Project Firm Foundation

Dear Friends and Family:

You are receiving this message because I want to allow you the opportunity to be part of what God is doing in our ministry at Addy’s Hope Adoption Agency!  There are many exciting things on the horizon for Addy’s Hope as God confirms again and again.  Two of the biggest are becoming a contracted agency with the Texas Department of Children and Family Services in order to place children waiting in the Texas foster system into loving, Christian adoptive homes; and the start of Midland/Odessa’s only teen maternity home.

There are several ways you can be part of what is happening at Addy’s Hope.  The first is to visit our website at www.addyshope.org and sign up for our newsletter.  We promise we will not fill your inbox! In fact, we have made a promise as a board that we will only send out a quarterly newsletter in order to keep you updated on the developments of these and all other happenings with Addy’s Hope. 

Second, and most importantly, we need your prayer support.  John and I have been doing ministry long enough to know the importance of prayer covering, especially during times of new developments for projects and programs that will change lives like those we are currently beginning.  We covet your prayers for the financial blessings we need to operate, the volunteers we need to carry out many of these tasks, and the children and families that God brings to us to connect.  We also covet your prayers for our family as we always see the intensity of the spiritual warfare increase during times of growth for the agency.

Third, if you know of families considering adopting or mothers in crisis considering adoption as a loving option, please send them our information! 

Finally, we are in need of your financial donations to move forward in all God has called us to do.  Years ago as God prepared me for the direction He was taking Addy’s Hope, He planted me in Isaiah 54 with this scripture: “Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not; Lengthen your cords and strengthen your pegs. For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left. And your descendants will possess nations and will resettle the desolate cities.”  As I have personally prayed over the maternity home and the waiting child program, God has taken me back to this scripture many times in the recent months.  In order for us to stretch out we must lengthen our cords and strengthen our pegs as Isaiah says.  We must have a firm foundation on which to build these programs.  As we have discussed this as a board, all members have agreed that our debt from maintaining the Liberian orphanage during the adoption moratorium must be paid off.  Our current debt is $9,963.  We are asking anyone who feels led to donate whatever amount they can to eliminate this remaining debt and allow us to move forward with a firm foundation in all God is asking us to do.  Would you be a part of Project Firm Foundation?  Will you be a brick in our foundation that will forever change the lives of children and young pregnant teens?  No amount is too small!  We can pay this off one dollar at a time if we need to.  We are believing God for the entire amount to be donated in the next 6 weeks.  You can donate by sending your donation to Addy’s Hope, P.O. Box 9161, Midland, TX 79708 or online through PayPal at www.addyshope.org – just look for the donate button at the bottom of the page.  All donations are tax deductible as we are a 501c3 organization, and you have my personal promise that every dollar donated and designated for Project Firm Foundation will go directly to this debt.

If you are committing to us in prayer, would you e-mail me and let me know that as well?  I know it sounds cliché, but at times of greatest conflict in our ministry, I truly feel the prayers of those warriors going to battle for us on their knees.  It is during these times that prayer truly is what sustains me.

Thank you for taking the time to read about this exciting time at Addy’s Hope!  If you have friends or family that you feel would be interested in what we are doing in our ministry, would you please pass this along to them?  We would love to add them to our e-mail list for our newsletter.

 

 

Being obedient to The Call,

HollyAnn Petree

432.897.1503

www.addyshope.com

T-minus 7 weeks and hurting....

So I haven't posted a lot on the journey to being a grand mother.  There are many reasons for that, but the main one being I have respected Paizley's privacy as she has walked out this season.  I will continue to do that so there will be few details in this post.  I hesitated writing this as without the details (or even with the details for some) this post has the potential to bring harsh judgement and accusation.  But God brought to mind my fellow pre-mature grandparents to be and reminded me that this is one of those hard topics that just isn't talked about often enough.  So I am putting it out there in the hopes of others once again finding encouragement just to know they are not alone!

