Responding In Faith

We have been working on getting all our paper work together for our dossier.  In the process we have to write a letter stating the boys new names for their birth certificates.  How exciting!!!  The boys do not have middle names, so we decided to give them one.  Here are their “new” names!

Samuel Jeffery Gray Schweighardt   

(Russ has a half brother named Sam and one named Jeff)

Jeremiah David Gray Schweighardt

(Russ has another brother named David)

Joel Elijiah Gray Schweighardt

(We just liked the sound of this one!!)

Can’t wait to see it on the official birth certificate!!!

Our I-600A immigration form is on its way to Charlotte!!!!  Nathanson Homestudy Agency is having it expedited for us since we already have all our information on the boys!  We are soooooo excited!!!!  I am double checking everything and making sure all my i’s are dotted and my t’s are crossed!  We are now working on our dossier!  We also need to start working on this $7500 chunk that needs to go in with it!  I will try to post a financial update this evening!

 Adoption was always something that was laid on my heart as young girl.  My parents were foster care parents and adventually adoptive parents.  It was through those experiences that I always knew I would adopt some day.  From that point on, God kept my heart on that path.  When I met Russell, I had told him that I wanted a large family and that I had planned to adopt one day.  Well, that didn’t scare him off!  After 15 years of marriage, he and I are still going strong.  Russ was open to adoption and told me to keep him informed on when I felt the time was right.

Russell and I have 3 biological children together.  They are Anthony, Hannah and Hailey Rose.  It was in 2002 that we prayed about what God was wanting us to do.  Door after door was shut.  Then all of a sudden a window popped open.  God wanted us to uproot our family and leave the bluegrass state of Kentucky and head further south to Hickory, North Carolina.  It was during this major time of change that God started laying on my heart that adding to our family through adoption was coming soon.  It always amazes me when I hear God’s voice.  It seems like it happens when there is so much chaos and big trials!

After we moved to NC and got somewhat settled, God was moving in my heart again.  It was time to start checking into different adoption avenues.  God really drew me to going through social services.  I talked with Russell about it and he told me to see what we needed to do.  From there we filled out applications and went through classes.  We “graduated” from our classes in the summer of 2003.  On January 12, 2004, we received a call about our precious little Aubrey.  Social Services emailed me pictures.  Russ was out of town that day for a business trip.  I left many messages for him.  Social Services needed an answer that day.  Aubrey was deemed legally free and they needed to place her that week!  We didn’t have 9 months to prepare!  I knew the moment a saw her picture that I loved her!  My heart skipped a beat.  Russ and I got to meet Aubrey that Wednesday.  We went to her foster care home and spoke with her foster care parents and played for a while with Aubrey.  She was like a little hummingbird.  She couldn’t sit still…constantly moving!  So sweet.  There is so much more to her story then I want to make public at this time, but we knew she was supposed to be with us!  That Thursday we got to bring her home for a couple of hours so the kids could meet her.  Friday morning she moved into her forever family’s home!  She was a week before turning 2 when she arrived.  So we were able to celebrate her 2nd birthday with her!  Aubrey had been through more in her first 2 years of life then I could ever imagine!  She has had much healing during her time with us.  Aubrey is sweet little girl with a bright, beautiful smile!  God truly blessed our family with our sweet little Aubrey girl!

Our next adoption took place not long after Aubrey’s arrival.  This time it wasn’t through social services.  I was in with Anthony one evening in March of 2004 preparing to do his devotional with him.  I heard God’s voice so clearly, “Your son is coming soon!”  WOW!!!  Anthony looked at me and said, “Mommy, why are your eyes watering?”  I looked at Anthony and told him that God was preparing our hearts for his new brother.  Anthony was so excited!!!  He wanted to know every detail.  I didn’t have any to give to him.  I could only tell him that we just needed to pray!  I hadn’t said anything to Russ at that point.  We were all still adjusting to our precious Aubrey and getting our new routines in order.

Two weeks later, I received a call from my Aunt Sue.  She called to congratulate us on the arrival of our Aubrey.  She said that she had heard that we were still wanting to adopt more children.  I told her that we were and that we were hoping to adopt a little boy.  What she said next floored me because it was happening just as God said it would.  My aunt told me that she was calling because she knew of a mother who was looking for a home for her son.  She wanted to know if we would be interested and if she could give our names and number to her.  I told her that it would be ok and that Russ and I would pray over it.

