Formed in the Flame

We are Dee and Dave Keeling, artist-owners of "Formed in the Flame", a lampworking bead company. Although we are blessed to have our beautiful little daughter, we have been unable to expand our family further. Knowing God asked all to care for the widows and orphans, our family has felt called to follow this word. We feel that God is leading us to adopt a child from Haiti.

Romans 8:15 tells us that all who are believers in Christ are adopted: "… but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father". Just as Christ has adopted us into His family, we wish, likewise, to adopt into our family.

In the adoption circles, there is a saying that if you see a Ladybug, your referral will be received within a few weeks. With that in mind, our bracelets are designed with the symbol of a Ladybug.

All "Ladybug" proceeds go to a non-profit organization called "Katie’s Heart", which is designed to assist families who are seeking an international adoption.

Our bracelets come in two styles, The sterling silver and Swarovski crystal are $35 and the base metal and Czech glass are $15.

"An invisible red thread connect those who are destined to meet regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The tread may stretch or tangle but never break." - Chinese Proverb

As written by Cindy Sheetz, Katie’s mom:

Have you ever decided to take a leap of faith and do something you felt God was leading you to do even though it made no sense at all? That’s what we did at a time in our life when we should have been planning for our empty nest. Instead we decided to pursue an adoption for a little girl from China.

As we moved through the long process of adoption we felt God’s protection & support with us even though this leap we took for Him did not turn out as we expected. Although God guided us to a place of great joy and unending love with the adoption of our beautiful and exuberant Hannah Lu, he first asked us to love and cherish a little girl we named Katie. We assumed that He wanted us to raise Katie to be a woman of God, Instead His plan was for s to just love her. He would take care of her in heaven. You see, she died before we had the chance to hold her. Although we never got to hold her in our arms, we will hold her in our hearts forever.

We are not always given he opportunity to see how our sorrows can be used to fulfill God’s purpose. This time tough, we have. Because we lost our beautiful daughter before she had the chance to be with us, her forever family, we have established the Katie’s Heart Foundation. We will use this foundation to raise funds so that we can provide grants to families who want to adopt but may be unable to do so because of the cost. It is our hope that by doing this we can help bring home many children just like Katie who need to know the love of a family that they can call their very own.

If you would like to make a donation or would like additional information about our work, please contact us, Todd and Cindy Sheetz (Katie’s mom and dad) at 765-234-2830

Each of these bracelets has its own meaning.  The bracelet with the heart in the center is for Katie's Heart and the bracelet with the lady bug dots is for the Keeling family adoption.