a little part of something big

You know we sponsor a child through Compassion International, right?

I really think its some of the best money we spend monthly.  We got a letter from Junior this week.  Its the first one we've gotten from him since he has seen the twins (we wanted to wait until it was officially official and finally final before we tried to explain it all to him.)  We sent him a picture sometime after Christmas and told him the story of our newest family members.  In his letter he said, "I love the twins.  They look alike!"  I'm just giddy over it.  We all get a kick out of his notes to us.  We wrote him back this week.  Below is a picture of what Wilson and Walker wrote to him.  Walker wrote a verse on the cut out of his hand, and Wilson chose a proverb to write and illustrate.  They did this on their own with just a nudge of encouragement.  ;)

One of my favorite things about sponsoring through Compassion is their transparency.  They recently participated in an independent study on child sponsorship programs and the results are incredible.  You can read more about it here.... an especially good read if you are skeptical about the benefit of sponsorship programs.

They also do Compassion Blogger trips which allow bloggers to come visit development centers and share their experiences.  There is a blogger trip ongoing in Nicaragua right now.  I cannot read a post about someone meeting their sponsored child and not cry.  Every. Single. Time.  I do sincerely hope that we will one day meet Junior.  God knows this.

You can read the bloggers posts here. Compassion Bloggers featured posts.

And I strongly, strongly, strongly encourage you to read this one today. "I've seen Best Again."  I think it really captures the beauty of sponsorship and the gift it gives to families across the world.

 You wanna be a little part of something big?  Click below to find out more!

satisfied

I'm still whirling around a bit as I "unpack" from Summit 9. As I look back over my notes & hand-outs, I am flooded over with such a sense of satisfaction. The kind you get from eating just-the-right amount of your very-most-favorite foods - not the satisfaction from seeing a car get pulled-over that recently sped past you on the highway. Filled-up, content, satisfaction. That.

I should back up a little though. There might be a couple of you that aren't really sure what Summit 9 is or why we went.

The Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) was started to bring a sense of unity to the adoption/orphan care world - rather than a bunch of churches/organizations doing their own thing their own way, there was a desire to come together toward the common goal.

"The Christian Alliance for Orphans unites more than 100 respected Christian organizations and a national network of churches.  Working together, our joint initiatives inspire, equip and connect Christians to reflect God’s heart in caring for orphans in adoption, foster care and global orphan care initiatives." [from CAFO homepage]

They decided to "leave logos and egos at the door." The first Summit had 39 people in attendance. This year there were over 2500!

You might remember that I wasn't sure if we were the right fit for Summit 9. After all, our church doesn't have an orphan care ministry and we don't work for any orphan care organizations either. Aaand we didn't win a free registration.

But God. He always leads well when you are listening, and we were and He did. Brad and I had a sense that we should go, and we had an honest-to-goodness offer from Barbie to watch all four boys for us. We started looking at breakout sessions and considering which might be most beneficial. We were leaning toward the sessions that helped with starting an orphan care ministry within your church. We weren't sent by our church. We hadn't even discussed it church leadership. It just made sense to us even if it didn't really make sense at all.

You see, through our own adoption journey we learned a lot about the foster care system. While feeling like we were "fighting the system" to get to finalization; the reality is that "the system" is understaffed and overwhelmed. There aren't enough caseworkers for all of the cases and their are never enough foster parent homes. Not only are caseworkers carrying more cases than is desirable - the cases are rarely clear cut and often heavy. Add to that heavy, complicated caseload the pressure to find a local foster home when there are none. This, to us, is a place where the Church can step in and love well. And the time is now.  It will likely be messy.

As you know, we've already collected over 40 bags for our local foster care office's supply closet. The caseworkers can grab a bag for each child that comes in to care and get rid of their trash bags. You know, it's the caseworkers that hate to see children carrying belongings in trash bags? They requested bags for their children. We've also collected more outfits than I can count so there are items for kiddos to wear if they need something when they come in to care. A caseworker won't have to run out to Wal-mart hoping to find a suitable outfit for a child in the midst of crisis. A couple posts on Facebook and these needs are fulfilled. I can only imagine what could happen if our churches were organized to help in this way.

