The Best Gifts To Give This Season

This year I the fun privilege of buying Christmas gifts for the two children on my Child Advocates case, children who have been in the foster care system for years!  Children who told me they got nothing for their last birthdays, before I was assigned their case.  Children who only got clothes last Christmas at a different foster home.

Well, NOT THIS YEAR!

No, sir!

It was my mission to get these kids EXACTLY what they wanted for Christmas, down to the color.  Who knew that the Nintendo 3DS was so popular in BLUE?!  I could have easily gotten one in red or black at Amazon or most other stores and had it shipped to me like I like, but my girl wanted blue, so I stood in line at Walmart (my least favorite store, but the only one with the BLUE 3DS) for an hour to score the gift!

The children who live in my home and call me "Mom," do not get this level of service.  No way would I stress to get them the exact color of an electronic device, but these kids who have been through so much?  Who sometimes feel like nobody cares about them?  You betcha!

Today I carefully wrapped each gift, made sure the brother and sister had an even number of gifts, because, well, I KNOW that is important.  I even took the time for bows:

Then I delivered them to the kids at their foster home.  Oh the joy!!  Seriously, all gift giving ought to be like this!  Please can I never again have to buy for a person who has everything and instead just buy for people who are so over the top excited about their presents?

The kids didn't open their gifts today (the foster mother and I agreed they should save them for Christmas), but they gushed over the wrapped presents for a good half hour none the less, shaking and holding each one trying to guess what was inside!

Many Christmases I've bought gifts for strangers in need.  Angel tree, adopt-a-family, etc. and those are great things, but what was so awesome this year is that I KNOW these kids.  I've spent time with them before Christmas and I know so many details about their history and so I was able to buy them the gifts I know they are going to love and unlike so many other giving-to-the-needy opportunities, I'll still be there for these kids next month.  It's not just about giving at Christmastime, it's about relationship.  As I left we laughed as we said, "I'll see you 2015!"  But, I will.

Great Motivation to Clean Out

I've found some great motivation to get rid of clutter in our home is visiting a 3rd world country.

I felt the same way when I returned from Ethiopia 2 years ago, looking around my house and wondering why exactly we have SO MUCH STUFF!  And now returning from the Dominican Republic it feels much the same.

This week it's clothes, ruthlessly gone through.  Four large garbage bags.  One trip to drop them off for donation.

Yet, we still have plenty to wear!

While in the Dominican Republic we met people with so much less than most of us in America but with more joy than most of us, too.

One can't help but start to thinking, whose lives are really better?

They may not have electricity or water they can drink from their faucets or 2 cars per household, but I saw thankfulness and love shining bright from so many of the people we met.

Our kids from our church noticed it too, without any of us adults pointing it out.  One 15 year old American boy commented during our trip, "They have less than anybody I know back home, but they are happier than most people I know."

What can kids do on a mission trip?

I shared yesterday that I'd just gotten back from a family mission trip to the Dominican Republic with my church.  My husband and I took our 10 year old son and our almost 8 year old daughter (the 6 year old and 4 year old got to spend a week being spoiled at Nana & Papa's house).  I love the concept of serving alongside my children but when they are younger than teenagers it can be challenging to find things they can do to serve people in need.

From my recent mission trip, here are some things I learned that kids can do to help others:

Light Construction work
My 10 year old using an electric saw, with close adult help, of course:

My 7 year old sanding the desks our group made:

Several of the kids from our church painting a wall in an open-air church in the Dominican:

Help put on VBS for local children

Our group of 38 split into 2 groups and did VBS at 2 different sites for 2 days.  Each site had around 100 kids attend.  The VBS was for kids in a very impoverished churches who would otherwise not have an opportunity to attend VBS.

Look at all those precious children!  There was a hill out in front of the site I was at and Dominican children were literally carrying their younger siblings on their backs up the hill to get to VBS!

Our American kids were able to help act out Bible stories.  And help with games and crafts:

 
We made animal visors and salvation bracelets

Entertain kids who are waiting to see the doctor during a medical clinic 

We had a pediatrician in our group and a nurse, so we were able to provide 2 medical clinic days.  The kids in our group were a huge help entertaining the kids who were waiting to see the doctor!  And with 100 patients waiting to see 1 doctor, there was a lot of waiting!  But, the Dominican children didn't seem to mind because they were soaking up all the attention they got as we colored with them and did puzzles and bubbles.  I had one child in fits of laughter when I attempted to read her a Spanish children's book with my horrible mispronunciations!

Kids relate really well to other kids, so having kids in our group was actually an advantage many times.  And kids serving kids is just such a beautiful thing, it's worth it to get creative to enable it to happen!

