Christmas Offering

Last Sunday just before the service began, the pastor of our church here called me over and asked if we'd be home in the afternoon. Said he was going to stop by. "What for?" I thought.

Around 4:30 in the afternoon I saw him walk across our lawn and scrambled to shove Jake's LEGOs into their box and grab the cardboard creation he had made off of the sofa so he would have somewhere to sit.

He came in got right to the point. "How are things going with the adoption fundraising? How far do you still have to go?" We shared how well we had done to date but that we were about $16,000 from finished. He spoke of prior years when the church raised money for Kiev and Haiti. He felt they were in a good place with their Haiti fundraising as they were about to send them a sizable check towards a project down there. "I was thinking," he said, "about using our annual Christmas offering to help you reach your goal to bring Johanna home." Stunned. Humbled yet again that God would use His people to help us fulfill Lourdes's dying wish and bring Johanna home. Still well up EVERY time I think about how absolutely right this is.

We arrived at church yesterday to see these flyers on the seats. I was a little taken aback as Advent has not yet begun.

Tim, the kids and I will each have a Sunday during Advent to speak to the congregation about Johanna and our journey to meet her, love her and make her a Chittenden.

If our family crosses your mind during any Sundays in Advent, could we ask you to pray for whichever one of us is speaking? That God would give us the words HE wants the congregation to hear. That we can hold back the tears that come so easily when we speak about Johanna and this journey. Thanks! It would really mean a lot to us!

Times flies

Greetings friends!

It has been more than a month since I last posted and lots has happened. What a ride this is!

In September, a sweet mom friend in Santiago offered me her frequent flyer miles that were due to expire in October so that I could travel to see our sweet girl. What an amazing gift! We surprised her with my arrival and the funny thing is Joy says she had been talking all day about skyping us. In fact, she just wanted to set the laptop next to her so we could "watch" a movie with her--just hang out. So cute! When I walked int the room, she had this look like "Am I seeing things?" and then ran and jumped into my arms and gave me the biggest squeeze ever.

A short time after I arrived with a new stuffed
lamb from her big brothers!

The trip was amazing. Her English is coming along amazingly so much so that I spoke to her mostly in English which made it so much less stressful to spend time together (for me at least! LOL!)

It had been a month of ups and downs with paperwork. Some met with opposition and some with open arms. After much prayer and exhausting emotional work on the part of our friends who are running like mad to move papers for us, we finally feel like we are in a good place with all of her family. We spent time with her aunts, uncle and cousins one afternoon. Brought donuts and juice for the cousins and just talked about how willing the family is to support what was her mom's dying wish. I mean fierce support by one aunt in particular. Thank you Lord for this and for your continued protection!

So blessed to have the support of these strong women (her aunts
who are her mom's sisters.)

We were invited to a friend's pool with
homemade paella. So fun!

Spinning in her new dress with her straight hair!
Such joy in that smile!

 It truly did not think I could love her more.

Unforeseen Blessings

Hello all,

Happy Fall! The Chittenden's are so excited to be experiencing fall for the first time in two years. This Sunday the low temp will be 32 degrees...what?!?!? Despite that, we are loving the fall colors, the pumpkins, the mums, college football, chili and apple pies. It is such a treat...

At this point we have reached our 1/3 mark in our adoption fundraising...$8,000! A large chunk of it was a surprise response from Tim's work who graciously sent money to our adoption agency to cover some costs. We are so thankful for that.

 But, we will for sure say, equally thankful for every little bit. It's funny to hear people say "Here's a check, but it's not much." Those "not much's" add up to lots!!! We are often overcome by the generosity of people around us...friends, family, acquaintances, strangers.

 If you have not read the two recent newspaper article about the boys efforts with their snack stand here are links to them:

http://blogs.roanoke.com/theburgs/features/2012/09/08/bringing-johanna-to-blacksburg/

http://www.collegiatetimes.com/stories/20414/when-johanna-draws-a-family-she-draws-us

One sweet story. During that last football game, a little guy, just five years old, walked proudly up to Gobble Goodies with a Tupperware full of change in his hands. He has been saving for a trip to Disney but after his mom told him about what the boys were doing he decided he want to share some of HIS savings with us! What a sweet little guy! It brought me to goosebumps and tears on and off all day. What can we learn from children? Overwhelmed.

