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This is a message worth sending on to your friends and colleagues. Copy this link into an email: http://lofbomm.com/2007/02/23/to-bless-a-friend/

Adam and I sponsor Felicia, a little girl in Moldova through a wonderful charitable organization called Sweet Sleep based in Tennessee, USA. We became acquainted with Felicia and Sweet Sleep in 2005 when I helped my company, EMI Christian Music Group, organize a huge Christmas charity for orphans in Moldova.

EMI CMG donated a winter coat for every child in two large Moldovan orphanages, employees and friends bought warm clothes and gifts, donated money for new beds, wrote letters to children, many employees (including myself) reached out to sponsor a child, and a few of our employees actually went to Moldova in January, 2006 to deliver these awesome gifts to hundreds of orphans. It was incredible. My friend, Brian McKay from the EMI CMG mail-room was one of those who went to Moldova, and his life was changed.

Last week while we were in Nashville, Adam and I visited the office at EMI Christian Music Group. We stopped in to say hi to old friends, including Brian, and he handed me an exciting letter:

Dear Friends,

There is something exciting happening in the McKay house and we want to share it with you! The dinner table in our home currently seats the two of us, our 14 year-old son Colton, 6 year-old daughter Hope, and 4 year-old daughter Kailyn, as Prince Tubby the basset hound patiently awaits falling crumbs. But things, they are a-changing!

As some of you know, over the last 13 months Brian has participated in 3 mission trips to Moldova, a small country about the size of Maryland, which lies between Romania and the Ukraine. To those of you who have supported those trips through prayer or donations, we extend our heartfelt thanks. Through these trips and letter writing, we have met and come to love the three beautiful girls pictured here with Brian. The Gritenco sisters, 16 year-old twins Marina and Diana and 14 year-old Viorica have lived most of their lives in the largest orphanage in the capital city of Chisinau with about 600 other children.

Orphanages in Moldova currently house over 12,000 children. The children live in dormitory housing and attend school there until they turn 16 or complete the 9th grade. At that time, they are discharged, only to attempt to make their own way in a society that has no use for parentless children.

The statistics for these children are heartbreaking. 10% of these teens will commit suicide in the first year after being discharged from the orphanage. 70% of the young men will either join the mafia in search of a “family”, or will be imprisoned due to their desperate attempts to survive. 80% of the young women will either be sold or forced into prostitution.

God is calling on our family to give the Gritenco sisters hope for a future. We can change the world, as they know it, by adopting them. We are commanded in James 1:27 to care for orphans in distress. We are praying for a miracle to make this adoption possible. The estimated cost associated with adopting these girls is $75,000. This includes adoption agency fees, travel expenses, Moldovan taxes, and too many other expenses to list.

With your help, and the help of others like you, God will provide. The church we are members of has offered their overwhelming support by establishing a fund to receive donations for this adoption. Your donations can be tax deductible if sent payable to New Joy Fellowship, 625 Spring Creek Road, Lebanon, TN, 37087. Please notate “adoption fund” in the memo line of your check. You can also help us by forwarding this letter to some of your friends, or by writing one of your own. If you don’t feel led to make a financial contribution at this time, we welcome any notes of encouragement, and let us know if you would like to receive updates about our journey.

Lastly, but most importantly, we ask you to pray. Not only for our growing family, but for the hearts of those children we can’t bring home.

In His Love,
Brian and Sarah McKay

Brian and his family are seeking 1,000 people who will each donate $75 to help in adopting these three sisters. Please help. We’re giving $75, and we also wanted to use this platform to encourage others to give.

You can send a tax-deductible check (if you are abroad, you can send a cashier’s check) payable to:

New Joy Fellowship
625 Spring Creek Road
Lebanon, TN, 37087
USA

Please notate “adoption fund” in the memo line of your check.

Adam and I try not to ask too much of you, our readers, but Brian is a good man, and Marina, Diana and Viorica’s lives can be changed. Let us know if you want to help but cannot send a check.

Thanks. We appreciate you and wish you all the best!

-Jessica