More on adoption

From Scotty Smith in Reclaiming Adoption:

"Because the whole pan-national family of God will be adopted(just as God has promised), because Jesus is going to finish making all things new( just as He promised), we can and must give ourselves over to offering this world the first-fruits of the new heaven and new earth. This is why Christians should be the front-line lovers and servants in the world of human trafficking, poverty, hunger, injustice, and indeed, in the world of orphans. Because Jesus has signed on for eliminating the very category and word 'orphan' from the human vocabulary, let's partner with him, one adoption at a time. We cannot and will not possibly fail. Our labors in the Lord are, and never will be in vain!"

Life and Death

Proverbs 24:11-12

" Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, 'But we knew nothing about this', does he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?"

....from Reclaiming Adoption:
" I know of no more beautiful expression of the Gospel in our culture than for an unloved and maybe even unlovable child to be seen and loved by Christian families and Christian churches simply because of God's great love for them. That love is now within us, so we adopt that child and bring that child into our love. We raise that child in the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. What more glorious, more wonderful thing can we do?"

Words That Demand Action

Deuteronomy 10:18
 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien giving him food and clothing.

Deuteronomy 14:29

The fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

Deuteronomy 24:17
Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice...

Deuteronomy 27:19 
“Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien, the fatherless or the widow.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

Psalm 10:14

You [God] are the helper of the fatherless.


Psalm 10:17-18
 You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed

Psalm 68:5-6
 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. He places the lonely in families.

Psalm 82:3 
Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.

Psalm 146:9
 The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless...

Isaiah 1:17
 Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.

James 1:27
 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Micah 6:8

He has showed you, O man, what is good. 
And what does the LORD require of you? 
To act justly and to love mercy  and to walk humbly with your God.

Family!

Psalm 68:5-6
" Father to the fatherless, defender of the widows-this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families."

I am so happy to report that little Victoria and Atticus are both being adopted!!

Take Me Out to The Ballgame!

We escorted the youth group to the Gwinnett Braves a few weeks ago.
 

My Banana-Head
 

Courtney and the highschoolers
 

Lisa and moi
 

My girl is getting so big!
 

My Dearest...looks like he just got up from a nap!
 

Big girls...
 

...and little girls!
 

Nick and Chris
 

Kim
 

 

Jonah and his cotton candy
 

Ethan
 

Introducing "my 4"!

I have become a Prayer Warrior with Reece's Rainbow and wanted to introduce you to the little loves I will be praying for!

Victoria 16G

167zs-16G

Girl was born in August 2011

Diagnosis: Down syndrome

Atticus

Boy, born January 2011
Down syndrome, heart murmur

Love the little round faced boys!

This little love is at the perfect age to join a family and receive therapy services.

Travel required, married couples only.

Katrina 14G

r4v7-14G

Girl was born in July 2011

Diagnosis: Down syndrome

Russell 3G

11gz8-3
Boy, born July 2009

Eyes Grey

Hair dark brown

Nature calm

Diagnosis: Down syndrome

$2615.00 is available towards the cost of my adoption!

If you are interested in finding out more info. on one of these precious children, please contact me or visit http://reecesrainbow.org/

Adoption Is Greater Than The Universe - John Piper

When I speak about how God has opened my eyes and shown me a world, His world that I had not seen before, I have trouble explaining what I mean. For the first time in my 38 years, when I think about adoption, I feel as though I am involved in what I was created for. John Piper explains it so beautifully, and my heart burns with the truth of the Gospel, what God has done for us, and in turn how we should respond.

Welcome home, Gregorys!!

On our way to welcome them home after 4 long months!

 

 

Signs had been made, groceries had been bought, and one dear house cleaned and decorated...

 

We waited and waited and finally saw their dear faces!

 

Big Boy Silas and his backpack

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Welcome Home, Gregory's!!

 

 

Family of 5!

