Adoptions

During the last few years we have made some wonderful friends through ministry. While Wes was the college minister we went annually to a retreat in Florida. Wes was on the board for the retreat and we met Duane and Jenny Dixon who were also on the board. They currently live in Tuscaloosa where Duane is the college minister at a church there (I know that's the enemies territory for all of us Auburn fans :).

The Dixon family have 3 precious children and are in the process of adopting a fourth child from Ethiopia. They are just in need of raising the funds to bring this baby home. As you can imagine a minister salary doesn't bring home just a ton of extra money. They have a very sweet story regarding the idea behind this adoption. You can read all about it at their blog. They are working hard with several fundraisers to get have the money for this. International adoption is not easy either.

Here is an excerpt from their story from Duane's perspective...
"We sighed a timid 'ok, God.' Jenny & I agreed to pray together every night for the month of April. I thought this casual and reluctant exploration couldn't turn out that bad. It was like sticking your toe in the pool to test its temperature...worse case scenario, you recoil in minor discomfort but there's no real commitment because you're still upright on the side of the pool, right?

So it's the first night of praying together! Went fine. 'God if you need us to walk through this door, just make that obvious. We love you...etc., etc.' I'm driving to work the next morning still with my proverbial toe in the water and in complete control of my destiny. I can remember where I was on Highway 69 when God took His forearm and planted it squarely on my back and SHOVED me in, head first into the pool!"

They have really thought long and hard over this and several circumstances have led the way to open doors and opportunities.
You will see several ways to help with fundraising on their blog. One is buying Christmas cards that Jenny has designed where you just insert your own pictures and have printed out for the holidays. There is also another family partnering with them to sell T-shirts raising money.

Please consider this sweet family while you do some holiday shopping. And remember them in prayer for this adoption dream to come true.