"...if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise
in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday." Isaiah 58:10
So I looked through many videos for this post, and couldn't find a better one than this one that I saw on my friend Melinda's blog. It illustrates perfectly the difference between 1 and 143,000,000.
143,000,000 is a number so large that we need someone to paint a word picture to begin to understand it.
One is how the people who love each of us see us. "One" is how we are viewed by our Creator. He keeps track of all the billions of us, but each one of us has a face, a name, a life. We are each special as is only possible when we are seen as "one". Every single one of us longs to be "one" to someone else.
Here's the video, then don't forget to read the story I'm posting afterwards...
In the early summer of 2007, one mother gave birth to one baby girl in a city in Africa. At the same time, across the world, one American family struggled with a new foster placement, bringing their kid-total to 5 kids under age 7. Five kids with very distinct, important, and often demanding needs. They learned to juggle priorities, tantrums, cooking, baths, appointments, as never before.
Later sometime that year, one African woman took this one girl into her care. She loved and nurtured one little girl who desperately needed someone after the loss of her mother.
As this woman stepped in to save one girl's life, the American family continued to care for 3 kids who also couldn't be with their mother. Even during the darkest times, God sometimes whispers "Just wait... Wait to see what I have planned..."
At the beginning of summer 2008, one girl turned 1 in Africa.
At the same time, the American father finished a job search that included 2 American states and 2 African countries. He accepted a job in another state. The family retired from foster care, and their kid-total went back down to 2. They moved 15 minutes from family, and unknowingly, 25 minutes from a children's hospital specializing in the very medical need of one young African girl.
At the end of summer 2008, plans were being made to bring this same one little girl to an orphanage for adoption in hopes she would find the medical care she needed.
Across the world, the American family made a difficult decision not to adopt an older girl and her siblings that the mother had met at this same orphanage.
September 2008, one little girl was brought to the orphanage and began the monumental task of settling in, and grieving for the woman who had cared for her. She adjusted to the very same rooms that the American mother had spent several days in. At the time, even as this mother believed she was to adopt an older child, the courage and fear, the spunk and timidity, the joy and grief, the hope and desperation of the toddlers captured her heart.
Also in September, the family adjusted to news of a surprise pregnancy, and began wondering what God had planned for them, and if they should consider adopting a younger child, since they were now obviously starting over again.
In early November 2008, a phone call intersected the lives of this family with the life of one little girl.
In late November 2008, this one child was chosen and claimed by one family across the world. The email that confirmed their decision was sent just as she woke up to a new day in her crib in Africa.
She is too young to understand now, but her life was forever changed last week by all the love and care that people in Ethiopia have placed in her one life. God had planned the intersection of all these lives long ago. No one knew it until now.
We are so excited to announce our plans to adopt our new daughter E. She is beautiful in every way. She has been loved by people in her country of birth, and is now loved by people in her new country.
To us, she will always be "one". We can hardly wait to meet her!
Okay, so you may have seen this before, since it is a couple of years old now.
But now that Thanksgiving is over, the holiday frenzy has started. I realize that many, many, people's livelihoods depend on all of us Americans shopping and charging in the next 4 weeks.
But, it also seems a fitting time for us all to reflect on our values, the meaning of Christmas, and make sure that our actions line up with our beliefs. This is so well done, that I really wanted to share it.
Welcome to the Christmas season...
...let this be the year that we decide to change things.
I get so absorbed in life here it could be so easy to forget...
To forget that this life is bigger than me, than my family, than my own discouragement. That God has called me to care and intervene in this world. He has called many, many of us...
This move has been rough, but we are learning to stand in our new land. To stand tall in who God has created and shaped us to be. To not forget...
Ethiopia is definitely not alone in her desperate need. So many countries are hurting. As we adjust our lives to America's economic downturn, let us NEVER forget the nations, the people, the children and elderly, that have been hurting longer than many of us have had fresh air to fill our lungs, and clean water to drink...
Extreme poverty does not have to go on. But it will take God's people, ALL of us, to care, to speak on behalf of those who need us...
