Both Hands Project

 

Now all glory to God, who is able,

through his mighty power at work within us,

to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. 

Ephesians 3:20

Just as runners wait, with muscles straining, anticipating the crack of gun shot to begin their sprint, we have also been waiting anxiously, desperate to move forward in our adoption.  And, finally, FINALLY, it seems we have heard that gun shot, and we are moving!

Thelma Lou Carter

As many of you know, we feel God calling us to consider adopting two babies from China!  And while we are absolutely thrilled at the prospect of adding two more children to our family, adopting two babies from China costs between $50,000-$60,000! Therefore, this weekend we are gearing up for our Both Hands Project to bless a widow, Thelma Lou Carter, and to raise money for our adoption at the same time!  Our goal is to raise $20,000. 
Here is how it works:
 

Each project starts with an adoptive family. The family recruits a team of friends to work on a widow’s house. In advance of doing light repairs, painting, de-cluttering, cleaning, and landscaping, team members ask family members and friends to sponsor them for the day while they work on the house. Volunteers will be sponsored for a day of labor much in the same way that a 5k marathon runner or golfer earns funds for a local charity. All sponsorship funds raised goes to help offset the high cost of adoption. To date, Both Hands has raised over $2,100,000, helped 218 widows, affected 236 orphans, enabled over 6500 people to serve a widow in need in their community, and completed over 202 projects just like this one.

 

God has opened the windows of Heaven and poured out blessings on our project.  We have an incredible team of 45 volunteers signed up to help us this Saturday, Oct. 27, with painting, planting, mulching and pressure washing!  So many businesses have offered to help in some way:  mulch from Home Depot, paint supplies from Johnson's Ace Hardware, bottled water and granola bars from Costco, paint from Sherwin-Williams with the help of Rita Allison and Steve Parker, and lunch for our entire team catered by Little Pigs Barbeque!!

 

We are also thrilled to be invited to share about our adoption and our Both Hands project on News Channel 7's "Your Carolina" show on January 15th, 2013!  God is opening up so many doors for us to share His love for orphans and widows and to encourage others to obey Him by caring for them!

 

And the good news continues...just last week we were told that we would be one of the next families to be matched with our babies, which means that hopefully soon, we will finally see those faces that we have been dreaming of for so long!  And because of the fact that we are actually getting close to bringing our babies home, there is such an urgency in our hearts to have all of our adoption funds in place so that when our agency says "GO," we can GO!  

 

There is a way that you can be a part of us bringing our babies home.  The Both Hands Foundation has set up a donation page for our family.  The link below will give you all the information on how you can make a tax-deductible donation that will go straight to our adoption.  Here is the link:

 

The Gosnell's Both Hands Adoption Donation Page

 

Our adoption fund has been set up through an organization called Lifesong for Orphans who partners with the Both Hands Foundation and allows others to give to make adoption possible for families like us.

 

We know that money is tight for so many families right now, but we also know that God blesses those who care for orphans!  Every donation, big or small, helps get us closer to our babies!  If you can help, it would be a blessing to us!

 

We are overwhelmed at God's goodness and grace as we follow Him.  Please pray for our babies, that God would bring them soon, and that He would continue to watch over them in our absence.  We are asking for His wisdom and guidance as we go through the next steps of our adoption process, knowing that He has a perfect plan for our family.  We feel His presence and are so thankful that He has chosen to bless our family with two more precious treasures.  His plans are abundantly more than we can think or imagine. Praise His Name!

 

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means

caring for orphans and widows in their distress and

refusing to let the world corrupt you. 

James 1:27