Random Pieces of a Week

Today was hard, as I expected, and long. I've been doing this volunteer work for 9 years now and I've never before had it end like this, the kids have always gone home to reformed parents or to relatives who would still maintain contact with the parents. But, now, the children on my case have no legal parents other than the state.

However, the case worker and I did discuss the search for adoptive parents and there is great hope for many candidates. Her last sibling group to come available was a bit older than the two on my case and with greater special needs and CPS had many, many people interested in adopting them!

I have no doubt God will use this experience to give me more empathy for the daughter I will adopt, more understanding of the great loss she will carry as she grows up separated from her biological parents.

On to lighter subjects because I'm too tired for any more heavy. . .

___________________

Monday we had a Valentine's dinner at home with our 3 children. Because that's how we roll and because we had a babysitter last year on Valentine's and I think that will happen about once a decade. My husband picked up take-out from an Italian restaurant and I set the table nicely, complete with wine glasses of Sprite for the kids and candlelight. My 5 year old asked why I was doing it and I told her, "Because we are having a nice dinner to celebrate Valentine's Day."

She immediately asked, "Are we having hot dogs?" Because apparently although she gets home-cooked meals complete with made from scratch items most nights, hot dogs are her idea of a "nice meal"!

And as if that wasn't bad enough, when I answered, "No, we are not having hot dogs." She asked, "McDonalds?" No! Good grief, my kids get McDonalds like 3 times a year when we are on a road trip. But wait, that's probably exactly why she considers it a special meal!

All I have to say is she will make some boy an incredibly inexpensive date, you know when she's 24 and we finally allow her to date!

___________________

I made red velvet cake balls as a Valentine dessert and also gave them as gifts to my kids' teachers, wrapped up in little boxes with a red bow. Have you heard of the cake ball? It seems they've been quite the internet sensation for the past year or more. You make a regular box cake, let it cool, mix it with a can of store-bought icing, roll many little balls, chill them, and then dip the balls in melted chocolate. I did red velvet cake mix, cream cheese icing, and white chocolate for the coating. They were super yummy, but I couldn't get them to look as pretty as the pictures I'd seen everyone post. Even though I put them in the freezer for part of the hardening phase, when I rolled them in the melted chocolate, little crumbs of cake still came off and mixed in to make the coating not very smooth. Oh well, taste trumps presentation any day! But, I would like to make them again so if anyone has cake ball tips, lay them on me!

___________________

The week has been so busy, I'm behind on the wash, so much so that my 3 year old went to bed in athletic shorts and a t-shirt instead of jammies and my 5 year old daughter suggested I do the wash when she dug through her drawer and couldn't find any of the panties she likes. Basically, she's had to resort to the B team panties. And we all know how undesirable that can be!

And my in-box? Looks like this:
___________________

Okay, back to the heavy, go and read this post of Katie Davis, you will see Jesus in her.

___________________

I'm off to rest. The wash and the inbox? Can wait until tomorrow! Really hoping there are not any bills buried in that stack!

Find more Finer Things Friday and Friday Fragments.

Wishing They Weren't Orphans

Tomorrow I will put on a suit and stand in a courtroom as a court appointed special advocate (CASA) for two very young children and recommend to a judge that the parental rights be terminated.

It's eating me up.

Two more orphans to add to the sea of 147 million.

I hate it.

I held the children in my arms at their foster home yesterday.

They smiled, played adorably and wanted to be held over and over.

I'm thankful that for now they have no idea what is about to happen.

But, the loss of their mother will be something they carry with them the rest of their lives.

I grieve for them.

I wanted so much for their mom to make different choices.

But she didn't.

And they deserve better.

If all goes as expected tomorrow, I'll begin the search for their new mother.

So thankful that there are good, loving people willing to adopt children.

Praying for families for these precious two I've grown to love over the past year and the 147 million others.

"...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." Radical, by David Platt




Find more Thankful Thursday here.

The good news is: it's not staying!

So my kitchen looked like this over the weekend:

but the good news is that NONE of that stuff is for the children who live in my home!

Those presents were generously donated by sponsors for the 2 children I serve through Child Advocates who will spend Christmas in a foster home. Every Christmas Child Advocates creates wish lists for each of the children we serve and then corporations and individuals sponsor children, buy them gifts and deliver them to a warehouse where the Child Advocate (CASA), like me, goes and picks them up to deliver them to the abused children on our cases. That warehouse is like something out of the North Pole. It is huge and filled with toys, Christmas stockings, bikes, and big tables lined with wrapping paper and bows (if volunteers want to do their wrapping at the warehouse)! And it's a testament to the fact that people are still generous in this day and age.

I got everything wrapped and now I get to deliver them, such a fun job! Seriously, it's awesome to be able to watch the delight when children open gifts and know you don't have to be the one to find spots to put them away or ever enforce that they get picked up!

