There is no me without you

I am halfway finished reading, There Is No Me Without You, which is a must read to learn about Africa, orphans, adoption and the AIDS crisis. The author, Melissa Faye Green, lives here in Atlanta with her husband and her nine children, of which four were adopted. So far this book has been an emotional, heart wrenching, true story account of this women's life. This quote was taken from this website http://www.thereisnomewithoutyou.com/

 There is No Me Without You (Bloomsbury, 2006) is the story of a middle-class Ethopian widow, who, out of the multiple tragedies in her own life, opens her door to AIDS-orphaned children and is inundated by them, beyond her capacity to care for them all.

Nothing will give you an eternal perspective like the realization of all the pain and suffering in the world. As I have read this book, I find myself praying through the horrible events in these childrens lives and crying out to God knowing he is the only one who can deliver us from all this pain and suffering around the world. It is too much to bear, a burden to heavy to carry. The only true comfort I know is Christ himself, the hope of Glory. Come Jesus Come!

Wiphan Care Ministries

 My longtime friend, Andrea, went to Zambia, Africa with her husband for a short term mission trip. Little did they know there was nothing in place to help these widows and orphans. Andrea and Richard came back to Georgia and started raising money through her photography business and through those that came alongside them with hearts for the Zambian people. This birthed Wiphan Care Ministries, a ministry to widows and orphans in Zambia to help provide food, clothes, and school. God has provided greatly and this ministry is blessing so many. If you feel God tugging at your heart to help an orphan in Zambia, go to Wiphan or Babe of my Heart (Andrea's blog) to get involved with this ministry, sponsor a child, or order a t-shirt. Enjoy this slide show about Wiphan.

The Pharisee in Me

Jane, a good friend of mine, from Compelling Grace posted a great post about the problem we all have about being self-righteous.

Dear Lord,
In and of myself I am a disaster and I do not desire you. I make my own laws to try and justify why I am worthy to be your child. Then you show me that your grace is enough. My eyes are opened and I see the cry of the orphan. It is a joy to serve you and a blessing to be called to adopt. I am excited to join in your work and it is a privilege to be used by you! It is not about us oh Lord, but about you!

For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Romans 10:2-3

God is the one doing it, not me

   God has changed me and opened my eyes to the need of orphans, widows, the poor, the needy, 'the least of these'. I have done nothing different in my life, but respond to him changing my heart. I did not spend more time with God, I did not read the bible more, I did not go to more Bible studies, God just miraculously changed me.   

   I have seen God work in my life for many years now. I assume he started working the moment of conception, but I did not realize his hand was on my life until I was in high school. It wasn't until college that I knew I needed him more than I needed myself. It was then that I realized the depth of my own sin. My relationship with him really blossomed and I could not get enough of his word and seeking him. The Lord filled me up with his love, so that I was then compelled to share this news of redemption with others. That summer the Lord led me to China to grow me in him and be changed by sharing with others. The gospel really seems to work this way. God reveals sin, you repent and realize you are not believing that God loves you, then once he fills your cup, it can't help but overflow with his love! You are compelled to share your 'treasure' with others.
      This past year of my life has been one of the worst and best years. The worst because the transition of going from one to two kids was definitely the hardest experience of my life on many different levels. It was the best year, because God used my suffering to show me my sin, reveal my idols, bring me to my knees, and rid me of myself, so I can trust his saving grace and ultimately show me true joy in him. I can testify that the Lord really and truly changed me. I have freedom in so many areas that I have struggled with for years. I still have a long way to go, but I am confident that the Lord will finish what he has started.
    I am so thankful that it is the Lord that sanctifies me, because I am not good at being a christian. I am not patient or kind (with my children). I am often envious of others, I like to boast about myself, I am often proud (thinking my way is right). I am sometimes rude, I am mostly self-seeking (wanting to talk about myself), I am very easily angered (with my husband), and I keep a record of wrongs (with my husband). I never protect, trust (overwhelmed alot), hope, or persevere. I will always fail others...BUT, "the person and work of Jesus in my life," is making me a new creation. My hope is that he will continue to mold me and shape me into his likeness:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
I Corinthians13:4-8a 

 His love compels me to love others

I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.
 Matthew 25:40

Sarah Groves wrote and sang this song, "I saw what I saw", during her time in Rwanda. A Beautiful and inspiring song about the pain and suffering that changed her. God does not compel everyone to adopt a child from Africa, but if he does, every video of African children, put to music, will make you cry!! And I have never even been to Africa! This is truly a work of the Lord!

Adoptions in Uganda on HOLD = (

I just got an email from our social worker with Generations:

I wanted you to be aware that we have heard that Legal Guardianship Immigrant Visa issuance in Uganda is currently on “hold” due to a problem with the wording used for the legal guardianship paperwork in the Ugandan courts. They have not shut down adoptions in Uganda, but the U.S. has asked them to put a pause on issuing visas until they can work out different wording with the Uganda courts. Our Ugandan attorney has a appointment at the US Embassy in Kampala tomorrow to obtain additional information and potential ramifications relating to this situation. Generations is confident that hearing directly from the Embassy will cut through a lot of rumors now circulating on the internet. I will email you again tomorrow to let you know information. At this time, this is all the information I have and will not have more accurate information until our lawyer meets with the Embassy tomorrow.

