thirty-one fundraiser

Hey guys….we have one last fundraiser for Josiah. We are so close. In the home stretch…finally : )

My friend Stephanie Long is a consultant for Thirty-One Gifts and she so kindly offered to help us raise the last bit of the funds that we need to bring Josiah home.  So, shopping to help an orphan to be united with his family…sounds good, right?

The fundraiser began today and will be open until April 13^th. 25 % of the sales will go towards bringing Josiah home.  All you do is go to : www.mythirtyone.com/stephlong and click on "My Events" and "Shop Now" by Braniff Adoption Fundraiser.  For those of you that are out of town, make sure NOT to check the box for "ship to hostess" when you check out.

If you’re familiar with Thirty-One then you know that they have such cute purses and bags and lots more. And what a great message behind it (Proverbs 31). 

Thank you guys so much for supporting our journey to Josiah. I hope you find something wonderful in the Thirty-One catalog  : )

If you have any questions about the fundraiser or the products feel free to email Stephanie at 31bystephlong@gmail.com

Blessings,
Rob and Lisa  

afternoon at the lakefront

It's not too late...

We have 10 days left in our Both Hands Project so it’s not too late to make a difference in the life of an orphan.

We spent the day on March 10^th working with our team on Ms. Debbie’s home.

If you haven't seen the video...please check it out:



What an honor is was to serve her with an amazing group of people that love the Lord, love the widow and love the orphan. It was a great experience. I really think we were blessed more than she was !

Although we’re finished with the work day part of the project we are still fundraiser to bring Josiah home. We are very close to having all the funds we need to complete our adoption. Please consider making a tax deductible donation to Lifesong for Orphans. 100% of your donation goes directly to our adoption expenses.  To donate you can click on the link below:

Braniff Family Both Hands Project Page

You can also make a difference by praying for us. Rob will be leaving on May 4^th and traveling alone to China. He will be united with Josiah on May 7^th.  It will be a tough transition as Josiah doesn’t speak any English and Rob will have to be both mom and dad for those couple weeks. It’s going to be tough on this Momma too because I won’t be there to help him through this difficult time. The girls are going to miss their Daddy so much. In seventeen years (almost 18) we’ve never been a part more than a few days… I’m going to miss him too. Please cover all of us in your prayers. It means the world to us.  

I want to thank all of you for your support both financially and prayerfully. Obedience to God’s call is not always easy. Actually, it’s almost never easy : ) but with the support of family and friends we’ve been able to say “Yes” to the Lord and “Yes” to the orphan.  We’ve walked humbly through so much by His amazing grace and love and by your support.   

Because of your support another orphan will be orphaned no more.  Today he is Fan Jian Guo and on May 7^th he will be Josiah Jian Guo Braniff… our beloved son.

Much love to you all,

lisa

To learn more about Lifesong for Orphans and Both Hands

love the beach...in March...love living here !

 

 

Officially counting down....

Each morning they come with scissors in hand ready to cut another chain off. Another day closer to Daddy leaving for China. Another day closer to their little brother being home with us.



Afternoon at the park...



Both Hands Project Update

Our project went so well.  Ms. Debbie was so blessed. We were so blessed. Our team was amazing. Truly the body of Christ coming together for the widow and orphan. It was a beautiful thing. Here is a little video of our day....





Although the work day is over we still have a ways to go with the fundraising aspect of the project. Lifesong for Orphans will accept donations for us until March 31st....so if you would like to help bring our sweet Josiah home, click here:  Braniff Both Hands Project

Please feel free to spread the word about our project. We stepped out in faith and booked Rob's airline tickets....Yikes! We've never been quite here before. Every adoption has required faith and obedience but it seems like each time it's a little harder. I love the results of growing in my faith, but the growing pains....well, that's another story : ) We have to use our travel authorization by the end of May so we had to take that leap.  I am really disappointed that we all can't go, but that's just the way it has to be. I'm trying not to be bummed about it, but it's hard. It will be much less disruptive for the girls if I stay here and let Rob go. He travels much than I do any way. And he will do just fine with Josiah...I keep telling myself that : ) So, we bought the tickets and are trusting that God will provide for the rest. Thank you for standing with us in prayer. It means the world to us.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

like Peas and Carrots....

Fishin with Daddy

We celebrated my goddaughter's birthday today (Happy Birthday Kristen....how can you be 21 years old already ?) and the girls were able to have some fun fishing as well.

In fact Izzy caught her first fish today : ) She was so excited. She was sad though that the fish didn't get to eat the shrimp before he was caught. She wanted to feed it to him before we tossed him back in. She said "Well Momma he deserves it" .... how sweet is that?

And it was Mei Mei's first time fishing ! 

Look at this big girl........

TA...... : )

Yes, we got our Travel Authorization. Yippee !!!!!  I'm so excited. Overjoyed. Freaking out a bit. It's crazy to think that the paper chase is over. We heard Friday which surprised me. It came quicker than I thought it would. Praise God. Now for the : ( part of it. We haven't raised enough funds yet to go get him. We've never been here before.  For both Izzy and Mari we had all the funds exactly when the TA came.  I know this is about faith.  There's potential for serious growth here. I know it. It's not lost on me, but this is also not easy knowing that I could go get him now if we had raised all the money we needed. So the deal is you have 90 days to use your TA and we have a big Both Hands Project happening on the 10th. We're also waiting to hear back from some grant organizations. Worse case scenario is that we raise just enough for Rob to go alone to get our little guy which is not so bad.  International airfare for all of us is crazy expensive, but if God plans for all of us to be there to welcome Josiah into our family then the girls and I will go.  And the other : ( is the chance of going in March is fading fast. Just too much too soon to probably make that work and April is full of holidays and trade shows in China which makes it nearly impossible to travel to where we need to go during that month. So we or Rob will more than likely be leaving on May 3rd unless of course God does something crazy cool which is always possible....we serve a mighty God ya know : )

So back to celebrating.......Josiah is coming home.....SOON !