First Class Homeschool Co-op

This is a video that Tyler put together about our Homeschool Co-op's Friday School. First Class Homeschool Ministries (FCHM) is an awesome ministry and through them we were able to start our co-op, FCHM South King County, last year. Check them out here: http://www.firstclasshomeschool.org/pages/

We love our co-op! There are lots of great families and we have made close friends. This is our 13th year of homeschooling and we love it!!

MATCHING GRANT!!!

In November we applied for a matching grant for our adoption through Lifesong for Orphans. Because of the volume of applications the normal processing time of 5 weeks turned into 11 long weeks. However, we just heard today that we will receive a MATCHING GRANT, DOLLAR-FOR-DOLLAR, up to $4000, for all donations received from now until April 20th. That means WE WILL HAVE ALL THE MONEY WE NEED TO GET OUR KIDS!!!!!!! We just need the final $4000!!!! If you have any questions, please contact us at adoptingfromafrica@gmail.com
If you want to help us reach our goal, you can send a check with a note indicating our last name and grant number (Pearson adoption--#759)to:
LifeSong
PO Box 40 / 202 N. Ford St
Gridley, IL 61744

THIS IS A LETTER WRITTEN BY THE VICE PRESIDENT OF LIFESONG:

February 16, 2009

Dear church, family, and friends of Mark and Lanae,

LifeSong for Orphans (www.lifesongfororphans.org) is a non-profit Christian ministry dedicated to help meet the needs of orphan children around the world, and obey God’s call to “visit the fatherless…in their affliction” (James 1:27).

The number of children worldwide without families to love and care for them is astounding… there are over 143,000,000 orphans in the world!

God tells us in His word He has heard the cry of the orphaned and abandoned children (Psalm 10:17,18) and He has made a way for them to be cared for – through adoption. As believers, He adopted us into His family through Jesus Christ, and did not leave us as spiritual orphans!

We believe adoption at its core is evangelism, a vital part of the Great Commission is bringing the mission field home. God desires orphans from all nations to be adopted into Christ-honoring families so they may ultimately be adopted into His eternal family through Jesus Christ. God calls us to fulfill James 1:27, “visit the fatherless…” but not all are called to adopt. Some are called to pray, some to give financially, some to go on mission trips and some to adopt.

Mark and Lanae have sensed God’s call…and have joyfully stepped out in faith and obedience to adopt Brian, Josephine and Comfort from Ghana. As you may already know, multiple international adoption can cost around $50,000 and prevents many godly families from adopting. LifeSong believes God has raised up the Pearson family “for such a time as this…” and we have committed an Adoption Matching Grant $4000 to help raise the funds necessary to complete the adoption of these beautiful children. This means LifeSong will match “dollar-for-dollar” everything the Pearsons raise from their church, family, friends between now and April 20, up to $4000. We invite you to support them financially to make this adoption possible. Your gift is tax deductible and you will receive a tax-deductible receipt. *100% of all funds raised will go directly to cover adoption costs, nothing will be taken out for LifeSong administrative costs.

Will you invest financially in the life of these precious children?... it will be an investment with eternal return.

God bless you for laying your treasures up in Heaven,

Andy Lehman
Vice President

p.s. I trust God will do great and mighty things through this, and all for His Glory!

Picture/Info from Stephanie

This is the first picture that we have of all three kids together! It was taken by Stephanie who is at the orphanage waiting for all of her paperwork to go through so she can bring home her two boys. Here is the information about Bryan, Josephine and Comfort that Stephanie sent along with the picture:

Comfort - Is really starting to come out of her shell (by the way she is looking and feeling better. Her cough is almost gone as are her sniffles - the intense heat wave is helping all the kids feel less sick). She actually likes to come and play with me. Her english is pretty good and she does translating for me from english to Fante and back. Although she is more reserved than Saviour, she is still quite present in a group. I have the cutest video of her and a few others playing school and house (I hope to post it this weekend or at least send the file via an email. If I can get it to work!). I do watch her closely for her health and she does tire easily and sometimes skips class to rest (or is it my appeal that causes her to skip and then hang out with samuel and I? ;) ) She is harder to read - emotion wise - but I think I am getting the knack to know when she is tired, happy, upset, bored, etc. She has a special light that draws me to her - I don't know if others have felt it - even in a crowd my eyes gravitate to her!

Bryan - Today was my first day of really spending time with him. He is SMART and very much on top of things. But he does NOT like attention. I thought it intersting when I ask him questions I get yes/No responses or mumbles. But if I aksed Jospehine he would answer. I saw him soften a bit when Samuel was playing with him, but he seems to keep a mature air about him.

Josephine is as a quiet as mouse. But so cute. I was talking with her about the book you sent and she thought Washington was beautiful and was glad to be going. She said she likes the rain and hopes to get some while there. While we were talking about snow and building snowmen, Kingsley came up and made a joke that they would have to make a snowperson without two front teeth, She grinned and it was then that I saw her two front teeth were gone (baby teeth gone and adult growing in) Other than that smile I have yet to see her really smile without looking down or covering her mouth. I hope to get to know them better but it is hard because I think they are directed to go straight to their foster home after class and so I don't have much time to interact with them.