Lewis Family

As a kid you couldn’t get me on a rollercaoster- way too scary!  In highschool, a couple of friends actually picked me up and carried me onto a rollercoaster, while I was protesting very loudly!  Not only did I survive, I wanted to ride that beast again!  Slowly climbing up the hill, that slight pause at the crest and then roaring down the other side, loops, twists, turns and then a rushing stop!   What a rush!  It’s been awhile since I’ve ridden a wodden or steel coaster, I think the last one may have been the Scooby-Doo kid’s coaster at Carowinds with the girls many years ago!  A little over one year ago we hopped on a roller coaster as a family again but this one was called, The Great Adoption Adventure!  There are lots of hills, curves, twists and turns and God has used every one of them to bring us closer to Him.  We went into the adoption adventure knowing that it would take time.  It has taken a few months longer then we had anticipated.  God’s timing is perfect, is our go-to when we start getting impatient.   Here are some of our highs, twists and turns from 2011. 

1.God made it abundantly clear we were to adopt from Uganda, Africa.  -2.Made the decision to adopt a sibling group!  -3.Found out there were no sibling groups eligible to adopt, we went from adopting two children to one.  -4. Rejoicing getting matched to our sweet boy and mourning the loss he must feel at being orphaned all at the same time.       -5.Further investigation revealed one parent that had been presumed dead, was alive and needed to be found to sign a release form.  -6. Dealing with the emotions and God’s peace covering it all.  -7. Rejoicing again, the paper was signed. Mourning again, a parent had to give up their child a second time.  -8.We received the Show Hope Grant!! I cried for two hours! The joy was overwhelming!  -9. Some dear friends donated their frequent flier miles: enough to get Stephen & I to Uganda and all three of us home! Again, Lord you are so amazingly good to us!  -10. Being home with our girls for Christmas!  -11. Waiting for the court date and the final countdown!

It’s been a year of stretching.  Our faith, our trust, our hearts, our minds, our thoughts, our lives and how we live each day.  Thank-you to each of you that jumped on this crazy roller coaster ride with us!  If you have prayed, donated, hugged us, been generous with your time and loved us through this year we appreciate you more than words can say.  The ride isn’t over yet!  We’re climbing another hill, getting ready for the rush of coming down the other side and finishing strong with arms raised in praise and grateful smiles on our faces!

Psalm 150:2 Praise Him for His mighty works; praise His unequaled greatness!

Praying for God’s Provision

We are fast approaching the end of the journey to bring our son home! It has been about 11 months since we officially started the process. We hope to have a travel date in the next few weeks, which will most likely be in December or January. This Journey so far has been an amazing faith builder. In the first post on our blog I spoke about how we were moving forward with the adoption on complete faith and I was completely trusting God to provide and so far we have had the money when we needed it, thank you God!  As we come down to wire the expenses start to go up and they are closer together.  Below I am going to have some ideas that we have for people to help.  If you can’t help financially please be praying for Provision. We have applied for grants and we are waiting to hear back from several of them (PRAY).  

EBay & Craigslist Marathon – We have started to take donations of stuff that we can sell on eBay or Craigslist. These items are a little bit nicer than what you would typically put in a yard sale. We are asking for things like furniture, jewelry, electronics, appliances, power and yard tools, sporting goods, boats, cars, houses, Silver and Gold.  Let us know if you would like for us to come by to pick something up!

End of Year Giving – Now that we have the Non-Profit set up there is no better time to give to our charity. You can make payments to Journey Together Ministries and you will be able to use it as a tax deduction for 2010. Please note on the check if you want the funds to go toward our adoption or to the general funds. We are raising money to build a website for the ministry. Please mail the check to 2197 Sandy Point Lane, Mount Pleasant, SC 29466.

Frequent Flier Miles – We have some friends that have some extra frequent flier miles that they are donating. We are working out the details on how this will work and I will keep you posted on what the process is to do this. They are pretty certain that they don’t have enough for all of our tickets so it would be great if we could find a couple more people that have some miles to spare.

Please let me know if you have any questions or if you have any ideas for raising some more funds. We really appreciate how much everyone has rallied around us. It is going to be amazing telling this story to our son!

Stephen Lewis

Phone:                                 843-607-0982

Email:                    slewissc@yahoo.com

Address:              2197 Sandy Point Lane, Mount Pleasant, SC 29466

On Wednesday, October 19th at 6:30 pm we saw for the first time our son!   We were matched!!!!

