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You won't believe these last minute Beard Growers

Some last minute Beard Growers!  

Totally unexpected and totally thoughtful!

These might be some of the most caring and thoughtful people my family has ever met.  They are all a part of a women's life group from the Fig Garden Campus of The Well Community Church.  My family burst into laughter and tears all at the same time when we opened this.  We continued to be blown away at Gods body surrounding us in such joyful and thoughtful ways through this journey.  Can't wait to show Aunna this picture and for her to meet these women!!

Beard-a-thon comes to an end

BEARDS OF HOPE IS OFFICIALLY OVER

--follow our continued journey of travel and transition here--

www.itsanobwaldlife.blogspot.com

The trimmers have come out. The beards are gone for most. Wives are rejoicing. And the Lord used some intentional men and all of your generosity to take initiative for a girl that you have never met. The Obwald family will never be able to fully express to you our gratitude. We hope you know that you are forever a part of Aunna's story, the Obwald's story, and bigger than that God's story of using ordinary people for His purposes. God has grown our faith in Him through this. This is only the start of the journey!

{All said and done $13,500 dollars were raised}

We are fully funded, with plane tickets purchased, to leave for China to get Aunna Hope on August 20th and return with her on September 5th.

A Thank you video from the Obwalds to all of you!!

For the fun of it check out some of the creative ways the guys trimmed off the scruff!!

Dave Obwald

Billy Hawes

Chip Henderson

Jebediah James

Matt Abajian

Thank you & Thank you! --

check out how our journey continues at

www.itsanobwaldlife.blogpsot.com

Month 4 Beards Update (our last month)

What can you stuff in your beard? 

{That's the theme for month 4 of the Beards of Hope Beard-a-thon}

The guys have been growing some amazing facial hair to help bring Aunna Hope home to our family.  

Important updates::

It looks like we will be traveling to get Aunna Hope near the end of August to early September. More details on that at our family blog

Currently, by God's provision and your generosity, we have been able to raise $9,400 to date.  Our goal is still 15,000 by July 15th. We would love you to consider partnering with us along this journey by sponsoring one of our beards.

{last day of the Beard-a-thon is July 15th}

...sponsorship available until that date

Please continue to pray for God's timing, that He will be protecting Aunna's heart and preparing her to transition into our family. Even though it is a great thing for her to have a forever family she will also be experiencing massive amounts of grief and loss from what is familiar. Please pray that in that her heart will remain soft to be able to attach in a healthy way to us and also ultimately to her Heavenly Father who loves her immensely more than we do and has amazing plans for her life.  

Here are the update pictures we got from her foster family. She turned 14 months this month!

MONTH 3 PIC's

For those of you who have been following the journey (see the full story here) we are growing some gnarly beards to help bring our daughter, Aunna Hope Jie, home from China.  I was telling one of the Beard Growers the other day how excited I will be, at some point in her life, to show her these pictures of men who took initiative and did something crazy for her before they even met her (and also all of you who are sponsoring these beards). This has become an amazing collective effort where God continues to amaze us. He truly does resource what He calls.  

THEME FOR THE MONTH

The theme of the Beard Grower pictures this month was Boy Band.  Gotta go back to my roots in the 90's.  As you can see from the first couple we have some "real famous" folks on the growing team.  

UPDATES

The Beard-a-Thon ends on July 15th and we would love for you to consider sponsoring one of the beards as there is still time to do that. Our initial goal was to raise $15,000 and at this point we are about half-way there.  

It looks like our paper work is moving fast so we could be traveling to China as early as August.  

PRAYER

We would ask you to be praying with us for a couple things.  

1. For Aunna adoption is going to mean huge changes. She will experience loss from things that are familiar. Even though long term she will be in a forever family there will be some immediate shock. 

Please pray that God will be preparing her small heart for this. 

2. We have been reading a lot about attachment and how when children cry out and no one comes that they learn to stop crying out and stop trusting that anyone will come. Please pray that God will help Aunna re-learn how to cry out to us but, ultimately that she will learn how to cry out to her Heavenly Father who is with her even now and will never leave her or forsake her no matter what she faces.

Aunna Hope Jie.. I can tell she already likes the beards.

Andrew Feil... Bet you didn't know that Drew was a teen heartthrob before being Mission Director

Sam Hart... Nuf said Homie

Cohl Obwald... Double take... yes this is Cohl. This was right after his tryout for the Voice

Dave Obwald, Tony Hernandez, and Pete Hingano... Man that is an awkward boy band pose. Love it those are some sweet beards.

Nate Sharits... Nate this is Album quality stuff

Matt Abajian... This might be more GQ than boy band but Man thats a great beard

Brandon Petrie...Welcome to our newest Beard Grower. Old school Boy Band

Scott Carolan... The filter does it all. That beard casts a serious shadow!

Chip Henderson... Chips says ZZ top is a Boy Band right? HA

David Hawes... Yes that is a purple guitar folks. Well Madera folks I think you should make him play it on a Sunday.

Billy Hawes... Posing with his boy band! Love it bro. Thats a great looking band.

Santa Mike O'Hare... It may only be May but it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas