Heartbroken!

I know I told you I'd write on my blog tonight!  I posted on FB before I thought to post here so if you read my FB page, you may have read this.

 

I was working on my speech for tomorrow for Blue Mountain College -which I cannot figure out how much to work on it. I mean this is my story/my life/my experiences so I cannot figure out what cue cards I might need. You've read my blogs and while I can give statics and such orphans have so burdened my heart that I know all the "big" facts.
I decided to put some pictures because as big as my heart is for each precious life, one might quickly get bored listening to my country accent! I came across this picture. And tears really began to fall down my face as I remembered an image I've tried to put to the back of my mind because it hurts to bad. It hurts knowing GiGi spent 21/2 years of her life here! It hurts knowing the ones left behind! I praise God for breaking my heart for these precious children but man my heart is in millions of pieces for them! Adoption isn't for the faint at heart because it's sometimes more than I can handle thinking of these children without families to love them!!!

Well, as tears rolled down my face from the lat picture, I came across this one and I almost couldn't breathe! What if, what if.........what if this was my daughter? I know this particular girl is not but she seemed about the age of our daughter. Please we cannot let these older children age out without the love of a forever family- NONE of the children need to go without family! Wow, I do not know if I will get through this speech at the college tomorrow with out crying everywhere! Prayers requested!  I think this is going to be harder than I thought and no because I'm not a great public speaker but the flashbacks are going to get me!

Guan Ya has a little over a month to be adopted or she will forever not have a family! We cannot let our daughter age out! WE CANNOT!!!!! 

I've been down today but seeing this picture and remembering these children without families just reminded me how hard we have to be their fighting voice! They have no voice without us! WE ARE THEIR VOICES!!!! These children need and deserve love! Look, there are millions of orphans so these pictures are not representative of the vast number of orphans that go without a family! If you cannot adopt/do not feel led to adopt, please help orphans WORLDWIDE in anyway you can!
God loves the little children! ALL the little children of the world!!!

“Orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they’re not real before you hold them in your arms. But once you do, everything changes.” -David Platt

Please pray for these children and pray for us! These are God's wonderfully made children!

 

Video from WREG 3

Watch WREG TV 3 @ 10pm

Watch WREG TV 3 @ 10pm for our hick town interview. 

It's typical of our family - wild kids, GiGi crawling on the table and squealing , cookie stealing, nasty cookie faces, just keepin' it real n wild! Whew! We may have given H*ney B** B** a run for her money tonight!  
I'm sure everyone will be convinced we need more children after that interview. O_o but it's REAL Life! & No doubt it will be entertaining!  
Note: You will probably be able to locate it under the circus tab of WREG! =D

For people that are new, you can read more about  Our Story.... http://long-road-to-china.blogspot.com/2012/12/and-this-is-our-story.html 

We are still in need of over $20,000 in less than 45 days to bring home our daughter or she will age out of the system and forever be an orphan.  That estimate is only for fees for my husband and I going to China to unite with her.

I'm going to try and recap all the ways you can make donations if you feel led:

Trustmark National Bank account set up:

Donations can be made nation wide at any Trustmark National Bank through the account:

Phillip Smith or Niki J. Smith's Adoption Account

If you would like to mail a donation, please mail it to

Phil or Niki Smith

P.O. Box 332
Rienzi, MS 38865

You can find this link to the right of our page and it is our Paypal - I believe the purpose still states GIGi, but we are using the same account for GUan Ya that we did for GiGi so it is the correct   (you can use any type of credit cards to donate)

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=CKLwDfIzRe4gtrIzQi0PDKg1JAzstfN6vYJ1MinN9Q4IFSAywL_sR1DiGba&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8d0b7e678a25d883d0fa72c947f193f8fd

Also to the right of our blogspot page you can find our CHip-In page (you can use any type of credit cards to donate)

Chip-In

If  anyone would like to verify our adoption, we are using Lifeline Children's Adoption Agency out of Birmingham, AL  http://lifelinechild.org/ 

2104 Rocky Ridge Road

Birmingham, AL 35216

T: 205.967.0811

E: lifeline@lifelineadoption.org

Our social worker at lifeline is Morgan Cheek.

You should also be able to ask Morgan how you can send a donation to the adoption agency on our behalf if you would like to send it there.

As most of you know we are in a huge time crunch to raise funds because our daughter (deaf-mute) ages out of the system at the age of 14 years old (March 9, 2013). If  we do not have all the funds raised and our adoption is not complete by that time, our daughter will never have the opportunity to be adopted.  

Please consider donating not to us but to Guan Ya so that she will know the love of a forever family. PLEASE do not feel any amount is too small!  We've had over 22,000 hits to this page.  If each person that clcked on our page donated on $1, Guan YA would have the funds needed to come to her forever home!
 If you do not feel led to donate, please pray without ceasing!  God has a plan and we have FAITH!  Please share our story and blogspot so others can watch a modern day miracle unfold!  God led us here and He will provide!  Will He use you to help provide?

We have faith and are getting excited to see how God will provide!  Thank you for following our story and for your prayers &/or donations!  God bless you!

AND if I could ask one last favor of you

PLEASE go here

 1$ to get gaun ya that we love so much

and 

"LIKE"

that page!  Colt & Macy Jade wanted to draw attention to their sister's adoption and I want them to know kids CAN make a difference!  Your 'LIKE' will let kids know they aren't too small to make a difference!

Thank you!!!!

LONG but worth the read!!!!! Betcha =D

LONG but worth the read!!!!! Betcha =D
We have been blessed, blessed, blessed! All praise and Glory to the Lord! I think we are getting closer to Heaven because the devil's fire isn't on here - oh wait, that's just the heat that went out last night - NOPE not kidding - our heating unit isn't working but the devil isn't driving us out!

 Just Smiling (in a chattery fashion) =D

The people that have shown love for Guan Ya and for her to have a forever family is incredible! Thank you for praying, sharing and donating for Guan Ya to have a forever loving family she deserves! PLEASE don't stop - we have 45 days or less to get this baby girl adopted!!!!!!

I know over the last few days, your head is probably spinning from me saying like here and like there, here a like, there a like, everywhere a like, like.
'Ol' the Smith's have a crazy (Cold) home Eho.mEE, Eho.mEE, O'
(for those of you that might be definition illiterate, I'll define Eho.mEE just this once time. Eho.mEE is GiGi's FAVORITE thing to say (outside of NO) - I'm not sure if she is part donkey (as it sounds much donkeyish) She runs her words completely together when she wants me to hold her. Eho.mEE = you hold me (GiGi style so dont' go copy-catting it! =D ) So how in the world did you not know that definition? That definition is probably contributing to my back pain - well or falling off that stool yesterday as my vertically challenged self was trying to clean the ceiling fan.

Anyway, I'm pretty certain CMT just hasn't figured out how to contact us yet so if they call you by mistake just direct them to the crazy house! Between my jingle above and Colt's rap/Macy Jade's ummm, ummmm backup dancing https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=363469307084943&set=vb.418416251583634&type=2&theater
I'm sure they are fighting over just which one will sign us firsts! =D
And that link with my kiddos (yeah above, that's a like, like - along with the page it's made for) The first thing the kiddos asked before feet ever touched th floo' "Do we have anymore likes?" Just go like that page and LIKE then SHARE, SHARE , SHARE everywhere a Share Share - groups and pages, blogs too, yahoo, Google groups too - woah Nellie, I'm on a jingle roll this am. Must be my brain freezing in this cold house! lol