At first Russ wasn’t very open to it.  Aubrey was so new in the family.  But he said he would pray about it.  I told him at that point about how God had spoken to my heart.  I prayed and prayed about this boy that I did not know.  Two weeks had gone by and no call.  I didn’t feel at peace about the situation.  I prayed to God to help me feel at peace.  If there was another home for this young boy, that was fine, just help me to feel at peace!  The next day was Sunday.  Exactly two weeks since I had received the call from my aunt.  The phone rings.  It was the call about our dear little Austin.  We talked.  Asked questions.  Talked some more.  Russell and I compared notes.  Wrote down more questions.  Called them back up.  We prayed.  We talked about faith.  We read Hebrews.  We prayed.  I told Russell that it was his call.  He is the head of the house below Christ.  Russell decided to take a leap of faith!

We left the next evening and drove all night to get up to New York.  We arrived at our hotel at 6:oo am.  We slept for 2 hours and then we were off to meet Austin.  We brought Anthony with us because we thought it would be a good bonding experience for the 2 boys.  Austin was 3 at the time.  He did not know that he was going to be leaving his birthmother.  We walked into the house.  Austin immediately started calling Russell, “DADDY.”  He called Anthony, “BUBBY.”  I stayed back.  Austin already knew a “mommy” and I didn’t want to confuse him.  I spoke with the birthmother a long time and an aunt.

We took Austin for the day and then returned him to his birthmother that evening.  The next day we picked him up and brought him home.  Austin was so excited.  On the way home we stopped at a rest stop to take a potty break.  Austin went into the bathroom.  I watched him through the crack in the door to make sure he was ok.  Austin was looking at his reflection in the toilet paper holder.  He said to himself, “I have a daddy and a mommy and a bubby!  Awesome!”  He was so excited!  I always tell Austin that he had a good birthmother because she knew what he needed and found it for her son!  Austin has truly blessed our family!

Now we are doing a completely different adoption!  God has called us to go to a foreign country!  God is blessing us again with 3 beautiful sons!  We are so excited!  God is so good and gracious.  He gets all the honor and glory and praise for all of these adoptions.  Thank you Lord.

Our son, Anthony, has a favorite pass time….he LOVES clowning!  Not only does he love clowning, but he loves making balloon art.  If you have an upcoming event that you or maybe your church needs some entertaining for children, Anthony would love to come make balloons for you!!  All proceeds will go to the adoption of Anthony’s 3 Liberian brothers!!!  Please email us if you are interested.  This service is offered on a donation basis!  Birthday parties are his speciality!!

The above photo is Will Rejoice and Chatter Box.

Our “crafty” Hannah has designed her very own spoon dolls!  She is so excited.  She wants to sell these to raise funds for the adoption.  Hannah just made her first $5!  Her Great Grandmother bought the first doll!  I will take pictures of her dolls and post them on here in the next couple of days.  If you are interested in purchasing one of Hannah’s dolls, just let us know!!!!  Thank you, Paula for inspiring Hannah to use her talents to make these dolls!!  $5.00 closer to our goal!!

Hey Everyone!  Well, we were able to pull the funding together to have our home study expedited!!  The total cost was $1700.  We used Nathanson Adoption Services out of Charlotte, NC.  They were great.  We had to have 3 visits total.  It went very smoothly.  Today was our final visit.  Our first visit was on February 14, then again on February 16 and the last one today, February 21.  We went over the rough draft with our social worker.  She has been wonderful.  I guess the whole thing didn’t seem so bad since we have already been through much of the same thing with social services.  This seemed much less invasive!

Helene at Nathanson Adoption Services and her staff have been so helpful with this whole process.  They are very on top of information for international adoptions which has been great!

We found out that since we know the children we are adopting that we can have our I-600A form expedited!!!  The only hold up right now is that I can’t answer question #16!  Children Concerned has been out of the office (just coming back from Liberia) so I have to be patient and wait!  We have been able to pull the funds together for the application fee and the fingerprint fee!  The application fee was $545 and the finger print fee was $140 (Thank you Main Family!!)

Now our big goal is to pull $7500 together.  This is the first half of the payment for the fees on the Liberian side!  We will have to have another $7500 towards the end of the adoption plus airline tickets.  There may be a few more fees thrown in their someplace!  Still trying to get all the actual financial numbers together.  But since the boys are siblings the fees for the immigration are the flat rate of $545.

So far from our letters to familiy and friends we have collected $120.00.  The letters just went out, so we are hoping that we are able to get some kind of response from those.  We have also had lots of families commit to praying for us and the boys during this adoption process.  Thank you!!!

