The Power of a Paper

I'd venture to say that most people enjoy getting things in the mail (not counting bills, of course).  I, however, LOVE getting things in the mail, and this
<------- is one of the reasons why! I had to sing the "Mail Song" when this letter came on Saturday...you know, "Here's the mail, it never fails, it makes me want to wag my tail"....yeah, we do that in this house. This official-looking Power of Attorney document has been notarized, certified, stamped, sealed and blessed by the Secretary of State and is ready to be inserted into our dossier with approximately 25 other notarized and official-looking documents, including one that I find particularly humorous - my employment verification form- written and signed by me, of course. Oh, and notarized.  Just waiting on two more documents and our fingerprinting appointment letter, and this baby (yes, it has literally become one of my children in the past 2 months) will be shipped off, along with 3 duplicate copies of the whole shebang, to AGCI in Portland, and then to the Ministry of Women's Affairs in Addis Ababa.  Whew!

Simply Love update

Hi all!  PayPal has finally been fixed, and you can now order Simply Love products directly from the Simply Love Fundraiser page on our blog.  Just scroll down past the product descriptions to select your products and check out with PayPal!  Please note that PayPal charges us a $1-2 fee for each transaction made, so if you'd like to add $1-2  to your total to cover the transaction fee, we would really appreciate it!  Thank you again for your love and support - it really means a lot to us!

Here's a Thought...

If 300 people donated just $50 apiece, the remainder of our adoption would be covered...please prayerfully consider supporting our adoption fundraisers - we will bring this little girl home no matter what it takes, but she will come home much more quickly with the love and support of our families, friends, community and other supporters.

5 Million Orphans.... Minus 1

Faces of Adoption Video by All God's Children International - these are all children who were adopted by AGCI families in 2011.  105 Ethiopian children were matched with their Forever Families in 2011, and to date, AGCI has placed more than 500 Ethiopian children.  There are still 5 million orphans in Ethiopia alone...minus 1. 

A Charity Project Fundraiser

We've launched a second fundraiser for anyone interested in making a monetary donation.  We're using a website called "A Charity Project Fundraiser".  Our fundraiser is called "Betasab Means Family: Adoption Fundraiser for the Bright Family".

This is the link: http://www.acharityproject.com/f/BetasabMeansFamilyAdoptionFundraiser

You do not need a PayPal account to use this website and you can be assured that it is a secure connection. Check out the link above or the "A Charity Project Fundraiser" tab on the blog's home page. 

Once again, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your love and support!

Simply Love Fundraiser

We've launched our Simply Love Fundraiser - check it out!

Depraved Indifference

Deuteronomy 10:18 - "He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow..."

     Awhile back, a friend of ours posted this video on Facebook.  Buck and I were in the middle of completing 12+ hours of required online adoption courses and took a break to watch it.  Before watching the video, we were weary, impatiently wanting these courses to be done and over with, and wondering if all of this work was worth the trouble.  By the end of the video, we were both in tears and knew without a doubt that we had to forge on and do anything necessary, no matter how tedious or tiring, to bring this little girl home.  The question on both of our minds, although it wasn't spoken, was "What if this was Juliana?"

A Little Bit....About Us

"Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you."

James 1:27

      We're the Brights - I'm Natalie, a stay-at-home mom to Juliana, our joyful, silly, incredibly loving one year old daughter.  My husband, Buck, and I have been married for three and a half years and we live in Morgantown, WV.  We have decided to add to our family through adoption, and are in the process of adopting a little girl from the beautiful country of Ethiopia.  This is our story so far...we hope you'll follow along as we continue our journey towards Addis Ababa to bring our beautiful girl home.