It's that time of year when I try to pick up my blog and try to blog everyday. I might be successful and I might not be but I will do my best. This year I am going to try to tackle some new ideas this year. If you have a subject surrounding foster care and adoption you would like me to tackle let me know and I will do my best. I will even try to rope the hubby into writing a post this month.
So I will leave this post plain and simple I challenge everyone to pray this month. Pray everyday for orphans. For children who find themselves in foster care. For parents who have had their children removed from their home. For Judges. For Social workers. For foster parents. For adoptive parents. For everyone else involved with children in the varying forms of care. And as we should always do ask the LORD what he is calling you to do.
Many of you may have noticed my random Hawaii posts and countdowns. What you may not know is that the trip is much more then just a getaway with Dustin. This trip was actually birthed out of me being asked to teach at GO midwife during their doula week. Dustin and I will be on the north shore of Oahu for 3 nights and 4 days and then he will fly home and I will fly to Kona on the Big Island.
So now you are probably asking what the heck is Go midwife. Well let me tell you. GO midwife is an amazing organization that is training up women to serve women during childbirth in the United States and around the world. The GO midwife school now has two locations one is in Kona on the YWAM base there and the other is in Homer Alaska on the YWAM base there.
If you know me at all or have ever read my blog you know I have two major passions in life adoption and childbirth. I am over the moon that the LORD would allow me to be a part of teaching these sweet women about being a doula.
I will try to write in the next few weeks leading up to my trip about the need for quality respectful care for women. Please join me in praying for the women I will be training and what the LORD has for me as I delve back into the world of birth. If you would also pray for me I would so appreciate it.
Prayer requests:
That I would be led by the holy spirit in all I say and do.
That I would have time between now and my trip to effectively prep and plan.
That the LORD would lead me in my planning on where to focus my attention.
That I would be at peace while I am away from my family as I know I will miss them.
Pray for protection from the attacks of the enemy.
And of course anything else you feel led to pray for.
Isaiah 40:31 But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
One of my favorite songs during Christmas and in general is the song "Mary did you know?". As a mother I can so easily relate to Mary. I remember my labor pains well and I can only imagine what Mary's labor was like. Her first labor and she was birthing the son of God. As much as I can relate to Mary I cannot fathom what that must have been like. As someone who knows what it feels like when the Holy Spirit is present in a real way I can't even begin to imagine how thick the air was that night. Just she and Joesph as she labored and worked to delivery this baby.
Then i begin to think about her caring for him. There is this line in the song "This child that you delivered, will soon deliver you." Can you imagine looking at your baby that you delivered and knowing that he will deliver you?
As we enter into Christmas with our families and the trees are surrounded by presents let us remember that a baby boy with a humble beginning came to save this broken world. Let us remember that as he left earth to sit at the right hand of the LORD he asked us to be his light in this world. He wants to save the world through us. Just like Mary we are just ordinary people but God wants to use us to do something extraordinary. It will take faith. It means casting aside fears. It means not caring what other people think when you love radically.
Can you imagine Mary and Joesph this is our son Jesus he is the son of God. People probably thought they were crazy. People probably ridiculed them. Some probably talked about Joesph as the man who took care of another mans child. They carried on as though they knew they were carrying the light of the world.
My challenge to you this Christmas season is to remember that Christs light shines through you and that light shines brightest in the dark.
On Friday November 22nd we adopted our twins. A boy and a girl named Luke and Ava.
This year we completed two adoptions! Life is wild when you truly say yes to wherever the LORD leads. Many people tell us we are blessing these sweet children, but I am here to tell you it is the other way around. Trevor, Luke, and Ava have brought more joy into our lives then I could have ever dreamed of! We have gained Aunties and Uncles. Cousins and Grandparents. Our heart is full with the love that surrounds us. What has happened through our adoptions is not of this world.
Adoption is love. Just as we are adopted as sons and daughters of God because of his great love for us. To quote a friend adoption takes something broken and makes it whole.
So here we are all 7 Stone's
Isaiah 61:3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion-
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of Joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD
for the display of his splendor.
Praise our LORD for he trades beauty for ashes! May all 5 of our children follow him all the days of their lives and may they bring him glory in all they do.
What in the world does me getting a new sister have anything to do with adoption?! Well I will tell you. When we started out on this crazy adventure to adoption we knew our family would grow at some point. That if we started fostering one of these sweeties would stick around forever. What we didn't know was all the other family we would gain.
Little Trevor brought a very special Big Sister into my life. My sister Shellyne. For the longest time we would answer with long winded answers about who she was to me or who I was to her. But I have given up on long answers and decided she is just my sister. You see just like adoption there was no denying it we were bonded to each other quickly and it was clear that it was a forever bond.
The blessings of adoption span so far beyond what we could hope or dream. I am thankful that all my children have gained more cousins, Aunts, Uncles, and even an extra Grandma.
Last year I tried to blog everyday in November about orphans and adoption. So lets do this again. Today will be simple since it is already 9:30 and I am exhausted! I know I only have 5 kids I shouldn't be exhausted.
So lets just start with me being thankful that we finalized our sweet sons adoption on July 26th of this year!!! Here are some photos of the wonderful day!
20 months to the day we brought our sweet Trevor home from the hospital we finalized his adoption. On Friday July 26th we promised to love Trevor as our own. In some ways it seemed so silly since we already loved him as our own since the day we met him. But in other ways it was so powerful to promise in front of family and friends to love him forever and sign papers that made him legal our son.
It was another picture of God's redemptive plan for his people through Jesus. We are adopted into Gods family and loved us as his own. But then there is this huge powerful moment where the depth and the power of what that means is revealed through the holy spirit. It is a moment that changes you forever and that is what our day before the judge was, a day that changed us forever.
Ephesians 1:5 "God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure."
So recently I saw this video of Francis Chan talking about how we often treat the teachings of Jesus. He talks about how we memorize what Jesus says and we talk about it in bible studies but we don't do it.
I have been sitting on what Francis Chan said for about a week now. I can't shake it. Jesus was very clear in his teaching what we do for the least of these we do for him. What we "DO" with our actions, not what we do in our heart, or the verse we memorize that says to help the widows. Why is it when it comes to our father in heaven we think its enough to say well I memorized that verse about caring for the orphans and we talked about in bible study. Oh and one time I donated some money to a non-profit.
I mean really it sounds so ridiculous. But yet it so what we do as humans. We like to be comfortable and doing what Jesus says means putting your heart on the line. It means being emotionally involved with broken people. Not an easy thing to do.
I think this quote sums it all up.
"The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny him with their lifestyle" -Brennan Manning
Are you being Jesus to the world today? Are you feeding the poor? Are you caring for the widows? Are you loving the orphans? Or are you living in your safe Christian bubble, only spending time with your friends who believe what you believe? Are you living a life with little risk?
Be radical because Jesus was radical, live with all you have. One of the greatest gifts you can give your children is showing them how to step outside your comfort zone and love those the world says are unlovable. Because that is what our LORD did for us. He loved us when we were unlovable. He loved us while we rejected him. So when that person rejects you love them more. Love them harder. Not with your words, not in your heart, but with your hands and feet.
Lot's of tears have been shed over the last 5 days but today a big wave hit my while doing the dishes. The music was playing and the kids were having fun and giggling next to me on the floor. From Friday's massacre of 20 innocent children and 7 adults, to Daisy Love Merrick I just couldn't keep them back. I silently cried as the tears rolled down into the soapy water. I pleaded with the LORD asking him to heal Daisy Love and was gently reminded as I cried that he loved me and Daisy more then anyone ever could.
If you don't know Daisy's story she is an 8 year old girl who has just been diagnosed with two cancerous tumors for the 4th time in her short life. She isn't just any 8 year old girl to us though. Her dad was/is one of my husbands mentors. He discipled my husband and taught him what it meant to be a man after God's own heart. If you have met Britt you know he is a man after God's own heart and if you met my husband you can tell he is a good teacher. Because of this Daisy holds an extra special place in our hearts along with her whole family. Christmas 2011 we stood at church chatting with her mom (Kate) while Elijah Merrick played with the children. She told us how happy she was that Daisy's cancer was gone (that was after the second diagnosis) yet she knew that all these treatments had taken a toll on her sweet body. That image is burned in my mind as I held our 5 week old little boy that was born in our hearts. At that same moment we told her how Daisy's story and their faith had given us the courage to take the steps that led us to him. My heart breaks on so many different levels. For Daisy as her body aches and she starts chemo again knowing that her tumors are inoperable. For Kate and Britt as I know as a mother and father how much they just want to take the pain away. For her older brother who probably wishes he could take away the pain too.
In all of this I know that God is good and he is bigger then any tumor even when I don't have the faith to believe it. This year at Christmas we will hold our little ones a little tighter and tell them we love them a little bit more. We will remember that our children are not ours but that they belong to our Father in heaven who loves them so much more then we ever could. And he will not forsake us.
Psalm 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
John 11:35 Jesus wept.
To read more of Daisy's story and witness her families incredible faith go here www.prayfordaisy.com
So Today is November 30th the last day of national adoption month. I have blogged almost everyday and today will be my final blog in the series on Adoption. Today I want to deal with the call to foster care and adoption (international, domestic, and any other way it can happen). This is a ministry I feel many are called to, yet few answer the call.