We are looking at raising around $20,000.00 total on the Liberian side which would include the boys’ legal fees and airline tickets.  Not sure the exact cost of the airline tickets, so this is just an estimate.

So for now I want to look at this in small goals.  Our first two goals have been reached….the home study is completed and paid for; the immigration paper work is ready to go with a check already written!  Now for our third goal:  the first half of the legal fees for Liberia…$7500!

So with that goal in mind, we now need to raise $7380!  If you have any ideas for fund raisers, let me know!

We are anxious to get this first portion sent in so we can have contact with the boys!  There is limited telephone use (cell phone), but we will have the opportunity to speak with them.  We can not wait until we have this opportunity.

Please pray for us in this whole process.  We are so excited to be able to move forward with what God has asked us to do.  We hope that you check here often for updates and keep our boys in your prayers!

February 2007

Dearest Family and Friends,

Did you know that all of us are adopted?  In Ephesians 1:4-6 the Bible states, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.”  Isn’t that awesome?!  We are all adopted, each and every one of us.

As many of you know, our family has grown by leaps and bounds over the past several years through the process of adoption.  Aubrey Danielle was added to our family in January of 2004 and Austin Michael came along not long after that in April of 2004.  God has truly blessed our family with the addition of these two beautiful children!  Both of their adoptions stories are different and both are uniquely special!

We have exciting news to share with you!  We have prayed and sought much counsel from God.  He has laid heavily on our hearts that He is wanting our family to grow again!  I can’t even  begin to tell you the excitement that is stirring in our house!  It amazes me how God works!   This time God is asking us to take a HUGE leap of faith!

So now that I have you on the edges of your seats, you may be wondering, “What is this HUGE thing that God is asking the Schweighardt family to do?”  Well, we have felt called to adopt three brothers from Liberia through an organization called Children Concerned (www.childrenconcerned.org).  Our sons names are Joel (age 4), Jeremiah (age 6) and Samuel (age 11).  They are such beautiful boys!  We knew they were the ones when we set eyes upon them.  You hear stories about people who have done adoptions overseas and they said that they just knew….that was how it was with us.  Children Concerned sent us pictures of possible matches and when Samuel, Jeremiah and Joel popped up, they spoke to our hearts. 

The process to bring our boys home can take up to a year.  A lot depends on paper work and being able to bring our funding together.  We are in the initial steps.  We are in the process of having our home study re-done (we have one, but it is not set up for international adoptions) and getting our paper work filled out for Immigration.  I guess you are probably wondering why we are sending this letter to you. 

There are two purposes in this letter.  The first is that we ask for your prayers!  Things that we would love for you to pray about:

1.      Pray that God will protect Jeremiah, Joel and Samuel

2.      Pray that God will guide our family in this whole process, that we will be patient and see God’s work unfold before us

3.      Pray that we can pull the financial resources that we need to bring our boys home

4.      Pray that through this process, God will allow us to be vessels that will encourage at least one other family to bring a child home

5.      Pray that God will let His light shine through our family and that in all that we do, we do it to glorify our Heavenly Father

You see, this whole process is not about us, the Schweighardt family, it is all about God!  It is all about the path that He wants us to go on!  We are His faithful servants and are here to serve Him!

Our second purpose in this letter is to ask for financial support.  Please pray about this and listen for God’s voice in your heart.  In our hearts, this is our missionary work.  Back in 2004 we went through some hard times when we were just getting our business up and going.  Its funny because during the deep trials in our lives is when we seem to walk closest to God.  It was really back in 2004 that God was preparing our hearts for this adoption.  God spoke to me through a particular verse, Genesis 12:1, “The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.’”  Then following that I had read a commentary in my Bible:

 In such ordinary things come the roar of God.  The quaking world is reborn in the name of nameless people who obeyed the extraordinary claim God held on their lives.  They were faithful, and in following their faithfulness, they were swallowed whole by God’s blessings. Did you once hear a whisper of simplicity?  Did it seem an unimportant thing?  Did it seem unreasonable?  Listen up!  God waits to bless you.  He longs to bless you.  All you have to do is say, “Yes, Lord, I will!”  Then act upon the whisper.

Taken from “The Fruit of the Spirit Bible”  published by Zondervan.

