We NEED your PRAYER

What does adoption look like? It looks like James 1:27. It looks like Christ. It looks like the gospel. It looks less like what we want and more like what God wants. Adoption to the world doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Why would you want to love someone else's child? Why would you want an interracial family? Why would you risk that?

When we first started our adoption we were looking for that perfect fit for our family, A little girl! We would have her home in no time.  Maybe a year or so. We had our own ideas about what it would look like for our family, but we forgot that God is ultimately in control.  He knows what her name is, where she is, and when she should come home to us. We rest in the fact that He knows and He has her in his hands and will bring her to our family in His time, which is beginning to look like three years or so. Three years is a long time it seems.  So what will we do in the meantime? We thought we would be doing nothing but living our lives and waiting for our family to grow through adoption from Ethiopia.

A few days ago we received an unsolicited call from our social worker. She had a birth mom who would deliver in September with a little boy.  She wanted to know if we knew anyone that was interested.  Casey and I had talked previously that if we could we would love to adopt in the interim time before Willow comes home if the Lord saw fit.  What an amazing providence, so we said we were interested. Actually, we asked for more details.  We would have to decide within 48 hours if we wanted to move forward and would need to pay $5000 deposit to commit to him. No pressure right? Well, we prayed and cried and prayed and cried.  Well, I did anyway. I don't think Casey cried.  We wanted to have faith that the Lord would provide the $19,000 that we needed for this baby, but also didn't want to be presumptuous. A very thin line to be sure.  There was another catch, there was another family also interested.  Somehow they were going to decide which of us it should be. The next morning we received a call that the other family had withdrawn from the process, and that left only us. After much prayer and 48 hours we decided to move forward and so here we are. 

We would ask that you would pray for our family. Pray that the Lord would supply all the money we need to bring this precious baby home. We know that if it's the Lord's will He will provide exactly what we need.  So, Lord willing, in September, Willow will have a brother. A brother that will share her skin tone. She doesn't know it yet and neither does he.  Isn't it amazing how the Lord moves? We are in awe of His goodness and mercy to us.  Pray that we would have faith to press on. We are clinging to Malachi 3:10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.  And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.  This is our cry for this baby boy. And we would name him Malachi. Casey happens to be preaching through Malachi and what a providence that this is the passage for next week.  Most of all we want to see the Lord glorified in all of this and the gospel proclaimed and exemplified through adoption.

thanks, the Houghs

June Number

Our number this month is:

There was actually a family that dropped out of the program because they just adopted domestically a beautiful set of twins. So that makes us actually at 92.  Glad that we moved a few spots. Wished it had been more spots, but still thankful :)

May Number

Our new number for the month of May. We thought we would only move one spot so we were very thankful to find out that it was four. This month I really had a peace about waiting. I think I have gotten used to this wait list thing. Hah! Remind me of this in 10 months when I'm pulling my hair out about the wait time. We are working on our 3rd month on the waiting list right now.  We received a check last week from a friend for $5000. Wow. The Lord is moving in the hearts of His people for orphans and for our child/children.  Praise God! We have raised most of what we need for one child, but we put on our application that we would be happy with two kids, so we are going to continue to raise support. We feel like the fact that the Lord has raised what we need for one child so quickly that maybe He has two in mind for us. Who knows?  If we only get one child what will we do with the rest of the money, you ask? Well, we are planning to adopt a waiting child from China after our Ethiopian adoption is complete, so if we only get one child then we will use what we have left to start our second adoption.

We are still selling the large and small Africa bracelets, and we have more tshirts on the way and will have children's sizes again for anyone interested in those.  We are also planning to have  5K walk/run on June 1st. More details will be coming on that soon.

Just wanted to share one little fun story from Carter this past week. I bribed him to try to ride his bike without training wheels last week. I told him if he would do it that I would go buy him a treat from Walmart. Well, when we were pulling up to Walmart he tells me "Mom, don't you dare use any of Willow's money to buy my treat.  That is her money and we need to save it!" Love that sweet boy. He loves her so much already. Needless to say, I told him that we aren't using her money for anything and that we had our own money to buy his treat.

Fundraising Goods

Here are the items we are selling right now for fundraisers. We have the bracelets also in chocolate brown as well.  They are $25

These are $15 and come in silver and grey and gold and brown. Perfect for a guy or girl!

These are our tshirts. We have sizes from youth xsmall- adult XL. Children's shirts are $15 and adults sizes are $20.

If you would like to order you may either send me a check in the mail to:

Hannah Hough 

161 Albert Ave, Shreveport, LA 71105

or you can pay through our paypal donate button at the top right. Just put in the comments what you want and what size you need if ordering tshirts and leave me your address. 

Thanks, the Houghs