And as a side note, it turns out that my 5 year old daughter is an excellent voice-activated automatic tape dispenser! I'd just said "tape" every time I needed a piece and then a piece would be handed to me!


She's staying!
__________

Another thing that's not staying:
Notice anything strange about that nativity scene?

Hint: look at the white thing right behind the donkey and in front of Mary.


Yeah, it's a snowman.

What? You don't remember that part in Luke? You know the angel, the donkey ride to Bethlehem, no room at the inn but you can stay in the stable, baby Jesus was born, Mary laid him in the manger as Joseph, the animals, and the snowman looked on?

No, no snowman mentioned in the Bible?

Then there's an infiltrator in my nativity!

One of my children created that snowman a week ago out of clay and when I wasn't looking, managed to smuggle it into the manager scene. Nice try, but it's NOT staying. The children have 2 nativities sets to play with, add Yoda to, whatever, but this one is mine! Mine, mine, mine!

__________

And the last thing that I'm glad is not staying? The cold weather!

Y'all, it's been rough. We've had about 20 hours now where you really need a winter coat outside, it's that cold. And I don't like it. I don't like to be cold. There are people that live where I live that whine and complain when it's warm in December, "It doesn't feel like Christmas." I can assure you I am not one of those people!

But, the good news is that it's not staying! The high on Wednesday is 76 degrees F! Hurray! I get a lot more done when I'm not huddled under a blanket!

Led into the storm?

One of my Bible study leaders made a comment recently that in Mark chapter 4 the disciples were led out onto the lake right before the storm.

And I can't stop reflecting on that idea.

The water was probably calm when Jesus said to them, "Let's go over to the other side." They were all, "Sure" and then right as they get to the middle of the lake suddenly there are waves crashing over them and their boat's filling up with water.

I imagine they must have wondered why in the world Jesus would have led them out to the middle of the lake right before the storm.

Maybe they even said, "We obeyed, we did what he said, and look where it got us!"

or "We are doing what He wanted us to, why is it so hard?"

"Why the storm?"

I've asked the same questions.

"God, we feel like you led us to start up this ministry, why then are we getting push-back from some leadership?"

"God, we know you led us to adopt a child from Ethiopia, why then has the wait time and number of trips required to do it doubled since we began the process?"

"God, I felt you leading me to take on this case with my volunteer job, why did you have to add the latest drama where to serve the children in the way I see best I had to put my own personal safety at risk? And why if that were to be the situation, did you feel the need to publish the danger of the place I'd been going on the front page of the newspaper?"

But when the disciples questioned Jesus, "do You not care that we are perishing?" He calmed the storm and replied, "Why are you so timid? How is it that you have no faith?"

And so He says the same to me.

I must trust Him.

And yes, He does occasionally lead us right into the storm, so we can see him calm it,

or maybe so we learn to trust Him more.

One thing I know, next time my boat starts taking on water I'm following the example of Jesus -- I'm gonna take a nap!

Find more Thankful Thursday here.

How to Avoid Being Room Mom

I'm just keepin' it real with this post.

You may have heard me share a bunch on this blog about the things I do from teaching Sunday School to making homemade bread and yogurt to backstage mom at the dance recital and swim team age group mom lining up all the 7 and 8 year old boys for their events at the meets.

But, I DON'T DO IT ALL !!!

One thing I have never done and actually avoid is being room mom for my kids' school classes.

I know!

Slacker!

But, I figure if I can't do it all, I might as well pick the jobs I enjoy, the ones that fit my strengths. So, yes, taking 12 dance-costume clad little girls to the bathroom backstage multiple times and doing sticker crafts to entertain them until their dance -- that I'll do. Gladly!!

But, organizing the Christmas and end of the year teacher gifts, which means emailing all the kids' parents and asking for money, and then collecting said money? Coordinating the class basket for the fall carnival auction? Recruiting field trip chaperones? I'll pass, sorry, but I hate that sort of thing!

So, my secret (only now I'm sharing it with the entire Internet) method for avoiding the class mom role is to show up about 15 minutes late to the Meet the Teacher Day. It's usually come and go anyway, so you are not technically late, it's just that the super-organized moms have already been there by the time you get there and darn if that room parent sign-up is not already full!

You see? I even avoid feeling any guilt -- the sheet was already filled in!

Find more Works for Me Wednesday here.

When the children are away. . .

This year, until we add a 4th child to our family (through adoption), I have 6 magical hours each week when all 3 of my children are at school -- 3 hours one morning and 3 hours on another.

So, what do I do with myself?!!!

