Sunday, January 7, 2007

Emma Skates to Bronze


On Saturday Emma competed at the Bridgewater Open Skating Competition and skated a great skate. My little girl is turning gracefully (well, most of the time gracefully) into a young woman...it's hard to believe she's going to be turning 9 in a few months! She daily continues to amaze us! This is her first year of competing 'competitively' - her second competition this year. She won a bronze in the Shannon Open and she was again thrilled with winning third place in Bridgewater - I've included a lovely pic that captures her ability!

Dawn

And the fundraising begins!

Wow!! How exciting it is to sit back and watch God work! This weekend, as word got out about our fundraising it was too cool to get emails from complete strangers who were congratulating us and wanting to buy cookie dough! Isn't that cool? Today at church a friend told me that her husband (who I don't even know) was taking order forms to his work! And how comforting it is to hear from those that, although they may be unable to support us financially, are supporting us with their prayers! It has been a great weekend! It's going to be so very interesting to see how far reaching these campaigns actually go. I'll keep you updated!

Dawn

Saturday, January 6, 2007

Help Unite our Family by Donating Airmiles

Gerald and I are preparing to travel to Ethiopia this spring to receive our two children, Kayleigh aged 2, and Kaleb, aged 6 months. We are currently seeking ways to fundraise to assist us in traveling to Ethiopia and many of you have asked how you may help. Other than monetary donations, the following ways will assist us in our journey:

DONATING AIRMILES:
We need 21 000 airmiles to pay for two return tickets to Addis Ababa…since Kayleigh is over two we will also need to pay for her flight home.

One significant way that people can help is by donating their airmiles. For those interested in helping in this manner, you will need the following information:

1. You will be asked to close your airmiles account and merge it with ours…to do this you need to contact Airmiles directly at 1-888-AIRMILES (247-64537). They will ask for your airmiles account number and PIN. After merging the accounts, they will then open a new airmiles account for you.

You will need to provide them with our information:

Dawn and Gerald Burke
59 Granite Cove Dr.,
Hubley, NS B3Z 1A1
(902) 876-2216
Airmiles account #8172 464 6247

2. For those that may be hesitant to close their account, please feel free to write down our airmiles account and use it over the next few months when purchasing products (you just need the number, not the card).

Thanks to everyone in making our family a reality. We believe this is God’s will and we excitedly prepare to meet our children. Most importantly, please have us in your prayers!

The Beginning of our Journey to Ethiopia

We are so very blessed! Gerald and I always knew we wanted a large family. Within three years God blessed us with three beautiful birth children – Emma (now 8), Joshua (6) and Jacob (5). We had always desired to have four children but, having had complications during pregnancy and having had to undergo a hysterectomy, we both felt led to turn towards adoption.

As we prayed and began the journey we felt God leading us towards adopting from China. A year and a half later we were delighted to receive Hannah into our family. Hannah was 14 months old and was such a gem! It was love at first sight for us and Hannah has continued to absolutely delight us – she continues to bring great joy into our lives. In China, people would look and point at her and say “Lucky Baby!” but oh how we feel that we are the ‘lucky’ and blessed ones!

Shortly after adopting Hannah, we both began to feel drawn to adopting again. In March, 2005 I found myself struggling with a mild form of depression. Feeling sun deprived we headed to Florida for some warmth and family time. Having made the decision on the spur of the moment we failed to realize the difficulty we would have to even find not a hotel room but even a nice campsite. A day and a half later, having called a Christian KOA site, a state campground was recommended. We called and made our way to the most beautiful campsite! Magnificent trees acted as canopies – it was lovely. Who would have thought God would have been guiding us.

Shortly after arriving we took the children to the playground. I was sitting on a park bench soaking in the sun with Hannah sleeping in my arms. A woman, noticing Hannah’s ethnicity, slowly made her way over. She sat down next to me, introduced herself and began to share her story…a deeply devout Christian she described how she and her husband had felt led to adopt six children from all over the world. As I shared of our desire to adopt more children I also shared how we felt stifled by the enormous cost of adopting internationally. This gentle woman began sharing her story of adopting, she then shared of her own battle with depression and also challenged both Gerald and I to allow others to help us meet the financial commitments associated with adopting, to allow others to bless us and in turn, be blessed themselves. After our time together we said our goodbyes…but minutes later her children returned to the playground, and, as they were there camping with their church family, invited us to their campsite for lunch. Later, this dear lady totally surprised us by inviting Dawn, a complete stranger and yet a sister in Christ, to accompany her to their home so that Dawn could the laundry. What a blessing and what a profound way for God to gain our attention and reaffirm our calling to adopt again.

Our desire to adopt again was constantly being confirmed by God in quiet and reassuring ways. Travelling in the car to and from work, Gerald would often reach and turn on the radio just to hear some program discussing international adoptions. I’d turn on the television or receive a phone call from someone telling me about a program focusing on adoption. We’d go to MacDonald’s and run into another family that had adopted…it would seem everywhere we turned God was gently but firmly reassuring us that He indeed wanted us to adopt again.

One significant confirmation occurred when, a dear friend told us of a dream she had had of two little black children on a shelf, waiting to be picked up. She had previously been unaware of our desire to adopt again and of our plan to adopt from Ethiopia.

Later that year, on the way to church, Gerald literally blew me out of the water when he asked me to looking into adopting not one child but two! Incredulous, I looked over at him and asked if he was trying to get me to change my mind about adopting altogether!

As we continued to pray for God’s guidance, I did as Gerald asked and began to research where we might be able to adopt two children. Since China was out of the question (they have a five child per family limit), we turned our attention to Vietnam and Haiti but received recommendations to look elsewhere as they also frowned on large families.

We will never forget a warm, summer night camping in PEI. The children were all sleeping and I was lying in the trailer waiting for Gerald to return from a shower. I decided to unzip the window (I’d never done this before) and enjoy the night sky. Minutes after doing this what should I see but a shooting star…no, not one, but TWO shooting stars! Just another sign confirming what we felt in our spirits – that God was blessing this desire to adopt again.

Who knew that we would need so many signs from God…God knew!! After searching the internet and discussing with our social worker, we decided to apply to adopt from Ethiopia. Having completed our home study, we hired CAFAC – the only agency then licensed to assist with Ethiopian adoptions. Our dossier arrived in Ethiopia in January 2006 – we had decided to ask for two children, a boy and a girl, under 24 months of age. Eleven months later, December, 2006, we were so very blessed to receive referrals for Kaleb Lamesgan Burke, 6 months old and his sister Kayleigh Kalkidan Burke, just turning two.

And now our journey really begins. We have been so blessed by people’s generosity in helping to unite our family…people are generously donating money and Airmiles as well as supporting us in our fundraising campaigns. We have no doubt that the monies will come, that we will be blessed, because we have no doubt that we are in the midst of God’s will!