I had left for Groundswell with the girls around 5:30pm. (Groundswell is the youth service at our church, I volunteer with the registration team)  I didn’t have my phone on me, but thankfully Ashley did!  Stephen called Ashley and told her to tell me to check my phone.  Stephen had sent me a text saying that he had recieved THE e-mail with our referral and how quickly could I get home!!  Needless to say, I said a quick goodbye and high-tailed it out of there!! 

I got home in a short amount of time without breaking any traffic laws!  The girls had stayed at church.  Stephen and I said a quick prayer and opened the e-mail.  After all of the months of praying for him, wondering what he would look like and how it would feel to actually look at him, we were at that moment.  Stephen and I had both thought there would be this huge rush of emotions, when oddly enough, we both felt pretty numb.  It was so surreal, we were possibly looking at our son halfway around the world in Uganda, Africa!  There were 3 pictures total.  Two were very recent and one was when he first arrived at the orphanage 6 months ago.  The orphanage has done an amazing job taking care of him!  He looks so healthy now, like any other child his age!  Praise God for the people who are caring and showing love for these little ones left alone in the world.  I wish I could show you pictures and tell you more about him and his story, but because of child protection laws, I can’t.  I will tell you that after Stephen and I had time to process and pray, we started to fall in love!  On Monday, October 24th we officially accepted and in Kampala, Uganda our son is waiting for us and we are all head over heels in love!  We printed out several copies of the pictures and we have pictures of him everywhere!  And if you live anywhere near us, we always have a picture ready to show!

Stephen and I were both able to talk to our families and share with them the wonderful news!  They are all thrilled and can’t wait to meet their:  grandson, nephew or cousin! 

The next step is more waiting, but now we have a sweet little face to look at….that makes it easier and harder.  There is a bit more paperwork to be completed and then we wait to be assigned our court date.  We are hoping and praying that we will be heading to Uganda before the end of this year, if not then the first of 2012.   On our end of things, it’s time to start preparations!  A bed, clothing, outlet protectors, shoes,bedding….all of that fun stuff!  I can’t wait! 

During the wait, it gives us time to raise the remaing funds.  We have applied for a couple of grants and are thinking about another fundraiser.  We’ll keep you posted!  Right now, we appreciate your continued prayers.  Psalm 65:5  “You failthfully answer our prayers with awesome deeds, O God our savior.”

As many of you are aware we have been in the process of adopting for about a year. We are getting really close to being matched and we hope we have our little boy home before the end of the year. The journey so far has been amazing and it has barely even started.  During the early part of the process we knew God had big plans and that this was bigger than us adopting. We felt like this was the beginning of a new journey in our lives. As we began to have fund raisers and network with other people about adoption we started to since there was a need for an adoption missional community. We wanted to form a group that was focused and called to help the orphans around the world. God has changed my heart so much in the last few years, he started to really give me a world view when I went on my mission trip back in March of 2009 but this year I am over whelmed by the condition and needs of our world.

There is such a huge need for orphans. There are over 150,000,000 children that have lost their mother and their father.  We feel called to educate the Christian church about the needs of the orphan and to help families that want to adopt with the expense of the adoption.  In June we formed a 501c3 non-profit ministry called Journey Together Ministries Inc… We have been bringing together families that are in the process of adopting and/or just have a heart for the orphans. We meet monthly to educate and encourage each other through the process. We have had several guest speakers that are experts in the area of adoption. We have truly seen lives changed already and we can’t wait until more and more orphans are brought home to be with their families. This is where we will come together to support and encourage each other through the life journey of adoption.  God gave me a vision of hundreds of families coming together to celebrate the gift of adoption. I believe that the impact of this missional community is great and that we will not be able to see the full impact of it until we are together in heaven; it’s going to be amazing!!

We have a busy rest of the year. We will be planning our trip to Uganda and continuing to organize and promote Journey Together Ministries. On October 29^th we will have a game and information table set up at the Rocktober Fest held at Seacoast church in Mt. Pleasant. Come on out and join us! November is Orphan awareness month and we have a Picnic at the Park on November 6^th. The event starts at 12:30 and will go until 3:30pm. At 2pm we will have a group prayer for all the orphans around the world. It’s going to be powerful!

We need your continued support and prayers. We still need funds for our adoption and we have needs for the ministry as well but more importantly please continue to pray. I know without a doubt God is at work and ready to do something big and I want everything that we do to bring glory to him. I ask that you continue to pray for our family including the son that we will be bringing home. He has been through a lot and will need all of our prayers to adjust to his new life with our family. We will give everyone details about him in future blogs.