 

 

Jovia and her girls

 

 

Redemption

This was taken from The Loux family blog. Derek and his wife were adopting 3 special needs boys from Eastern Europe and wrote this post in the middle of their process. Derek was killed in a car accident in 2009.

"Two days ago we drove for hours into the Ukrainian countryside to the village where Dimitri was born. We met with officials there and signed papers and answered their questions. We also went and saw Dimitri’s house. The day had been long, we were still recovering from jet lag, I was beginning to really miss my six daughters at home and all the familiar things our fragile human hearts entangle themselves with in feeble attempts to feel secure. Sitting in the dark on our very long drive back to Novograd that night, the Holy Spirit began to whisper to my heart, and new understanding about redemption began to take shape.

I was thinking, “Man, adopting this little boy has been so much work. This is exhausting, expensive, uncomfortable … and it doesn’t feel very rewarding right now.” What am I doing in some little Soviet car in the dark, in the middle of rural Ukraine in frozen December, as the driver dodges cats and potholes? What if Dimitri doesn’t improve at all? What if we get “nothing” out of this? … Ahhh, there it was; that dark, fallen, unreedemed, selfish human love, rooted in the tree of the knowledge of “good and evil”. The love the Greeks called “erao” love. The love where we treat someone as precious and treasured for what we can get out of it. This is unlike “agapeo” love, the God kind of love that treats someone as treasured and precious for their good, not for my good. It’s when I love a person in order to meet their needs, having no expectation of them meeting any of my needs. At a whole new level, God is working His kind of love into my weak heart, and He’s using little Dimitri to do it.

On the drive home that night, the Lord whispered in my ear, “This is Redemption. Derek, do you know how far I travelled to get you and bring you back? I had to be separated from my Son, in order to get you, just like you are separated from your children in order to get these boys. Do you know how expensive it was for Me to purchase you? It cost me everything. Do you know how broken, sick, damaged, twisted, dirty, smelly, and hopeless you were? And at the end of it all, you had nothing to give me or add to me. I did it for you. I emptied myself and became nothing so that you could have it all. This is redemption.

My friends, adoption is redemption. It’s costly, exhausting, expensive, and outrageous. Buying back lives costs so much.When God set out to redeem us, it killed Him. And when He redeems us, we can’t even really appreciate or comprehend it, just like Dimitri will never comprehend or fully appreciate what is about to happen to him … but … he will live in the fruit of it. As his Daddy, I will never expect him to understand all of this or even to thank me. I just want to watch him live in the benefits of my love and experience the joys of being an heir in my family. This is how our heavenly “Papa” feels towards us.

Today, settle your busy heart down and rest in the benefits of redemption. Enjoy the fruits of His goodness, and stop trying to “pay Him back”. You’ll never get close you goofy little kid."

Home

I am so happy to report that Kristopher and Juliette's families have found them!!

Kristopher

I am re-posting this from Adeye's Blog:http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/


Today I found out that this sweet boy has just SIX DAYS left to find a family.

Six short days!  Oh my goodness.

This is Kristopher. 

He is living in the same country as our beautiful Hasya. 

Except, thankfully he is in one of the better orphanages in that country. He is receiving care which is probably as good as it gets for a child living in an institution.

Kristopher's special needs are mild, friends. He has cataracts which are being repaired in his country. He has the usual delays which come from living in an institution.  Quite honestly, I am so surprised that this little boy has not been scooped up yet.  He has been overlooked so many times.  

Unfortunately now time is not on his side.  

There are many videos of this sweet boy. He DOES have vision--he reaches for things, plays with toys, he follows people around the room, and purposefully hits a hanging toy in front of him.

HE JUST NEEDS A FAMILY! 

Please share Kristopher's urgent need for a family to rise up and claim him as their son.  He is so young and will blossom and grow in a family.  Sadly, once his file is returned next week, Kristopher will spend the rest of his life in an institution--without much hope at all. What a little cherub he will be to someone willing to give him a chance!

