Exciting News!

Jason and I are so excited to share with everyone that after much prayer and research, we have officially committed to adopt precious Dalton! He is in a different country in Eastern Europe, so we should  not run into the same issues we had with the last country and agency. As a matter of fact, we have already been approved by our new agency and are working on official country committment documents to register him as matched with our family in his country.

Here is a link to our new family committment page http://reecesrainbow.org/33667/sponsorfields. The agency was so kind to send us updated information on Dalton and this is a picture of him from the end of April.

God has been so faithful to us and I am excited to be able to share more details with you along this portion of our adoption journey.

Just yesterday, in my prayer time, I was asking God, if you really are calling us to adopt this child (we have already had this coversation times before, but I can be stubborn) can you plesae reveal to us what should be his name? Out of nowhere, literally nowhere, the name Jonah came to my mind. I was like....ok...is this me...or is this God....and then Jonah 3:2 came to me. Here is what 1-2 says:
 "Then the Lord spoke to Jonah a second time: ² “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.”

Wow, talk about a verse just reaching out and speaking to you. This was not the first time I have prayed to God for clarity and I love how God is pointing out the second time and get up and go! So we will be changing Dalton's name to Jonah Andrew.

Please continue to pray for us :> We are kicking up the fundraising efforts and would love to get this little man home as soon as possible!

Seeking Him in the Wait

I just wanted to thank you all so much for the wonderful outpouring of love a support. We knew that this road was not going to be easy and it has been difficult for Jason and I to stop cold and wait patiently for what God is really calling us to do. It has been over the course of the last two weeks that we have really pressed into HIM and listened....for his voice....for his direction....and we are seeing God move.

We know that the door is COMPLETELY SHUT to us to persue a Russia adoption, we just have too much school loan debt for the agency to feel comfortable moving forward with us. However, we know that God has called us to adoption and he who began a good work in us is faithful to complete it in Christ Jesus! Stay tuned....we see changes a'comin! :>

News and A Call to Prayer

Friends,

Jason and I have felt such love and support over the last three months as we have begun this adoption journey, it has been amazing. Time and time again, we have seen God meet our needs and grow our faith in ways that we have never experienced before. The garage sale we had covered the cost of the honestudy just about dollar for dollar, who can say that was anything but the hand of God?


So....it is with heavy hearts that we have news to share. Due to the depreciated home value and our outstanding school loans, our debt income ratio is out of balance. We have been informed by the adoption agency that there is no way that a Russian court would approve us to adopt at this time.

We have been formally REJECTED. Kind words, calls and emails to explain, but that does not change where we stand........

Why did God bring us this far just to close the door? What is going to happen to precious little Sutton? I do not know the answer to these questions, but I know the one who does.

Friends, please pray that God gives us clarity in what to do next. We know that he is calling us to be a voice for the orphan.....

With that, we are making sure that every donation that has been given to us on Sutton's behalf will be going into his Reece's Rainbow fund. This fund will stay with him, even when our connection to him has been removed.

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to reach out to us. Thank you all so much.

Eatin' Broccoli!

The kids were soooooo cute last night eatin' their broccoli, I just has to share!

It is so great, they go after broccoli like it was candy or something. :>

God is GOOD!!!!

Can I just say God is GOOD?!?!?!
Thank you so much to everyone who came out to support us at Chick-fil-A in Waxahachie on 3/21 World Down Syndrome Awareness Day! Jason and I felt so loved and encouraged by so many of you all taking time out of your schedule to support us in our adoption efforts. One employee shared with me that this was a VERY busy Wednesday night, in fact, they had never seen it so busy :> After the talley...they shared that over $1,000 worth of recipts were contributed to our spirit day. They are mailing in a check to our FSP on Reece's Rainbow for $175!
Also, we had a garage sale today. We did not widley promote it, but so many of our family and friends contributed donations in a flash anyway:> Also we had several friends come and mow our lawn Friday night because with all we had going on and the rain, we had not been able to. What a blessing right there. When the garage sale was all said and done, we made $1035!
So our fundrasing total for this week was $1210!!!!!
I am so truely humbled and greatful that God has chosen to use us and is continuing to bless us as we progress:>