This journey is hard!  Yesterday Paizley had her second sonogram.  Baby is still a girl.  They did the 3D or whatever that is called where you can almost "see" her...like for real!  It is creepy and amazing all in one!  As the face came into view, the tears started to fall.  I couldn't help it.  They weren't tears of joy, but tears of heart ache!  I was looking into a precious face that I just might have to hold and kiss what appears to be a very chubby cheek then let go.  Because we haven't shared details with hardly anyone but those in our intimate circle, few know the events of the past seven months.  But the events have been such that even at this late date, we do not know for sure what will happen with our baby girl.

All options are still out there.  It is our most sincere prayer and heart's desire for this baby girl to be raised in the arms of her mother with the loving doting of two grandparents who weren't quite ready to embrace the title, but are more than ready to love a life and speak into that life all she needs to be all God has planned for her! But the truth is, John and I can't make the decisions that will ensure that scenario.  We can support, pray, plead and plan for that, but ultimately the journey this path takes is not in our hands.

Early in the pregnancy, my heart for this baby girl was tender.  But over the months with each incident, a brick was placed in a wall of protection.  I find it hard these days to even picture her or what life with her in our home will look like.  Some of that is fear of what that reality is because I can't imagine adding a baby to what our day to day looks like right now, but a big part of it is that I don't really know that day to day life with her will exist.  I don't know what decisions Paizley will make in the next 7 weeks.  I don't know for sure what decisions John and I will make in response to those decisions made by Paizley.  The thought of loving her and then having to let her go literally, physically, takes my breath away!

I have learned a new level of trust in God over the past few weeks.  I pray almost daily for answers in this situation, for specific directions.  And there is silence.  The only answer I get is, "Day by day, Daughter, day by day."  Those who know me know I am a planner!  Not just for the physical aspects of events, but for the emotional as well!  I want to know which basket to put my emotions in.  But God wants me to put my emotions, plans, hopes, dreams, hurts, etc, etc, in HIM!  I am learning to do that!  I am learning to go about the day to day without knowing what tomorrow will bring.

But there are the moments like yesterday sitting in the sonogram room after having a very candid discussion with Paizley in the waiting room that the reality of our situation hits like a ton of bricks and the pain comes!  This has been a journey of more heart ache yet with the potential for the most hope of anything I have ever walked.  Yet as I look at all the possible outcomes, there is not a single one that is "easy".  They all come with a cost that is almost more than I think I can pay...until I remember the cross.  I might can look at the people in the situation and think I can't do this, but the people are not who called me to this, it was Jesus!  God was the one who asked us to bring a 15 year old girl without a family into our home and make her our daughter.  We said yes.  So to turn back now would be to spit in the face of the One who was mocked, beaten, whipped and nailed to a cross for me.  Regardless of whatever pain and discomfort this journey brings, it is nothing compared to what My Savior already did for me.  And for those who have adopted, you know, she is no longer some teen that needs a family, she is my daughter.  PERIOD.  So walking away from her is never an option!

And that is why we press on!  That is why I do trust Him with the next few months.  He is worthy of my trust and He is worthy of my pain!  This journey is for Him!  And it's why I can look friends who are thinking about adopting teens from the system in the face and say, "It has been the hardest year of my life, but I would do it again!"

If we come to mind, pray for us.  Pray for Paizley.  God has a hope and a plan for her and this baby that far exceeds everything she ever hoped or dreamed.  Pray she embraces that!  Pray for John and I as we walk out these next few weeks. Pray for equal parts love and truth.  Pray for wisdom beyond our years to guide, direct and decide what is best for everyone involved.  And pray for our other 6 children.  The last months have taken its toll on them too....and the only thing harder than being refined by God is watching your children being refined by God!

And for all my fellow adoptive moms turned grandma sooner than we would have liked, you are not alone!  If you ever need an ear that truly gets it, call or e-mail!  I would love to visit.  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,  who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5

If I look away for a second...