Since we are talking about sharing and liking. My precious friends the Bennett's that we traveled with (July) have started a page trying to encourage others (hint, hint Others=You) to collect change over the next month. It's a great time to get the kids to clean out the couches and washing machine for change. Just put a bucket to the side and let's see which family can collect the most change for GuanYa's journey home!!!! I LOVE to get my kids involved and let them know they can make a difference - kids can set up a face paint booth, lemon-aid (if you are unsure how to go about this I've heard Honey Boo Boo has a special about setting up a Lemon-aid stand - a must see I'm sure), or do small chores to grab some change if they want to help! Don't leave those kiddos out - they are our future and we need to let them know they CAN make a difference too! So LIKE & SHARE #2 for the day
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Change-A-Childs-Life/430628360341115


And if you are still following by now (yeah, I probably lost most of you within the first couple sentences - YAWN) but if you are still hear, there's a little bit of dust to stir (If you know me, you know I'll have on my boots! =D ). I wrote this last night https://www.facebook.com/TimMcGraw/posts/10151384187828556?notif_t=likehttps://www.facebook.com/TimMcGraw/posts/10151384187828556?notif_t=likehttps://www.facebook.com/TimMcGraw/posts/10151384187828556?notif_t=like(as I will try to reach out to anyone to bring my daughter home -wouldn't you if your rugrat was on the other side of the world and you had less than 45 days to get him/her? Yeah, I know sometimes you want to leave them, but really you'd never think about leaving your child! 'fo-real' That is EXACTLY where we are at with Guan Ya! Dude, they are holding her with a ransom AKA adoption fees! We must pay the high toll to get her! But could you just leave your child? NOPE! Well, me either! Oh yeah, where was I at.......I wrote on Tim McGraw's wall last night and Faith Hill's wall last week asking for a shout out for our GUan Ya! If you are not familiar with how close adoption is to both Tim & Faith's life, go do your research & ya just might learn ya something! Anywhooooo, I was reaching out to him last night and the next thing I know you goofwadz saw it (oops didn't know that was going public; however my BMs will probably be public next if it will get my daughter home - sorry TMI!). Last I looked at that post it had 45 "likes" (45 is that magic # ya know - how many days until our darlin ages out and will forever be an orphan if we don't complete the adoption). Since we are just LikIng and a Sharing today, head on over to Mr. Tim's site and like our post.https://www.facebook.com/TimMcGraw/posts/10151384187828556?notif_t=like
LIKE, COMMENT if ya wanna & tell others to get over there and stir a little dust. He knows how important adoption is for children!
Tell him about us if you feel led. Let's see if we can wake him up this morning! If you know of anyway to reach him, Faith, or anyone else that might help, hollar at me or hollar at them.
Look, it maybe a far shot, but my daughter is on the other side of the world so Ima ups to about anything (legal & pleasing to God) to bring this one precious orphan child home - this one orphan that will soon age out and forever carry the orphan status UNLESS, her family (Us) comes after that sweet pea in the next few weeks officially making her our daughter/sister - she is already here in our hearts but the USA or Chinese government doesn't recognize the writing on our hearts yet.

Now Remember here a like, there a like, everywhere a like, like.
'Ol' the Smith's have a crazy (Cold) home Eho.mEE, Eho.mEE, O'

(3 places mentioned above to like, like, like).
Thanks & yall come back now ya hears!!!! =D

Get Gaun Ya home

give 1$ from each person that watch to get our sister home http://long-road-to-china.blogspot.com/

Video made by Colt and Macy Jade

 CMT would be interested in Colt's rapping or Macy Jade's background dancing? hehehe https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=363469307084943&set=vb.418416251583634&type=2&theater

Get Gaun Ya home

give 1$ from each person that watch to get our sister home http://long-road-to-china.blogspot.com/

Length: ‎1:41

Thank You

My wife, Niki, is an amazing person. I know I don't say that enough. I hope that I let her know how much she means to me and the family, but I feel like I rarely have the opportunity to give  praise to her around the people that surround us and have followed us on this journey. I know in a few months (weeks!...wow) we will be going back to China to meet our daughter and yet another adventure will begin. She is so often the driving force behind things progressing in this adoption process. She has taught me a lot about faith. Total and complete faith. Something I might have never found with out her. During this never ending adventure, we have never doubted that God's plan was for us to adopt. I know that I have been called; just as she has been called. It is a humbling experience to be called to adopt, but I knew it would be difficult and we didn't have the financial means to adopt GiGi Dahl. When we found Guan Ya it was almost comical. We were and are completely broke, but she is our daughter that God has laid before us and by faith we follow his will. During the times that I have felt the dark clouds overhead, she has given me strength. When I feel like there is no way we can meet our financial obligations, she reminds me that God is in control and we walk by faith. I feel the spirit in my life and I know my life is not my own. Niki helps me to allow it to control my life. I do not see how one person could weather this crazy life alone. I am thankful that she is my partner. I really love her.

I am also thankful for all the people that have supported us along this journey. You are the vehicle God has used to give an orphan a family. It is very humbling and I thank God that he put you in our path. I know that we still have an incredible amount of money to raise, and we are seriously running out of time. I can almost feel the clock ticking. When you are called to adopt, you put total trust in the Lord, but it is not easy. The stress that we allow ourselves to feel when our faith is tested takes its toll mentally and physically. Two adoptions in six months has aged me terribly. Macy lets me know how gray my hair is getting! Lol! Well, I'm pretty sure that it would be turning gray anyway, but I do seriously feel tired. Not the "I need a nap or I need to catch up on my sleep", but more of the just totally spent. Some days I feel like I just don't have anything left. This is when my beautiful wife lifts me up. She reminds me that we are going to make it! Guan Ya is our daughter and she will not be left behind. When I feel like I'm losing my mind, she reminds me that I was crazy way before we started this adoption journey. Just Kidding! Sorta.

So, I know that I don't write often on our blog, but there were some things that I needed to say. We need your help. I hate asking for help. I really hate asking for help! But if it is the only way to serve my Lord then I will without hesitation. So many times I've asked God if he was sure he had the right people. We are called to adopt?

I want to give God the praise for all he is doing in our lives. He is teaching me to live by faith. And the support that you have given has humbled me. We have so far to go, but we are chipping away at the expense and by your donations and prayers we have slipped under the wire on every payment. I love to see the Lord working through all of you to fulfill his will for Niki and I to adopt. Keep us in your thoughts and we continue to ask for your support.

Thanks,
Phil

Peace, Love and Hope!

We have been overwhelmed over the love you have shown us though re-sharing our story, words of encouragement, prayers, and donations!  As of now, we have $372 in paypal donations.  We have the Paypal button above the Chip-In button.  They both go to the same account. Chip-In just keeps a running total of what has been donated through that route which I like because everyone can see our donation amount.  However, I've gotten many messages from people that it often doesn't work or isn't available.  If you use the PayPal button above it, you will get a message that you are donating to GiGi (our first adopted daughter).  It goes to the correct place, but I cannot figure out how to change GiGi's name to Guan Ya's name on it.  If you know how to fix the Chip-In button to work more accurately or if you know how I can manually update it, please let me know.

We've had 30 purchases http://coupaide.com/deal/smith-adoption-fund/
of the $50 gift certificates for $20 so that is $300 we will have from it.  I think they issue the money once a month so it will arrive next month.  If you like to save money, this is an awesome discount at 60% off.  The certificate does not expire and is good at 18,000 locations nation wide.  You can view the participating locations here http://www.restaurant.com/listing/findrestaurants
If you want $10 to go back to Guan Ya's adoption fund, you have to go back to her fundraiser page here http://coupaide.com/deal/smith-adoption-fund/

I know today when I started to post in semi-panic mode, it appeared I was loosing faith.  Please don't 
think that at all!  Our maker is in control but I feel the urgency to get the word out about our needs to get Guan Ya home.  There is power in numbers so we want as many people to know & pray about our journey as possible!  I pray people will see our blog and be blessed as they watch God perform His  modern day miracle by meeting our needs to bring home our daughter when it doesn't seem possible!  I do not believe God intended children to be institutionalized or without family!  We knew when we started this journey that we were walking on blind faith by making a path that didn't seem possible! God has this and we are at peace with that!  However, I feel He wants the word out about Guan Ya's adoption so others can see how He provides when you follow His will.  We are praising Him for putting us in this position.  When we are weak, we lean on Him to hold us up and He strengthens us!  He provides our needs in His timing!