After going to Summit 9, I don't have to imagine as much.   We got a glorious glimpse into all the ways God is working in the adoption/orphan care movement.  It was refreshing just to see the number of people, churches, organizations gathered around this central focus. 

I will probably blog a bit more about some of the individual highlights we experienced.  For now, just know we were reassured over and over again that we were right where we were supposed to be.

Summit 9 - day one

[The following post was written the first night of Summit 9 in our hotel room.  The wifi in our room was sketchy at best, so I am just now posting this tonight. In its original state.]

Oh my word.

I cannot even begin to process all that I have taken in. I'm the-best-kind-of-worn-out tonight, and thrilled that we get to go do it all over again tomorrow. It is encouraging to hear stories of where God is at work and how the church is jumping in to join His work. My heart is full.

The last session ended with Steven Curtis Chapman encouraging and challenging the audience about This Story we are all a part of. One song called, "When Love Takes You In," had a video with adoptive families and gotcha day clips. As I watched and listened, I remembered.



I remembered that nervous drive across town to their foster home. I remembered how nervous I was to walk up that sidewalk, how my throat felt thick and my heart pounded fast after Brad knocked - and we heard squeals from the other side of that door. My heart - and our family - has never been the same.

When the door opened, we saw those faces. Quite honestly, they looked at us with a little fear and a lot of uncertainty. Brad and I got low on the floor and picked up baby toys, hoping to create some interest. There was no magic, the twins didn't suddenly clamor over one another to get to us, but it was glorious. Their foster momma just rambled on about everything and nothing and we drank it all in. I don't think I've ever been more aware of God's glory in a room than in those moments.

I can close my eyes and I'm there all over again.

And I still can't believe that God chose our family to receive such lavish blessing. How deep the Father's love for us!

I hope to be able to form thoughtful sentences about the information we are gathering here and be able to share it with you soon. For now I'm just reflecting on His goodness.

orphan justice

you might remember me mentioning the book Orphan Justice : How to Care for Orphans Beyond Adopting in this post?

I finally finished reading it and I wanted to encourage YOU to read it.

It is just that good.

I struggle to find the right way to encourage you to read it, because I am desperate for you to read it.

If I'm being honest, I used to think adoption was for people that:

• a) had infertility issues, 
• b) were specially gifted to manage the task of parenting a child from a hard place, or 
• c) were wealthy and could drop $40,000 on the expenses easily.  

That was it.  Neither a, b, or c applied  to me and I didn't relate to the people that they did apply to.  When it came to "orphan care" I thought it was limited to adoption or nothing.  Now that I am an adoptive parent, I can see clearly how skewed my generalization of adoption was.  I wonder if there aren't a few others out there like me.

One of the great things about Orphan Justice is that Johnny Carr starts out with a humble acknowledgement that he is writing from a place of brokenness and not accusation.  He states,

My desire is to share with you what the Lord has taught me, starting with this truth: We can't say we love orphans while failing to address the social ills that directly affect their lives.

Carr breaks down orphan care into ten chapters - each one highlighting a specific area that impacts the orphan population.  It starts with True Religion: Orphans and my Family and ends with This is War: Orphans and Spiritual Warfare.  He weaves his own personal story throughout each chapter in a disarming and incredibly relate-able way.

Each chapter ends with a section called "What You Can Do."  Carr breaks down various action steps to get involved with orphan care.  He writes the action steps in a way that allows ANYONE to participate and then narrows it down to something MANY can do and ends with some action steps that A FEW can do.  By breaking it down this way, each reader has an opportunity to find an action step that they can take right now.  This, to me, is genius.

I told you before that this book totally lit Brad's heart on fire.  He emailed our former caseworker almost immediately to see how we could help.  Friends have jumped on board to give clothing, bags, finances to help fill the supply room for our local foster care office.  I feel like I have barely asked for people to give.  The donations just. keep. coming.  Its amazing.

This response tells me that Christians want to help and God is moving.   There are open hearts that are eager to be a part of orphan care, ready to participate when needs are known.  This book helps make those needs known in an encouraging and tangible way.

