magnificent

Only Love can leave such a mark
But only Love can heal such a scar.

Our lives have turned some major corners in the past year.  After deciding to discontinue home schooling, we sent our three big boys to the local public elementary school for the first time.  What a very big change all around for us, but we all agree that it was a good choice.

Kenyon left the company he had worked for for his entire 15 years of post-college life.  He took a chance at a new opportunity with a more local company.  Always thinking of his hunting season our family, he had the goal in mind that we wouldn't have to move geographically in order for him to move up in his career.

I couldn't be more proud of him.

As a result, we had say good bye to his company car and purchase a newer family truckster.  This is the first time in our marriage that we've owned (and insured, and repaired, and gassed up) two cars.

I know, poor us.

Shortly after his new job started, my Beloved revived a conversation that I had thought was dead some time ago.

You see, from the time we had a few years of parenting under our belts, the subject of orphans had caught our attention and our hearts.  Kenyon was the one who pushed me to go to Russia in 2006 to spend a week loving on precious children who are without families of their own.

That trip changed me.  I brought home with me faces and names, personalities and memories that defined the word "orphans".  There are an estimated 145 million + orphans globally, and I could not run from them or ignore it anymore.  I hugged them, sang with them, played with them, and said goodbye to them.

Then I came home to my loving family.  When I kissed my kids goodnight, I thought of the rooms with 30 beds filled with kids who don't get stories or snuggles or kisses at bedtime.

When my family was laughing and re-living our day at dinner time, I remembered looking into the rooms where those 30 children ate together - in silence.

My little boys love bubbles and stickers and puppets.  But now those things triggered memories of children who had never seen those things and when the Americans left, would likely not see them again until another group returned.

My kids go to the doctor for simple things like ear infections and yearly check ups.  I spent time with many children with easily correctable medical conditions that will spend their lives labeled and institutionalized.  There is no one advocating for their medical care.

You get the picture now, I'm sure.

For years now, our family has supported orphan care organizations and contributed to adoption funds of several families.  We had considered adoption, but various factors always added up to it not being the right time.

Personally, I didn't know if adoption would ever be written into our family's story.  And I had come to a point of complete peace with that.  If my husband did not want to adopt, then I knew it was not for us.  I shut my mouth and prayed that God would show me where I would fit in to this puzzle.

I am sure you can imagine my surprise when exactly one week into his new job, my man came to me and said, " I really think we should move forward with adopting."

Allrightythen.

Have you ever wanted something so badly for so long and when you finally have the opportunity to get it you question if you really want it?  Yup, that was me.

After about a week of heavy discussion and constant prayer, we filled out the application to adopt a child from China.

That was March 18th.

Last night was a big milestone in the process.  After months of paper chasing background checks, birth certificates, marriage certificates, writing 20 page autobiographies, and visiting doctors to sign off on our health status and our children's as well, our social worker came to do our official home visit.

After two and a half hours of individual and group interviews, she promised us our precious home study report within the next week or so and with that in hand, we will be moving forward toward our ....

daughter.

We are all so very excited to start on this journey.  We hope you will join us with your prayers and support.  We hope that by this time next year we will be settled home as a family of seven.

I know, the poor girl will never go on a date with four big brothers and a dad - all with weapons.

More to come soon.  And, needless to say, I'm taking suggestions for new blog names. 

gilbert

I sent out about 120 Christmas cards this past holiday.

I have no idea how many greetings my college friend Julie sent out, but I can only imagine that she sent just as many or more than I did.

What was interesting about Julie's letter this year was that it wasn't just about her adorable family.  It was so much more.

Julie and her husband volunteer with Compassion International by working to find sponsors for children in need.  A large portion of her letter was about a boy named Gilbert who lives in Kenya and needed a sponsor.  Her family had been praying for Gilbert - her young children had been looking at his picture every day and praying that he would get a sponsor.

Her letter didn't end with a simple "Happy New Year, " but it asked us to consider changing the life of this little African boy.

Rewind nearly nine years.

When my Beloved and I first became parents, my compassionate man decided that for every child we add to our family, we would sponsor a child in need.

Dickson, a little boy from Zambia, was our first sponsored child through World Vision.  We have written to and received letters from him over the years.  We still sponsor him each month and he is 21 years old.  I'm waiting for the day when we are contacted to say that his sponsorship has ended.  Usually, that happens when he has a wife and family of his own.

When Sauce was born, we started sponsoring Salile.  She lives in Malawi and has been our most communicative sponsored child.  Her letters usually come with a good story and lots of love.  My favorite was when she told us that while she was washing the family dishes in the river, she dropped one and was unable to retrieve it.  She thought she would get in trouble, but her mother simply laughed.

That letter made me lighten up with my own boys.  Salile turns 15 this year.

Rufus arrived two years later and together, my man and I couldn't pass up a little girl in Haiti named Mylove.  Mylove was born on our anniversary and will be nine this year.  She looks just as cute as her name.

Before Squirt was even conceived, we knew we were planning on a fourth child in our family, and we came upon the opportunity to sponsor my boy Vitya in Russia through a wonderful organization called Children's Hopechest.

I had the opportunity to actually go to Russia and spend a week with Vitya and it gave me new perspective on sponsorship.  He is a real boy with a real life and a real lonely heart.

Although I still have contact with Vitya through a Russian friend I made while visiting, the Russian government discontinued Hopechest's program in his area and our formal sponsorship ended.

