Concert update and auction item

Pickin' & Pies is less than two weeks away!  Aaaahhhh!!!!!  We have been super busy making final preparations and every day more and more things are falling into place that I can only attribute to God working out every detail for us.  I went out to Roaring Creek Farm last week and took Jonathan and the boys with me for the first time.  It was a gorgeous fall day, and I was just imagining how beautiful everything will be out there in the next two weeks as the leaves start changing.  

We are so SO excited!  (I know I keep saying that, but we just are!)  Remember to bring a pie (or two) and some blankets, chairs, whatever you want to make yourself comfortable for the afternoon.  In addition to the music, Joseph Kirkpatrick will be doing a live auction of a few items as well as some entertainment that I'm sure will not disappoint.  :)  Annnnd... we have two sweet, talented photographers that have generously donated their time who will be documenting the day for us as well as taking some family photos on the farm with your choice of some vintage props!  At the end of the concert, we will hopefully be showing a very special short film that some great and talented friends have been working on for us.  So we hope you will come prepared to stay for a whole afternoon of fun and fellowship!  We will have t-shirts for sale- our adoption shirts and some limited edition Pickin' & Pies shirts- and Jonathan has been spending many many precious weekend hours building crosses that we will have there to sell.  They are beautiful.  

In addition to what's going on at the concert, we have some seriously exciting auction items that have been donated to help bring Lulah home. Our dear friend, Hall of Fame Songwriter and Producer Roger Murrah, has generously donated the following items that we are offering as an online auction:

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Hall of Fame Songwriter Roger Murrah
To Offer Services At Auction

Nashville, TN For songwriters wanting to become more professional, this may be an opportunity for you. Hall of Fame songwriter, Roger Murrah, will be offering-at-auction 3 Two-Hour Consulting Sessions (with the bid starting at $250 per session), as well as 2 Six-Hour Co-Writing Sessions (with the bid starting at $2,500 per session). All proceeds will be going to benefit the Jonathan and Shawna Sheahen family, for expenses incurred in the adoption of thier new little daughter, Tallulah, who will be coming home soon to Nashville from Madagascar. For complete information, please call Shawna at 615-513-4168.

About Roger Murrah: http://www.nashvillesongwritersfoundation.com/l-o/roger-murrah.aspx
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Roger with Al Jarreau

This man is a precious and gifted man, and we are so grateful to him for such an incredible donation. But, we need your help to get the word out to the right people that will be interested in this.  I figure that everybody knows somebody that is trying to get in the music business or already is but would greatly benefit from either the consulting session or songwriting session. Just look up Roger's bio and see all the amazing things he has done and awards he's received!  He wrote Don't Rock the Jukebox and High Cotton, for cryin' out loud!  Please share this on your blog, facebook page, copy it and email it to people you know, tweet about it, whatever. This doesn't just apply to Nashville people!  

We would so much appreciate your help in letting people know about it. Bids can be placed either by commenting on this post on our facebook page, sending me an email or calling me.  The auction will be open until November 13th. Let me know if you have questions or need more information.

Thank you for your help.  Every day, every act of kindness, every donation made, every prayer lifted up, brings us one day closer to bringing one orphan home.  To God be the glory.

Pickin' & Pies! A Benefit Concert for Lulah

I am so so SO excited to share with y'all about this concert right here.  Did I say SO EXCITED??  This has been in the works for a loooong time and it. is. finally. happening.  A friend had suggested about a year ago that this would be really cool to do (which I agreed) and especially here in Nashville where we know so many incredibly gifted musicians that are more than willing to share their talents.   So, after a long time of thinking and praying about it, waiting for certain things to happen, gathering the right people, it's time.  

{Thank you to Amanda Speer for designing this lovely poster for us!}

I can't even tell you how much we have already seen God at work in this.  For starters, He has totally blessed us with a beautiful venue.  When planning first began, we really had no idea where we were going to have this concert.  Several ideas were thrown around, but the one thing I kept coming back to was that I wanted it outside, ideally on a farm, in my favorite little Tennessee town of Leiper's Fork.  Okay, I know that's getting pretty picky, but that's just the picture I had in my head.  I'm a dreamer.  Work with it.  Well, we know lots of people who know lots of people that have farms all over middle Tennessee.  I asked these people who asked their people, but nothing was working out it seemed.  Then about a month ago, after weeks of looking and coming up with nothing, I started emailing people.  Random people, that is.  Meaning- people that I don't know.  This is kinda how I work.  I just start asking, thinking it doesn't hurt to ask.  (if you don't know our wedding story, ask me sometime)  And, it just so happens that one of these random people said "Yes" and made me one happy girl.  Meet Paul, aka "Farmer Joe" of Joe Natural's Cafe in Historic Leiper's Fork. 
                                  

giving us the tour

I had met Paul a couple of years ago at his adorable little locavore cafe in Leiper's Fork.   He has a farm where he grows much of what they use at the cafe and sources locally anything else that he doesn't grow.  He hosts a farm to table dinner every month that I know about only because I am on their email list.  So I knew that they hosted some events on the farm, although I had no idea if they ever did anything else there besides the monthly dinner, and if they were even willing to let anyone that they didn't know host something there.  I knew this was a long shot, but, like I said before, it doesn't hurt to ask.  We have had a couple of brief conversations before but I knew he wouldn't remember me, so I emailed him and told him who I was and what we were doing, and that I was just wondering if they ever hosted any outside events at the farm.  Within a few minutes he emailed me back and said, "Let me see what we can do."  I read it and started crying.   It honestly blew me away that he was even considering it.  But why should it have blown me away?  Earlier that very week, after hitting dead ends everywhere, I started praying hard that God would work this detail out.  That He would lead us to a great venue; just any venue at that point.  Could this be it?  I replied back to thank him and let him know that we could work with just about anything and started praying more.  In two days He answered that prayer when I got this second email from Paul:

I'm inclined to let you use the farm free of charge. Our customary fee for the venue is $5,000 for the day.  

WHAT??!!  Although we were hoping to not have to pay for a venue, we were thinking that we may need to the way things were looking. In my emails to random people, I had said that we could pay something, although not much, since we were trying to raise money, not spend it.  My mind was blown even more.  Not only did we have a venue, but it's a farm, in Leiper's Fork, and we are paying $0 for it. $0 when they typically charge $5,000.  AND- it's a man that we don't even know.  Our Father keeps on blessing abundantly.  I went out to the farm the next week with a couple of sweet friends, and Paul gave us the grand tour.  The chickens and the pigs and the horses and the dogs were all there to greet us.  We tasted some unbelievably sweet cherry tomatoes and enjoyed just walking the farm and getting to see a little snippet of farm life.  {He is a New Yorker and former mall developer, with a really interesting story on how he came to this bitty little town in Tennessee.}  When I thanked him over and over and told him he really didn't know how much this meant to us, he just said, "Well, I just thought it would be a good thing to do."  He is using what he has been blessed with to be a blessing to others, and so the circle continues.   

Roaring Creek Farm

We have an awesome line up of musicians that I can't wait for you to hear.  Each one of them are different and special in their own way.  From close family, to close friends, to almost strangers, they all share a love for our Lord and have eagerly and graciously joined our cause. We can't thank them enough for their generosity.   We are asking everyone to bring a pie or two to share, a blanket and chairs and we will provide coffee, cider, water and some other treats to snack on throughout the afternoon.  We have some fun activities planned along with some live auction items and an emcee that provides a level of hilarity that I can't even describe to you.  If you don't know Joseph Kirkpatrick, you need to come just for him alone if for no other reason.  If you do know him, you might be coming for him alone, and we're okay with that.   You can purchase tickets ahead of time at www.loveforlulah.eventbrite.com or pay at the gate.   We have a facebook event page that you can join and keep up with more specific details as we get closer to the day.  It's set up so that you can invite your friends so please share and help us spread the word!  We'll be doing some giveaways soon so keep checking back for your chance to win!  

We hope you will join us for a day of great music, yummy pies, good people, beautiful scenery and God's glory.  All for a little girl named Tallulah, who we are patiently waiting for in hope.  

"Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." Romans 8:24-25

***please see our most recent post for a concert update and fabulous auction item that has been donated for our cause!  

A call to prayer

It's official.  Our dossier has made it to it's final destination- the Adoption Central Authority in Madagascar!!!  Hallelujah praise Jehovah!!  We have filled out every single form ever created, gotten every certification/authentication that is possible for us to get (from here to Madagascar) and jumped through every hoop necessary to finally make it to the wait list.  50 weeks ago we started this journey and sent in our initial application.  We've been told that the estimated wait time from here to be matched with a child is 6-12 months. We know that it could be longer than that, but we also know that it could be shorter than that.  Only God knows.  All we know for sure is that we are praying hard that God will move quickly on Tallulah's behalf and bring us together soon, if that is His will.   We are overjoyed to get to this point and just can't wait to see her face.  Thank you God!!!

A few weeks ago, I was spending the day with a dear friend.  I was sharing with her something about how our process was going (can't even remember what specifically) and she said, "So why aren't we praying about this more?".  She is a prayer warrior if there ever was one, and her saying that really has stuck with me.  Not that I think people aren't praying; I know lots and lots of people are because you've told me you are.  But, just like in my last post,  I do think we need to be more public and more specific with our prayer requests during this process, and I know that the more people that are praying for us and for Tallulah is what will bring God the most glory.  And isn't that the ultimate goal here?

I love the passage in 2 Corinthians where Paul is dramatically recounting the story of he and Timothy's impending death in Asia.  After telling them how God rescued them and he knows He will do it again, he asks the Corinthians to join him in prayer:

"Join us in this work. Lend us a hand through prayer so that many will give thanks for the gift that comes to us when God answers the prayers of so many."  (2 Cor. 1:11 The Voice)

And I love how the New Century Version words this passage.  As I was reading it, I added my own words in regards to Tallulah's story: 

"We had great burdens that were beyond our own strength.  Truly, in our own hearts we believed that {Tallulah might never come home}. But this happened so we would not trust in ourselves but in God, who raises people from the dead... We have put our hope in Him, and He will {bring her home}. And you can help us with your prayers. Then many people will give thanks because of what will happen to us—that God blessed us because of their many prayers."

So, as we are praying that God will move quickly, we are going to ask for you to do the same.  We are not trusting in our own strength or resources to bring Tallulah across oceans, but are trusting God totally and putting all hope in Him.  If you feel compelled to do so, we would like to invite you to join us in prayer on Sunday nights at 9pm CST, until Tallulah gets home.  Yes, you read that correctly, until she gets home.  Our specific prayer requests may change, but for now, we ask that you join with us in our prayers: 

• for her to know that she is God's child and He loves her and takes great delight in her
• for God to comfort her and for her to know that comfort comes from Him
• for her to feel God's presence with her
• for God to give her hope that she indeed has a family and that they are coming for her
• and lastly that God will move quickly on her behalf and that she will be an orphan no more

Like I've said before, this is a battle we are fighting against the evil one, who doesn't want this to happen, who doesn't want her to know God's love and the love of a family.  And every spiritual battle needs to be covered in prayer.  If you're anything like me and have to set a reminder on your phone to put clothes in the dryer, then by all means set your alarm!  Pray by yourself, with your spouse or make this a part of your family prayer time.  Again, I know that many of you have told me that you are already praying daily for us, (and thank you for that!) but what a beautiful picture it would be if so many of God's children (yes, I know that there are only 8 people subscribed to my blog, but I have to believe that a few more than that read it :) were praying all at the same hour of the night for this precious child, to the Mighty One who saves. Praying to the only One who will win this battle for her.  

We would love to know how many prayer warriors will be joining us, so feel free to leave a comment here or on our Love for Lulah facebook page.  Thank you for loving us and helping us bring her home.  

Really, really, REALLY good news.

Two weeks ago, our dossier F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. made it out of the Malagasy Embassy and boarded a plane for Madagascar.  Can I get a big AMEN!!!  It was beginning to look like we were never going to get out of the states after being stuck at the embassy for over 7 weeks, but just when frustration was setting in, I opened my email to see this:

Hi Shawna,

Your dossier is on its way to Madagascar! Congratulations!

Best regards,

Micah 

Oh, you can imagine how happy that little sentence made us!!!  I'm sure that sweet Micah at our agency had no idea that she just made our summer!!  Well, she might have had some idea since I had been bugging her every week for about the last seven weeks.  The coolest part of this milestone was this:  The day before this email came, during prayer request time at church, I asked for prayers for our adoption process and specifically that God would get our dossier unstuck at the embassy and move it on to Madagascar FAST.  It had been a while since either one of us had asked for prayers for our adoption in a public setting, but that morning it was really on my heart to ask everyone to pray about it.  I had been getting some conflicting reports about how things were going in the Mada program from different sources, and I just was feeling discouraged and unsure to be honest.  Jonathan told me when we got home later that he actually was going to ask for the same thing but I beat him to it.  Then, the first email I opened up Monday was that little jewel above.  I love how God loves to so quickly and obviously answer our prayers sometimes.  He gets ALL the glory for that.  Hallelujah!!   

"And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us."       1 John 5:14

Thank you, Father, for continuing to blow us away by Your faithfulness and Your love.    

Our dossier has made it to Madagascar, so what does that mean?  Well, we are not on the official waiting list yet.  It still has a couple more weeks of certification that it has to go through before it gets to the Central Authority.  (I'm surprised they didn't make it stop at every country it flew over to get their certification too)  When it gets to the CA (hopefully by the end of the month), we will be put on the wait list to be matched with a child.  We have been told the wait time for a referral is around 6-12 months.  We are currently the 4th US family on the list as it is such a new program here in the states, but ahead of us are European families and we have no idea how many.  So, we ask you to continue to pray BIG that God will move QUICKLY and bring us to Tallulah as soon as His time and purposes are served.  

I feel bad that I've been sitting on this news for two weeks, but it has been the last two weeks of summer break around here and I have been trying to savor the time that was left with the boys.  Today was the first full day of school, so summer break is officially over.  We had a really great summer and had the opportunity to take an incredible two week trip together.  It was a trip full of dear friends, beautiful sights, hard work and amazing witness of the light of Jesus that is breaking through in a very dark place.  I am hoping to share about it soon.  It was a summer we will never forget- and this news was a wonderful way to end it!  

I have gobs of photos from the trip that I will eventually share- but I'll leave you with this sweet one for now.  After a 70+ hour work week last week for Jonathan, he spent a lot of time Saturday making more of the crosses that we are selling.  Eli wanted to help of course, so I snapped this of them both working hard.  Can't wait until she can see this picture one day, of a father and brother's love for a girl they've never met.  

  

ps- I am having an instasale on instagram Thursday night at 9 CST.  I'm cleaning out closets as another way to raise money for our adoption!  If you don't follow me already, find me on ig if you'd like to participate.  @sugarmillie  If you've never done one before, well I haven't either, so I know just about as much as you.  :)