Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Dear Glory,

Today we are celebrating your LIFE! You are one year old baby girl!

When we first saw your chubby cheeks and gummy smile you were only six months old. You have grown so much and we are so thankful God is sustaining you and caring for you while we are so far away!

We are all so excited to meet you and to hold you and to squeeze you and to kiss you. My heart nearly explodes when I think of the day we will get to do all of those things.

We want you to know that you are LOVED. You are loved by your family and by our friends and even by people we have never met but who heard of the amazing work God is doing to bring you to our family!

MOST IMPORTANTLY, you are loved by God. He is the one who made you and has kept you safe these last twelve months. He is supernaturally giving your little body the nutrition it needs and He is the one writing your story.

I know there will be times that are hard and your little heart will break trying to understand the pain and suffering you have endured. I promise to cry with you and hold you and love you but I know that will not be enough. I know the hole in your heart cannot be filled by me or Papa or our family. But we know the One who can fill it and we want to always point you to Him.

There are pieces of your story we don't know. You will have questions Papa and I cannot answer but we are praying EVEN NOW that you will be able to lay down those unknown pieces of your story and trust that God has brought you here in His all-knowing goodness.

This is hard baby girl. It is so, so hard. It will only make sense with Jesus.

We LOVE you and cannot wait to meet you!

Praying we always point you to Him,

Mommy + Papa

Waiting for Glory: Month Four

That's all I got today. Waiting sucks.

Give1Save1 week = blessed

THANK YOU  to everyone who donated to Glory's fund 

and shared our video last week! 

We were so blessed by your giving and sharing 

and even more blessed by your notes of 

encouragement and prayer!

AND the winner of our shop giveaway is....

Jenny A. Congrats Jenny and thank YOU for donating! 

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////

At the beginning of the year I decided to be more intentional with this space. 

Along with intentionality comes purposeful rest. 

I plan to rest from the blog and social media every seventh week. 

This is my week of rest and I NEED it. 

I spent a LOT of time online last week pushing our video. 

Now I rest. 

See you next week!

Waiting for Glory: Month Three

It's hard to believe it's been three months since we said Yes to Glory. It's even harder to believe we've made very little progress on the actual adoption process in that amount of time.

Would you pray with us? We have some specific prayer requests this month and would be so honored if you would pray for our girl.

• Please pray for her health. Pray that she would supernaturally receive the nutrition her little body needs to stay healthy and grow!
• Pray for the new processes with the US Embassy to quickly be smoothed out. Pray for the DRC officials, as they navigate the new requests and guidelines, that their hearts would not become hardened for adoption due to the extra work.
• Pray for our attorneys and that they would be diligent in completing this process quickly and ethically. 
• Pray for the Lord's will in regards to moving her into a foster home or keeping her in her current orphanage.
• Pray for our fundraising as it (hopefully) comes to a close.
• Pray for our hearts. Waiting is hard.

Waiting for Glory,

Give1Save1: UPDATE Day 4

It's day four of our Give1Save1 Africa week and we have raised $1,072 for Glory!

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone 

who has donated and shared our video. 

The Wallace Family Adoption Story from William H. Wallace II on Vimeo.

Would you consider sharing it AGAIN? 
Chances are, there are some folks who missed it 
the first time around. OR maybe someone (or several someones) saw it and thought 
"That's neat. I'll check it out later." 
but later got busy.

Remember, you can enter the giveaway below by sharing/tweeting/pining/donating once PER DAY. 
There's four days to go - that's a lot of entries!

In case you need a refresher, here's how it works:

• WATCH our video.
• GIVE $1. (See Donate button to the right.)
• SHARE our video on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, email, etc.
• ENTER to win one free item from our shop. (see below)
• REPEAT each day for one week.

The first $500 donated will be WAS matched by a generous grant from the Orphan Care Alliance!

It's that simple. Adoption for the people by the people. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Glory Story

Many of you are new here - 

WELCOME! 

We are honored and humbled to share our story because 

God is writing it for us.

Since there are so many newbies poking around 

I thought I would share our Glory Story. 

It was first posted on January 3rd of this year. 

(And as of Monday night over 550 people 
viewed our Give1Save1 video! 
Did you WATCH, GIVE, SHARE, ENTER, AND REPEAT? 
Do so here.)

Before bed each night we pray with our kids. Moses always wants to pray he doesn't have bad dreams. Meadow usually wants to pray for her babies or her Mimi. T wants to know what we are doing tomorrow and is then thankful for whatever that is. M always has a long list of people, animals and superheros.

One evening in October Meadow surprised us all when she requested we pray for her baby sister. I promptly explained she did not have a baby sister. There are boys as far as we can see - no sister in sight.

But she persisted.

Every night for almost a week she wanted to pray for her baby sister. Nothing we said could convince her otherwise. (Yes, we tried to talk our kid out of praying for something. We made Jesus proud.) William and I grew a little more freaked out each night and he made the next available appointment for the big snip surgery. For real.

What's In A Name?

The first referral we received from the DRC was a little boy name Gradi. Gradi is about 4 or 5 years old and we planned to give him the name Malachi - first or middle - it would have been his choice. Gradi went home to live with his uncle in February and the name Malachi came off our future-Wallace-babes-list.

In March when we met the mother of our foster boys (prior to meeting them), she pulled two photos out of her purse - one of each of them - and told us their names. Guess what M's name is?!?! We got our Malachi. (For the time being anyway:-)

Then there is the story of the two Moses'. I still find it no coincidence that I have a four year old little boy named Moses and there is another woman with a four year old little boy named Moise on the other side of the planet. For some reason he and his mother were brought into our lives and we're still trying to figure out what that reason is.

After we lost our referral for Moise, we decided to take a break from international adoption. We were, and still are, tired.

Shortly after determining we needed a break a few folks contacted me suggesting certain agencies or waiting child lists. I kindly blew them off.

All but one.

One email from a stranger included information about a waiting baby girl, and I almost hit delete, but then I saw her name. Glory.

Do you see that list up there?! That name, dead center?!


Glory is the name we had chosen for our next little girl.

Oh. S%*#.

I responded with my schpeel.  We have been in the process for almost four years, lost two referrals this year, we are tired, yada-yada-yada.

But. I. couldn't. get. Glory. out. of. my. mind.

I decided to do what is anti my personality. To not pursue her. Instead, I prayed. Specifically I prayed if Glory is ours, the nice stranger woman would email ME. Not the other way around.

I thought surely she would be gone. Who has healthy waiting baby girls? Surely someone would step forward for her, right?

Nine days later, the nice stranger woman sent me a message. Glory was still waiting.

I went to William, explained my prayer and that it had been answered. We decided to pray some more.

Pursuing Glory would mean starting over financially. From the beginning. The very beginning. Like $20,000 ago.

In order to get to the point of accepting Glory as our referral, we would need $11,000. So we prayed for God to give us a financial sign.

A few days later I finally had a chance to sit down and add up our Show Hope grant, Lifesong Foundation account (from our Both Hands project) and our savings. To our surprise it came to $10,885. Pretty close to $11,000 right?

Then, as we were getting ready for bed I emptied my pockets to find two checks from friends who had come over that day to purchase last minute Christmas gifts.

$11,000.

And that, my friends, is a sign. Confirmation to pursue this little girl we never even would have considered.

So here we are. In God's story. Waiting for Glory while He shows us His. Never having dreamed we would be here. Knowing we would never have chosen here on our own but so thankful for where God has us.  


I don't know your story, but I pray you find peace in knowing that He is not a part ofyour story but you are a part of His. 

It's Our Week! (Give1Save1)

We're super excited to be featured as the Give1Save1 Africa Family of the Week! 

Here's how it works:

• WATCH our video.
• GIVE $1. (See Donate button to the right.)
• SHARE our video on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, email, etc.
• ENTER to win one free item from our shop. (see below)
• REPEAT each day for one week.

The first $500 donated will be matched by a generous grant from the Orphan Care Alliance!

It's that simple. Adoption for the people by the people. 

The Wallace Family Adoption Story from William H. Wallace II on Vimeo.







a Rafflecopter giveaway

T-Shirt GIVEAWAY!

We're doing a t-shirt giveaway to help spread the word about our new shirts! 

Yay, free stuff!

Starting NOW, if you share about our t-shirts on Facebook, 

Tweet it or Pin the picture on Pinterest 

you'll be entered to win a t-shirt of your choice!

You have until Wednesday at midnight.

(here's our shop URL - http://wordfromthewallaces.bigcartel.com/)

Enter below via Rafflecopter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Waiting for Glory: Month Two

Glory raked in some big bucks this month! Our Beard for Glory campaign wrapped up last week at a total of about $4,600, we've received about $1,700 toward our $3,000 matching grant from the Orphan Care Alliance and today we got a $2,000 check in the mail from Families Outreach. Not a bad month!

Unfortunately, not much progress has been made on the process side of things... I did get Wallace homestudy number seven in the mail today so that is something. Next week it along with our fifth (six?) dossier will begin the long journey to the DRC. Goodbye paper chase, goodbye.

Since there's not much to report this month I decided to interview the kids and let them tell you what they are most excited about teaching Glory and doing with her when she gets home. Here are their unedited answers.

T: "How to walk. That is all."

Moses: "She can see my new bunk beds. I can carry her to the car. Glory will stay healthy when she gets home. I will teach her how to stand up, jump and clap. I will teach her my ninja moves." (He then demonstrated said ninja moves.)

M: "I am excited because I can rock-a-bye her. I can hold her. I can watch movies with her and show her where the jaguars are." (Note to self: Inquire about location of the jaguars.)

Meadow: "I am thankful I will rock-a-bye she. I will help her pee. I will play with she. Are we getting two kids?" NO. "Oh, I will hold she."