Well, this week, I only had 1 day because the 1st day of preschool the kids only stayed for an hour and 15 minutes and during that time the parents were in a parent meeting at the school.

But in 13 snippets here's how the other morning was spent:

• Dropped off my 3 year old at school. Patted myself on the back for actually remembering to pack and take his snack, considering the bringing a snack is a new policy since my 2 other children went through this same class.

• Headed to the daycare center where the 2 children I volunteer as their Child Advocate (CASA) go to school, to visit them and check out their classes. While there I spent about 20 minutes on the floor with 10 toddlers, 1 of which screamed the entire time, another rattled the baby gate for 19 of the 20 minutes I was there. But the little boy I was visiting? Couldn't have been cuter and more smiley and was very obviously showing off for me with his stunts! Then I moved on to a little older class where his sister was, she is just learning to talk (slightly delayed) but very clearly told her classmates, "MINE!" whenever any of them tried to approach me. It took me a few minutes to realize she was not saying that about a toy but about me! "Yes, I'm here to visit you." I affirmed her many times.
  

• Left the daycare and went to my 2nd volunteer job of the morning -- helping the kindergarteners at my 2 older kids' school while they were in the cafeteria for lunch (our school asks for volunteers for the first few weeks of school while the little kids are getting used to the routine and need help opening things from their lunchboxes).

• Hugged my own precious kindergarten girl and loved how excited she was to see me in her cafeteria!

• Greeted my daughter's friend, "How are you, Rachel?" Rachel replied, "Awesome!! I'm awesome!" I marveled at the enthusiasm of kindergarteners!

• Opened a variety of drinks and food baggies/containers and instructed over and over, "Eat your lunch or you'll be hungry later!"
  

• Took 3 little girls to the restroom, 1 of them twice in the 30 minute lunch -- I didn't ask what that was about, some things it's better not to know!
  

• Had the following conversation with another kindergarten girl:

Me: "Oh, your name is Claire. I just met another Claire in your class. There must be two Claires."
Claire: sighs, "Yeah and I'm kind of jealous of her," and points to the other Claire.
Me: "Really? Why?"
Claire: "Well, sometimes I raise my hand in class to answer a question and the teacher says, 'Claire' but the other Claire answers the question instead. So that makes me kinda jealous of her!
Me: "Oh, I see."
Claire: "Yeah, it's just like the year there were two Olivias and that wasn't very awesome."

• I was very sympathetic to her face, but I spent the entire rest of the day giggling about that conversation! Poor "Other Claire"!

• Left the cafeteria job with just about 15 minutes to spare before it was time to go pick up my 3 year old from preschool. I went home to soak up 15 whole minutes in my house BY MYSELF! Oh the quiet!

• Thought to myself (since I could actually have an entire complete thought in my head), "How is it that this one morning in months when all 3 of my kids were in school at the same time did I manage to spend nearly all of it surrounded by gobs of kids?!"

• Smiled at the blessing of getting to be around little kids so much during this season of my life.
  

• Couldn't help glancing at the calendar for next week hoping to spend one of my free days doing something leisurely like shopping all alone! But, nope, next Monday is a holiday so again only one toddler-free day for me. And on the Tuesday? A long ago scheduled dentist appointment for me. To quote an apparently popular word among the kindergarteners - Awesome!!

Find more Thankful Thursday and Thursday Thirteen.

Because somebody needs to step in.

Tomorrow I will step into their lives.

Today we are strangers.

But tomorrow, I will know very intimate details of their lives.

Tomorrow I'll learn of the abuse that landed them in protective custody.

Tomorrow I will read of their medical issues, emotional problems, and their current foster home placement.

Next week I will meet them face to face.

I'll promise to fight for them, to walk along side them during this amazingly tough season of their young lives.

I will begin putting a plan in motion to help them.

To help them find their way into a safe, stable, loving permanent home.

It may be back with a reformed parent or parents, or with relatives, or adoptive parents, hopefully, prayerfully it will not be in the permanent custody of the state.

The state is not a very good parent.

Over the course of the next year I'll meet regularly with them, as well as their parents, teachers, foster parents, therapists, doctors, lawyers, relatives, case workers, and the judge for their case.

I will be their voice in a broken system.

I pray for God to work through me, that I will be His hands and feet and voice.

As I begin a new case in my volunteer work as a court appointed special advocate (CASA) through Child Advocates I'm thankful for the opportunity to be used.

I'm grateful my own family allows me a few hours away here and there so that I may serve children who do not have the safe, loving home that my 3 kids do. I'm hopeful that because I care about the needy and the helpless and the lost, someday my children will care about them too.

I'm confident that although I am an ordinary person, just because I care, I'll be able to make a difference in the lives of these 2 children that today are strangers. I've seen it happen before. Their case is my 7th case, the 13th and 14th children I will take on and fight for as if they were my own.

I do not know them today and will never be able to share them publicly, but after tomorrow, their names and faces I will never forget.

This post is part of the Moms' 30-Minute Blog Challenge.

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Find more Tuesdays Unwrapped

It's that time of year!

It started a few weeks ago, the gradual bombarding.

Everywhere I went with my kids there was a flyer with specific instructions about where to be and when and sometimes what to wear or bake and bring, and of course the numerous ways I could volunteer to help out with the upcoming big event.

A field trip, an open house, an art fair, a 1st grade musical, a preschool water day, a class trip to the zoo, a field day, a friend's birthday party, another friend's birthday party, a baseball end of the season party, my child's birthday, the beginning of swim team season, a dance recital, the end of school party, the teacher gifts . . .

and on it goes. . .

I've seen other bloggers post on this so I know I'm not alone in thinking the busyness of the pre-Christmas season is nothing compared to the April/May of a mom!

Here are 13 ways I'm attempting to manage it this year:

1. I will volunteer to help with some things, but quietly pass on the sign-up sheet without writing down my name for other things (For example: yes, I will chaperone the field trip, but I will let someone else bake cookies for the open house)!

2. I will write everything down on my calendar and check it daily!

3. I will use my crock pot, nearly every night.

4. I have cooked ahead some freezer meals.

5. I have lowered my expectations about exactly how clean my house will be during this season.

6. But, will be extra-diligent about keeping up the organization systems that make things run more smoothly, like kids putting their shoes on the shoe shelf, baseball hat always on the same hook, and laundry done often before it becomes too overwhelming!

7. Nearly all the things crammed on my calendar are truly fun things, so I will attempt to live in the moment of each one, and enjoy it without worrying about what is next on the agenda.

8. For every crazy, frenzied, jam-packed day we have these next couple of months, we will have at least one day of absolutely nothing planned over the summer!

9. I will keep my camera charged.

10. I will prioritize a quiet time each day and exercise, too!

11. I will not stress that this blog post is not formatted quite as perfectly as I'd like.

12. I will lay-out clothes and pack bags the night before.

13. I will thank God for the privilege of a front-row seat to my kids' lives!

So how do you do it? Any good survival tips to share?

Find more Thankful Thursday, Thursday Thirteen

A Better Purpose for Our Money

My children followed me like three little ducks as I wound my way down aisles of bookshelves to the back of the store. I removed the books I'd brought in from the bag over my shoulder and stacked them on the counter. The woman working there looked the books over and said kind of apologetically as if she thought I'd expect more, "I can give you $6 for them."

"Great!" I said, excited to turn unwanted books into cash, exhilarated to be ridding my home of clutter and getting paid to do it!

She printed off a little receipt for me that I could redeem at the check-out with the $6.00 amount printed on it, and I was ready for my 2nd mission in that store. . .

Introduce my children to the Half Price Bookstore.

They were skeptical about it when I launched the idea at home on the Friday afternoon of their Spring Break. "Can't we just go to a regular bookstore!" my oldest lamented. But when I led them over to the children's section of the Half Price Books, they were amazed. It seemed a lot like the regular bookstore! "Are these books really used, Mama?" they asked. "Yes," I told them, and then slightly under my breath, "although more gently used than you guys seem to use books!"

There was a particular book I was looking for, one our library didn't have available for check-out, one that correlated with a play I was taking my 4 year old daughter to soon and wanted to read her the book first. We found it in great condition and $1.98. Then I told my boys they could each pick one book. One of my sons picked a book that was $3.75. I glanced down at the $6 ticket in my hand and said, "There are 3 of you and I have $6, you can each get one that is $1.98." He argued briefly that I could just pay the extra from my wallet, even offered to use his allowance at one point. I found a $1.98 book on Benjamin Franklin. My son has a new interest in inventions and non-fiction books, so he was sold on it.

It felt good at the register to be able to buy them all three a good book for only some spare change to cover the tax after I turned in the $6 ticket.

Then as I got in the car and began to drive home, another feeling kind of crept in. Was I being too frugal? I mean in the store I was acting as if the $6.00 printed on the ticket was the only money we had in the world, when we really could have afforded to spend more. Did I really want my kids looking back at their childhood and remembering their mom saying, "No, Honey, you need to pick a cheaper used book"?

But then I remembered the reason for my ever increasing frugality. It is, thankfully, not because of our need. My husband's salary has not decreased these last few years, actually the opposite, but we are challenging ourselves to spend less on stuff for us, so we have more to give away to those who truly have need.

