solutions coming into view

as mentioned earlier, things are moving at mach speed. in fact so many amazing things have happened in the last couple of weeks, that it is really hard to capture it in a small blog posting. i am sure at some point lindsay and i will discipline ourselves and write a book about this experience.

two weeks ago (25 Aug) i sent an email to my close friends and family outside of DC. the situation felt desperate and lindsay and i both knew that we needed to quickly get the girls a home. they needed stability and incredible amounts of attention. a very close friend (practically a sister) mikki responded by calling a friend from her congregation. to make a long, beautiful and incredibly spiritual story short, this family believes that they are the family for jennifer.

it is a bittersweet discovery. we had decided that the girls would stay together at all costs. but after four intense months it has become clear that the girls need different things. we were looking for a place that could provide both girls what they need, but i think we could look for years and still not really help them. and though fRamilies are wonderful. they are temporary and only a backfill for families. the truth is, splitting the girls is what is really best for them and we have felt that deep down for awhile.

we told the girls in separate conversations, we think we found the home for jennifer and that we (lindsay, kimberly, and jennifer) are going to visit the family next weekend. the story of finding this family is miraculous and worth sharing. stay tuned hopefully we will get it all out here at some point. suffice it to say that we couldn't feel better and believe that this is exactly what Heavenly Father has in store for jen.

we are still looking for paulette's home. we trust that when the time is right the Lord will provide that home for her. we also feel strongly that the home for paulette is somewhere in the first few degrees of separation from us. so please pray for paulette and pray that we will be able to find her a family. if as you read and/or pray about this that you will share the paulette's story with families who may be missing a beautiful, intelligent, and injured little girl.

paulette needs a family where she will be able to get a heap of one-on-one attention. where she will learn that she is a wonderful, good person and undo some of the false messaging her abusive aunt and dysfunctional mother communicated to her. she has been severely abused has a really hard time bonding with people. when she gets close she pushes them away. she has all of the potential in the world. we know that with the love of a happy and caring family, she will become an amazing powerful force for good. she is a natural advocate and passionate. she will bring to the world a wonderful perspective on society and truth. given the right opportunities we have no doubt that she will make the world a better place. so, if you know any particularly special families who would like a beautiful, but troubled young woman, please let us know.

though we are loathe to ask this next favor, we feel like we need to. we have been admonished not to let this hurt us financially. and the ward has been incredibly generous in paying all of the girls' food, clothes, medical care, etc. we know that this has been a sacrifice and we do not want to make light of all that has already been given. the legal issues surrounding this situation are sticky at best and very complicated. we have retained a lawyer to make the interstate
adoption possible, to figure out the relinquishment or termination of parental rights, etc. the ward/Church is not at liberty to participate in financing such action, which completely makes sense. but it means that we are going to have to ask people to help the girls in a non--tax deductible way. so, if you know any people of means who might be willing to help us pay for legal fees, that would also be awesome. we have a paypal account for the girls listed posted on this blog, which we hope will make any donation easier. (though they take 2.5% of anything given. if you want to use paypal click the "make a donation button" on the right of the screen). if you would like to avoid paypal, please email us at raisingdc@gmail.com and we will send you an address where you can reach us. we feel really ridiculous asking, but feel like we must.

what we need most though are prayers. all four of us need the help of the Lord. and we appreciate all of the prayers that have been offered on our behalf. and we appreciate all of the spontaneous service you have rendered our "fRamily".