Tim, the boys and I often talk about if we had the $25,000 sitting in a bank account from the beginning of this adoption process. Sure, we'd be less stressed but, wow, look at the opportunities to watch God work this out and teach everyone around us what is means to be part of something outside themselves. Blessed beyond measure.

But there is more to raise so today we are launching our partnership with CoupAide, an fundraising organization. With CoupAide, for just $20 people can purchase a $50 restaurant.com gift card. For every card sold, Room At Our Table will receive $10. Simple. The link to OUR CoupAide account is at the top of our blog and will remain there ongoing. The only suggestion I would make before you purchase is to check out which restaurants accept these gift cards in the area surrounding the people for whom you are purchasing the cards. I found the Monmouth County New Jersey and the Raleigh area had MANY restaurants that accepted the cards but I do know it varies area by area. So check that out first. Here are some ideas for using restaurant.com gift cards:

• Coaches end of season gifts! Do they really need another Dick's Sporting Goods card???
• Employee gifts! Who doesn't need a night out with the wife or hubs??
• Teacher gifts! 
• Out of State family gifts! No shipping  costs...got to love that!
• Gift for yourself! I mean, a $50 meal for $20. I was an art major but even I can see the value there!
• Client gifts! Do they want another crystal vase or stainless steel water bottle???

As you can see, the options are endless! LOL!

Thank you all for your support, prayers and love. Next blog post: Adoption Update. Lots going on...need time to coagulate those thoughts.

Introducing "Gobble Goodies: Confections for a Cause"

If you know me at all, you know I cannot be without SOME sort of project going on. As if the adoption isn't a part to full time job at this point, I found myself constantly thinking of ways to fund raise.

This summer the boys, having just moved to Blacksburg, had no friends to hang out with yet and were looking for things to do. Additionally, we kept on hearing how sooooo many people would be walking past our front door for Virginia Tech home football games since we live 1/2 mile from the front entrance of Lane Stadium. The stadium holds over 66,000 fans.

 I love Pinterest and came across this fabulous lemonade stand on Lil Luna. Vintage Lemonade stand

The guys quick got to work seeking out free wood from local companies. We found a bunch of free pallets at CMC Supply and one day Noah and I were passing Affordable Fencing in Christiansburg. Outside on their driveway was what seemed like scrap wood so we called. Mike Finney answered the phone, we told what we were up to and he told us to help ourselves to the pile, so we did! All of the wood for the stand for free! Woohoo!!!

First step was to disassemble the pallets.

 
 Then build the base.

 Even Granddad was there helping!

 Next we cut the boards for the face. Noah became quite the saw-er. "A good arm workout!"

 Yay spray paint!!!

 Here goes the face...looking good!

 Beans helped prepare popcorn for the goodies to sell.

 Nowie stirring up some Hoke Chow! A customer came back and said she overheard people talking about the boys and saying how delish the Hokie Chow was! Guess we're making that again next game!

 Here we are ready to roll...

 These boys wore me out just wacthgin them sell and prom and talk about Joha ALL.DAY.LONG!!!

                              The kids raised $230 today!

And had a blast doing it! Thanks guys!!!!!! You ROCK!!!

Will you be a hero?

A year and a half ago, Joy shared this video with me. It was produced by her friend, Eric Ludy. It's extremely powerful. PLEASE watch it and think of what you know about Joha.

.
I have watched it dozens of times. My favorite parts are these.

"Heroes are made because they are moved. Not in their heads but in their hearts."

"Remember you call yourself my body? I'm not there except through you. Your hands, those are my hands. Your feet those are my feet. That heart, it's my heart. And if its not beating, then my heart is not beating on this Earth anymore. I work through my body. I am a Father tot he fatherless through my body. I rescue the weak and the vulnerable through YOU! And if you're not doing it no one is."


We have a "Hudson." Her name is Johanna. And while she is NOT, by God's grace, any longer wondering from where her next meal will come, she is apart from us. We want to take her back to school pictures on OUR front porch next year.

We have seen many "heroes" for her to this point and we are blessed beyond anything we could have expected. What a different journey this will be and how much we will learn about community and God's provision than if we had every penny sitting in an account already. Thank you.

Will you be a hero for her?

Our first fundraiser

It's so difficult to ask people for help, especially when we prefer to be on the giving side. But God calls us to community. And we were overwhelmed by our community Monday night. When we first arrived at Rita's we saw that they had been raffling off tickets for a Rascal Flatts concert for us and already had a bucket out on the counter collecting change for us. So sweet!

Jake got right to work selling raffle tickets for a free gallon of Rita's delicious Italian Ice.

But, he soon moved behind the counter as he is a big fan of lovely young ladies. ;) Jill and Kaity were VERY patient with their new co-worker. :)

  Adam got to visit with his buds from Apex! Love these girls!!!

And, the Luyster family came all the way from Wake Forest. You guys ROCK!!!!

 Of course, Katie made an appearance! She lived int La Vega with Johanna for 5months as our intern and house mom. Love you, Katie!

 My niece Haley and sister joined us and enjoyed some yummy Ritas! Thanks for making the trek, H!

 Beans and his new bud, Jill. They worked hard. LOTS of people to serve!

After all of these photos, we became inundated with friends, so I got too busy to snap pix. We were truly overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from everyone. We were once again reminded how loved we are!!!

Our total raised from a combo of friends donation and our Rita's sales totaled $835!!!!!! Woohoo!!!

THANK YOU EVERYONE!

And we all wore yellow, Joha's favorite color! Yup, we love her!

Change a life

Reportedly, there are over $10 Billion US in coins currently gathering dust as spare change in piggy banks and old cookie tins in homes all across America. Would you like to share some of yours to help change a life?


As you know we are adopting a little girl from the Dominican Republic. Since it was completely unplanned we need to do what we can to make it happen financially. Please read Joha's Story above.


The challenge for August: Save all of your spare change from August 1 to November 1 and 100% will go into Johanna's "Room at our Table" fund. The person who donates the most will win a $50 Restaurant.com gift card to use for a fun night out or to gift to someone else. Woohoo!!!


On Friday, November 2, take your change to the bank or a Coinstar machine to see how you did. Email us the total and we will let you know the winner!

This is a photo of our friend, Ty. The night we told him about this idea, he went directly home and got to work. Sweet boy! Already has over $35!!!


Will you join Ty and help us Change A Life??? Hope so...

Please let us know if you are "in" by commenting below! That way we can email you if needed for specifics. THANKS!!!

Hugs!

Chris, Tim and gang

There is an angel watching over us

It is with a heavy heart that we share the news of Johanna's mom's passing. She was such a strong woman. We know she must have been in enormous pain but she fought as long as she could.


From my sweet friend Joy: We knew the end was close. We had watched her health rise and fall over the last few months and I had even physically carried her in and out of buldings to try to move paperwok for and her children. Hoping she would get to see her own birthcertificate, ID and those of her children before leaving this world never even existing on paper...she didn't make it. 

Lourdes, we know we could never thank you enough for the privilege of having known you and the blessed honor of raising your daughter. We will make you proud. She will know you. She will know you loved her enough to fight for her more than once. We know there is an angel watching over us.

And so it began...

The following is an email we sent to our prayer warriors last fall.


Sent: Friday, September 02, 2011 9:46 AM 
Subject: Pray 


 Please pray for one of our New Hope girls today. Yesterday during orientation, we overheard her mom saying she might need to give her away in order for her to survive. The mom has already had to give away one of her daughters. Her husband died from AIDS four months ago and she has no employable skills or family to watch her children while she works. Food is scarce and she fears they will starve to death. The mom is also sick but we do not know with what…very likely AIDS as well. Please help us figure out the best way to rescue this mom from this terrible decision. My boys, of course, have resolved the decision by saying to adopt her but… 


 Her name is Johanna.

Thank you…
 Love, Chris and Tim


And so it began...