So, back to Christmas.  We had four kids in our Christmas picture this year, but sponsoring only three children in need.

I waited several weeks before I emailed Julie.  I thought I could get Gilbert off my heart if I heard that someone snagged him soon after her letters went out.

What do you think she said?

Sadly for Gilbert, he was still waiting for a sponsor. 

Luckily for us, he was still waiting for a sponsor.

I didn't even say yes right away.  I told Julie I would get back to her and she told me that she and her family would be praying for our family.

Hmmm.  Didn't take long.  Pretty clear answer when God puts it in your mailbox at Christmas time and reminds you of a small promise you made when you started your family.

I have to tell you, our experience with Compassion has been awesome.  Gilbert's birthday was coming up (he looks like he's five, not TEN!) and we were able to go online and donate a gift specifically for his birthday.

Then we got our first letter from him.

For less than the price of one dinner out per month, we were able to add some love into Gilbert's life and hopefully make a significant impact on his family's future.

But it isn't about us or the money.  It is about the relationship we're forming.

Some things I immediately love about Compassion are:
- They typically only sign up one child in each family for sponsorship, but it helps the family as a whole.
- They don't support people within poverty, they enable them to work their way out of it by helping them start their own business and support themselves.
- Sponsors are able to attend a Compassion trip and actually meet their sponsored children.

Guess where I envision taking my men someday? :-)

Compassion has an awesome practice of sending bloggers to visit
their projects.

They are in Kenya now and I'm addicted to the updates and scanning their photos for a glimpse of my Gilbert.  They are showing me what I learned in Russia - that these children are real and while we are helping to rescue them from poverty, they can rescue us from wealth.

When wealth means giving $1.25 a day, I don't know anyone who couldn't be a part of the rescue.

Go check out what Kristen, MckMama, and the other bloggers have
to say.

And would you consider sponsoring a Compassion Child?

ornaments near to my heart

We I set up our Christmas tree this weekend.  Back when we had no kids and no money, we bought a bargain of a fake tree.

I was always against fake trees, but hubby insisted on it and it wasn't the hill I wanted to die on.

I think we bought the display tree at KMart.  It is not pre-lit and doesn't particularly fool the eye into thinking it is anything resembling a real tree.

For the past few years, we have talked about shopping the after Christmas sales for a new fake-but-more-real-looking-easier-to-set-up-possibly-even-pre-lit Christmas tree.

However, by the day after Christmas, I'm usually pretty pooped, so putting in the effort to find the right tree for the right price is not high on my list.

Anyhoo, my bloggy friend Nicole posted about her favorite ornaments on her tree and I thought would share a few of my favorites.

I have friends with "designer" trees that are carefully decorated with matching ornaments and look like they could be in a Macy's window.

Not us.

We go for the white trash mix and match sentimental look.  We have a varied collection of ornaments that have been growing since before the day we said, "I do."

This one is heartfelt for obvious reasons.  During the holiday season of 2001 I bought this flag ornament and wrote the "why" on a sticker on the back.

 

 

 

Not that we will ever forget.  But I want our children to remember too.

 

 

 

 

During my junior year of college, I studied abroad in Israel and Greece for three weeks.

We toured major places from the Bible in Israel and followed Paul's missionary journeys in Greece.

I bought this ornament in Bethlehem.  A pretty memorable time to walk where our King was born.

 

 

When I was on my mission trip to Russia two years ago, we stayed in the nicest hotel available near our rural little orphanage.

People, you have no idea how good we have it.  Most rooms only had two beds and a sink with cold water and a toilet.  Our group shared three showers that each had only a five gallon hot water heater -divided up between 16 people equals:  burrrrr!

The hotel staff were what made it delightful.  They were always pleasant and kind - even though we couldn't communicate without a translator.

On our last day, the women working there brought out a tray of gifts for each of us to choose from.  They were all hand-made, basket woven types of gifts and there were all different kinds to pick from.  I chose these shoes.

They hang on my tree and when I look at them, I remember that we are all God's people, no matter what we hear on the news.

Lastly, a few years back my mom gave me a set of photo ornaments with the best gift of all being that she filled them with photos!

Who can resist this cutie pie?

sweets for some sweeties

If you know me, you know my heart and passion for orphans.  Two and a half years ago I went on my very first mission trip to Russia with an awesome organization called Children's Hopechest.

We spent ten days falling in love with a bunch of unwanted kids - we put on a summer camp to teach them how much God wants them.

The orphanage was designated for special needs children, and many of them did have special needs - but by far, the majority of them were normal, smart, sweet, loving, needing-to-be-loved children.

When we arrived from our hotel each morning this is what we saw:

This is my little sponsored boy Vitya.  None of the kids had ever even seen bubbles, much less blown them.  Such simple delights.

We played ball, danced and let them "do" our hair.

We were VERY silly with them.  This is Sergey and he was about to graduate from the orphanage we were at (which only went up to the fourth grade) and move to an orphanage with much older kids.  He was so sweet and won everyone's heart.

 

I don't know what else God will put in my future path regarding orphans, but I am certain that there will be something because they are never far from my mind.

I just heard of a great fundraiser by Elle and her site Sweet Hope.  Go read about it and buy some chocolate.  I ordered a bunch for Christmas gifts, but seeing that it all gets shipped December 12th, I doubt they'll make it until Christmas.

Go read about it now, and be sure to click the "order" tab.  What I do know from my experience is that a little bit of love/money/effort can go a long way in an orphan's world.