If you end up reading please, please, please tell me what you think.  

Also, there are a lot of other resources to go along with the book here.

Summit 9

If you are friends with my devastatingly handsome husband on Facebook (or follow him on twitter) then you have surely noticed a number of recent posts regarding orphan care.

A fire has been lit in his soul unlike any other time I can remember in our 11.5 years of marriage.  It has been glorious to watch.  Although, if I am honest I waver a little between wanting-to-fan-that-flame and freaking-out-a-little-bit-about-where-this-will-take-us.

I will say this, when God lights a fire - the brilliance is amazing.  There is a radiant confidence in Brad that is contagious.  Call him and ask him about it.  You won't be able to help but smile.  So even though my steps feel a little wavering, his confidence in God's leading helps steady me.  I am so grateful to be able to walk alongside him in this adventure of our life.  And my prayer life is growing by leaps and bounds. 

If you aren't on Facebook and you think twitter is annoying, then I should probably fill you in a bit.  Obviously you know our boys came this way through adoption from foster care.  We are certain God arranged the whole thing from start to finish.  In the glorious way that only our Creative God can, He softened our hearts to the greater need.  Every set back in our journey, reminded me that there are SO MANY MORE children that are stuck in the tangled-up-mess of foster care... and then I was reminded that our foster care system is so great in comparison to what children outside of the US are dealing with.  It was never our journey alone.

My heart hurt for so many other children so many times.  But, then again, I cry at every episode of Biggest Loser, so I had no idea that God was actually planting seeds with those tears I cried for those children.  Those children that are orphans.  Its actually hard for me to use that word, because it seems so lonely.  So far off.

And there's that verse, that so-familiar, but often-rushed-over verse:

"Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."  

James 1:27

After wrestling through the ups and downs and in-betweens of bringing twin toddlers into our family, we have settled in to our new rhythm.  God's redemption work has been evident all the way around and continues to amaze us often.  We are even able to go on date night at church almost every chance we get.  There was a time last year that I really wondered if we'd ever get to go on dates regularly again.  In February, part of our date night led us to Lifeway (following an equally romantic spell in Bed Bath & Beyond).  Brad found a book called, "Orphan Justice : Caring for Orphans beyond Adopting".  He bought it.  He devoured it.

I think its safe to say our adoption journey was the kindling, this book was the flint, and the Holy Spirit doused the whole thing with lighter fluid.  Repeatedly.

So the very next date night we sat dreaming in Panera Bread for a few hours.  Short term goals.  Long term goals.  Crazy-only-God dreams. It was glorious.  I am sure a few people around us were wondering what-on-earth-was-up with us and all-the-smiling. 

So now we need to start.  We have already, in some little ways.  We are organizing some donations for our local foster care office (you will hear more about that, promise). Brad met with our Bible study leader a few weeks ago and he will be teaching our Bible Study class the week after Easter.

We feel way over our heads in so many ways - which is really, truly the best way to begin a journey that God is leading - even if it is a little freaky.  God-freaky is always awesome.

We are getting acquainted with Orphan Care resources and reading, reading, reading all that we can.  We recently found out about Summit 9 which is a conference that covers all the bases when it comes to orphan care.  We've thought about trying to get there even though it is kind of short notice to plan for the childcare.  I don't know about Brad, but I have wondered if we are even the right demographic... we aren't part of any organizations as of yet, and we don't even have an orphan care ministry at our church yet. Then Brad sent me a link about a Summit Blogger Conference, and I realized that maybe we do need to get there.  I can imagine that walking into a conference center with a lot of like-minded believers would do wonders on the flame-fanning and would likely help secure a foundation to help sustain those fanned-flames.  So I am writing this post as part of the Summit 9 Blogger Giveaway. Check out all the details at www.summit9.org.



Even if we don't win, I think its fair to say we are in the praying-about-making-this-happen-stage.

So that leaves me with a question for you:: if we get to go, who wants to come watch 4 really adorable, amazing boys and that one giant dog of ours?

If you have more questions about orphan care stuff; y'all, bring it!!  We could chat this stuff up all day... and then we'll stop talking and get boots on the ground.  You want in?