I am thankful today, as I think about Thanksgiving, for all the kindred spirits out there who refuse to turn their backs on brothers and sisters who are hungry, sick, and hurting.
If you are not already familiar with The Red Letters Campaign, and Children's Hope Chest, I encourage you to take a few moments out of your holiday weekend to think about how you might get involved. If God has been leading you, and your church in a new direction, a direction that is so close to His heart, then you must take a few moments to see the impact that other followers of Christ have decided to make. These are the small decisions that lead to big decisions that have the momentum to make true change - in all of us.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of us in the privilege we enjoy. Here's a short video to help us not forget that most of our brothers and sisters do not live as we do... And God expects some things of us.
I've been tagged by my friend Sharon over at Hearts of Hope. She was gracious enough to add me to an already-full team traveling to Ethiopia last March. I will forever love her for that. It was the perfect timing in life for me to experience Ethiopia. I still wistfully think of my experiences there every day.
7 Random Facts About Me
1. I could eat chocolate ice cream sundaes, pizza, fresh chocolate chip cookies, and smoothies every day of my life and be perfectly happy.
2. I have lots of fears, but my greatest fear is to get to the end of my life, enter Heaven, and instead of hearing "Well Done", I hear "Good job, but what happened to all the dreams I planted in your heart?" I rely on this fear to help me overcome all of the small, daily ones.
3. I have been set on adopting kids since I read "The Family Nobody Wanted" by Helen Doss when I was 10 years old. I have read many adoption books over the years, but the tattered copy of this one will always be with me.
4. I have lots of people that fill my heart, encourage and challenge me. But my husband, Chris, is the one that I respect, adore, and stand in awe of, every day. He is my best friend, and the person I long to share everything with. I still am unsure of how God could make such a perfect match of two people in such a broken world. I thank Him every day for loving me enough to allow Chris to enter my life.
5. I love to dance and read with my kids.
6. I have parented around 16 kids for varying lengths of time. Our first child was 16 years old. I was 25. The more I learn about parenting, the more I wish I knew!
7. I plant fruit trees wherever I live. Lots of them.
I have chosen to not speak politically on this blog for a reason. It isn't because I don't have political beliefs. I suppose it is the opposite. My political beliefs are so important to me and so close to my values and world view, that I hold them tightly. I have strong beliefs. So I acknowledge that most of the people that happen upon this blog do too. And that is the reason I'm careful with what I say. I've never been someone to debate or try to change another's view. I'm happy to share my heart when I feel like it is safe, but it is for the purpose of allowing someone into my world, not to alter theirs toward my thinking.
All that said, I want so badly to post on the end of this presidential election.
I want to say that I have never had more respect for John McCain than while listening to his speech last night. It was possibly the most gracious political speech I've ever heard. As I wiped the tears away, and we all acknowledged how hard his campaign worked, I realized without a doubt that at any other time in history, Senator John McCain would have won a presidential election with no problem. I hope there is room for him in the new administration, and I hope for some rest for him and his family.
And I am still speechless over the shift in our country last night. Between Barack Obama's humble start (so much like most of ours), his racial background, his international ties, and his heart, my heart swelled with pride over my country. Not so much for him, although it is a monumentous win on so many levels, but for what it means that this country now values. I have some hope after too many years.
As I watched Barack and Michelle and the kids walk out on stage last night, I had an overwhelming urge to pray hard. That God would protect this new president and his beautiful family. From all the threats that come at a presidential family. But also especially against the thread of hate that still weaves its evil through some of this country. Please protect them...
And I wanted to share a poem that was on NPR sometime last week, that kind of sums things up for me in a way. If anyone knows who wrote it, please post, because I'd like to add that of course, since I don't know.
Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Barack could run. Barack ran so our children could fly.
I am excited to see the new shift in this nation. As African-American children look at politics with shiny new eyes, as the children of immigrants feel they now have a voice, as anyone who acknowledges the weaknesses in this country, yet dares to hope and dream for something better, we can all join the hard work ahead of us. We take hold of a neighbor's hand of a different color, and we now march together toward a new future of dialogue and respect, growth, and hopefully peace. I am proud that there is room for all of us.