Chick-fil-A Fundraiser 3/21

Hello there!
If you are local, please consider dining with the Waxahachie Chick-fil-A on 3/21 and leave your recipet. They have been so kind to agree to donate 15% of all recipts turned in toward our adoption! When we coordianted this, we did not even realize that it is World Down Syndrome Day! Please come out to celebrate World Down Syndrone Day with us :>

Piece of the Puzzle Fundraiser

Hello All!

Today, in children's worship, this verse was shared:

"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy." Proverbs 31:8-9. Have you ever heard a verse and just immediatley identified with it? This is exactly where our family is right now. I am so humbled that God has chosen us to be Sutton's voice and allowed for us to be part of this journey that we pray will bring glory to Christ in each step.

How would you like to be a piece of the puzzle to bring Sutton home? We have purchased this beautiful 1,000 piece puzzle depicting a scene in an American classrom.

For $5, we will place your name on the back of a puzzle piece, which we will put together and hang in Sutton's room. This way, we can show him everyone that was a part of the puzzle in bringing him home.

Please feel free to use the Reece's Rainbow FSP or Chip In on the side of this blog and email me at lorisue777@yahoo.com with how many puzzle pieces you would like to purchase. Also, if we cross paths in our day-to-day, we would be happy to take $ from you then as well:> So far, we have sold 4 pieces....we appreciate your prayers and support.

Wow, what a week!

All I can say is WOW, God is good! This week, we were able to publicly share our formal committment to Sutton not only on the blog, but in our every day lives :>

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has purchased items through our thirty-one fundraiser, bought puzzle pieces and just donated either through the chip in or the RR FSP page. We know that lots more is in store, but I wanted to take time to really reflect and give thanks to you all and to our Father, who gives to us so generously and abundantly!

Wednesday night, I had the opportunity to share our adoption Journey with our Women's Bible Study. This was the very first time that I have had to speak to a room of about 30-40 people and I was a little nervous, but everyone was so open and encouraging!

In my walk, I have found that there are definately times of waiting, where God grows our patience, and then there are times when I feel like I am flying and things are happening so fast. Right now, I feel like we are definatley in the season of FLYING! I would ask that you continue to pray over our family, to cover us with LOVE and if you feel directed, help us bring Sweet Sutton home :>

Just a quick reminder, we have an open thirty-one party:
http://www.mythirtyone.com/shop/catalog.aspx?eventId=E1496871&from=DIRECTLINK
This party will be open till March 9th and 25% of your purchase will go directly toward our adoption funding!

We have also been sharing with others about our Piece of the Puzzle adoption fundraiser and I am planning to make a specific blog post on that over the weekend :>

Also, please make plans, if you are local, to eat at Chick Fil A in Waxahachie on National Down Syndrome Awareness day 3/21! They have agreed to donate 15% of all reciepts given to our adoption! (I am sure I will be making a separate blog post on this soon too:> )

Thank you guys for all your support!

SUTTON for the Fields family — Waxahachie, TX

Hello Everyone :>

We are so excited to share that we have been matched on the Reece's Rainbow website to Sutton!
Please check it out!
http://reecesrainbow.org/33667/sponsorfields

About Us

As part of our Reece's Rainbow paperwork, we have been working on our "About Us". Here is what we have :)

Jason and Lori Fields met in the fall of 2002, when Lori began attending Hillcrest
Baptist Church in Cedar Hill. TX. They began to connect as friends while
singing in the choir at the Billy Graham Crusade. The theme of the crusade was,
“God knows how it may change your life” and boy was this true for them! Lori
endured a difficult divorce over the next few months and Jason was right there
to encourage and support her. The two began to date exclusively and became
engaged on October 17th 2004 at Texas Stadium, were the Billy Graham
Crusade was held! They were married on June 24th 2005.

