Ready, Dollar Mob?!

Let's say hello to Brooke and Brandon Whitis. They are the family that we will be overwhelming with Paypal notifications today.

and here's a letter for you from Mom:

hey there,

i’m brooke, mom to one sweet baby in heaven, one baby in my belly (due in just about five weeks) and one baby that is in Africa.  we are eagerly awaiting his referral, so we will know him more, but we pray for him and know the Lord has already made him ours, despite us not knowing his face or name yet!  i am married to the sweet love of my life, my best friend brandon.  he loves the Lord with his whole heart and wants our kids to do the same.  one of our children had the ultimate honor to go straight to be with his savior. ...much to our dismay, but how can we be sad for him knowing that he is in heaven with our Lord?  

since brandon and i met in high school, we always talked about overseas mission work and adoption.  when we dated, we often talked about adopting a boy from africa and possibly a girl from korea or china, or maybe africa.  we began our adoption process in haiti before we tried to get pregnant several years ago.  the Lord had other plans, changing things up with the earthquake in haiti, which caused our program to shut down.  we then got pregnant with our sweet first child, briar allen.  At 11 weeks, we found out he had a fatal birth defect that would not allow him to live outside my womb.  my husband was deployed in afghanistan when this happened, we and really prayed about what would come next.  we felt like this baby deserved his time in this world, so we carried him as long as my body would allow.  during that pregnancy, the Lord re-awakened our desire for adoption.  our great friends were adopting from ethiopia and we wanted to know more!  we also found out that our sweet briar was going to provide us with a surprise life insurance....$10,000 to be exact.  we found this out after we decided to carry him to term (or as close to as we could..).  what a sweet, sweet miracle that his life could help to offer life to his BROTHER! :)  it makes me tear up just to think of the legacy briar left in our family. 

last september, briar was born into the arms of Jesus.  in December, we began our adoption.  We finished our homestudy in February and we submitted all our dossier paperwork to our agency in March, 2011.  we can't wait to get a referral for an infant 0-12 months.  we would love to adopt an older child later, as our family continues to expand.  in January, we found out we were pregnant again, and we were ecstatic!  we are pregnant with a baby boy, lost a baby boy and are adopting a baby boy.  It seems boys are the right fit for our family at the moment.

i am a photographer, former teacher... :) excited to be home with the boys while capturing others in their stage of life.  excited to share in this journey of adoption with others.  excited to share how God does powerful work when we choose to step in and participate in the care of orphans.  some of you don't feel called to adopt.  but maybe this is your way to care for orphans. by donating your dollar today :)

Ready, Dollar Mob?! Let's do this! Look over to your right. You see that Donate button? Go!!!