Live Love

Everyone loves a good tee shirt.  How about a cool looking shirt AND a good cause?!  For the next 10 days, we are partnering with Buffalo Chrome.  $11 from every t-shirt sold goes towards helping us bring Mahesh home.  Please share this page and get everyone you know to order a shirt. This is just one small way we can Live out Love!

Order your shirt today!                                        http://www.chromebuffalo.com/a/cb?drive=379

Shop Amazon.com And Help Us Raise Money

Looking for a way to support our adoption but not sure how?  Ever shop on Amazon.com?  Well, now you can shop on Amazon WHILE helping us raise funds for our adoption.  Yep, simply go to:


www.amazon.com?_encoding=UTF8&tag=jouwitthethu-20 


OR, click on the link on the side of our blog.  You will be taken to "our portal" for Amazon.  You do your normal Amazon shopping and they give us a % of the sale towards our adoption costs.  How awesome is that?!

Please pass this link along to your friends EVERYONE you know and help us bring Mahesh home!

A Little Bit Here & There

As we have been trying to think "outside of the box" to raise money for our adoption, I stumbled across a website with lots of interesting fundraisers.  I thought that for now, instead of trying to do another big fundraiser, what if we did a few small, practical ones.  So, here is one way to help:

Love coffee?  There is a company called Just Love Coffee that was started by a family that went through the adoption process to start their family. They realized that the cost of adoption is so expensive and that many people simply cannot afford to adopt, even though they want to.  They started the company and allow people that are adopting to fundraise through their company. In their first two years of business they have given over $200,000 to adopting families, non-profit organizations, and the arts.   What can you do?  If you buy coffee, simply start buying it through our "store" on their site.  A portion of  the sales will go into our adoption fund.  You get great FAIR TRADE coffee AND you help us.  WIN-WIN!

Go to www.justlovecoffee.com/journeywiththethurstons  or simply click on their logo on the side of our blog!


Stay tuned for other ways to support our adoption.

Thanks,
Tobey

Thank You!!

We are blown away by all of the love & support we are receiving. THANK YOU!! We had our first fundraiser 2 months ago and we have already raised 33% of our goal!

It's a Boy!

Introducing........ MAHESH!  

We met Mahesh during our trips to India.  He is 10 years old and a student living at Jackson Mission School.  Here is a little of his story:

Mahesh was born into a very poor family. His father passed away when he was three. He has an older brother and sister.  Mahesh had health issues from the time he was born, including a form of tuberculosis, that left him paralyzed on the left side of his body. He has since gained back full use of his left side, except for his hand.  After his father passed away, his mother struggled to feed Mahesh and his siblings and to be able to pay all of the medical expenses. Due to lack of medical attention, Mahesh grew terribly sick.  During this time, Mahesh’s mother heard of Global Gospel Ministries and the Jackson Mission School. She contacted Dr. Kadari, who  invited Mahesh to live at the school. He now enjoys good food, medical attention, schooling and clothing.

Last summer, one of the guys we traveled to India with spent time helping Mahesh do physical therapy on his left hand. In addition, a team member gave a $100 donation to allow Mahesh to receive more medical care for his unusable hand. After three months of physical therapy, Mahesh’s arm has been almost completely  healed and he can use his hand for the first time!!

We have enjoyed getting to know Mahesh since visiting India in 2011, 2012 and then again in 2013 (Todd stayed home in 2013).

It was during the 2013 trip that God started laying Mahesh on my heart.  Todd and I had made the decision to pursue adoption. We just weren't sure which direction God was leading us.

After returning home, we spoke to a local attorney about how to find out IF we can even adopt Mahesh, since he is not really an orphan.  Our first step was to find out if his mom would allow him to be adopted.  After hearing more about us (and our love for India) and seeking counsel from her Pastor, she agreed to sign off her parental rights and allow us to adopt him!  I could not imagine having to make that decision but she knows he will be well taken care of.  

Our second step was to hire an attorney in India. His job was to find out if Mahesh is "adoptable" by Indian government standards.  They normally do not like to split up sibling groups.  However, we found out today that he is adoptable!  This is based on his mom agreeing to give up her rights, her inability to care for him and, because of his arm/hand issues, he is considered "special needs."

We started this journey just 2 months ago and have already claimed him as our son.  We talk about what life will be like when he comes home. We have done some fundraising (the adoption will cost approximately $20,000!) and have raised just over $6500 so far!

Check back often for updates on our journey as well as more pictures of that sweet little boy that will one day call me mom!