 And there you have it. This girl has a lot to look forward to.

Beard for Glory Kickoff!

You may not know this, but my husband has the God given ability to grow an "epic" beard.

The epic beard.

I didn't know either until last year when he grew out his beard for 12 full months. Said beard then took on it's own persona. I couldn't go anywhere with the beard without hearing "man, that beard is epic" or "great beard" from every other man the beard and I encountered.

I'm all for beards but I prefer my husband and being married to the beard got a little, well, hairy. I was thankful when the one year mark arrived and the beard had a long dicey encounter with a razor. 

The beard has been gone for barely two months and my hubby is already longing for it's return. So I thought, "How can a girl make the most of this legendary facial hair?"

And Beard for Glory was born.

Here's the deal folks - we're letting you in on a little marital wager. (Are we the only ones who do this when there is a disagreement? The wager part not the public on the interwebs marital disagreement part.)

Visit Beard for Glory and vote with your wallet. $5 buys you one day - beard or no beard.

On Valentine's Day, whoever has the most "days", or votes, wins. The beard grows or it goes for that number of days. YOU decide. The Point - ALL the money we raise gets us closer to bringing Glory home. Our goal for Beard for Glory is $5,000.

Ladies, if you consider yourself my friend, would you please skip your latte this week and buy a day or two for me? You know where I'm coming from right?

It's a Girl!

Before bed each night we pray with our kids. Moses always wants to pray he doesn't have bad dreams. Meadow usually wants to pray for her babies or her Mimi. T wants to know what we are doing tomorrow and is then thankful for whatever that is. M always has a long list of people, animals and superheros.

One evening in October Meadow surprised us all when she requested we pray for her baby sister. I promptly explained she did not have a baby sister. There are boys as far as we can see - no sister in sight.

But she persisted.

Every night for almost a week she wanted to pray for her baby sister. Nothing we said could convince her otherwise. (Yes, we tried to talk our kid out of praying for something. We made Jesus proud.) William and I grew a little more freaked out each night and he made the next available appointment for the big snip surgery. For real.

What's In A Name?

The first referral we received from the DRC was a little boy name Gradi. Gradi is about 4 or 5 years old and we planned to give him the name Malachi - first or middle - it would have been his choice. Gradi went home to live with his uncle in February and the name Malachi came off our future-Wallace-babes-list.

In March when we met the mother of our foster boys (prior to meeting them), she pulled two photos out of her purse - one of each of them - and told us their names. Guess what M's name is?!?! We got our Malachi. (For the time being anyway:-)

Then there is the story of the two Moses'. I still find it no coincidence that I have a four year old little boy named Moses and there is another woman with a four year old little boy named Moise on the other side of the planet. For some reason he and his mother were brought into our lives and we're still trying to figure out what that reason is.

After we lost our referral for Moise, we decided to take a break from international adoption. We were, and still are, tired.

Shortly after determining we needed a break a few folks contacted me suggesting certain agencies or waiting child lists. I kindly blew them off.

All but one.

One email from a stranger included information about a waiting baby girl, and I almost hit delete, but then I saw her name. Glory.

Do you see that list up there?! That name, dead center?!


Glory is the name we had chosen for our next little girl.

Oh. S%*#.

I responded with my schpeel.  We have been in the process for almost four years, lost two referrals this year, we are tired, yada-yada-yada.

But. I. couldn't. get. Glory. out. of. my. mind.

I decided to do what is anti my personality. To not pursue her. Instead, I prayed. Specifically I prayed if Glory is ours, the nice stranger woman would email ME. Not the other way around.

I thought surely she would be gone. Who has healthy waiting baby girls? Surely someone would step forward for her, right?

Nine days later, the nice stranger woman sent me a message. Glory was still waiting.

I went to William, explained my prayer and that it had been answered. We decided to pray some more.

Pursuing Glory would mean starting over financially. From the beginning. The very beginning. Like $20,000 ago.

In order to get to the point of accepting Glory as our referral, we would need $11,000. So we prayed for God to give us a financial sign.

A few days later I finally had a chance to sit down and add up our Show Hope grant, Lifesong Foundation account (from our Both Hands project) and our savings. To our surprise it came to $10,885. Pretty close to $11,000 right?

Then, as we were getting ready for bed I emptied my pockets to find two checks from friends who had come over that day to purchase last minute Christmas gifts.

$11,000.

And that, my friends, is a sign. Confirmation to pursue this little girl we never even would have considered.

I am breaking down and doing what I've told other people to do a dozen times - adding a "Donate" button to our blog and one of those hideous thermometer thingis. We've got a lot of money to raise people and not much time to do it. (Glory should be home in about SIX months!)

Feel free to drop a few dollars in the pot. We've also got some new-to-us fundraisers coming up. Tomorrow we'll reveal a unique fundraiser my husband is STOKED about!

Waiting for Glory,