My latest "crazy" idea

Well, not entirely crazy, only a little bit crazy - depending on who you ask!

You see, a few weeks ago I was "farting around" on the computer (as my dear friend's husband calls it!) and I thought I'd check out the Addy's Hope Waiting Children page.  For those of you who don't know, we adopted three of our children just over a year and a half ago through Addy's Hope Adoption Ministry.  We have stayed in contact with the ministry founders and directors and I am always praying for the new waiting children to find homes soon SO, I thought I'd just check in and see what was going on. . . 

and then I saw them

and they look just like my kids

and their eyes penetrate my very soul

and I want to fly there tomorrow and carry them home

SNAP!  Back to reality here, girl!  You have 4 children, you have debt, your husband is a pastor and you are a stay at home mom, people will think you are crazy. . . heck, your husband will think you are crazy.  

O.K.  just pray for them to find an adoptive family. . . 

BUT, a few weeks later, I just happen to show my husband their picture and somewhat flippantly say "well, should we adopt them?"

and he says. . . 

"Yeah, let's do it."  

Hold on. . . what?!  You were supposed to say "are you crazy?  we can hardly keep up now, how will we afford it?  etc. . . . . "  

aughh - this is what happens when two "visionaries" get married - there's just no one to talk any "common sense" into anyone else!  LOL!  But, you know what?  I'm SO glad!  Because I'm so tired of "common."  I don't want to live a common life.  I want to live a Christ-filled, overflowing, hard, blessed, completely dependent, crazy life!  And,by the way,  I've obviously not arrived at this yet since, like Paul, what I want to do I don't do and what I don't want to do I find myself doing. . . but we're all a work in progress, right?

So, here they are - the children whose picture has captured our hearts in the same way a picture captured our hearts just over two and a half years ago and brought three wonderful blessings into our life.  

And, I guess we are crazy (a little), but we are praying and knowing that if it is the Lord's will, that he will make a way for us to bring them into our family.  At the same time we trust that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways and so we are praying that He will make it clear to us, also, if there is another family He has chosen for them.  BUT, we are hopeful and ready to adopt them if it is His will.  

It will take almost 10,000.00 just for the initial adoption fees (plus almost another 8000.00 later, plus travel) of which we have none right now.  So, we are waiting and praying because that much money is like a drop in the ocean in the Lord's economy and since it is all His anyways, we know that He will provide if He so chooses!

I feel strangely peaceful and content. . . 

- not knowing if they are "ours". . .  wanting them to be, yet happy if God has another family for them.

- having debt we are working to pay off, yet knowing he will provide the needed resources to raise 3 more children

- knowing that an almost 9 year old boy is on the "scary" end of adoption in most people's minds, but loving him already

- feeling happy that Little Missy might have a sister, yet happy if she is the only girl we ever raise

- wanting to experience the joy of having a newborn again, yet thrilled at the prospect of potentially adding 3 more older children to our family

-knowing we need close to 35,000.00 to adopt them which happens to be WAY more than any car we have ever driven - which reminds me that we will also need a bigger vehicle. . . 

I'm just content.  Crazy and content.  It is a good place to be!

I think I am understanding a little better that "godliness with contentment (truly) is GREAT gain." 

And while I'm sure I'll be working on the godliness part for a LONG time to come, I pray that the Lord will continue to help me foster this wonderful contentment I find in Him.  

Content in where we are, content in what is to come, knowing that it is in Him we are truly content.

Truly Blessed and truly thankful

As I sit and contemplate the many conversations I've had the past few days, I have just been reminded of how thankful I am that this world is not our home. . . 

that there is something better that we hope for. . . 

but, for today, I find myself here in this broken world crying tears of sorrow as I pray for dear friends who are facing tough, desperate, and seemingly hopeless situations.

And yet, 

in the midst of pain and heartache, 

in the midst of struggles and confusion, 

in the midst of ugliness and frustrations -  

Beauty is there, 

Comfort is there, 

Friendship is there, 

Forgiveness is there, 

Peace is there, 

Love is there, 

Hope is there. . . 

because HE is there.

And because He is there my soul is strengthened and I am reminded of His many blessings and of his undeserved and unreserved Grace and my heart can truly say "blessed be the name of the Lord."  

Speedy Mo Speaks:

After observing my sister with her dog that she brought to our house for a visit (she washed the stainless steel water dish for about 3 minutes before filling it with water again and also took him home so he wouldn't be cold once the temperature got down to about 50 F!).  

"Excuse me mama, but, why Auntie Becky treat her dog like a human?"

I don't know son, good question. . . (this is even funnier if you can imagine it in a Liberian accent!)

A "Found" Christmas

Yep, that's what we're having this year at our house:  a FOUND Christmas!  Instead of spending money on gifts we don't need, we're finding items we already own or creating gifts from things we have just laying around.  I've even "found" a few things in my neighbor's garage that she willingly donated towards our found Christmas (one of those tree-house doll houses for my daughter!).  

We had this idea months ago and it has been fun to watch and listen as everyone in our family finds and creates gifts to give this Christmas.  I don't want to give anything away in case some family member reads this blog, but it is quite amazing what people are coming up with.  Someone is getting a bread machine, another is getting an air-conditioner (crazy what we can find just laying around!), and there are quite a few homemade projects going on around here lately!

I was thrilled to stumble upon The Advent Conspiracy a few weeks ago; it seems that many others have also decided to give Christmas-shopping mania the boot and use that mooh-lah for something much more meaningful.  

Check it out!