If I look away for only a second, I sink!  Every day has to start with coffee and Jesus!  Ok, the coffee is optional, but the Jesus is NOT!  It only takes one day, just one day and I have a chink in my armor that leaves a place for the enemy to sneak in and  the war is on!

How do I know? Because this week has been that war!  It took one day of not putting my focus on God from the very start of my day for all the doubts in the world to come into my mind!  All the promises I have been standing on for the entire 2012 year began to crumble.  My weight, some significant relationships, our finances, my health, the agency....it all started looking impossible again!  And that's when I knew I had looked away!

So many people say, "I don't know how you do it!"  My usual response is, "not well most days!"  And that is the truth!  I am not the wife, mother, daughter, friend or ministry director I wish I was just about every day.  However, the only way I even do the meager job I manage to do is because of Jesus. Period!  And here's the thing, every one of the people who say "I don't know how you do it!" could do it too....with Jesus!

Today I spent a lot of time just asking God to forgive me for losing focus and believing the lies of the enemy.  It never fails when I have my moments of weakness, there is a well meaning friend or family member who actually puts voice to all my fears about the days ahead and what they will mean in reality.  But here's the deal, if you would have told me 11 years ago when I brought Noah home that I would some day have 7 kids with a grand baby just a year younger than my own baby living with me while I continued to raise her mother and run an adoption agency and open a maternity home, I would have just rolled over and died! I had panic attacks about taking Callie and Noah into town (we lived about 45 minutes from where we did all of our shopping) by myself for the first time!

God has reminded me this morning that He gives grace for today.  That's all!  I honestly don't know what the next few weeks will hold.  But I know who holds my next few weeks!  And as He has so graciously reminded again and again, He has promised to supply me with all I need according to His great riches in glory!  (Phil 4:19) and that isn't just finances..its love, patience, mercy, time, energy....whatever I need to do whatever He has called me to do!  As long as I keep my eyes on Him, I will not just survive this season, I will sore above it and hopefully show His glory as we fly!

Celebrating...

Six years ago today, God gave me a gift!  He gave me a precious bundle of joy that assured me life would go on after the devastation of losing Addy and then Eden.  I discovered I was pregnant just two months after returning from Sierra Leone with out Eden.  The pregnancy was a welcome shock.  I told John I was pregnant with Ava by settling a fight...we had been discussing who would return to Sierra Leone to pick up Eden when the visa was approved.  I woke up in the middle of the night and took a pregnancy test without John even knowing I suspected I might be pregnant.  When that second line appeared, I went into our bedroom, flipped on the light and told a very groggy husband that he won the fight!  He would be going to Sierra Leone to get Eden because I was pregnant!  Took him a few minutes for that to sink in!

It would be a long few months in so many ways, but the life growing inside of me kept me grounded.  I knew I had to hold my emotions and not let stress get the best of me because it was not good for the life growing inside of me.  And somehow in those moments of crisis for my faith in those months, the kicks and moves of this precious life would convince me that God was real when everything with in me wanted to turn and run the other way from Him.

Ava truly was a gift that promised life would go on after heartbreak like I had never known it!  And she has been a source of joy ever since!

She has taught me so much!  She is my ONE compliant child!  She loves life and doesn't let much bother her.  She is as determined as anyone I have ever met.  Ava has a neurological condition that makes all movements difficult.  But few know it!  I find myself reaching out to catch her when we hit uneven ground or grab her hand when we are stepping off a curb in anticipation of her faltering and possibly falling.  Or like the other day at the park, Noah and Toben climbed on top of the dinosaur to ride it.  I reached down to lift her up knowing the struggle it would be for her to get up there to which she gently pushed my hand away and in a most polite way said, "I will do it myself."

She love bows and bugs!  She wears high heals and plays soccer with her brothers!  She is an amazing little girl and I thank God today for allowing me to be her mother!  I am the luckiest mommy in this world!

Happy birthday, Ava Claire!  I love you with all my being, and I can't wait to see what God does with you!  He has mighty plans for you, you little spit fire!