Please don't let this boy remain where he is!  Please don't let him become another awful statistic of a child who deteriorates so badly simply from living in an institution. Go and watch the documentary Anthony posted on his blog and SEE what happens to these children.  It will give you an understanding of how DESPERATE it is that they be rescued while they are still young! Go and watch it--it will change your life!  THIS is why we advocate.  THIS is why we give every free minute of our time to the cause of the fatherless.  

Please, please will someone open their hearts and their home to Kristopher?

Anyone wanting more information about adopting Kristopher can contact Shelley at shele337@gmail.com.  Serious inquiries only, please.

Thanks for praying and trusting that Kristopher will be rescued soon! 

Please share....it is the ONLY way his family will find him!

Juliette

This is Juliette. Isn't she a sweet girl?! She has been listed here:Reece's Rainbow. Juliette needs a family. Oh, sweet Juliette, how I would love to come and get you!!RR has many, many precious little ones who need families. 

Here is her info.

Down syndrome, congenital heart disease - atrial septal defect, hemodynamically significant.  Heart surgery is needed in her future.

What a lovely little girl!

Some medical information available.  This picture is from March 2012.

• Married couples only (married at least 2 1/2 years)
• Parents must be 18 years older than child
• Parents over age 50 will be considered on an individual basis
• Two unrelated children can be adopted together
• Two trips are required
• Both parents must travel for the first trip (approx 5-7 days)
• Only one parent for the second trip (10-12 business days)

My Chicks and the Pig

 

To be known

I've been reading Crazy love by Francis Chan over the last couple of days. He has such a simple way of speaking the truth about the Gospel. I just have to record some amazing words here.

He refers to spending time in Jeremiah 1 and studying this book for four days while in solitude. He references verses 4 and 5: " The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 'Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.'"

He writes, " In other words, God knew me before He made me. Please don't skim over this truth just because you've heard it before. Take some time to really think about it. I'll say it again: God knew you and me before we existed."

Chan reflects that maybe these words only pertained to Jeremiah's life, but then he remembers Ephesian's 2:10: "we were created to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." He continues, "That verse is meant for me and all others who have been 'saved by grace through faith.' My existence was not random, nor was it accident. God knew who he was creating, and He designed me for a specific work."

I love this great reminder! David and I are at a place of change in our lives. As our eyes are being opened to the needs of this world, we wait longingly to see where our Father will direct us. It is a great comfort to know that he has planned each day of our lives, for His glory and for our good.

Gussy

This is Gus. I stumbled upon this little one as I was perusing the pictures of orphans on an agency site. I immediately fell in love with Gus! He is considered "special needs" as a Chinese orphan because he has a form of dwarfism. I showed his picture to the kids and we started to pray for him. We prayed for a loving, kind family for Gus. We prayed that we could be that family...

The months and weeks went by. Every day I looked up his little picture to see how he was. Sometimes "matched" is placed by a child's name once they have been matched with a family. I prayed for this, and prayed for us at the same time.

One day I clicked on Ni Hao Ya'll's blog to catch up with my bloggy friends ( who really don't know me!) and there was my sweet Gus, being advocated for by this dear blogger. I have to confess that my emotions were a mess. I was so happy that his little face and picture would be shown to so many, and so fearful that some one would take him before I did. I know, I'm a bit crazy sometimes! We continued to pray, and only days later Stephanie was posting that Gus had found a family. I cried and rejoiced at the same time. The children cried with me, and I'm sure the dog would have to if he had known.

So the weeks have passed and I am thrilled that Gus is being pursued and will soon be home with his family. I thought the Gus saga had closed in my life and then today, through a new blog that I am reading, I found his family! They are in the midst of a fundraiser to bring him home. I was able to help, even a little with the fundraiser and therefore, to unite Gus with his family! How kind of my Heavenly Father to allow me to be a part of his life like that! I am awed and humbled!

Welcome home, little Gussy!!

P.S. If you would also like to help with Gus's homecoming, here is the blog