Woodland Park Zoo & Visiting relatives

Last weekend we took a quick trip to the west side of WA and visited with some family and friends and visited the Zoo. The kids did great and loved seeing the animals...though most of them were lifeless because we got there right after lunch.

The kids loved having 'Uncle' Greg push them around in the wheel-barrow.

These next two pictures were taken 5 minutes after we left the zoo!

If you look closely at Ezra's hand...you'll see he is holding a sea shell he found earlier that day. He later dropped it on a tile floor and that was the end of that.

Greenup Family Prayer and Plea

Dear Family and Friends,




Some of you know we have felt called and directed by God to adopt “fatherless” children into our family. We are adopting another child or children from Ethiopia sometime in the next 4 – 8 months!

You may be wondering what has prompted us to adopt again. Primarily, we’ve felt so clearly directed by God to adopt that we want to obey Him, and we also desire to give an orphan child a family that he probably won’t otherwise have. God desires for orphans of all nations to be loved, cared for and adopted into Christian families – ultimately so they can become saved, and be adopted into His eternal family through Jesus Christ! There are so many things God has used to prick our hearts and move us to adopt, here are a few:

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction… James 1:27

Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will – Ephesians 1:5

The facts are staggering how many children are orphaned each day- we’re talking thousands! 43,000 children become orphans each day & nearly 11 million children die each year before their 5th birthday. Ezra Abera has been a joy to have as our child and we are wanting to live a life of faith and extend our home to more children who are in such desperate, life-threatening situations.

The biggest challenge for us is not opening our hearts and home to another child, but it is in finding the finances to make this happen. Thankfully we serve a Great and Mighty God who will supply everything we need to live the life of faith He calls us to. We estimate our total cost for adoption fees, document preparation, home study, airfare, travel, attorney fees, etc. to be between $22,000 - $26,000- that’s certainly money we don’t have, but we know God is faithful and is leading us to trust Him. By God’s grace $10,500 of the total $22,000 to $26,000 has already been used to start this long journey of international adoption.

Honestly, it is difficult (because of our pride), to make our needs known to the Body of Christ around us, but we also know it’s very biblical to do so. We appreciate your love and friendship very much and would like you to pray & consider helping us by taking part in this adoption. There are two ways you can help:

1. Prayer – Please pray God would continue to encourage and exhort our hearts to live a life of faith and to be risk-takers for the glory of God. Also, please pray for our hearts to sacrificially love the child or children God graciously provides for us.

2. Financial support - Will you please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us pay the remaining $11,500 - $16,500 in adoption expenses, to bring our child(ren) home from Ethiopia?


If you would like to be a part of God bringing our child(ren) to Himself through our family, you can send your tax-deductible donation to our adoption agency. Christian World Adoption is a trusted organization administering the funds on our behalf, and will pay adoption expenses out of funds received. If you want to learn more about the organization we are using in our adoption, please visit their website @ www.cwa.org .

1. Please make checks payable to: Christian World Foundation. You may preference how the donation might be used by writing “Greenup family Adoption” in the memo line of your check.
(*Note: In following IRS guidelines, your donation is to Christian World Foundation, which retains full discretion and control over its use.)


2. Mail checks to:
Christian World Foundation
Attn: Greenup family adoption
777 South Allen Road
Flat Rock, NC 28731

3. Online Donation: If you would prefer to give via the internet,
a. Click this link or type it into your browser https://www.cwa.org/DonationForm.aspx
b. Fill out ‘Donor Information’ Section
c. Under the ‘Specify Donation’ drop down menu, select ‘General Fund’
d. Next, under the ‘optional’ menu, select ‘CWA family’ and input the information below

Dustin & Heidi Greenup
2827 W. Sanson
Spokane WA 99205

If you have any follow up questions, please don’t hesitate to call us, email us, facebook us, text us!!!

Thank you for investing in the Kingdom through prayer and finances – it will be an investment with an eternal return!