Often times we think or say "It is a broken system full of corruption, how can I make a difference?" Well you can be the one that isn't corrupt. If it is international adoption you can make sure that your child isn't a trafficked child. You can do this by making sure your agency is upstanding and does due diligence some people even hire their own personal private investigator. If you are going to adopt domestically through the foster care system you can be that safe family. You can be the one that stands up for what is right. The LORD never promised that when he called us into ministry it would be safe. In fact it is just the opposite. We are living a life devoted to the LORD. It isn't comfortable or safe when you love with your whole heart, but it is full of purpose and blessings. In Roman times unwanted children were left to die in fields and on the side of roads, Christians adopted these children and at the risk of death. I think that the risks we are taking are far smaller then some of our ancestors.
In response to fear we should turn to God's word for answers.
Isaiah 41:10 So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for i am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous hand.
Isaiah 41:13 For I am the LORD your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you Do Not Fear; I will help you.
Isaiah 43:1-2 But now, this is what the LORD says he who created you, O Jacob, he formed you, O Israel: "Fear not for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters , I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers they will not sweep over you. when you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
Do you believe these promises? If you do then the call should not bring up fear, but anticipation for what the LORD will do through you.
International or domestic you are dealing with a broken system because this is a broken world. Don't run the other way because the system is broken. The children in the system need you. They need love, they need hope, they need healing. Brokenness should draw you in because the answer to brokenness lives in you and through you.
I could put all the verses that talk about defending the fatherless and taking care of the orphan but you already know that list is endless. So I will just put one verse up that I think sums it all up.
James 1:27a Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress...
I was at an adoption prayer group the other day and two ladies shared what their husbands said about adopting "Our lives are too easy, our lives are not meant to be easy." I thought this was such a neat way to look at life. Why are we always looking to make our lives easier? The LORD did not call us to an easy life. He did not call us to a life free from hurts. What He did promise was to redeem and bring beauty from ashes. He also promised to be with us as we walked through trials.
The orphan issue can be overwhelming when we look at the numbers, so don't look at the numbers anymore just resolve to make a difference in just one orphans life. I challenge you to just take in one orphan if you are feeling called. Maybe it will be through foster care, or maybe you will travel to Ethiopia or Russia. It may be a baby or a teenager. Maybe you know a teenager who may not be up for "adoption" in the legal sense but you know they are lacking a family. There are so many ways this can look.
I hope this song will encourage you to not let fear overcome. You can adopt not because you have the ability or the time but because the LORD will equip you. "The God of angel armies is always by your side."
John 14:18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
Today is little man's b-day. We were ready to celebrate. We had a party planned and lots of people were coming. It was joyous to wake up with our Big 1 year old. But there was one thing I didn't expect as the day went on. I began to feel sad. I felt sad that I knew his parents probably wouldn't call or write or send a card. I tried not to get choked up but I really was sad. Even now at 8pm even with little man fast asleep I wish they would call.
I wish they knew we prayed for them every night. That what we really wish is that they would become healthy and that little man could know them. I wish they knew that we loved them too.
My feelings of sadness are mixed with so much gratefulness for the fact that so much of his bio family is in his life. That we have pictures from the day he was born. That his Aunt and I are so close and that we have all become like family. Little man will definitely always know he is loved and by ALOT of people. You should have seen the group picture. Well soon soon I will be able to post it. And it only shows a small portion of all the love he has in his life
Today is black Friday. The day when Americans go out and shop to get the best deals for the things they "need" oh how our priorities are off. When there are children without homes we call the new TV a need? Maybe just maybe if we understood the true meaning of the word need we would be able to see that we are overflowing and we have no lack of need. There are things we may want but not things we need. I am guilty of this too. In fact this year I was guilty of saying "Honey I think we need a flat screen I mean they are so cheap right now." So really what I should have said was "wow flat screens are so cheap it would be nice to get one."
My challenge today as we go into the gift buying frenzy is to remember that there are some children who will receive no gifts and have no family. A child without a place to call home is someone in need not a family without a flat screen.
Today I am Thankful for so month but after Thanksgiving 2011 Thanksgiving will be extra special. It will be the day our family grew. It didn't just grow by one little man though it grew another 2 aunts another grandma another grandpa, uncles, and lots of cousins. The best part is we ate Thanksgiving dinner having no idea, but talking with friends about our dreams of what life would be like when our family grew. You see you always think it will be one way but the LORD always blesses you in ways you never expect. Today I am thankful for family and the fact that family is so much more then blood. Family is love. So open your heart and let some love in :)
Thanksgiving this year marks the anniversary for a few things for us. On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving 2011 we received our first placement call from the county. The placement never came to our home but it taught us a lot. The phone call came at 11am it was basically a get ready and wait for another call. The day moved on and I checked my phone constantly waiting and waiting. Around 5 the phone rang and we were told you are on call for the whole Thanksgiving weekend. I don't know who will call you or when. So there we were wondering where a child we didn't know was. Wondering how they were if they were safe, if they were warm, if they were hungry. Oh man, I didn't know I could worry about a little one I didn't know that much. It prepared us for the unpredictable life we were entering. Where up means down and left means right. Not on purpose, it's just the name of the game. As I reflect I see how much these few days before little man grew us. We went to Thanksgiving and everyone knew we may run out the door to pick up a little one. We all talked and we explained why we wanted to walk this crazy journey. It reaffirmed everything and little did we know less then 24 hours later we would get a call that would change the rest of our lives.
