Chosen Marathon , Chosen Heroes!!

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."
2 Timothy 4:7
I got a *glimmer* of this verse this past weekend at
Chosen Marathon for Adoption .

Over 1200 people ran in support of adoption and adoptive families. Over $100,000 was raised! Praise God!!

Nathan ran to support our church's adoption fund. Which will help support adoptive families with the financial burden. It was so great to see many from our church running and crossing that finish line, including my niece Katie and her boyfriend Jay. Our dear friends from our community group Brian and Sid, you guys ROCK!!! All who ran are truly my heroes! They easily could have saved their money and slept in. Instead they spent one beautiful morning sweating it out along 13 miles of scenic New Braunfels Texas. All so that it would be made possible for children to be placed in their forever families!!! Heroes I tell you!

There is one hero though that I would love to draw your attention to ;) Yes that is him, the one with the look of determination on his face.





As this daddy was running he thought about his kids that God has blessed him with. He thought about the deep sweeping, overtaking love that he has for them. Then he thought of Selah who we have yet to meet. We have not been matched yet, not even a homestudy started. Yet God has placed her so strong in all of our hearts. As he was running, thinking of Selah and how that same love just swept over him for her. As he ran he would say " I am coming baby, I am coming."

Oh dear one, do you know how much you are loved??? You have been loved LONG before you were ever born. You have been WANTED for so very long. Yes ...as your daddy said, We are coming baby! We are coming!

The GREAT Provider!

Adoption fundraiser Yard Sale

Day 1:





Preparing for this fundraiser has been months in the making! With many of our amazing friends and family donating to our sale my prayer for one packed garage was answered!

Being that this Yard Sale is a 2 day sale, I thought "Hey, Friday might be our "slow" day but that's ok. It would give us an extra day of selling and even if only a few things sold, that was a few dollars more than we had before. But as of late I have really started to struggle with fear in a new way. Fear induced by other peoples words. People naturally and not meaning any harm at all, question why I would have a Yard Sale on a Friday?? Well....that's what they do out here ;) At least , that's what I have seen. But then I started questioning myself. Then doubting...would anyone even show up?? Would we be sitting out there like fools with our yard totally loaded and not a person in sight? "Oh God, it really doesn't matter if I look a fool. I just pray that you will bless this sale. Please help us! Bless our efforts, Send us buyers so that we can raise the money we need to bring Selah home! Keep showing us that you are with us and will provide!"



We got up at 5am (Yikes! I know but there was ALOT of stuff!) to get everything out and organized. We officially started at 7am and right at 7am people started pulling up! It was NONE STOP all day! What was really amazing was sharing with others about our adoption journey and the bonds and connections we made with neighbors and people in our community that we had never made before! To watch and listen to God moving on their hearts, I never want to forget these precious moments!



When we finally wrapped things up for Day 1 and got everything loaded back inside, we got the money together and counted it up..........$500 WOW...ok $800...$900 "No way!".....$1000! Finally when every last piece of change was counted.....$1128!!! THANK YOU JESUS!!!! That was just on Day 1...and on a FRIDAY!!! In a still small voice I could hear Him whisper to my heart " He who is able to do exceedingly beyond what we ask or think!" He loves to not only show up but to show in ways that we don't expect. How great is our God?!?



Day 2

It did not take very long for that fear to creep back in. How is that??? God just moved a major mountain and did a miracle, what a miracle it was! However we are made of flesh and in keeping it real I will be honest with you with my struggles. Fear DID creep back in and the next day I started having thoughts as we set back up. "Well, you sold most of your big stuff yesterday. Surly today wont be as good." What they heck kind of thoughts are those? Even if we did not do "as good", yesterday was such a BLESSING it should not matter! I quickly tossed those thoughts out. I would not allow them to have a place. This day belongs to the Lord as did yesterday. "God, I give you this day. Please bless it. May we be a blessing." Things started off slow then all of a sudden the WAVE hit! Things and people started moving all around. I must take a side note here to say we were also so incredibly blessed with people stopping by to visit to bring us lunch and to help watch our children for us. We could not have done this with out them. To those of you, you know who you are. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Thank you, Thank you!!

By the end of day 2 we brought in another $700 dollars!! For a grand total of $1828dollars !! But wait there is more...sense then there has been a few more things that have sold our total is now at $1900 dollars. PRAISE GOD!!!

It is just mind blowing, I started off with a secret hope that maybe just maybe we could earn $1000 over the 2 days. I really did not know if it was even possible and I was not holding onto any expectations, I just turned it over to God the great provider asking that he would help us and provide. Not only did He provide but he near doubled it :)

That leaves us at $2700 to go to cover our homestudy and agency fees. We still have a few more months to come up with it but as we all know there is going to be MANY more fees and payments to fundraise for in the future. There is so much work to be done but God is faithful and He is spurring on my faith. Ever so gently whispering "I am here, I am with you, do not worry! I will provide. It is my Joy!"

A Brother's Prayer.....

Tonight was like any other night, we got on our "cozzies" (pajamas), brushed teeth with Spiderman tooth brush and crawled into bed with Grover.







I said a goodnight prayer over Noah, and sang our special song. We have done this sense he was a baby. I love this time with him. Especially now that he is older and he participates with me. It gives me such insight into his world. His little mind, what he thinks about....his faith. After I prayed I asked him if he would like to say a prayer. "Yes." He said with a big smile. "Dear Jesus "We bless the adoption yard sale. We bless that you bring Selah home. We bless and have you open that box for her in Jesus name Amen."


