Remember all that formula?

If you remember about a month ago, we were getting ready to leave for Africa. We had packed and were pleasantly humming along.

Then we heard about a desperate need. Three babies' lives hung in the balance...they would DIE without formula.

They only had a 2 week supply.

And we were about to leave.

God did a miracle (several really!) and we were able to deliver 2 large footlockers of formula to these village babies because of the generosity of our bloggy readers and friends!


THANK YOU!!

I thought you'd like a peek at one of those to whom you showed sweet love:

The newborn baby girl who was given life by the formula!

Mama is positively GLOWING with happiness! Don't you think?

"For I was HUNGRY and you gave me something to eat,

I was THIRSTY and you gave me something to drink..."

                               Matthew 35:35

Thank you for living out this Scripture to the least of these...

BLOWN Clear Outta the Watta!

These are the posts a blogger LOVES to write! A post full of PRAISES!!!!

Assuming you read my post from last night, you'll delight in this picture from 10 am this morning:

This was only one of many, many donations for the three babies whose lives hang in the balance. And yes, this really was a donation from one person. (Our amazing doctor and his wife!! Love you guys, T&N!)

With everyone's generous we-love-Ugandan-babies donations, we were able to buy and fill not one but TWO extra footlockers of baby formula!!! I bought all the vitamin drops out of our entire town too! (Any idea how FUN this was for me?!?!?! I was telling everyone I saw--every cashier, every phone call, EVERYONE what God was doing!!!) HEY! We even have the overweight fees covered! ($400!!)

This all came together in less than 24 hours. Seriously.

HOW INCREDIBLE IS THAT!!!?!?

Um, ONLY GOD!!!!

Now if you remember, we are not just going to Uganda to feed babies (although I might do that sometime!!) but ALSO to adopt our little Z!!

Do you remember one week ago?

Do you?

I almost don't, because life has been a big whirlwind around here!! I posted actually only SIX days ago about our financial needs that we were facing to be able to attend this crazy God-given courtdate. (Truth be told, I am STILL in shock over that miracle!!! To read about that miracle, click here!) I talked about stepping into the water and watching God part it AFTER we step out.

I admit it, that post was motivated from a place of fear in my heart.

But fear is an interesting thing. You can have fear but still move forward. As you move forward, your fear lessens as God proves Himself to you. (Sadly, we humans want this over and over again--which is why God wants us to REMEMBER and TELL OTHERS about the miracles He performs! He wants us to TRUST HIM MORE NEXT TIME!!!)

So we stepped. And you guessed it, He parted the waters.

Our ugly giant with hair growing out of the mole on his chin...you remember him? The pricetag on his hat read $6,000. Remember?

Guess what? In 6 days time...

God has brought in a total of $6,381.13.

Wha...??????? YES!!! NOT LYING!!!!

So, as if we don't have enough things to do...we are working on this:

And we are diligently recording your names on the back...so it looks something like this:

It's a pretty cool thing.

YOU are a pretty cool thing. We are adopting a precious child from Uganda by your support, love, prayers and giving. It's truly amazing. God is doing this, we know. But YOU are responding. You are not hardening your hearts. You are choosing to act. You are not saying, "someone else will do it," but you are actively jumping into our story.

We cannot thank you enough.

And soon, I'll have tangible evidence of what all this has been for. Stay tuned!!! :)

Until then, just party on in rejoicing over God's miracles! And I'd be curious, how does our story impact you? I know I am encouraged by the stories I read on blogs of God's faithfulness! All these stories weave a stronger and stronger faith in us and we have more guts to step out in faith in what He's asking us personally to do. I'd love it if you'd leave a comment and share with us how God's faithfulness here is encouraging you there.

Let me leave you with a favorite verse of mine:

The One who calls you is faithful

       And He will do it.

                                                              1 Thessalonians 5:24

The 11th hour--Saving babies' lives!

I'm not sure it could get any better than right now. (But it will--when we walk into that orphanage and finally meet our Z!) It's the 11th hour...we find out about an URGENT need to provide 3 babies living in a remote village in Uganda with what is for them LIFESAVING formula and vitamin drops.

Why do I say lifesaving? Because two of these babies are twins, abandoned in a trash pit when they were first born. Mama has passed away. They have no way to live without formula.

The 3rd baby was just born today. Her mama is HIV+ but not on the necessary ARV's (drug therapy) to keep the virus from developing into AIDS. Her newborn was hungry. She was told to hold on while someone ran for formula...but when he returned, the mother had already begun breastfeeding. (How HARD would that be? As a brand new mother ALL you want to do is love and care for your sweet child...to hold her new daughter close and NOT nurse? OH! I don't think I could have held off either...) But that nursing meant that she just infected her newborn baby with the HIV virus. 

We were devastated. But...then came good news! They were able to give the newborn a shot that would protect her! And she was drinking the formula!

Then the problem entered the picture.

The formula was being ravishingly consumed by the twins. They were "blowing through it like you wouldn't believe," they reported. Suddenly it dawned on them: they only had a 2 week supply. In two weeks, all three babies would die for lack of food!

HEL-LO, AMY!!! 


YOU ARE GOING TO THAT VILLAGE!!! 

God could use me.


My feet. (Yes, I'm a little slow at times. I remember that we named our blog "Feet 2 Our Faith!" DUH!)

So I put it out there on Facebook. The urgent call for formula and vitamin drops. And the donations came. People stopped by our house, people sent money through pay pal, I got emails and messages about the desire to help these babies.

And someone wrote the comment:

"For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat."

(Jesus' words to his disciples in Matthew 25:35)

And I burst into tears. Wow. Is THAT how that feels? (Why did I think it would be drudgery to do what Jesus commanded?!?!) I am having the time of my life coordinating all this: watching my husband pack and repack, weigh and reweigh so we can get MORE formula in. Hanging out with him with my phone blowing up with all the donations!!

So we have ended up being able to not only fill to the brim our own allotment of luggage but also to buy a footlocker (so cool--we can leave that in the village for the people to store things in and keep the rats out!) and fill it with MORE formula and vitamin drops! And we have the money (thank you friends!) to pay for that overage fee!!!!!!

All this has come together in a matter of hours.

(I cannot even finish this blog post because MORE PEOPLE want to donate! Will we fill a SECOND footlocker??? Only God knows! If you want to jump in on this (and it's not too late--you have about 8-12 hours after I finally post this!!) donate through the puzzle button to the right and note that your gift is "for the babies!" We won't use it for our adoption but to provide more life-giving nourishment for these 3 needy babies.)

Is this worth praising our God or WHAT?!?!?