One year ago the rubber hit the road and we haven't stopped since :)
I often hear people say "well if I couldn't get pregnant then I would adopt." There is one huge problem with this statement, adoption isn't about a childless family getting a child. It is about a child with out a family getting a family. When we refocus our attention to the fact that orphans are children without home, without a mother, without a father. Then we realize how heartbreaking this situation really is.
Close your eyes and picture that child without a place to call home, a bed to call their own, someone to call mom. There are many more orphans then there are childless families. These children are not only blessings to families without children they are blessings to families with children. The reason they are blessings though is because you can see the heart of the LORD. The LORD loves this children, he loves his children. We are all adopted into his family as well and that is why adoption is beautiful because it is a reflection God's love for all of us.
I am on prayer team at church and today I was asked to pray for two teenage girls who live in a group home. I asked for their prayer request and they both had the same simple request. They both said "Could you pray for a good foster home for me?" Wow! One simple request from these beautiful girls! It was the first time i was face to face with a teenager that didn't have a place to call home.
Today's challenge is simple. I am asking you to join me in prayer today and ask that the LORD would open our hearts to love these amazing children. That he would provide everything preventing families from taking them in like emotional fears to housing or time.
Today I want to acknowledge that sometimes it takes time for the LORD to prepare us to widen our tent. Lately I have heard these statements a lot. "This is something I never thought about but the LORD is opening my heart." I have had friends have dreams and other friends say "wow I just keep running into this." You see we are stubborn little humans. Often thinking about how we can't do this. How would I have the patience? How would I have the room? How could we do that, I already feel so full? Well here is what I have to say if that is what you are praying/asking....your heart has already been captured. It is just a matter of time until you surrender and realize the LORD will take care of all those minor details. Because you see to him those are minor things. Just sit and wait as he strips away the fear, the anxiety, the worry, and he slowly draws you to the child(ren) he has chosen for you. Adoption is God's plan for every family because you are adopted already! You are in his forever family and it is a blessing for you to be someones forever family as well.
John 14:18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
So with all my focus on domestic adoption I thought today I should focus on international adoption. This is a great need as well. In third world countries when children are orphaned there is often no one local who can adopt them. The numbers of orphans around the world are staggering. In Asia and Africa children are orphaned every day due to AIDS and poverty. And then there are always the eastern European countries with children who are left in their cribs all day at the orphanage because there isn't enough staff to care for all of them.
The orphan care can seem so overwhelming so insurmountable. My encouragement is this, you help one at a time and you recruit others to help as well. We shouldn't be doing this alone. 1/3 of Americans have considered adoption but no more then 2% have actually followed through. What if just 10% of us followed through and adopted. Can you imagine? I don't think it would be a crisis anymore!
"We learned that orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they're not real before you hold them in your arms. But once YOU DO everything changes." David Platt
For information on international adoption here is a link to a couple organizations that can help.
November is national adoption month, so this month I am going to dedicate to blogging about adoption. My goal is to blog once a day. My hope is that your eyes and heart will be opened to the orphans of this county, state, country and world.
Today I would like to shed some light on some statistics. There was a recent youtube video titled 8 adoption facts that will surprise you. I will list the facts below and a link to the video. When reading the questions ask yourself how can I make a difference.
8 Adoption Facts that will Surprise you:
There are more orphans in sub-Saharan Africa than children in Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Canada, and Sweden combined.
For every child born in the US two are orphaned in Asia
There are more orphans in the world than there are people in the UK and France combined.
250,000 children are adopted each year, 14 million age out of the system. That's 14 million children that didn't get adopted.
There are more orphans in India than in the combined populations of the top 15 cities in the U.S.
Approximately 30,00 children "age out" of the American foster care system each year
More then 1/3 of Americans have considered adopting, but no more that 2% have actually adopted. Have you considered adoption? Maybe it's time to make that 2% higher?
If 1 family in every 3 US churches adopted a child, we would adopt every child in need of a family in the US! I am guessing that more than 1 family in every 3 churches is being called to adopt since the LORD is very clear that orphans are close to his heart.
Please take the time to pray and ask the LORD how he is calling to to defend the fatherless.
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