Monday, April 26, 2010

Garage Sale For Mindy

UPDATE: Garage Sale postponed due to flood. We will post the date when it is rescheduled.

The time of our garage sale is fast approaching! We scheduled our sale for May 8th in order to coincide with the previously scheduled neighborhood wide sale in Cottonwood subdivision. Well, it appears now that Cottonwood has moved the date of the neighborhood sale. BUT, our sale is still on for Saturday, May 8th!!!

WHAT: A Garage Sale to raise funds to help us bring Mindy home
WHEN: Saturday, May 8, 2010; 8am-2pm
WHERE: 176 Riverwood Drive, Franklin, TN (in the Cottonwood subdivision)

Two ways you can help:

1. Come to our sale! We will have lots of items for sale, including baby items, some furniture, tools, outdoor items, household goods. Plus, we are looking into selling Krispy Kreme certificates.

2. Donate items to our sale! We can really use additional items to sell, so if you are looking at clearing anything out of your garage or attic, this would be a great way to do so. Unfortunately we are not set up to sell clothing, but almost anything else would be SO appreciated. If you have any items to donate, please email us at dstatz1@gmail.com. We will make arrangements to get those items from you.

Thank you everyone!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Dossier Underway

Despite all the confusion and craziness surrounding foreign adoption these days, we are still proceeding on our end to bring Mindy home. And with the homestudy substantially complete, we have now focused our attention on the dossier. We have a fair amount of the dossier paperwork already completed or in process, but it's still a huge undertaking! Our hope is that, by the time the dossier is prepared and ready for submission, any issues with intercountry adoption will have been worked out and we won't be held up.

We are still planning our Garage Sale for May 8th...and will be posting more details shortly on how others can help if they are inclined, including donating items for sale. It will be a great way for those of you here in the Franklin, TN area to get rid of that stuff in your garage or attic you no longer have a use for, and it will really help a great cause! More to come....

Thank you for all of your continued prayers!

David and Christy

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Please Help Us Bring Home Our Fifth Girl…

We have been working since earlier this year to adopt 4 year old Mindy, an orphan with Down’s Syndrome living in eastern Europe. Those of you following this blog know that the past couple of months have been filled with paperwork, home study appointments, running around to local government offices, and more paperwork. We have been so wrapped up in the overwhelming process of adopting, that we felt it was important at this point to step back and re-examine the personal side of this journey.

There are an estimated 600,000 orphans under state care in eastern Europe, 70% of which are physically and/or mentally disabled. Thousands of these children have Down’s Syndrome, and it is estimated that 85-90% of babies born in eastern Europe with Down’s Syndrome are abandoned by the parents into state care. The orphanage system offers minimalistic care in an often austere, overcrowded environment. What’s worse, most special needs orphans, if not adopted by their 4th birthday, are sent away to mental institutions to live their remaining days. Many survive a year or less in these horrific conditions.

As bleak as that sounds, I am not writing this post merely to convey a depressing message. In fact, this is a message of hope! Because as hopeless as those conditions are for the children trapped in them, there are families here in America fighting to give these kids a chance at life. With the help of Reece’s Rainbow Down’s Syndrome Adoption Ministry, families across the country have been connecting with these children and bringing them home, literally saving their lives. In many cases, these families enter into this journey as a pure leap of faith, just knowing that God will provide the will and the means to reach the finish line. But, as the costs of adoption from eastern Europe can exceed $30,000, most families find themselves scrambling to raise money through fundraising and grants.

Our Mindy turned 4 in January and, like most orphans with Down’s Syndrome in eastern Europe, was facing imminent institutionalization. At this point, she is protected as we work through the long and difficult adoption process. We pray that, by Thanksgiving, Mindy will be home with us, joining our family as Our Fifth Girl.

We humbly ask for your help in this journey. There are several ways you can help, depending upon your means and abilities.

1. Financial – please consider a financial donation (fully tax deductible!) to our Family Sponsorship Page at Reece's Rainbow. Any amount would be appreciated more than you know!

2. Buy a Hat – we are selling beautiful, handmade “Muffin Hats” for girls ages 3 months to 3 years. Christy has been making these hats for 15 years and used to sell them commercially. Now, she is making them once again, and all proceeds will be used to help bring our fifth girl home to us.Please consider buying a "Muffin Hat for Mindy". We are selling them for $20. To purchase or get more information, please visit our Muffin Company page on Facebook, or view the order button on the right side of this blog.

3. Visit Our Garage Sale – for our friends and family in the Franklin, TN area, we will be having a garage sale in the Cottonwood subdivision on May 8, 2010. This coincides with the neighborhood wide sale, so make a day of it and stop by. If you have unused items sitting around your house that you would be willing to donate to our sale, please let us know by emailing us at dstatz1@gmail.com. The location of the sale is 176 Riverwood Drive, Franklin, TN 37069. All proceeds from our sale go to our adoption fund.

4. Last, but Not Least – Pray! We can use all the prayers you can muster, and in particular, please pray for the continued safety of Mindy until we can bring her home. Prayer doesn’t cost anything, but the return is immeasurable.

Thank you so much for joining us in our journey to bring home Our Fifth Girl! And PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pass this message along to anyone you feel would be interested!

God Bless,
David and Christy Statz


“Once our eyes are opened, we can’t pretend we don’t know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act” Proverbs 24:12