As most of you know already, Jordan and I have decided to grow our family by one more and adopt a little boy from Ethiopia. Right after my youngest was born (Maximus) we thought that we were done. We had the "set", one girl and one boy. We were living the American dream and we were happy. While I was having babies, one of my closest cousins was in the works of adopting her first 3 of 6 from Ethiopia, and I became addicted to reading her blogs and just wanted to know more about Africa, orphans, and all the injustices going on. God began to break my heart for all of these things.
A couple of years later, the Haiti earthquake happened, and my heart had felt the heaviest it had ever felt in my life. I kept having images of all these children that were just like my kid's, with nowhere to go and nobody to hold them
and love on them when they were scared. The most heartbreaking thing for me, was that a lot of people thought that the earthquake was what put Haiti into a crisis situation, but the reality is, Haiti was already a crisis situation that we neglected. The extreme poverty and millions of orphans in one of our neighboring countries. Then I knew. I felt deep down inside that I had to do my part. As a believer, that's what we are commanded to do."If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight reign on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 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." James 1:26-27
Why adoption?? Because there are 147 million orphans in the world and God revealed to us that one of them is our son. Period.
Why Ethiopia? Ethiopia has the most orphans in all of the world and is one of the poorest countries in all of the world. It re
ceives less aid than any other country in Africa. One out of six kids will die before the age of 5. To think that, children are dying because of starvation, and I complain that my pantry "never has anything good in it". In Ethiopia, the patient to doctor ratio is 1 to 24,000, and I complain about copays. The list goes on. But, I continue to be amazed at the people in the midst of all the poverty, injustice, and crisis. They have absolutely nothing, but have such amazing spirits. We have so much as Americans: Freedom, mind blowing technology, etc. but yet we can always find something to complain about. These people have nothing. They sleep on dirt floors, they have no clue where their next meal is going to come from, but yet they have so much joy. Not only must we help these people, our brothers and sisters in Christ, but we can also learn from them. I believe that I need Africa, more than Africa needs me."Rescue the perishing; don't hesitate to step in and help. If you say, "Hey, that's none of my business," will that get you off the hook. Someone is watching you closely, you know- someone not impressed with weak excuses." Proverbs 24:12 [The Message]
Adoption is a long and expensive process. We would love for you to come with us and follow us on our journey. There are so many ways you can play a part in getting our son home. First, is prayer. Right now we need some prayer warriors to pray about finances. I wish we had 20K laying around in an account somewhere, but we don't. We know God isn't going to let that get in the way of His will. We are getting together some awesome fundraisers and we need God to show up big time! Another way, is donating to the cause. Our first fundraiser is a giant garage sale (thank you, SMBC for all of the experience and training!!) If you, or someone you know has anything to donate to sell at our garage sale, please let us know. Every dime we get will go straight into our adoption account. We'll keep you posted, too, about other fundraisers that we have brewing that not just people in Austin can contribute to as well. God is doing such amazing things, and He is good.
Let the journey begin....
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
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