I had told Russell that I felt God telling me that one day we would become missionaries in Africa.  At that time we didn’t know when or what God would be calling us to.  Patience.  Psalm 32:8 states, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.”  Then Psalm 33:11 states, “But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever; the purposes of his heart through all generations.”  God has always planted deeply in my heart that adoption would be a part of our family and who we are.  God is so good.  Look what He has done!  He has called us to be missionaries in Africa.  We are going to bring our sons home and raise them in the Word of God.  Their culture will be very important for them.  Maybe they will be called back to Liberia to do God’s work one day!  What a joy that would be!!!

I have a friend in KY who took her children to the web page of Children Concerned and told them about our boys that we are bringing home, her son, Jesse, called me up and said, “Ms. Sonya.  I want to give you all of my allowance money so that you can bring those boys home.  It is $17.75.”  Thank you, Jesse, from the bottom of our hearts!!!

Please keep us in your prayers as our family moves forward on this journey that God has laid before us.  If you feel like God is leading you to help us financially, it is greatly appreciated.

We love all of you and thank you for your prayerful support on this adoption!  We have enclosed a recent family picture and a picture of our boys!  Please keep them close to your heart!

Blessings to you, God’s faithful servants,

Russell and Sonya Schweighardt

Anthony, Hannah, Austin, Hailey, Aubrey

Joel, Jeremiah and Samuel (our Liberian sons!)

Welcome to our new family blog!  We are so excited to have you here!  I think we will start out with some introductions so that you can meet the Schweighardt Clan!!!

Our fearless leader is Russell!  He is truly God’s servant and relies on much prayer and encouragement through God’s word.  He keeps our family in line.  He is a wonderful father and husband!  I am so blessed that God allowed the two of us to be together!  Russell is the owner and CEO of Oxygen Qualifying Services, INC.  This is our family business.  Actually, I had a typo there….God is the actual owner of the business and Russ is the manager!!  If you would like to learn more about our growing business, please visit  http//www.o2qs.com !

Next is the author of this blog….Sonya!  I am the wife to Russell and the mother of my beautiful children!  Those 2 jobs keep me rather busy!!!  On top of that, I keep the books for our business, home school, manage our house…..I guess you get the point!  I keep rather busy.  My heart’s desire has always been to write.  I thought this blog would be a fun a way to do just that!

We currently have 5 beautiful children.  They are all very active and keep me hopping! 

Anthony is 11!  He is my clown….litterally!  He is a member of Charlie Chaplain’s Jr Joey’s program.  It is a clown ministry at Frye Regional Hospital here in Hickory, NC!  When he is not busy clowning, he loves to play his harmonica and guitar.  He is looking forward to adventually learning to play the banjo.  He is hoping to one day play with the praise and worship team at church!

Hannah is 7….almost 8!!!  Hannah loves to play piano!  She also loves horses and being in the great outdoors.  She is very good at making crafts, drawing and painting!  She is trying to design a spoon doll for an upcoming fundraiser!  We’ll keep you posted!!!

Austin is 6.  Austin joined our family in April of 2004.  He is our little blessing from God!  I’ll share his story with you one day!  Austin just started piano lessons with Hannah.  He seems to be enjoying it!  Austin is all boy.  If you can’t find him….look up…..he will be in the top of the tree!  And if you can’t find him there, he is in the creek!  He has quick hands and can catch about anything…snakes, toads, lizards!!!

Hailey Rose is 6.  I call her and Austin my twins.  Everyone always asks me that because for part of the year, they are the same age.  One day someone asked me how many minutes apart were they….I said 6 months!!!!  You should have seen their face!!!  Hailey is our strong willed child.  She loves to be mommy’s little helper and I think she thinks she is the mommy sometimes!!  Hailey is excited because she can help crack the eggs now when we cook!

Aubrey Danielle is 5.  Aubrey is our little live wire!  She joined our family in January of 2004.  She loves to talk and will talk your ear off if you let her.  Aubrey has a smile that will brighten up any room and she has a sweet little voice that sings so beautifully!

The other part of our family is my beautiful sister Mandy who lives in an apartment in our lower level.  She and her handsome son,Orion, live with us.  They are a part of our everyday lives and our home school adventures!  Mandy is such a HUGE help to me!  It has been such a joy to have the two of them around and to see Mandy grow in the Lord!

Our “little” family loves the Lord and we make that such a huge part of our daily lives.  I love to see how the Lord works!  I love to see how our children walk with Him each day!  I thank the Lord each day for all of my blessings and for allowing us to home school the 5 blessings that He has entrusted us with!

I hope you enjoy our blog!!!