to your Facebook or Twitter.  We could use the eyeballs. 


We appreciate your consideration and especially your prayers!
Thank you,
Mark and Jennifer Lafleur

Thanks to all who have helped

It has been a while since our last update.  It turns out when you get placed with a birthmom so early in the process, you have a frantic amount of activity and then just ....... well ..... waiting and more waiting.  Waiting around does not a great blog post make.  :)   Things are moving along well.  We have finished up all the paperwork that we can do before the baby is born and are just prayerfully awaiting that day.  I am also working on a new post for this next week about our Adult Bible Followship's study through 1 John.  The Lord has taught me a great deal about adoption through our study, and I wanted to share it with you.  It will likely be four different posts because of its length, but hopefully you like it.

We would really like to also take a second to thank everyone that has been involved in our process so far. We are overwhelmed with the interest in our situation.  So many people have asked us for updates and have told us that they are praying for us.  It has not gotten old telling our story thus far, and we are so encouraged that so many others genuinely care about our family.  We also would like to thank everyone that have donated to the adoption.  This process can get very expensive and if it were not for the financial assistance of others, we would have no way of making this work.  Many folks have given their time and many others have given their advise.  This is a very scary process, and without the support of some of you, we would have not been able to make this work.

We believe that God is placing the child in our home that He has intended to from the beginning.  It has been overwhelming to see how he has used so many different people to ensure that this is coming to pass.  Thank you all for your part in making God's plan real in our lives.

In Him,

Mark