Twins Update

It is truly now that time where Any day we could get a phone call saying get on a plane Now!  We are always being asked what do you need? are you ready?

Well right now our biggest need is prayer specifically for our expectant mom and the babies.  She is 32 weeks today and was admitted to the hospital Friday as a precaution because she is showing signs of preeclampsia. She will most likely stay until the babies are born.  Please pray for her as she has a long hospital stay which is hard anyways and it is over the holidays.  Pray that bed rest will relieve her symptoms and the babies will wait to arrive for a while longer.  32 weeks is a big milestone for twin pregnancies but we are praying that God would keep them in the womb for 3 more weeks and they would be big and strong enough to avoid a long nicu stay in Florida.  We are so excited to meet them but know it is better for them to keep developing before birth.  Also we ask for prayers for our family as we prepare for traveling and growing by two! Pray that arrangements that need to wait til we know they will be born will fall into place and especially for Ella and Emmett as this is going to be a huge change.  Pray that whenever the babies are born they feel secure no matter who they are with as that all depends on when things happen.  We are hoping they will come with us along with Dave's mom but it just depends on how early the boys arrive.

This is what our house looks like today as we pack what we can now in an attempt to prepare for an unexpected call! The babies' things for the most part are packed and we are working on the rest of us.

Pack n Play for the babies in our room is ready to go! 

It is so exciting to see two car seats and their pack n play! We are anxious to meet them and still in awe of God's plan for our family! I can't help but remember back to the days when we wondered if the day would ever come where there would be children in our house and soon there will be Four amazing blessings.  God's plan and timing has been so much better than ours!

We did meet our matching grant amount which is a huge blessing! However we still have some money to raise to meet our fundraising goal! Our fundraising site will be turned off soon so that finances can be handled. Here is our tax deductible link if you would like to contribute financially:

www.purecharity.com/lemasteradoption

Thank you so much for all the love and support you have given us and our babies in So many ways already!

Love,

Dave & Amy

Ella & Emmett and

The Lemaster Baby Boys

Matching Grant to help bring our Two blessings home

We only have $895 left to raise to fulfill the entire $4000 matching grant! It has been such a humbling experience to see donations come in, many from people we have never meet. We feel so blessed and supported!  Please pray with us that the final $895 would come in too! If you feel lead to give please remember No amount is too small, it truly is taking a village to bring home these two babies!

Here is the donation link for the grant www.purecharity.com/lemasteradoption

Thank you for all your prayers, encouraging words, and financial support! It all means so much to our family! Our family is loved including these two precious babies!

Some of the Details....

I have been meaning to write this for some time to help answer some of the questions we are often asked about the twins. Life has been a little crazy at our house recently with two sick toddlers but now that they both seem to be on the mend I find myself with a quiet few moments. First here is a little sneak pic of the babies! They are pictures of the ultrasound pictures so not the greatest quality but I was so excited to recieve them in a text from our Expectant Momma!

• Are the babies identical twins?
• No, they are fraternal twins

• What is the due date?
• Due date is February 7th, 2016. We do expect them to be born in January as most twins are born between 34-37 weeks.

• Where will they be born?
• Pensacola, FL-this is the same law office we worked with for Ella's adoption in Tallahassee, FL but Twins' Expectant Momma is located in Pensacola.

• Do we get to name the babies?
• Yes we do! When we named Ella we did honor her birthmom in her name and wanted her to have that connection in her name with birthmom.  So Ella's middle name Shay is after her birthmom's middle name.  We really love this and hope to do something like this for the boys.

• What will their names be?  Will they be E names?
• You will all have to be surprised on this one! We like to wait to tell names til baby(s) are born.
• Another surprise to wait for! We honestly did not plan to name our first two both starting with Es just happened to be the names we decided on. So you will have to wait and see!

• Is it double the cost for a twin adoption?
• No there is additional costs however.  Most legal documents and formalities have to be filed twice since they are two separate people.  So there are some costs that go up. It is not close to double just higher than we anticipated. 