I hate to write this and I've debated, but I'm going to put it in writing. Note, we've NEVER passed a bad check and NEVER written a check without the full amount in our account.  Call it stupid or blind faith.  We need $800 for Monday so I'm sending a check tomorrow for $800 even though we are about $428 short right now.  I need to send it so Guan Ya's paperwork will continue and not lag.  Paperwork is being sent Monday to China in which $800 payment is needed to.  I cannot wait to tell you Monday that I don't have to ask anyone to hold my check.  I cannot wait to tell you how God provides that money by the time it's needed Monday!  That is not the only payment we have due next week, but it's urgent to have that amount to send to China.  The devil has been running after us like crazy, but I know our Lord is bigger!

I'm so tired and I still have 2-3 hours worth of work to do tonight but I wanted to give you an updated total.  Please don't think my sleepiness and fried brain writing are anything less than grateful and praising the Lord for every prayer, encouragement and every dollar!  We are praising Him for each of you that love the orphans!  We praise Him for providing!  We praise Him for putting each of you in our path!  Without Him this is not possible!  With a mustard seed of faith, we can move mountains.

Please keep praying and sharing our journey!
Much love to you all!

Excited about our new fundraiser.......

Hello again!  I'm so excited we are approved for this newest fundraiser!  It's a win/win for everyone!

For $20, you will get a $50 certificate to restaurant.com and we get $10 for each one purchased.  You get a 60% savings and we get $10 for your purchase!  YEAH!!!!!!   I LOVE this deal!

There are 18,000 restaurants it can be redeemed at.

There is no expiration date.

They can be transferred without penalty.

 $50 does not have to be spent at one location!

In our location, I checked and found 14 restaurants in our area that accepts them:

Margaritas Mexican Grill - Tupelo

Kyoto Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Bar - Tupelo
Mist Asian Restaurant - Tupelo
Park Heights - Tupelo
Crossroads Rib Shack - Tupelo
avannah Bowling Center Snack Bar - Savannah, TN
Creekside Restaurant - Tupelo
Eli's BBQ Grill - Tupelo
Bishop's BBQ - Belden and Saltillo

Not in our area? No problem Restaurant.com gift certificates are accepted by over 18,000 restaurants.  You can search the accepting restaurants in your city online. If you want Guan Ya's Adoption to get the credit, make sure you purchase from her page! 
You cannot lose by this deal! $50 for $20 and we get $10.

THIS IS PERFECT for VALENTINE's DAY!!!!

They make wonderful gifts!

It's a great savings for you and helps us to get our daughter home!  Yes, this is real and you are welcome to google it (encouraged to check) if you have any doubts!  

This is a link to our restaurant fundraiser: 

http://coupaide.com/deal/smith-adoption-fund/

You must purchase through our fundraiser link  for us to get the $10 credit.

If  anyone would like to verify our adoption, we are using Lifeline Chindren's Adoption Agency out of Birmingham, AL   http://lifelinechild.org/ 

2104 Rocky Ridge Road

Birmingham, AL 35216

T: 205.967.0811

F: 205.969.2137

E: lifeline@lifelineadoption.org

Our social worker at lifeline is Morgan Cheek.

As most of you know we are in a huge time crunch to raise funds because our daughter (deaf-mute) ages out of the system at the age of 14 years old (March 9, 2013). If our adoption is not complete by that time, our daughter will never have the opportunity to be adopted.  

Take advantage of 60% off and help us bring our daughter home!!!!!

Blessings,

Phil & Niki Smith

http://coupaide.com/deal/smith-adoption-fund//

Please pray for us & SHARE this to everyone you know!  Thank you!