That evening after the used bookstore expedition, we opened the mail and found this:
It's a letter from a little girl named Juliet we currently sponsor who is an orphan in Uganda, and says "I love you so much. I pray for you and your family. I like hearing songs." and then later, "I am 8 years old. God has good plans for you. God loves us all. I love you. love, Juliet." We've sponsored her for a few years now, paying $30 per month for her care in the Lulwanda Children's Home.

And then and there my husband and I sat down with our kids and did something we've talked about for a few months now, we sponsored another child. Although we sponsor one, we've felt compelled to do more and have been moved by the work Compassion International is doing in the lives of children living in poverty.

So, Friday evening we sat around the computer together and browsed the profiles of kids we could sponsor. We decided on Mathews, a little boy from Ethiopia (where we are adopting a daughter from) who is 7 just like my oldest son. And we committed to be a part of his life for a long time, hopefully until he is grown, God-willing. We'll send the $38 per month to provide him with food and clean water, medical care, education, and most important he'll be taught about Jesus! But, as a family (Compassion encourages but does not require writing to your sponsored child) we also committed to writing to Mathews once a month to let him know we care about him and God does, too.

When we finished, I was excited, excited to become a part of this boy's life. Excited to have the opportunity to make a positive difference in his life. Excited for another tie to Ethiopia, a country we will forever be linked to once we bring home our daughter from there. Excited to maybe even get to meet Mathews during 1 of the 2 trips we will make to Ethiopia over the next year to adopt our daughter (God just may bring good out of the 2 trips requirement, yet!)!

And then there was the opportunity for the teachable moment. I told my kids, "You know we could have easily spent $38 in that used bookstore today. Even with the books being half price, there were several neat ones, ones that came with toys, even. I know if I'd let you, you guys could have spent that much and more, but because we didn't we can send that money to help Mathews have things like water and food that he really needs.

I'm grateful to be able to make life better for Juliet and Mathews, and I'm so very grateful for a better purpose for our God-given money than blowing it in a bookstore!

This post is part of the Moms' 30-Minute Blog Challenge.
Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!
Find more Tuesdays Unwrapped, Tackle it Tuesday, Try and Tell & Works for Me Wednesday.

A Solution to Many of Your Problems

Want to know the answer to many of the problems you may be facing?

Learn about people who have less, much, much less than you.

Stare poverty in the face, eye to eye, and I guarantee your heart will leave forever changed.

Do you need help organizing your house? Have trouble getting rid of stuff? I did, too, until I saw it. And now my excess disgusts me. I used to have two pair of running shoes. But then I read accounts and saw pictures of children in Africa who have never had even one pair of shoes.

Do you ever get tired of cooking dinner for your family? I did too, until I saw the stories of mothers who had no food at all to feed their children, for days, weeks, even months at a time!

Do you ever wonder what your purpose here in this life is? Why you are important? I did, too, until I realized as long as I am living, breathing on this earth I can be a difference in the lives of people who are hurting. I can shine light into their darkness. And you can too!

Kristin from We are THAT Family is joining the Compassion International trip to Kenya and will be blogging about it. Compassion is a super way to get involved being the difference in the life of someone in need because not only do you help financially, but you write to the child you sponsor and can provide them love and encouragement they may not otherwise have. Be sure to follow along on her journey with the link below.


I can't wait! Kenya is right next door to Ethiopia (on the South side) where we are in the process of adopting a daughter. To say Africa has changed our lives would be a huge understatement! Have you heard the slogan, "I need Africa more than Africa needs me." The more I learn about Africa the more I believe that is totally true!


Find more Works for Me Wednesday at Rocks in My Dryer while Kristin is away.

Today I Needed to be Thankful!

I am thankful for the times I remember to be thankful because it sure does make things better!

13 other ways I was thankful today. . .

Thankful that even though I wiped Toddler's snotty nose every 4 minutes all day long and wondered how it was possible that one small person could produce so much snot, I know it will pass, he will get older and not catch every single cold that comes around.

Thankful that someday he'll even be able to wipe his own nose!

Thankful that dinner was edible. Added 1/2 teaspoon of salt to recipe and then noticed it actually called for seasoned salt. So I just add 1/2 teaspoon of seasoned salt, too, and hoped for the best! Turned out just fine!

Thankful for 1st grader's great report card!

Thankful Toddler only had one accident today and it was while he was sitting on his "special seat" (folded up blue towel) so my couch was protected!

Thankful for the warmer weather!

Thankful my 4 year old daughter still lets me pick out her clothes nearly every day! Today a smocked dress, ruffled leggings, a white cardigan sweater, hair in pigtails with purple bows. Please let me be able to get away with this next year in kindergarten, too!