• Are we worried she will change her mind?
• Honestly, no.  There is So much more to this question though.  We'd be lying if we said there is no risk, there is always risk in adoption, in pregnancy, in life.  We'd also be lying if we said the thought of her changing her mind never crosses our mind.  But its not something that we are truly worried about or think about often.  We do know that once the babies are born there is a 48 hour period of waiting for birthmom to sign papers terminating her rights and this time was the most emotional time we have ever experienced when Ella was born.  It will probably be that way again after these sweet boys are born. 
• We are not in this adoption journey purely to grow our family.  It is also about an expectant mom who we feel we need to love unguarded right now.  Because if we put up a guard for ourselves, can we truly show her and these babies the love of Jesus?  It is also about babies needing families. The boys' sweet momma loves them so much she feels she needs to sacrifice her wants to provide a life for them she can not give at this time.  She is choosing life for them and we are here to love all three of them. 
• We of course would have great heartache if in the end she chose to parent these babies.  We love them as ours right now and we love her so much too.  We want whats best for all three of them whatever that is.  We have faith that God sees the big picture and we are giving these risks to Him.  We feel God has placed these babies and their momma in our lives right now for more reasons than we know. 
• We have faith in not only our Heavenly Father's plan for us but also in the adoption professionals we work with.  Both our adoption consultant and the adoption attorney have the best interest of our family and the expectant mom in the forefront of their minds and actions. We are so well cared for by both.  The law office does all they can to ensure expectant moms are confident in their decision before involving an adoptive family and honestly rarely sees failed matches.  Even more importantly, they take amazing care of these brave mommas! Which is one of the main reasons we chose to work with them.  

• What is their race?
• People often try to ask this or want to know but don't know how to ask this.  The twins are full African American beautiful baby boys!

• Why is their mom placing them for adoption?
• This is a question we have a simple answer for.  We believe it is the twins' story and we don't want to share with others until we have shared it with them.  As they grow we will share parts of their story age appropriately and then it will be their choice who They tell and When they tell.  So we aren't trying to keep things from you but trying to protect their story and respect that it is just that Their story. Adoption is talked about all the time in our household and that will continue.  Ella's birthmom is someone who is loved and cherished in our household and the same goes for this sweet momma.

• How can we pray?
• Pray for this sweet expectant mom's heart and health
• That the babies would wait to arrive til they are strong and healthy and can avoid a long nicu stay in Florida.
• Favor in finances for the adoption
• Our family especially our two littles as they will have a big adjustment as we become a family of 6!!!
• All the details and decisions of traveling as the time comes closer!

• Two ways to help financially 
• Adoption Rocks T-shirt fundrasier! Ending October 11 Click here for all the details!  http://lemasteradoption.blogspot.com/2015/09/t-shirt-fundraiser.html
• Matching Grant-all donations up to $4,000 will be matched!! Your gift will be doubled!  Click here to donate https://www.purecharity.com/lemasteradoption

• Thank you all for the many ways you have supported us already through this journey! Thank you for loving on us and these baby boys!

T-shirt Fundraiser

Please help bring our twins home!!  We’re doing a t-shirt fundraiser.  Short-sleeve $15 and long-sleeve $20 available in royal blue, forest green, navy, black, & red (see images below).  Sizes available are youth XS (2-4), youth small (6-8), youth medium, youth large, youth X-large, and adult small through X-large.  Add $2 for 2XL and $1 for each additional X.

Shipping:  Add $5 per order to have shirt(s) mailed to you.  We will deliver local to save you the cost!

We can accept cash/check in person or through mail.  PayPal is also available.  To pay via PayPal go to www.paypal.com and click on the "Send" button at the top in the middle of the page.  It will ask for an email or phone number to send money too.  Enter dave.e.lemaster@gmail.com and the amount and click continue.  On the next screen click the button that asks if your are sending money to "Friends or family".  From there just follow the rest of the instructions and you're good!

Facebook message Dave or Amy with your color choice, sleeve length, size(s) and payment choice or email dave.e.lemaster@gmail.com.  We will confirm your order with a response message.  The last date to order shirts is Sunday, October 11^th.  If you want to just donate, you can to our MICAH Fund matching grant here:  https://www.purecharity.com/lemasteradoption.  All donations up to $4,000 are matched!  Thank you for your support!

Blessings In Twos...

Since the very beginning of our current adoption journey it seems good  news comes in pairs. Many times we have received some good news in the process of the adoption and then just an hour or so later we'd hear about a financial blessing.  After this happening a few times to us Dave said to me "Hey the trend seems to be we get two adoption blessings at once."   I hadn't thought about it until he said that and simply said "That's neat, God's really confirming we are on the right path."

Awhile ago, we opened an email with a subject line "Twins Situation."  Cue heart skipping a beat. Then I read a text message from our wonderful adoption consultation, Katie "Did you read your email?"  I had read and was waiting to hear from Dave (he was at work) about our response.  The minute I got a hold of Dave we both agreed to say yes. When we filled out our initial adoption paperwork we checked the yes box next to multiples not really thinking too much about it really even being a possibility.

Then we waited for a few days (which seemed like weeks) while a brave expectant mom read about us and looked at pictures of our family.  We prayed for her and her heart while she was making one of the most selfless decisions a mom can make. 

