This is the wonderful organization that gave us a generous adoption grant via their “Change for Orphans” campaign. Click here to revisit that story from October 2007.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6457320

Their family blog is here: http://tracieloux.wordpress.com/

Here is the sweetie they are adopting:

For Aidan,

Kim

After sharing our story with them, we learned that this group has about 40 college aged missionaries who are going to China this summer to love the poor and orphans. These missionaries gathered around us and prayed for us. Then they took an offering for us and it turned out that this group of mostly college students contributed $981 to our adoption fund! It was such an honor to receive this gift! We also received a special item in the offering basket, a fortune cookie that read, “You are a person of imaginative yet honest intentions.”

After that we got to talk with some from the group individually for a while, and then we were privileged to witness this Home of loving Christians live out their faith. Randy asked them to caravan across town with him to love on a grieving local church that recently lost four young men due to a car accident, and is praying for one who survived. We joined them as they gathered around this other group to pray with them and show their support.

It was obvious to us that these young people are radical nation changers who generously supported what God is doing in our lives and by doing so they supported the generation of nation changers to come that God is currently placing into loving homes.

After that we had lunch with Randy and his beautiful family. Randy and Kim went to college together and we hadn’t seen Randy and his family in many years. It was great to see them again and catch up! Thank you Randy and Home of Christians for your love and support!

Yesterday we also were able to sell two items that another kind family donated to us a while back, and that brought in $900!, so altogether the weekend brought us $1,881 closer to our goal for our trip to get Hope!

Many of you have asked how we are doing on the fundraising end of things. It looks like we still need about $6,000. Until we get more exact information on the inside China travel arrangements, it will be difficult to figure out the exact amount we need.

If you are led or compelled to contribute, you can mail a check to the address below. We so appreciate all who have given to help bring home Hope, and we pray that God will bless back upon you abundantly!

Please mail contributions to our PO box at:

Todd and Kim Phillips
27068 La Paz Road #205
Aliso Viejo, CA 92630

Kim led another World Changers Kids Camp today, and our new friend Shirley hosted it at her house this time. Here is a follow up email we received from her earlier this evening.

I thought you’d like to hear this funny story that happened today My girls were helping to get ready for the WC kid’s camp, and Alyssa (my 5yr old) usually cheerfully volunteers to go out around the back yard picking up our dog’s poo and puts it into a plastic bag to be thrown out.

So today, just as everyone was about to arrive (Stacy had just about pulled up to my house) I found out that Alyssa had been “twirling” the bag around and accidentally hurled it over our neighbor’s wall–AHHHH!

I hurried over and left an apology–and said I’d bring her over to pick it up later when they got home. When I took her to go apologize, the neighbor was very nice and he asked what the big group of people was here for. So…I got to tell him about Hope being adopted from China, etc. and he pulled out a wad of money and said to donate it to the fund–and to be sure and tell them how God works these things out in the funniest ways!

By the way, through donations, Hope Blankie and Little Mei Dress sales, and the very nice neighbor donation, another $339 was added to our adoption fund!

Sarah said:

It was hilarious because she isn’t used to being in a dress and she didn’t know what to do with it! She kept pulling the dress up or trying to make it go down and cover all of her legs. It was a riot. She’s a little long for it though definitely skinny enough!

Go to the Album

We have had so much fun making the Hope Blankies that we wanted to expand our horizons and make a dress out of the Mei fabric. We had a great lady named Sheri sew them up for us, and she did an awesome job!

We just sent one off to China for Hope, and will post pictures as soon as we get them! (Update – We got them)

Thanks for your support!

The blankies vary in size and are at least 12×18 inches. They come in the four possible styles seen below, and are $20 each (shipping included).

Sweet Pea Hope Blankie	Mei Hope Blankie
Rose Hope Blankie	Iris Hope Blankie

If you are not comfortable using Paypal, then please contact us and we do have other options we can make available.

We also would like to extend the option to you, if you would rather send a Hope Blankie to one of the blind orphans at Bethel Foster Home in Beijing, then we would gladly hand deliver one for you when we go to get Hope.

At these camps we focus on China, the orphans there, and how kids can help change the world through prayer and acts of mercy. We had a very gifted 9 year old girl named Emily Clifton come and lead worship for us this time. Then we showed a video about Bethel Foster home for blind orphans, and made the kids at Bethel some tactile gift cards so they can feel them. (We are going to take these cards with us when we go to Bethel to get Hope.) Then we talked more about China, the orphans there, and made wontons from scratch.

The camp is also a fundraiser for our adoption and we raised $220 that will be doubled by the Lifesong for Orphans grant! It was a really fun time and I pray that God uses it to ignite the hearts of the children for Him, and for the orphans! We have some pictures from our time on Monday too and I will post those soon.

We have another World Changers Kids Camp coming up this Monday that will also be at Alida’s house, and we are really looking forward to it. Thank you Alida for all your support and encouragement!

Love, Kim

He had another dream about a week ago where we were all together in China, standing in the parking lot of a store talking in English to a nice Chinese man.

I just love it because he never has dreams where Kim is alone in China and we are here waiting, or where they (the kids) are at Grandma’s waiting for us. His dreams are always about all of us together in China. Abigail has had dreams of all of us being there too, and never otherwise. It encourages our faith because even though there is still a big number obstacle sitting there, the reality is that God has already raised almost $20,000 for this adoption! So what’s another measly $11,000? We are just glad that there isn’t any pressure. It would be great for us all to be able to go, and there would be some disappointment if we all couldn’t, but it’s not necessary, so we can continue to hope and pray, and if it happens then it’s a wonderful cherry on top from God!

We also got our “brown envelope” in the mail today from the United States Embassy in China (which is their confirmation of our adoption and means that they will be expecting us).

There has been around $800 donated so far, so that takes us $1600 closer to our goal! Thank you everyone who has contributed!

A week ago some friends donated $20. They were praying and God spoke to them to give $20 and then He would begin to multiply the rest of the money needed. Since we have the matching grant from Life International, their $20 instantly turned into $40!

On New Year’s Eve we were having some family time and read the story of Jesus multiplying the loaves and fishes , and our kids gave $7.01 of their Christmas money, which turned into $14.02!

Today some friends gave $100 and their kids gave $22 of their own Christmas money, which got doubled and turned into $244.

Then this evening these same friends were at the pharmacy, and a stranger gave them a $100 bill! So they brought it over and said they wanted to give that to Hope too! So that $100 turned into $200!

So in the past week $249.01 has been donated and will be matched by Life International, totalling $498.02! Hooray!