Tonight...I knew what his little precious heart was thinking of . I gave him a big kiss and said "You are such a good boy!" He said "Yeah but Selah is a crying baby right now ." I said "Why?" He said "Because she does not have a Mommy and Daddy. But don't worry, you can be her Mommy and Daddy her Daddy. I can be her big brother and Madelynn her big sister." I wrapped my arms around that little guy and kissed him up some more!! Holding back tears I said "Selah will be blessed to have you as a brother Noah. I love you!" Noah has talked about Selah before but there was something different about this moment and in this brother's prayer. It was no longer a subject to him, it was reality. Somewhere along the line his child like faith embraced in his heart his soon to be sister and in this moment he was announcing it!



Then I paused and thought about his prayer.... "Noah, what box were you talking about in your prayer for Selah? He said "The one in the garage that was given for our yard sale. We can open it for a surprise for Selah."



This is the box he was talking about.








It was donated to our yard sale by a good friend along with a bunch of other stuff her daughter had out grown.Something about this "box" made him think of her. I find it interesting sense it has pandas on it. When I opened it I found some old shoes, when I removed the shoes I found two little baby dolls :)



Just like Noah said " a surprise " indeed! Needles to say I will be buying this "box" and "baby dolls" off myself and it wont be making it into the sale.


I love how God uses our little ones to see things we would completely miss with out them. They may be "little" but they have great FAITH! Their love is pure and there are so many lessons to be learned from them. We just have to take the time to come off our high horse and meet them at their level. It's a beautiful view ...

"The Beauty" a Puzzle fundraiser for Selah! How only $10 can help!

What a perfect name! "The Beauty" .....this is the name of this indeed beautiful 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle we have chosen for our next adoption fundraiser! There is a whole back story of how I came across this particular puzzle, but I will save that for another time. ;) I will say this, I have NO DOUBT that God lead me to this little "Beauty" of a puzzle! It is really special to me. Given the circumstances I also see how prophetic it's name "The Beauty" is. This is the verse that came to mind and came to life before my eyes:

Isaiah 61:3
..and provide for those who grieve in Zion--to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.

AMEN!!!

There is pain,ashes, mourning for the orphan. but OH...a day is coming..there WILL BE BEAUTY!!!

So with out further adieu.... We are inviting you to “sponsor” a piece (or more if you choose) of this puzzle for $10 and take part in bringing our Selah Joy home. With each piece sponsored we will write your name on the back and put that piece of the puzzle in place. A permanent reminder of the part you played in our daughter's life. I will post updated pictures as the puzzle grows so that everyone can track the progress of our puzzle and our adoption journey. Once the puzzle is complete we will frame it in double sided glass, and hang it in our home.We are EXCITED just thinking about one day being able to physically show Selah how much she has always been loved! Not only by us but by all of you who will be apart of her journey home.

If you would like to join us in our puzzle fundraiser, you can make your $10 donation by clicking on the paypal link in the upper right hand corner of my blog. Or you can send me and e-mail if you would like our mailing address. nathan_coriell@yahoo.com
Please be sure to indicate what name (or names if sponsoring more than one) you would like to have written on your sponsored piece.
Also, it would be amazing and so helpful if you could spread the word to your friends and family! As always feel free to spread the word through Facebook ,twitter, e-mail or on your own blog! I know 1000 pieces seem like a lot but if everyone could tell a few people we can surly join up together and complete this puzzle!


Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. --James 1:27

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. --John 14:18

ACBabycouture...wipe cases and more!

ACBabycouture for those that do not know, this is the name of boutique items that I make. It all started with baby wipe cases and tubs but now include nightlights,nursery letters, room decorations and hair pretties!

You can check out my blog here for more wipe case styles:

http://www.acbabycouture.blogspot.com

All profits from my sales will be going to Selah's adoption fund! So if your looking to buy a great baby shower gift or to pick up something fun for your self or your little one look no further!

Wipe Tubs $25.00

Wipe cases $15.00 or

buy Tub/Case combo for $35.00

Hair pretties $2.00 each

or 2 for $3.00

Message me for pricing on custom room decorations @    nathan_coriell@yahoo.com

Update and Sneak Peak.....

UPDATE: We will be postponing our adoption fundraiser Yard Sale. Instead of being a one day sale it will now be a 2 day sale and be held on OCTOBER 15th & 16th 2010. With an extra day of selling and this giving us a little more time to spread the word we are hoping to make this fundraiser a great success! Please continue to join with us in letting others know!

Along with all of our Yard Sale goods, I will be setting out some of my ACBabycouture creations! Here is a sneak peak of one of my new wipe case designs:




If you are not familiar with my ACBabycouture creations check for my next blog post! More info to come :)

Orphan Sunday...November 7th 2010

Hope is Fading – Orphan Sunday from Allan Rosenow on Vimeo.

This years Orphan Sunday is November 7th 2010! What is Orphan Sunday? Taken from http://orphansunday.org/about

"Orphan Sunday is an opporunity for believers all across America to speak for those unspoken for; those the world has forgotten. There are millions of orphans in the world. It is clear in Scripture that Jesus loved and cared for these children - how can we do any less?

Vicki Mullins, Director of Orphan Ministry, East-West Ministries International


“We believe God is moving in the hearts of His church around the country in big ways, waking up His people to the joy and call to care for the fatherless. Orphan Sunday is the perfect opportunity for local churches to join in this movement. We are encouraging everyone to take part if possible.”

Dwain Gullian, President, ABBA Fund

Let's all help keep hope alive and defend the fatherless (Isaiah1:17 ) :) Check out and see if there is an Orphan Sunday event near you, if not...maybe you can be the one to start one!