Thankful I didn't lose my cool with the bank representative I spoke to on the phone about the now week-old issue where the bank cannot provide the very simple notarized letter we need for our adoption stating we have an account with them, have had it for over 10 years, and are in good standing. Why can't they provide what we need? Because it is against their policy to draft letters! Hmmm, you are a bank isn't that a big part of what you do? All we can get is a standard referral letter that they order from the corporate location in another state that isn't even really what we need (including tons of info. we don't need and lacking the key notary signature), oh and they're going to charge us $10 for it!

Thankful for the fun I had describing to my husband the next step in my battle to get a simple letter from my bank -- I'm going to take my snotty-nosed, potty-training toddler in with me every day to the bank, set him on their upholstered couch, and stay until someone gives me the 2 sentence letter I need! Between the pee-pee and the snot, somebody's gonna cave and it's not going to be me!

Thankful that even though I never got around to mopping the floor today nobody is firing me from my housewife job!

Thankful for all your comments on my recent posts. I have loved reading them!

Thankful for organizations like Compassion that serve the hurting, like so very many in Haiti right now.

Thankful that because of them and others like them (Red Cross, World Vision) we are not helpless to provide for those in desperate need.

**Don't forget to enter my giveaway! **

Find more Thankful Thursday & Thursday Thirteen

Why I Stayed

Although this month marks 5 years since the following story happened, I remember it like yesterday.

She is 6 months old and in the hospital.

She is not my child, but she is my Child Advocates child.

A child I am the court appointed special advocate for, a volunteer position, but one that intertwines her life, the lives of her 3 siblings, parents, foster parents, lawyers, a judge and many others with mine for over a year.

She was removed from her parents' care only a couple days after her birth along with her 2 older brothers and 1 older sister. By the time I met her she was 4 months old and was in her 2nd foster home, placed with her older sister but separated from her 2 brothers.

She is tiny, much tinier that a 6 month old should be, and she is losing weight instead of gaining. Her foster mother and I together checked her into the hospital on the pediatrician's orders.

It takes us about 5 hours to get her admitted to the hospital. I am there to make sure the doctors understand the family history of this little girl, things the foster mom does not entirely have access to, but I, as a legal party to the court case, have read. You see, this baby girl had an older sibling die a few years earlier in infancy from similar symptoms. I am scared for this baby. The doctors must figure out what is wrong, they must save her from the same fate.

When she gets moved out of admitting to her hospital room, it is very late, the foster mother must go home so the baby's 3 year old sister can go to sleep. The foster mother is a single woman. There is no one else to stay with the baby in the hospital. The CPS caseworker is overworked (on more than 30 cases) and takes 3 days to return calls, the parents cannot see the baby except during their supervised visits for 1 hour every other week. The nurses at the hospital promise to look in on the baby often but have other patients to tend to as well.

And so I stay.

For 3 nights I stay, sleeping at her bedside, leaving in the morning when other help arrives so I can go home and take care of my 21 month old son while my husband is at work.

Doctors and nurses that come in and out often mistake me for the baby's mother, and when I explain the situation they are surprised that I stay.

I stay because I do not want her to wake up and be alone in the hospital.

Because she spits up a lot and I don't want her to be in soiled sheets and pajamas for very long before someone notices and changes her.

Because if she were my child and I could not be with her, I would want someone to care enough to stay with her.

Because when I was diagnosed with lymphoma only 2 months prior, God assured me that no matter what happened to me He would take care of my son and husband, and I realize the irony that now I am His provision of care for someone else's child.

Because He has promised to never leave me or forsake me (Deuteronomy 31:6).

The baby girl did survive, she will likely always be small, but otherwise should be basically healthy. She and her siblings were returned to their parents a few months later and I visited every week, often making surprise visits to check that everything was okay, that the parents were doing what they were supposed to do to care for their children. I got to be there when she celebrated her 1st birthday. She had beautiful, sticking up blond hair. She was just beginning to crawl and wearing 3-6 month old clothes at 12 months. Then the case closed and I said "goodbye" and prayed that it really was a happy ending for those four precious children.


This post is part of the Moms' 30-Minute Blog Challenge.

Check out Gratituesday and Tuesdays Unwrapped.

The Colossal Christmas Conspiracy

Have you heard of the Advent Conspiracy?

In the video on the main page of their website (find it by clicking here), they give the statistic that Americans spend 450 billion dollars on Christmas every year. More people die from lack of clean drinking water every day that anything else. It would cost 10 billion dollars to make clean water available to everyone.

I don't know about you, but I find those numbers staggering! Each year we in America, a country where 76% of the people identify themselves as Christians, choose to celebrate Christ's birth by spending $450 billion on stuff at the expense of lives, people created in the image of the very God we claim to love and serve!

