You can read more about the Dubles’ journey to Uganda to bring home Ezra Derrick at www.thedubles.tumblr.com

http://vimeo.com/59302895

STUCK is a new award-winning documentary film, produced by Both Ends Burning that uncovers the personal, real-life stories of children and parents navigating a rollercoaster of bureaucracy on their journeys through the international adoption system, each filled with hope, elation – and sometimes heartbreak.

STUCK steps into the complex human experience of adoption, exploring the challenges faced by birth parents, prospective adoptive parents – and children.

The film follows Tihun from Ethiopia, Nate from Vietnam, and Erickson and Therline from Haiti on their individual voyages from orphanages in their native countries to their homes with families in the United States. Filmmaker Thaddaeus Scheel tracks the chapters in the lives of these four children, and the three couples seeking to be their parents, revealing along the way the intense hope and disappointment they experience on the odyssey to unite as families. Some stories are heartwarming, showing incredible examples of kids who blossom after joining their families, while others offer insight into the emotional and physical impact institutional life can have on these kids.

 stuckdocumentary.com

Well, it has been a while since we updated everyone about the fundraising event held back in November. And to be honest, well, we were waiting on the Lord to provide the $30,000 that we thought He had in mind – to go along with the $30,000 matching gift. So, without further delay, we are happy/thrilled/elated to share with you that the final $2,000 came in just this week…which put us over the $30,000 mark! He did it! We now have over $60,000 in the Lookout For Orphans Fund to be given out to adopting families. Every penny will go towards bringing a child home.

Speaking of bringing children home, we are in the final weeks of bringing our son Kervens home! We are waiting with great anticipation and very little patience.  We have his passport and are simply waiting on his visa. We do not know how many weeks before we travel to get him, but we do know it is coming. Thank you all for your prayers.

-Carlee Hilger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExUk0kxD-4s&sns=em

http://www.adoptionjourney.com/

Check out this month’s edition of CityScope for “A Heart for Family” which highlights several families in the area that have adopted, including Troy & Sarah Duble and Dr. Jon & Sarah Risley.

http://www.cityscopemag.com/cs5.12/Adoption.cs5.12.aspx

You can also download and read the entire article here: A Heart for Family

What an encouraging night last night!

Thanks to all of you who came last night and all of you who were praying. We had a great turn out and once again, it made us so thankful to be part of this community!

Even though not all the pledges have come in (some people let us know they were taking their cards home and would send the money directly to Lifesong) we are excited to let you know that $20,000 has come in so far!

We are so thankful and can’t wait to see what God has in store! We will keep you updated.

For now we wanted to just say a big THANK-YOU

So grateful to all of you for being a part of this! -Sarah and Carlee

We would like to invite you to a dessert fundraiser on Thursday, November 8th at the Fairyland Club from 7:30- 8:30pm.

We are hoping to see many of you there, but we also would love to share the vision of LFO with new supporters, and we would love to refill that “pot of money” that has so tremendously helped so many in our community add to their families through the gift of adoption. We would love your prayers for this event. We also would love for you all to consider inviting some of your friends who might be interested in the ministry of LFO, and who might be able to invest monetarily in the mission of LFO.

Please put November 8th on your calendar and consider inviting some friends. On the evening of November 8th we will have a short program that is hopefully informative and encouraging about what the LFO ministry does, followed by an “ask”.

Finally, we wanted to share two huge encouragements for all of you who have been praying and investing in LFO. Lookout for Orphans just recently received an anonymous pledge of $30,000 that we are boldly praying will be matched on the night of November the 8th, could you please join us in prayer.

Also, here are the most recent stats of how many families and children have been helped by the original fund:

Total families helped: 14
Total children adopted or in the process: 17
Total family funds mobilized: $106,942.68
Countries that children have been adopted from: South Korea, Ethiopia, Haiti, China, Latvia, Congo, Uganda, and USA

Please let us know by November 2, if you will be able to attend this event or not.

Thanks for being part of this community that has supported adoption so faithfully.
-Sarah and Carlee