As for the ministry we have a need to build a website. We have secured a web domain www.journeytogetherministries.org  but we need $1500-$2000 to build the site. We will use the site to highlight families that are in the process of adopting and need some financial support. It is our goal to build up a community of donors that are willing to donate monthly to specific families. We want the adopted orphan to know that a community of Christ followers came together to adopt them. We believe this will reinforce the child’s identity in his heavenly father.

As you can see we have a lot going on. We are so excited that we are being used by God in this way and would love for you to be a part of this journey. If you have question please don’t hesitate to give me a call at 843-607-0982 or email me at slewis@journeytogetherministries.org  .

God Bless!

Isaiah 1:17

During seasons of waiting you can embrace it or you can really get discouraged.  I am trying to embrace it and seek God and prepare for what’s next in our family. There are a lot of changes coming for sure. I’m learning that God is always on time, he is never late or early. I believe that through it all God wants me to relax and completely trust him.  I have such a hard time just letting go, I want to take action.

I wanted to give everyone an update on what has been happening. As it stands right now we are next in line with the criteria of child/children we have requested. That can mean any day now or next year. There is just no way to know. The coordinator of the program informed us that there is only one boy that is currently eligible for adoption. The rest of the boys at the orphanage have pending paper work making them eligible. Since this news we have been praying about whether we should keep waiting for 2 boys or move forward with one child for now. I know what you are saying, this is God teaching me patience and we should wait for 2 boys to be eligible. Let me tell why we think it may be God’s will. All of these reasons are easily overcome with prayer and faith and I have no doubt that if it is meant to be God will make a way. I ask that you continue to pray for God to reveal his perfect will for the situation.

Right now it is appearing more likely that if we bring 2 boys home this time that they will not be related. No big deal right? Well in reality this can bring some challenges. If they are related there will already be a bond and if they are not then this is one more thing that the child has to adjust to. The other thing that is contributing to the decision is the finances. The biggest part of the expense is when we go to Uganda. So far the cost has been the same regardless of whether we are adopting 1 or 2. The expense starts doubling each step of way when we get to Uganda. The finances have been my biggest concern from the beginning and this is where my Faith has grown the most. I know that God told me to trust him on this and I do but I want to know without a doubt that bringing 2 children home is his will. This last thing that has just come to our attention is that the US Embassy has stopped giving visas to more than 1 adopted child at a time unless they are related. The Coordinator is in Uganda this week meeting with them to see if this is likely to stay the same. This could be the deciding factor if there are no pending siblings at the orphanage.

We have been so blessed to have so many people praying for us during this time and we are reaching out to you now to agree with us in prayer that God will make it clear without a doubt what we are supposed to do.  Right now we seem to be leaning towards one child but we don’t want to take the easy way out and miss God’s will.

Thank you all for your prayers!

There’s a great Tom Petty song where he sings, “The waiting is the hardest part.”   TP sure had that right! 

We are in a holding pattern of sorts.  The adoption agency we are using sent out a general e-mail to all of the families they are representing that are adopting from Uganda.  In the e-mail they said they were hopeful that several of the 8 families would be matched this month(July).  Cool!  And the next thing out of my mouth was:  Ok, where are we in that lineup!?  As it turns out, we are #7 in the lineup and we are probably looking at August, September, hopefully not later,to be matched to our kiddos across the pond.   For those of you not familiar with the matching process here’s a very quick rundown;  You basically tell the adoption agency what you are looking for in a child. (age, sex, healthy, has health issues, any disabilities, etc…)  To say it’s akward to almost complete a shopping list for a child would be an understatement!  The adoption agency then sends all of that info to the orphanage(s) that they have a working relationship with and you are basically waiting for the child that God wants you to have to get into that orphanage.  The directors of the orphanage look at all of the families bios and checklists, look at the children there and say, they belong together!  I’m really hoping there’s a lot of praying on their end, but we know that God already has them picked out for us and he’s just waiting for the perfect time to bring us all together. 

Isiah 64:4 says, “For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him!”  God is working on bringing our boys home!  He’s watching over them and preparing all of our hearts.  Way better then a Tom Petty song!  (I do still like to crank up a little TP now and then!)

So I am holding off on buying boy clothes, toys, books and shoes until I know a little more about them.  For now, I’ll stick to thinking about them often and praying for them even more often.