For the glory of Christ Jesus,

Dustin, Heidi, Ezra and Olivia

Watoto Children's Choir

This past weekend our church hosted the Watoto Children's choir for a concert on Saturday night and Sunday morning at church. Both sides of our parents the privilege to host some of the choir members for a few nights. Yesterday, we went over to the Sawatzky's for a BBQ and to get some time with some Ugandan believers. It was a true joy to hear how God is working in Uganda and was fun to spend some time with them. Check out their website to see if they are going to be doing a concert in your area. Their concert is very Christ-centered and very African!!!

www.watoto.com

Auntie Linda, Uncle Alex, Ian & Dovin

Dovin loved playing with Olivia...and Olivia quickly warmed up to him
Ian was very gracious and played with Ezra and kept him busy

Aunt Amy Visit

Sorry it has been so long since we posted last. Amy, Heidi's sister, came and visited from Portland a few weeks ago. We had lots of fun showing her around...Manito Park, pictures with the kids, etc.

Ezra getting his first bite of a Domini's sandwich

Aunt Amy reading story to Olivia
Ezra with Aunt Julie & Aunt Amy


Ezra is very happy with his first the chance to wear his mama's sunglasses

The kiddo's with Aunt Amy again

Easter Updates

Ezra loves Papa Watzky's hat
Caption:"You talking ta me?"

You'd think as a mom, I'd think twice about putting a baby in white clothes and then wear white myself.

Ezra was so excited he got to wear new clothes. Thanks Nana 'watzky" for the Easter outfits!

Olivia loves hats and found Nana's at her home after church.

This is Ezra with his cousins Jackson, Andrew, and Ethan. They got all snazzed up for Cousin Anna's wedding in Boise.

Olivia liked wearing her dress too

So another update for the adoption: We just about have all the paperwork done. We're waiting for our notaries to be authenticated by the Secretary of State and then we are sending the Dossier, along with a big fat check, to our adoption agency. We are leaping out in faith and trusting that God will provide for our everyday needs. Thanks to all of you who've been praying. We can really tell and we've already seen glimpses of God's provision for us. We have sent two grant applications in so we'll just wait to hear back from them and we have yet to do two more in the next couple of weeks. For anyone who wants to give towards the adoption, you'll be able to get a tax deduction when you send it to 'Lifesong. ' If you have questions, just ask. Thanks again and we covet your prayers in the days to come.

Adoption Update

It has been a while since we updated everyone about the status of our adoption. So we thought we'd do a little update.

* We received our home study and are approved to adopt 1 or 2 children

* We filed our paperwork (and $$$) with USCIS (US immigration) to give us the approval to adopt. We have scheduled appointment to get fingerprinted in mid-April.

* We are on the last few steps of our filling out our dossier (set of paperwork that is about 6 to 8 inches thick full of everything about our family, everything!) Once we have all of this compiled, we have to send it to our adoption agency to have it approved, then it goes to the Ethiopian Embassy in D.C., then Ethiopia to be translated, etc.)

* After all this is completed we are put on a list of people waiting for 'referral(s)' of a child or children.

We don't really know who read this blog regularly, but whether we know you extremely well or have never talked to you in our life, we would covet your prayers in the following ways.

1. For complete and utter dependence upon the Lord as He shows Himself faithful to us in this step of faith.

2. For our faith to be stretched (implicit requirement when seeking to adopt) and our love and affection for our Savior Jesus to grow and be our all-consuming passion.

3. The financial aspect of this adoption seems very daunting right now. We are currently in the process of applying for 4 different financial grants to help cover some of the initial cost of the adoption, but due to the economic times, all of the agencies have made statements that there are not a lot of funds to go around...but we're praying God would provide in miraculous ways!

Olivia turns 1 year old!

On Thursday, March 19th, Olivia turned 1 year old. It is absolutely amazing how fast this year has gone. Long gone are the days where she just laid on her blanket and whimpered & coo'd. At one year old, she has been walking since 10 1/2 months and last week started running around the house. She is sheer joy and full of spunk and life. She climbs on chairs, stools and small tables. If we turn away from her for more than 2.5 seconds, she is either climbing up the stairs without us knowing, running around the table or learning how to balance on a stool.

Olivia is a fan of chocolate cupcakes

The characteristic smile she gets when she gets on her stool and balances on her own. She is not content to just sit on a stool/chair...she wants to stand on top of it.

Two happy cousins who enjoy their picture being taken.

Olivia happy she is about to chow down her chocolate cupcake.
All the cousins together picture: If you look in the mirror in the back ground, you'll see that I am trying to entertain the kids to make them smile and look forward. (I failed)

Ezra's Happy Birthday tackle hug for Olivia

Olivia and Ezra playing their form of American Gladiator.

We had lunch with Mark and Amy Baker this weekend and here is a picture of Claire and Olivia with me.