I am ashamed for the part I have played in this! We as a family give money and toys and food and our time at Christmas, but we could do more. We are guilty of spending too much on things that won't matter to anyone in the long run. This year we are changing that. We will spend less (our specific goal is 50% less) and give more to people in true need -- the least, the last, the lost. I am grateful for a 2nd chance!

In Matt. 25:35-40, Jesus says,

'For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink? And when did we see You a stranger and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? And when did we see You sick or in prison, and come to You? ' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'

What do you think Jesus wants for His birthday?


This post is part of the Moms' 30-Minute Blog Challenge.

Check out Gratituesday and Tuesdays Unwrapped.

Perspective

Want to be thankful for your problems?

In 13 words I give you a new perspective:

A Chinese proverb: “Well-fed people have many problems, hungry people have only one.”

Find more Thankful Thursday here and Thursday Thirteen here.

Because a Child Needs You

November is right around the corner and it is National Adoption Month. November 8th is Orphan Sunday.

13 Reasons to use these next few weeks to DO something:

13. There are 143 million orphans in our world.

12. There are as many orphaned and vulnerable children in Ethiopia as there are people in greater NYC.

11. Every 18 seconds another child becomes an orphan, without a mother or father.

10. Every 14 seconds a child loses a parent due to AIDS.

9. Children are profoundly affected as their parents fall sick and die, setting them on a long trail of painful experiences often characterized by: economic hardship, lack of love, attention and affection, withdrawal from school, psychological distress, loss of inheritance, increased physical and sexual abuse and risk of HIV infection, malnutrition and illness, stigma, discrimination, exploitation, trafficking, and isolation.

8. On any given day, 500,000 children in the US are living in foster care because they cannot live safely at home.

7. Each year, an estimated 20,000 young people “age out” of the U.S. foster care system. Many are only 18 years old and still need support and services

6. James 1:27 says, "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction."

5. Romans 8:15, "For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"

4. Isaiah 1:17, ". . . Defend the orphan. . "

3. Matthew 25:40, "And the King will answer them, 'I assure you: Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.'"

2. If only 7% of the 2 billion Christians in the world would show hope to a single orphan, looking after the child in their distress, there would effectively be no more orphans. We can each do something.

1. Thankfully there is hope! It only takes one caring individual to make a life-long difference for an orphan!


Organizations that can show you how to be a difference:

Show Hope
Orphan Sunday
Court Appointed Special Advocates
Child Advocates Forgotten Children Campaign
Hope for Orphans
Children's HopeChest


Find more Thankful Thursday here and Thursday Thirteen here.

With His help I can help

In Proverbs 31:9b, God tells us to "defend the rights of the afflicted and needy".

I have taken a break from my volunteer job with Child Advocates while my children are out of school for the summer, but as the school year approaches I will take on a new case. I have begun praying that God will equip, guide, and use me in whatever I am assigned. I have felt and do feel so helpless when faced with the thought of children suffering. But, during my last 7 years of doing this volunteer work as a court appointed special advocate for kids who have been removed from their homes for abuse, God has shown me how even I can help by:

1. Visiting children in the home of their relatives, where they were sent by the state after their mother neglected them, and discovering one of the children was being physically abused in that placement and being able to request and make sure that the children be moved out of the abusive placement.

2. Staging a birthday celebration for a little girl turning 6 who had never had a birthday party before!

3. Spending 3 nights in the hospital with a 6 month old baby girl who would have otherwise been alone in her ordeal.

4. Sitting in their home and listening as grandparents anguished over their child's mistakes and came to grips with the reality that they are the only suitable caregivers for their grandchild.

5. Helping ease the financial burden on foster parents by delivering Christmas gifts to the children.

6. Counseling a teenage mother on steps she needs to take to get her life in order and be able to parent her children.

7. Testifying in court to be sure that the best interests of the children are heard.


I have blogged before about the amazing young woman named Katie Davis, and, she says on her blog:

"It is easy to look to God and ask, 'Why is there so much poverty in the world? Why is there so much hurt, so much inequality and unfairness, so much destitution?' I bet He would ask us the same thing."

I find that thought so convicting it hurts!

Find more Finer Things Friday at The Finer Things in Life, Hooked on Fridays at Hooked on Houses, 7 Quick Takes Friday at Conversion Diary,

What She Does

As Christians we often hear that we are to be "the hands and feet of Christ".

Check out this amazing example of someone doing just that in a huge way!

That link will take you to the true story of Katie Davis who is making a difference in countless lives in Uganda, even going so far as adopting 13 girls.

Katie Davis is 20 years old!

For even more of the story, go to her blog.

I am grateful for and inspired by her example, her work, and her courage to follow God's calling!

Find more Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers & Talk About Tuesday at The Lazy Organizer.