How Did I Miss The Point?!

If you have a couple minutes, please read. Forgive me God, I thought it was about spiritual and tangible gifts, selfishness, greed.... I didn't understand you were showing me your hearts desire!




http://www.ransomedheart.com/more_dailyreading.aspx?id=2/25/2011

Adopting 2!!!

Nope, not us... not yet anyway :).

But my friend, Catherine, just committed to adopt to adorable little ones from EE! Please take a moment and visit her blog to offer congratulations and support!

Catherines Blog



..........

A Joyful Noise!

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth:
make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.
Sing unto the LORD with the harp;
with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.
With trumpets and sound of cornet
make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King.
--- Psalm 98: 4-6

Now, I know this isn't a song. And try as I might, she just was not going to play "Silent Night" for me while I held the video camera. BUT, she is so dang cute playing the piano, and if you listen and watch you can tell she isn't just pounding for fun, but working it all our in her head. Enjoy. :)

DO YOU SEE HIM?

Meet Dimitriy. He just turned 5 years old in December. What a great birthday it was for him. He was taken from the only home and family he had ever known {an orphanage} and put into an adult mental institution.

Oh wait, it gets better. He was placed in a "bedridden" room. That means he will essentially never leave his bed. After all, he IS blind. And no one can afford the time it takes to keep a 5 year old blind little boy safe in an institution for adults with all kinds of varied disabilities.

With any luck at all, his mind will quickly shut itself down completely. Learning will cease, a desire for more will cease, a desire to survive will cease. If not, if he keeps his will to live, to learn, to desire more out of life, this little 5 year old will suffer unspeakable heartache and pain. Much more than he has even up to this point in life. He will lose weight, but continue to grow minimally. He will cease having any thought outside of rocking himself back and forth or pulling his hair out, poking at his eyes till they bruise or bleed, or banging his head on the side of the crib... that is of course unless they tie him down to prevent self injury or attempts at escape.

This is not a dramatization. THIS is Dimitriys reality. Happy 5th Birthday kiddo. Jesus loves you.

........................


Feel like throwing up yet? I do.

........................

Dimitriy has $161.05 in his grant donation account. He has been listed on Reeces Rainbow for 3 years! I gave him $45 of that $161 just about a year ago.

........................

I wonder why he is being overlooked? My 5 year old thought he looked scary with just one white eye, that is until I took a couple of minutes to explain why he looks that way. Luke understands being blind. He has a 5 year old sister, who just came home this past July, who is blind. Maybe the mamas and daddys out there think he looks scary too?

Or maybe they are scared of bringing home a blind child? Especially one who has been institutionalized for 5 years. I don't know why. Tavi, my daughter who is 5 and blind, is thriving and just brings us so much joy. Her courage, her love, her laughter, her resolve to learn is amazing to us. She is a typical and very normal little girl. She just happens to be a typical and very normal little girl who is blind.

Maybe it is the fact that services in small communities can be harder to access or find. I know all about that. It is taking some learning and creativity and searching on our part to figure out and get Tavi what she needs. Her life is worth that and so much more! Being blind just isn't THAT big of deal in the big scheme of things. And no, we has no previous experience with people that are blind. All we had was experience in what it means to love GOD, say YES to God, and to love a child. That was enough to get the ball rolling.


Maybe it is that Dimitriy is a boy. They are often harder to place in and adoption than girls. Each year that he gets older, he will be that much harder to find a family for. We adopted James through foster care when he was 9, he moved in with us when he was 7. I know the feelings, the anxieties, the questions and uncertainties that pop up when bringing an older child into your home. It's been a year since his adoption was final, and we still have uncertainty, anxiety, emotions, questions... but they are about OUR SON now, not about someone elses son. We pray, we talk, and we fight for him. He is ours. Our gift of a son, woven intricately into our family by our Fathers hands. He is worth fighting for!

.............

I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to see Dimitriys grant grow. $24,000 will bring him home. Such a big amount... big for us, but not for GOD! Big for a car, but not for a CHILD!

Who wants to be BOLD for GOD today, and say "I WILL! PICK ME! SEND ME!" to bring Dimitriy home? Who of you wants to be a part of Dimitriys story? Who of you wants to be a part of a bigger story? Who of you "doesn't need a voice, when you have a verse"?

James 1:27 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.

............................

Go HERE and donate! Let's immobilize the body of Christ to bring Dimitriy HOME! He needs his mama to "show him the world, to hold his hand, to be his mom for as long as she can"!

I can't help but picture Tavi lost in the darkness of a new environment and NO ONE taking the time to explain to her what is going on, no one holding her or reassuring her. HE CAN"T SEE! EVERY SINGLE THING that was familiar to him [sounds, smells, routine] is LOST TO HIM FOREVER NOW. And no one gives a damn!

He's just one little boy. He's just one orphan. He's just one more lost soul. He's just one more forgotten child. He's just one more child waiting to die now. He's just one more orphan suffering is silence. He's just not worth anyones love, time, sacrifice or trouble.

Don't let the world or the devil play that mind game on you! God has made him visible. God has made him beautifully in HIS own image. GOD has given him life, and HE is calling upon the Christians of this world to SEE HIM!

DON"T MAKE HIM WAIT ANY LONGER. DON'T LET HIM RETREAT INTO THE DEEP RECESSES OF HIS MIND. PLEASE SOMEONE, LOVE HIM ENOUGH TO GO GET HIM. LVOE HIM ENOUGH TO DODNATE. EVEN $5.00 WILL MOVE MOUNTAINS ON BEHALF OF THE LITTLE ONE.

He's Got Brothers and Sisters...

In His Hands....

Big brothers are the best!


Yana loves her big sister!!

Feeling Insignificant?

One of the great diseases of our day is trifling. The things with which most people spend their time are trivial. And what makes this a disease is that we were meant to live for *MAGNIFICENT CAUSES. ..... Our souls will not be satisfied with trifles. .... WE live in a perpetual and hopeless struggle to satisfy our longings on trifles. So our souls shrivel. Our lives become trivial. And our capacity for *MAGINIFICENT CAUSES AND GREAT WORSHIP dies.

The book of Ruth wants to teach us that God's purpose for his people is to connect us to something far greater than ourselves. God wants us to know that when we follow him, our lives always mean more than we think they do. .... For the Christian there is always a connection between the ordinary events of life and the stupendous work of God in history.

Everything we do in obedience to God, no matter how small, is significant. It is part of a cosmic mosaic that God is painting to display the greatness of his power and wisdom to the world and to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places (Ephisians 3:10).

--John Piper A Sweet & Bitter Providence

*emphasis mine

A Rainbow of colors....

I love the differences in my children. Out of our 9 kiddos, we have 3 with blond hair, 3 with brown hair, 2 with black hair and 1 with red. As for texture, 3 have stick straight hair, 1 has semi curly, 2 have loose curls, and 2 have tight curls. It's fun to see them all together in a picture, NOT that that EVER happens! ;)

When Cale was born [13 years ago], his dad said "Oh no, is that red hair?". Let me tell you, it is red hair. Gorgeous, thick, straight red hair that I would LOVE to have!


And to make it even better, Cale really is as sweet as he looks!


Look how her hair is growing! I LOVE her hair. Dark, soft, curly ... [static does seem to eliminate the curls after sleeping under a fleece blanket all night :)]


5 year old Tavi is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside.