Love 2 Run 4 Love 5K Run/Walk | Union, Missouri 63084 | Saturday, May 07, 2011 @ 8:30 AM#Reviews#Reviews

Come one, come all. Now you can register online for our 5K fundraiser at active.com. They will take credit card payments. That is so cool. No excuses! :) (just click link below) I believe this will be quite a fun family event for everyone! http://www.active.com/page/Event_Details.htm?event_id=1952855&assetId=bd65339e-2eed-4c95-8a04-c60d09a4d494

Update....

We are really close to having our home study completed (like within the next week or so). Then it will be off to get ourselves fingerprinted, while we are waiting for our fingerprint clearance from immigration, we will be finalizing our dossier (all documents are accounted for---we will just need that special notary to come notarize everything--and I do mean EVERYTHING). The second our fingerprint clearance comes back, we will send in our dossier to be authenticated....and HOPEFULLY by mid-May or so we will be a waiting family. Then your guess is as good as mine....we will know round about what number we are on the waiting list, but we could wait 4 months or we could wait 12 months. It does seem like those waiting on toddlers have a lot shorter wait time than those waiting for infants (but even recently lots of matches were made in a short amount of time for infants as well). The CRAZY thing if that happened would be that the whole thing could be done within a year....we do know God's timing is best and we will wait and trust in Him alone. Thank you for your continued support, encouragement, and especially prayers.

People keep asking this question, so I would like to clarify: We do not have a daughter yet that we know or have seen, we are not matched with anyone,We are requesting a girl and we DO call her Chloe for the benefit of Eden, Eli, & Tobe--that way they can pray for her by name and not for "the girl in Africa". That will be some part of her name when we meet her, but her Ethiopian name may be used as well, we will see. We know that God knows her and at the right time will make a way for us to be united.....Again thank you for your prayers.

The Miracle of 2 Fish & 5 Loaves.....

When Chris and I were in Russia the summer of 2001, one of our jobs was to pack as many backpacks as possible into our luggage to gift the children with. We were filling them with school supplies and peanut butter (which is a hot comodity) on the last day of VBS so that each child there would get one. I know we did not have enough back packs.....we had counted and counted. There were right at 200 children and we had about 190 backpacks.....I was thinking how discouraging it was going to be for those few at the end that would not get a backpack. And then the kids started coming out one by one and receiving their backpack and the smiles were huge....right down to the last kid. Every child got a backpack....Now you might think I miscounted, but I believe I saw a miracle happen before my eyes. At the time it was exactly like the biblical account of the fish & loaves. The disciples thought "not everyone is going to get food", "this won't go far....we've counted and counted". But that day in Russia no child went without the gift. We did not have any extras, but we had enough. It was a blessing to witness it. We are experiencing this miracle again in our lives today........

FISH #1: March 25, 2011 Greg (Chris' brother) reached 100 facebook friends to pledge $10 for his run to be held in June. Greg is challenging himself to this commitment to "go the distance" and he challenged his friends to hold him to this commitment. Some of these people know Chris, since they are family and friends from Chris' hometown where Greg preaches and shared friends from college....some of these people are complete strangers to us, but love Greg. We have been so blessed by others' generosity. I am sure Greg would take more facebook friends to pledge towards his goal. (Not sure on the exact total but he has at least $1200 pledged as well).

FISH #2: March 26, 2011 (Happened to be our 12 year wedding anniversary) --Dear friend Melissa Gerdel ran 30 miles for her 30th birthday. (YES, I did say 30 MILES--an ultra marathon). To date she raised (with the help of more genrous friends) close to $1500 simply running. Again some of these people are from our church family and MOPS, others don't know us at all, but love Missy. Amazing! Missy's own words: "My heart is so full because of everyone who has given so far. It is like the loaves and fish that Jesus multiplied - it just keeps coming! Some people gave $500, several kids cleaned out their piggy banks, and others gave their own birthday money."

BREAD #1: We have one anonymous donor who is matching up to $2000 for the money collected at Missy's run. A member of our church family that we are so blessed to serve mentioned "the need to do something" and "answering God's leading".

BREAD #2: We have a 5K run that is planned for May 7th in our area (Union, MO). I already have 11 corporate sponsors who have donated just over $1000 so that the race will be a success. These sponsors will help cover the cost of the race and provide our Love 2 Run 4 Love t-shirts......The blessing of our sponsors will be that every person who chooses to walk or run will be giving directly to the Adoption Fund. If we can get 100 racers, then that is $2000. This is my goal. I would love to see the people here surprise me and surpass that. But none the less, God is good! Our corporate sponsors are: Union Eye Associates, Aggrecon, Encore Studios, Patients First Family Health Care, YHTI, Cinema 1 Plus, Cali Spray Tan, Ziglin Signs, Marcink Designs, Prudential Alliance Realtors, & Road ID! I can't thank them enough for already making the race a success!!!

BREAD #3: April 1, 2011 Another friend Gussie Schmitz writes me "I care so much for you and for what you are doing.......I feel strongly that this is something that I should do." (After telling her she didn't have to do this....) So straight from her site: "Sweet Madelynne is excited to announce that 20% of all profits through the end of 2011 will be donated to the Strickland Family Adoption Fund to bring home baby Chloe from Ethiopia!" So mamas: ANYTHING you buy at Sweet Madelynne (hair bows and clippies for princesses) will help us get closer to bringing her home. You'll even recognize one of the princesses on the site as my sweet Eden. Click here to go there. :)

BREAD #4: Actually I have two-three other names here that I am not sure which one I will write.....but other dear friends have come out of the woodwork to support our cause and offered to help with fundraising plans.....Not sure which ones I will do, when I will do it (perhaps in the summer, fall---who knows) and so forth----but I can't type further without just thanking people for thinking of us in this journey. It really means a lot.....(especially Cassie, Jane, & Dayla)......I will get back to you girls.

BREAD #5: ??? Are you our final loaf of bread?

I know that sounds funny. But isn't it crazy?. Every little bit counts. Every dollar goes the distance. In a short amount of time, we will have been generously given almost $7000. Obviously no one thought that 2 fish & 5 loaves of bread would feed 5000. But it did.....and that ate till they were full. We are seeing the miracle take place again....this time with 2 runners & umpteen generous friends, buisnesses, etc. It has already surpassed 5 and it is amazing to see the testimony that bringing Chloe home will bring....we know she will be a miracle, but the journey itself is a miracle.

Beyond Words.........

There are no words to even begin to describe the humbling and overwhelming experience we have experienced in just a week. Last Monday, one of our best friends posted a note about running 30 miles on her 30th birthday. She is taking pledges from her friends & family and already has quite a few---many are $30 pledges---$1 for each mile she runs. Then today, we found out someone from our church family is planning on matching (up to $2000) anything that Missy makes from her run to "Bring Chloe Home". Also this week, I have at least 4-5 corportate sponsors that have responded to be major sponsors for our 5K race, that hopefully will be held on May 7th. The more corporate sponsors, the better chances of covering the cost of the race and then the fee to the race should go directly to our adoption fund. Finally, today Chris' brother did something similar to Missy and already has a couple hundred in a matter of hours. Most of these people don't even know Chris or I, but because of the commitment/challenge of Missy & Greg, they are becoming part of our journey to bring home Chloe.....and again we are humbled. Humbled by the generosity of these two people, amazed at the generosity of strangers who aren't necessarily getting anything in return, overwhelmed by the matching gift that is not a blood relative, surprised that there aren't enough words to capture what I am feeling. Gratitude. Confirmation. Joy. Peace. Love. Family. Hope. Enthusiastic. and the list goes on....

On a different note, continue to pray about the job lead. I am hoping to hear about one this week!! And that was an act of God too, that I will post about if He (God) decides to let me have this job. lol.

The tough words for the week came on Friday when Ethiopian adoption news came to us. The Ministry of Women who run the adoptions in Ethopia (Compared to our Child Protective Services) stated that Ethiopian adoptions will be cut by 90% effective 3/10/2011. So to make this more clear: they are use to seeing about 50 adoption cases a day (total--us, in-country, and other foreign countries) and now they will be seeing 5 adoption cases a day. This has come as quite a blow to several families who have already been waiting. Chris and I are not on the waiting list as of yet. We have been encouraged not to get too antsy yet. This may be temporary and the fact that Chris and I probably will adopt an older child (toddler is considered 'old') means there is a chance for a shorter wait for us, because many people request infants. Now that shorter wait may be relative. But none the less, we are in this for the long haul. We may be at the semi-beginning of our journey, but we have been so encouraged this week that the journey itself is and will continue to be an opportunity to see God's abundant blessings on our life. But if you see yourself lacking some prayer requests, please pray that this will be temporary as they plan to clean up their system and hopes that the program will be above reproach.

Also this week, we had our first home study visit at CHI in Stl. It went pretty well overall. This Thursday our social worker will visit our home for the 2nd visit of the home study. Hopefully I do not get too freaked out about what is expected. Finally, I am also traveling a few times this week to visit family and a mom's conference at the end of the week.

Prayer Needs: 1)That I get the job within the school district. 2) Ethiopia's adoption programs 3) The efforts of Missy & Greg and the fundraising they are doing on behalf of us, as well as matching donors and friends, family and strangers that are giving to them. 4) Home visit on Thursday. 5) The Mom conference that I am attending this weekend with 16 of our own moms from MOPS/FCC who will join up with about 2000 moms to worship, laugh, and learn how to be the best mom, wife, or godly woman they can be. I always am recharged when I come back from this event!

"The Wheels Are In Motion"

Whew.....The wheels are really in motion on our adoption journey. In some ways it is going so fast, we can't necessarily keep up. But God is good and I have been reminded that His hand is guiding me and holding me fast and I praise Him for that.

You can check out the Adoption Timeline periodically to see where we are at on our journey. Early March will be our home study visits and once the home study is completed we can officially apply for grants and adoption loans. This is good news as we have had set backs in the financial area. I am still looking for a job (another long term sub position is open right now---that I am praying to get and you can join me in that request :) ). And I guess I never blogged about it, but my Chris had an emergency appedectomy on Jan. 28th. We literally got the bill today and at this point our part is $900. (Chris says $900 isn't too bad to save his life---which I have to agree. :)) He never was really sick and bounced back very quickly, however, that thing could have burst any second and we are grateful that we got it out before things could have been worse (another HUGE praise). Of course, $900 is our next major fee due to Citizenship and Naturalization Services, along with $500 to complete the home study. Please pray that we can get the job & that perhaps we will qualify for payment assistance/scholarship with the hospital.

My best friend and I are working together to put on our first fundraiser. It will be a 5K run/walk and 1 mile fun run (for the kids), tentatively planned for May 7th, the saturday before Mother's Day. So that is exciting--anyone and everyone in the Franklin County area can save the date and participate!!! I am debating on what other events to hold or do in order to raise funds, however none of these ideas can just be pulled off quickly. So that is prayer request #2, for wisdom and such so that people don't easily tire of our fundraisers too soon and that we will know when to or when not to stop.

So....story to warm your heart: Sunday after church, we were eating lunch when Eli (5 yrs) says, "Mom, there are six of us here." I, confused, said "Six? Who are the six people here?" And Eli quickly counts all physically present in our family and then smiles at me and adds "Chloe makes six!" My heart just lept for joy, as I know that I am constantly thinking of her, but to know my Eli knows she is present in our hearts and minds is mindnumbing to me (in a good mindnumbing kind of way).....Even though she isn't physically here, God knows where she physically is and we are all over here praying for her to join us as quickly as God will allow. Meanwhile, below is a pic of our family having fun on an upteen snow day in January. Based on some of the referrels some families have been getting, it is not unrealistic to think by next January our family picture will be different with, all six of us in it.