       When I read this email to my husband, he said, that means, WE CANNOT ADOPT A CHILD FROM UGANDA, as of right now. The Ugandan Judges might rewrite the documents, but who knows. This is not good news for us, but more devastating is the people who are already in Uganda adopting their children. They have been there for weeks, trying to get their children home. One blog friend, James 1:27, has been through "heck" and back trying to get her daughter Sarah home. I am heartbroken for her and her family!! They either have to move their family to Uganda for three years or leave Sarah an orphan forever!! Sarah has been malnourished and has many other problems from being institutionalized. My friend quotes on her blog, "This is a death sentence for Sarah".

      Please pray for these families that are trying to get their children home! Pray that the Lord will give us guidance and show us what steps to take in a new direction, if the decision of the U.S. Embassy is final. As horrible as this seems, we know we serve a Good God! We know God has a plan that is perfect! We trust in his sovereignty!

Buy a candle help an orphan have a forever family!

My blog friend, April and her husband Jim are hoping to adopt from Uganda too. They are doing a fundraiser to help bring in the funds to adopt. They are trusting God that he will provide the money to adopt. One of the ways she is raising money is through selling Gold Canyon candles. Order a candle for a friend for Valentines Day! Gold Canyon candles make the whole house smell good! If you are interested, go to Jim and April's blog to find out more about the candles and how God is using them to provide a home for an orphan in Uganda.

Haitian Orphans going home!

"Slashing red tape or ignoring ordinarily required paperwork,

officials in the United States and the Netherlands have cleared the way

for scores of Haitian orphans to leave their earthquake-ravaged homeland,

according to officials from the two countries."

Orphans from Haiti are going home to be with their forever families! Read this article from CNN, Haitian Orphans Rushed to New Homes Abroad. 

Haiti's Orphans

 While I was running on the treadmill yesterday, I heard the terrible news of Haiti's catastrophic Earthquake. I could not help but think about the 1.2 million orphans of Haiti and the children who became orphans through this devastating event. I could not help but think about all the families who lost their soon to be adopted sons and daughters. Haiti's adoption process is very long and grueling. Families can travel several times to see their children before they finally get to bring them  home. My heart goes out to these families whose children may not have made it. But there are those orphans who are still alive in Haiti and are still waiting to go home to their forever families. The blog, Together for Adoption, posted this video of a family who is waiting to bring their son home from Haiti. Join with me in praying that these adoptions will be made final and not delayed because of this horrible situation. Pray that God's glory shines in the midst of destruction.

Lespwa Worldwide is a nonproft organization to help orphans of Haiti. It was started by a group of college students who understood the gospel, who were compelled to love the orphans of Haiti. They are accepting donations that will go directly to help the relief effort of the earthquake.

How can you help orphans?

Not everyone feels the call to adopt, but all Christians are called to love orphans. Whether it be sponsoring an orphan overseas, giving money to a family that is adopting, being a foster parent, or praying for orphans, we all can be apart of what God is doing in the lives of orphans. I came across this video tonight on The Spirit of Adoption blog.


Adoption from Catalyst on Vimeo.

***I just finished my NCFA training online. Yes, 8 to 10 hours of reading and video clips completed! I have been informed of every possible problem I could have in adopting a child internationally and there are a lot! But, I rest in the fact that God knows the perfect child for our family and he will give us the grace that is sufficient in handling any situation. Hopefully tomorrow, I will finish my medical form and get a little bit more reading done. I got so much accomplised while Henry was gone. I feel like I got a head start. Now, Dee just needs to catch up! Ha Ha! We will have our first homestudy interview with our new agency, Lifeline Children Services on Tuesday. So, we are moving right along!

From mommy's heart

My friend Elisabeth sent me this cartoon. Too cute!

**We are in the process of switching to Life line Homestudy agency. Hopefully we can get over this glitch and start heading forward instead of backwards! God is in control!

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an
eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not
on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is
temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
    -- 2 Corinthians 4:17

First Homestudy Meeting

We had our first Home Study orientation meeting today with our Home Study agent Donna from AAA Partners in Adoption. She was great and very flexible. She let us bring our kids and just camp out for an hour or so at her house. She gave us our checklist and went over all the many forms that we need to fill out and return to her as soon as we get them done. Wow! I am not going to lie, it is a little overwhelming! Dee seems excited and he is very willing to take on a lot of the load with me! All this government stuff is right up his alley, being an attorney.