Then I got another text saying to call Katie when I had a minute (she knows there's two busy toddlers running around our house and can be hard to talk on the phone). So I called her, honestly not thinking it had anything to do with these two precious babies.  We chatted for a bit about our daily lives and then I began to wonder the real reason we were having this conversation.  

Katie said, "Well I'm calling to tell you that your family is about to get a lot bigger!" My reply, "Seriously??!!" And Katie said "Yes seriously." Then my heart was racing and I was almost in tears of joy and also tears of sadness for this brave momma who is putting the needs of her babies above hers in a selfless act of love and sacrifice.  

After getting off the phone with Katie I called Dave and said "We're gonna have twins!" I think his main response was laughter, a joyful laughter and I think just shock!

So we have been waiting for a few things to fall into place before sharing this with all of you and today Two amazing things happened.

• We found out the babies are TWIN BOYS!!!! They are due February 7, 2016!
• I was able to have a phone call with this sweet momma and it gave me such joy to hear her voice and talk to her!

So that's our super exciting Double Blessing but there's more....

To go along with our double blessings we have been given an opportunity to have any donations up to $4,000 Matched!!!  We received a matching grant through the MICAH fund.  If you are able to support us in this way please click the link here to donate:  www.purecharity.com/lemasteradoption.  This matching grant is a huge blessing and is much needed to help us continue to raise funds to be able to complete the adoption.  While adopting twins doesn't double the cost of the adoption it does increase the costs more than we had been planning for.  So any donations and sharing the donation link for us with your connections is greatly appreciated! 

Also please pray for these specific things:

• Birthmom's health and heart 
• Babies' health and that pregnancy would go to full term at least for twins!
• Finances for the adoption
• Our family as we prepare for this Huge tranistion

Thank you so much for all your support! We are so excited to share this news with you!

Dave, Amy, Ella, Emmett and Lemaster Twins!

Waiting...

Adoption is Full of waiting! Waiting for funding resources, waiting for your home study to be complete, then the waiting to present to 'situations' and waiting to hear if your yes to a situation is a yes or a no back. Of course often after the yes there is more waiting; for the baby to be born, for the birth parents to sign consent papers and last waiting for icpc (the different states involved approving the movement of a child from one state to another for adoption) so you can take your baby home! We have not truly been waiting very long. Our home study went very fast and smooth, then we had some time where things were on hold while we waited for Dave to find a new job. So we have only been officially waiting to be matched with an expectant mom and baby for around a month. Yet I find myself constantly checking my email seeing if there is something possibly about our baby! The first time we were waiting in the adoption journey, we were waiting for our first child. This was hard and draining and we waited over a year and a half to be matched. We had already been waiting close to three years before that for a baby. We also heard many nos saying the birth mom had chosen a different family.
    The reason I am writing this is because since our first journey we have learned and grown so much in our understanding of God's heart for adoption and will for our family. We also have two precious daily reminders running around our house that are living proof, His timing and way of bringing children into our family is So much better than ours. If we had made the plan I'm sure the first baby we heard about we'd have chosen to be our baby. But that would mean Ella wouldn't be singing at my feet and playing with her toys as I write this. Knowing what I know now, I'd go through that wait all over again. It wasn't easy, I would never wish it on anyone but Ella was worth it. She is a gift to our family and such a blessing to many around her.
   Dave and I feel strongly that we are all called to care for the widow and the orphan (James 1:27) which does not mean we are all called to adopt just that we are all called to help the fatherless. We personally feel called to adopt. So this journey we are on is so much more than a desire for another baby in our arms. There could be some brave expectant moms making a selfless decision who need us to walk along side them in prayer support. When we do say yes to a situation it may mean that the baby is not ours but the mom and baby need our prayers and needed to hear our yes to confirm her baby is loved and wanted. Sometimes expectant moms don't have more than one or even one family  to chose from for her baby for various reasons including pregnancy issues, special needs, and race to name a few.  So maybe these brave women just needed our yes and prayers which could mean we'll hear a no  or many nos before our yes. This doesn't mean it's easy to hear no but it isn't just about us. There is a bigger picture that we can not see, but our Heavenly Father sees it. Sometimes  it feels like we are on an emotional roller coaster in this journey. I have blabbed on simply trying to say it can be hard, we can be impatient, but when we hold our baby in our arms it will be so clear that it was all His plan even when we don't see the whole picture.  The whole picture involves so many precious lives that we may never know about. We haven't heard nos yet but we may. I'm writing this also as a reminder for myself when I'm impatient and discouraged, God has our family in His hands and He knows the baby that is our son or daughter.

"Wait on the Lord; be of good courage. And He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!" Psalm 27:14.

Today I needed to be reminded to wait on the Lord because His plan is better. Adoption has already greatly blessed our lives but it is not just about me. It is about so so much more. It is about His love for everyone of us and His redemption which adoption is a true picture of.