So, we were all sitting around at Giuseppis one night waiting for our food and we decided to pass the time with:  I can’t wait to show, take or do this with the boys, ________  and then we took turns filling in the blank.  Turned out to be really fun!  The answers were quite varied as you can imagine!  Here’s a few!

Take them to the beach, USC football game, going to church, going on an escalator, Christmas (not just the presents, but setting up the manger with them and reading about Jesus’ birth), paint a picture with them, first pizza, meeting family, meeting friends, cuddling, going on a walk around the neighborhood, chalk drawing on the driveway…….

Ther are so many moments, events and experiences that we can’t wait to have!

sweet friend!

We had beautiful weather and 38 golfers on Tuesday, June 14th for the Golf Tournament!  The shotgun start, started promptly at 1:00.  Something I overheard the  rangers say never happens; this was my first golf tournament so I’ll take them at their word.  

There were lots of prizes to be had!  Closest to the Pin Challenge on Hole 2 -Mike Taylor won a gift bag filled with golf essentials from Montgomery Insurance  and Hole 7- Bryan Burton won a $125 voucher from David Ayers, Lowcountry Custom Golf.

There were two longest drive competitions.  The first on Hole 5- Cody McSwain won a Gift Card and box of BBQ sauces from Sticky Fingers.  Hole 10- Adam Hardegree won a $125 voucher from David Ayers Lowcountry Custom Golf.

Mike and Sherry Edwards sponsored the 18th hole and gave away a free Scholotzsky’s sandwich to every golfer that landed on the green.  There were quite a few golfers that walked away from that hole very satisfied!

Overall 1st place with a score of 61 was: Jerry McSwain, Cody McSwain, Glen Wood and Chris Russo.  Way to Go!!

2nd Place with a score of 63 was: Mike Edwards, Mike Taylor, Ricky Catindig and Larry Willey.  Congratulations!!

Last place with a score of 78 was: Marshall & Cheryl Driver and Jack & Sue Blakeney.  They didn’t have the best score, but they had fun!

As many of you know we plan on hosting a golf tournament every year.  This year it was to raise money for our own adoption.  In the coming years it will be to help other families under the umbrella of the Non-Profit we are starting, Journey Together Ministries.  To everyone that helped this year,  Thank-you from the bottom of our hearts.  Your donations, support, encouragement and prayers are a blessing to our family and a testament of God’s love and how amazing the Body of Christ is.

So much stuff!!!

Our garage was filled to capacity with a boat, furniture, dishes, 8 coffee pots, placemats, toys, clothes, shoes, lamps, exercise equipment, bikes, a giant scooby- do…….you get the picture!!  And by the grace of God and  people in search of a bargain almost all of it sold!

The grand total was $2100!!!!  Can you believe it?!  And a gentleman that was very interested in the boat, came back a week later to buy it!! So that brings the grand total to $3600!!  A BIG thank-you to our friends Steve and Sandra that donated the boat!  To all of our friends that donated items, we can’t thank-you enough.  I cannot wait for the boys to meet all of you! 

My mom and a friend of hers came down on Wednesday to help organize and tag everything.  To say they were a HUGE help would be an understatement!  They were staging everything so that it would be show and sell better;  and sell it did!!  Couldn’t have done it without you both!!  The yard sale was supposed to start at 9am on Friday.  We were up & outside at 7am to set up and people were already waiting!  I think it’s a bit pointless to post start times for a yard sale.  It was pretty funny, we would bring something out from the garage and there would be 7-8 people waiting to look at it.  One guy started helping Stephen move things out!  Friday was a big day and a lot sold!  Stephen was adament that we were not moving everything back into the garage Friday evening and then taking it all back out Saturday morning.  The solution – park the cars at the beginning of the driveway and cover everything up.  Stephen took it to the next level and slept outside on the hammock!   He’s good!  It did make Saturday much easier.   We continued to sell a lot on Saturday and called it a day and a big success around 5pm.  The few odds and ends that were left went to The Habitat for Humanity Resale Store and the clothes and shoes were donated to The Dream Center clothes closet in North Charleston.  

We got to meet a lot of our neighbors and a bunch of people came from our church to support us!  One couple’s daughter and son-in-law have adopted two daughters from Uganda and they are in the process of adopting a third little girl!  She and I have since spoken via e-mail.  More encouragement!  God is good!! 

It’s amazing to see how God is already using the adoption and the boys to give us an opportunity to share with people how God has been working in our lives.  These boys are already loved by so many!  Lots of hugs coming their way!