Mission trip: India

I mentioned last week that my husband had just arrived back home after a 2 week trip to Rahjamundry, India. What an amazing trip he had! He went with 4 other men from our community (from 3 different local churches!) to visit with, help and minister with, and create future plans with Pastor Joseph of Good Samaritan's Home.

This, my friends, is an amazing story. It all started with a shoebox from Samaritan's purse. A wonderful local couple and their children sent a shoebox that was received by one of the children in Pastor Joseph's children's home in India. From that simple shoebox sent years ago, the Lord has blessed us beyond measure to be able to be a part of a unique and thriving ministry halfway around the world. Almost 50 children are now sponsored at the children's home in India and all of the sponsors come primarily from our very own small community. To read the whole story, visit http://gshministries.com/ and be sure to check out the "How this got started" page.  

If you are interested in sponsoring a child or in being a part of the many other ministries (feeding widows, eye-care clinics, island ministry, leper colony, or DVD ministry), be assured that 100% of your money will go to reach the very "least of these." 

18 month update

Adoption updates. . . I am supposed to send these in at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months and then once a year after that. However, I have been asked to do one now (at 18 months) for our agency to take in to Liberia next month when they are there. They are hoping to have an update from every family so that they can help to show the government that adoption is a good thing and that their families and children are all doing well. As I was typing up the update, I thought it might be of interest to some of my readers (even though I don't really know who most of you are b/c you don't leave comments. . . ahem! LOL!) So here is my update with the names changed for privacy, of course!
-------------------------------------

Big Jo, Speedy Mo, and Little Missy were among the first group of children to be adopted through the Addy's Hope Adoption
Ministry back in April of 2007. They had been living at the Greater Love Children's Home for about 3 years and were ages 7,
5 and a half, and almost 4 when they left Liberia to join their new family in America. They were adopted by Jeff and Jen
who also have one biological son who was 7 and a half in April of 2007. The children have been home now for just
over 18 months and everything is going very well.

The children love their new family very much. They live with their mom, dad and brother and also enjoy their grandma and
grandpa who live next door. They love their new house that they moved into last year. The boys enjoy sharing a room. They
each have their own warm, soft bed and a pillow and blanket in their own special color. Little Missy has her own room and
hopes someday to have a sister to share it with.

The children have many clothes, shoes, books, and toys. They really love to wear jeans, but also enjoy "necktie" clothes to
wear to church on Sundays. All of them love reading the many books they have available to them at their house. The boys
love to play with building toys such as Legos and Little Missy loves her dolls and dress-up clothes. Recently, the children have
been learning how to use a computer. Some of their best friends live just down the street and they love to play outside with
them. They all have learned to ride bicycles and scooters and rollerskates this summer. The boys are learning to play the
guitar and Little Missy has been sewing with her grandma and mommy.

All of the children love to help their mommy cook food too! They love to eat everything. Some of their favorite things to eat
are pizza, sausages, hamburgers, and speghetti. They still love to eat rice and chicken with red peppers (Liberian style) and
sometimes have buckwheat and beans to remember what the food was like at the children's home in Liberia. They also all
love to eat fruits and vegetables now too. Because they have been eating so healthy, they have grown a lot.

Big Joe was a size 6 and weighed 40 lbs. in April 2007. Now he is a size 10 and weighs 80 lbs. He has very strong muscles
and he wants to be a football player someday. He is almost as tall as his mom now and he is only 8 and a half years old!

Speedy Mo has also grown so much. He was a size 4 and is now a size 7. He has also gained a lot of weight and is very
strong. He now weighs as much as his other brother (who is 9) at 63 lbs! He is a very good athlete and loves to play
everything!

Little Missy was a size 2 and weighed less than 25 lbs. She was very skinny and not too healthy. Now she is VERY healthy and
strong and weighs 48 lbs. and is a size 6!

All of the children played soccer this year. They all did very well playing soccer and want to play some more. Now it is
getting closer to winter and they are looking forward to sledding and playing in the snow like they did last year!

The children are making very good academic progress too. They are all learning to read and write and are enjoying all of the
books about history and science that their mom and dad read to them. They have been learning about where America is on
the map and they like to find Liberia (the shoe shaped country) on the map too!

Adoption has been a very good thing for Big Joe, Speedy Mo, and Little Missy. They are hoping that their family will be able to
adopt more children again someday. Their mom and dad encourage them to know about Liberia and to love Liberia and her
people. We pray that many children who are orphans in Liberia will be able to be adopted and loved by a family someday.

I know, it sounds like a braggy, sickeningly sweet Christmas letter, but it is meant to be helpful in showing adoption to be good and it is all true. Also, I tried to write about things I thought the government officials might want to know about (like growth, resources, and academics). We all, obviously, know that there are really hard things and hard days too - but that is not what this particular update is about!

I'm back!

I'm back b/c my husband is back! Yeah! He was recently gone for 2 weeks on a missions trip to Rahjamundry, India. For security reasons, I did not post here before he left, but thank you to everyone who was praying while he was there. It was a great trip as far as I can tell, but very hard and he is still processing it. I can't wait to share some of his stories - he could hardly make it through a few of them today w/o crying and getting choked up. It was another good reminder to us of how materially overwhelmed we are with stuff that doesn't matter here in America and I'm sure we'll be re-evaluating (again) just how we spend our time, money, and other resources, as we reflect on the extremes that he saw while he was there.

In other news. . . we are really talking seriously about adopting again and feel particularly drawn to another sibling group of 3! Well, there are actually 2 different sibling groups of 3 from 2 different countries. . . also, we are hoping our foster care approval will be finished soon so we will be an official receiving home. Crazy, I know! Anyone else out there a little crazy? Great! Keep it up for the glory of the Lord.