We discussed what it means to adopt internationally and what all that entails. Donna was informing us that it can be really hard to adopt internationally for many reasons. We think we are going over to this country to "rescue" this child, but often these children are happy where they are and they do not want to be "rescued" (especially older children). It is often a hard road to adopt internationally. Many of these children have attachment issues and never really attach to the parents because they were neglected or abandoned. Donna was informing us and letting us know upfront that it is not an easy road. We told her we were thinking about adopting a 10-18 month old little boy, because it might be easier to have the Ugandan child and Mary Taylor closer together than far apart in age. She advised us to adopt a child as young as we could, because children in orphanages always have some sort of developmental delay. It is also best to have all of our children a little bit apart in age, so they will have their place in the family. I think there are always exceptions to these rules, but these are great points to think about.

We told her, we know that adopting can never be easy, especially internationally, but we feel that God is calling us to adopt. The child that we adopt, is our child, always has been our child, and always will be our child, even if the child ends up having emotional and physical problems. Yes, that will be very challenging, but we are trusting that God knows what we need, knows what we can handle, and ultimately what is best for us.

Precious little children that God created and he has picked out one especially for our family.

We had a great meeting! Now, I need to start doing all this paper work!

Annie

      Last night Henry and I had our first date! We went to the "Annie" performance at Pace Academy with the Teacheys, Elie and Jenna. We had a great time! What a great performance!

      I was really excited about this for many reasons. When I was a little girl, I was obsessed with "Annie" the movie and I passed this passion onto Henry. You can often find him dancing around the house singing, "Its a hard knock life for us..." and driving everyone crazy with his loud three year old voice!
       The story of Annie is very fitting to the story of my life as an adopted daughter into God's family. Annie is an orphan who is waiting and searching for her parents, but obviously they are not coming for her. Daddy Warbucks wants to adopt her as his own daughter.Only, after Annie is stolen does she realize who her true father is. Daddy Warbucks rescued her and brought her into his house and gave her all that is his. We often search for other things to make us whole, when Jesus' love is right there waiting for us, which truly makes us complete!

 

      Look who is dressed as Annie~sweet Elie

Two peas in a pod! 

Orphan Sunday

November is Orphan Awareness Month and November 8th is Orphan Sunday.

Tomorrow everyone across the nation and the world will be praying for Orphans.

Enjoy this video prepared for Orphan Sunday.

Now that I have seen

God has been developing this desire to adopt since Spring 2009. My husband, Dee, emailed Mark Richt's "Beauty of Adoption" video. Mark Richt is the University of Georgia's football coach who adopted two children from the Ukraine. This is a beautiful picture of how God loves the broken things of this world.

In May, I learned that a family in our church, the Gordons,were adopting a two year old girl from China. A month later, they took the long plane ride to Beijing. I watched my first "gotcha day" video, on facebook, while they were still over there. Pretty amazing to watch a family come together for the first time. That video truly touched my heart. Jia is a precious little girl.


After Jia's adoption, I started talking to people in our church that shared the same interest. This encouraged me to think more deeply about adoption. One of my friends, Caroline, sent me, Lucy Lane's "Gotcha Day" video from the blog: We Love our Lucy Lane and I cried through the whole thing! I received it through email while I was at the lake with my family and I made them all watch it too. God was working in my heart and opening my eyes. My husband Dee was excited that I was developing a heart for adoption.

About a month later, my friend Andrea called to tell me she and her husband were going to adopt from Ethiopia. Babe of My Heart

I was thrilled for them and told her we also wanted to adopt one day, but this was just not the right time. Life is too crazy with two young kids. Little did I know what God was doing in my heart. A of couple weeks later in August, Andrea posted an incredible blog by a girl named Katie Davis. It wasn't until the end of September that I decided to check it out.

Katie is a 21 year old girl from Brentwood, TN who has adopted 14 children in Ug*nda. She also feeds, clothes and provides school for 400 children. About two years ago she started this ministry called Amazima Ministries. This ministry raises money for these children in this Ug*ndan village. Her life is a true picture of what it means to be selfless and fully trust Christ for your every breath. Her stories truly humbled me. Here I am complaining that I have to take care of two children and I don't have "me time" anymore. This totally changed my perspective. God used her to open my eyes to these precious children in Africa that have no mommies and daddies. I spent three days reading her whole blog. The work she is doing over there is amazing and has encouraged me to know my Jesus more. It was on her blog that I learned these statistics.

*There are 145 million orphans worldwide.

*15 million have lost one or both parents to AIDS

*Over 11.6 million live in Sub-Saharan Africa


For the next week or so I discussed the possibilities of adopting with my husband. We knew God was leading us to adopt a child, because we now shared this same passion. The only thing that stood in our way was money. We just added onto our two bedroom, one bath house to make it a four bedroom, one bath house. Our 1940s house ended up needing a lot more work than we intended to do. I thought, "So why is God putting this on our hearts now?"

After doing a little more research, we realized that money should never be a reason not to adopt. This video inspired us to just trust the Lord to provide. There are many organizations that give grants for adoption and many ways to raise money to bring orphans home. So now we are praying that God would provide the money if this is his will.

God has opened our eyes to the orphans of the world, just like he opened my eyes to his truth several years ago. I have been loved much, so that I am free to love!