Jason andLori both accepted Christ in their teenage years and starting out their
marriage, knew they wanted to be open to follow God’s call on their lives,
wherever that may take them. Lori’s parents spent their teenage years at
Buckner Baptist Children’s home and her parents were married right out of high
school. Due to that, she has always felt connected to the foster/adoption
world. Lori experienced fertility issues in her first marriage and was not sure
if they would be able to conceive and they began to research foster/adoption
opportunities. God surprised and blessed them when they found out they were
pregnant their very first married Christmas in 2005. Their son, James Curtis
was born in 2006.

They knew they wanted to continue to grow their family and after their son was born, they
began to try for another baby. God used this time in their lives to teach them
what it really looked like to live lives of obedience. All of 2007 and much of
2008 came and went, without that positive pregnancy test. Lori felt God spoke
to her in October 2008 and told her to give away all her maternity clothes, as
an act of obedience. Although this was a very difficult thing to do, Lori gave
them away….and the very next weekend they found out they were pregnant with
precious Audrey Grace!

During her pregnancy, Lori began to follow Angie Smith’s blog, which is now located at http://www.angiesmithonline.com/. She began
to grow deeper in her walk with Christ, reading how Angie shared her
experiences while carrying her sweet baby girl, Audrey, who would be born to
live a few short hours, but touch the lives of a tremendous amount of people.
Jason and Lori chose to name their daughter Audrey in honor of this season of
spiritual growth in their lives.

Through blog reading, Lori was introduced to Reece’s Rainbow and began to feel God’s
call to advocate for the special needs orphans in Eastern Europe. Jason and
Lori knew they felt God calling them to be involved in orphan care in some way,
but were not fully certain what that would look like. They were blessed with
baby #3, Madelyn Rose in June of 2011.

During Christmas/New Years 2011, their pastor began to preach on topics that
highlighted adoption and sharing details about their own adoption experience of
their youngest child. In this time Jason and Lori knew that they were hearing
God begin to shape and direct the call for adoption on their lives. In that
same time, Adeye on her blog http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/
was advocating for high risk orphans that needed families immediately. Jason
and Lori began to pray and seek God’s will for them in an International Special
Needs Adoption. They inquired on a
specific child that turned out to have such significant medical needs, they
knew they would not be able to meet them and they were heartbroken. But,
God….but God himself used this experience to solidify the call on their lives
to become adoptive parents of a child with special needs.

The Fields Family would ask that you partner with them in prayer and if possible in
finances. They have stepped out in faith, knowing that God will bring what is
needed in order to fulfill his call, please prayerfully consider joining them
in their efforts to bring their precious child home. “17 Thank God! Once you were
slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you.
“Romans 6:17

The first "official" step

Well guys, if you follow me on facebook, you have seen that Jason and I have taken the next "official" step in our adoption. Our homestudy visit is scheduled for March 31st:> I continue to feel God's peace and confirmation over and over. I know that God is going to continue to meet our needs in this whole process, but I would be lying if I didnt share that I am pretty nervous about what to expect. It has been great to be involved in Reese's Rainbow groups on facebook, I get to hear about what others ahead of me in the process are experiencing.
I want to share something that happened to me this week that is a testimony to God's faithfulness to provide what I need before I even know that I need it.
My mom has been unemplolyed for some time and was sharing with me that she was looking to get a part time job. I just felt an urgent need to ask her to watch my girls, instead of having to get that job. I suprised myself, because the young woman who takes care of my girls right now has done a wonderful job and I feel like she takes great care of them. So, I was sad to have to give my 2 week notice to her. I did not notice, but she had actually sent me a text message that she was going to have to give me a notice because they are going to be moving into full time foster care.
It is amazing that God completely met my need, before I even realized that I had a need!
I would ask that you all would continue to be in prayer for us, that we dont get in the way of the great story that God is writing in our lives:>

Fundrasing Fun :>

It has been a CRAZY week! My hubby had to travel for work this week and my mom was so kind to help me with the kiddos:> In between, my thoughts and prayers have been around precious Sutton and how quickly we can get him home to us. It has been pretty amazing how many times James 1:27 has been brought to my mind this week. I am doing the new Beth Moore James Bible Study AND out pastor preached out of James 1 this past Sunday.

"Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us." James 1:27

God has been confirming to me over and over again that it is time to allow for him to move us COMPLETELY out of our comfort zone in this adoption. I really, really, really do NOT like to ask people for money and I dont do well when I have to WAIT for something. I know that God is calling us to bring him glory in this persuit of precious Sutton. SO...here it goes....this is my very first post dealing with fundraising.....

Several fundraising options have been brought to us, some from friends in online group forums and some from our everyday walk:> Right now we are looking at Momprom, Golf Tournament, Pancake Breakfast, Dinner w/Silent Auction, Garage Sale and a Puzzle Piece Fundraiser. At the moment, standing here, trying to look forward, this can seem to be a bit overwhelming....but I KNOW that he who began a good work is faithful to complete it in Christ Jesus :>

You have probably noticed that I have added a chip in widget to the blog. I would love if you all would prayerfully consider partnering with us to raise ransom to bring this precious one home :>

I am hoping to post a section with all the estimated adoption costs broken out, but for now, the first piece we need to cover is the homestudy.

Lots of Love from the Fields Family!

God's Sweet Notes of Confirmation

This evening I got to spend time with my hubby one on one....we had a DATE night! My mom was kind enough to watch the babies so we could have dinner. I stopped and thought, should we really be going to dinner, or should we be holding on to every penny we can for the adoption? God really showed himself faithful to us this evening and I wanted to share what we experienced.

We had some things to take back to various stores that all happen to be around my hubby's work. By the time we were done, we had returned about $100 worth of stuff...which is cool, but what happened next is ever cooler!

Aaron and Charity Clayton are our friends/neighbors that adopted their son internationally in 2009. Earlier in the week I texted with Charity to share the news of our adoption pursuit and wanted to chat with them about their experiences. We were thinking that a weekend would probably be best to get together. Tonight, we ran into them at Grapevine Mills Mall, which is 45 minutes away from where we live! Getting to chat with them, even for a few moments was such a blessing!I feel like when God does these types of things, it is like a little love note to us :> (Here's their blog-http://aaronandcharity.wordpress.com/)

Next, we went to dinner at Carrabbas, which I love, but can be pricey. We had a little situation with our waiter where we felt like he was rushing us, so we requested a new one. The new waiter had a twin that worked there and they both served us...it was so cool! Then, he suprised us with a chocolate dessert. I love me some chocolate, so I was thinking this was great! We were ready to settle up, and he told us that the WHOLE MEAL was on the house....amazing! Of course, we left a nice tip, but isn't God good? Here I was concerned about going to dinner and he had a plan to care for us all along. I pray that I can take the example of this evening with us through this adoption journey. No matter what I think and see, I need to remember that he's got this and we just need to be obedient :>

Big Announcement

Hello World :>

My family and I are excited to share a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! No, we are not pregnant, but YES we are growing our family! If you know me, you know that I have a very tender heart for orphans and I am so excited to share that God is calling us to begin the process to complete an International Special Needs Adoption!

Meet Sutton:

http://reecesrainbow.org/?s=Sutton

I have been an avid blog reader for several years and was introduced to Reeces Rainbow through links from several of those blogs.

The first steps in the process are to complete paperwork, paperwork and I am sure more paperwork :> There will be more details to come later but we are super excited to begin.

This will be a complete journey of faith, we are looking to God to supply our needs according to his riches in Christ Jesus. Would you please covenant to pray with us as we begin?

In Christ,

Jason, Lori, James, Audrey & Madelyn Fields