I'll finish with this popular verse but that is one I believe helped through the waiting during our first adoption journey and I will cling to again.

"For I know the plans I have for you'" says the Lord , "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

His ways, His timing to bring the third baby Lemaster to us will be amazing!!!!!

PS this time around we are starting with Christian Adoption Consultants right away. So we hope not to wait as long as the first time. Their average wait time is between 6-10 months. We were matched with Ella the week after we signed on with them. Which was crazy fast!! If you'd like to know more about adoption please contact me at amyrenee.lemaster@gmail.com

Celebrate!

In Ella's words tonight we "celebrate!" We are so thankful to be able to tell everyone that God has provided as we knew He would. Dave had a second interview today and not long after returning home, in fact as he was telling me about the interview, his phone rang. And it was regarding the job! We were not expecting an answer so quickly but excited to share that Dave will be starting his new position June 30 as Senior Operations Accountant for Hallmark Business Connections. So one of the first people we shared this news with was Katie our adoption consultant (sorry family;) because we were just so excited to tell her we feel we can now officially be back in the adoption process fully and because we love her! Which means we are now at the point where we can be presented to adoption situations. After letting family know the good news we went out for dinner as a family to celebrate!

So now we ask for prayer for our adoption journey, for the birthmom of the baby God has for our family, for our baby, fundraising efforts to be fruitful, and for the transition as Dave starts his new job the end of this month! Thank you for all your words of encouragement, prayers, and giving!


We are collecting and collecting all types of items for our upcoming adoption rummage sale which will be July 10 and 11. More information will come soon!

If you haven't yet and still want to there is time to enter our iPad mini giveaway! Every $5 donated will get one entry and all donations go directly towards our adoption! The Paypal button on the right of this page is for the iPad fundraiser.  If using a mobile device you need to scroll down to the bottom of the page and click view full web version to see the link. Thanks!

A few steps closer to Baby Lemaster which is another thing we are thanking our Heavenly Father for tonight!

iPad Mini Giveaway Fundraiser!!!

Donate to the Lemaster Adoption Fund, every $5 donated will get you one entry to our iPad mini giveaway! The dateline to enter is 3:00 pm on June 15, 2015 and then the winner will be drawn!

Click on the Paypal link on the right of our blog to enter! $5 for every entry you'd like. If you don't have a Paypal account select the credit/debit card option on bottom left of the Paypal page. You can also contact Dave and I to pay with cash or check at amyrenee.lemaster@gmail.com. The iPad mini will be mailed to the winner with free two day shipping! Thank you for your support in bringing home Baby Lemaster!
 See previous post for more of our story.
If you are on a mobile device scroll to bottom of this page and click view web version so you are able to see the donation link;) 

Love,
Dave, Amy, Ella and Emmett

The beginnings of Baby Lemaster's Story

Hello Everyone,
We wanted to provide a way to give updates to everyone as we continue with our adoption journey.  So here's a little background information and an explanation of where we are at.  Those of you who know us, know that adoption was in our hearts before Dave and I were even married.  After struggling through infertility for a few years God brought adoption to our lives sooner than we had planned and His plan Was so much better! We were given the amazing blessing of our daughter Ella in 2012 through adoption.  God used her life to build our passion for adoption even more and we knew after she was born we would grow our family through adoption again. God used her adoption story and  our consultant (we went through and are currently using Christian Adoption Consultants) to also open our eyes to the need for infant adoption in the United States.  So once again we made a plan: we would start the adoption process when Ella turned one, well God had a different and amazing plan! The week after Ella turned one we welcomed our biological son Emmett into our family.  He is also a huge blessing to us.

What a difference a year had made in our family! The last two years we have loved being a family of four but have also felt there is something or should I say someone missing from our family.  So we prayed and prayed about the timing of adopting again. This spring we really felt God's nudging get stronger to start the adoption process to grow our family again.  So here we are: we are home study ready, our profile is ready to be shown to birth moms and we are excited to meet the next member of our family. We have had a set back and currently waiting to present to birth moms til Dave secures employment as his position at work was eliminated last week. We still feel God saying "press on in this battle for life for your baby." That brings us to the fundraising stage!! Adoption is costly but so so worth it. I love this quote;

“My friends, adoption is redemption. It’s costly, exhausting, expensive, and outrageous. Buying back lives costs so much. When God set out to redeem us, it killed Him."

 Derek Loux

We would love your prayer support with us through this journey.  Here are some specific prayer requests: Dave's job search, pray for the birthmom of our baby (for her health, emotions, and that she knows wherever she is we love her already) and for our family as we prepare for all the changes and unknown!

Stay tuned for a fundraiser coming today!