Love

L = Little Hearts

There are three not-so-little kids living in this dysfunctional house of ours!  They are a blast to hang out with and funnier than I will ever be, but what I cannot seem to understand about them is where they get their big hearts.  They are little people with compassion and selflessness like I’ve never known.  Every ride to school, their sports or a lunch date begins with the same questions, “What’s the latest on my brother and sister?  What don’t I know?  Where are we at in the process today?” 

They write their siblings letters and draw them pictures to hang by their beds.  They draw “floor plans” for the rooms they will be sharing.  They write “I love you” five times on the same page, just so it doesn’t get overlooked.  Their little hearts are bigger than their bodies. 

O = Oceans Apart

New friends keep visiting the Transition House that our kids live in, and the best part is getting short messages sent to us from our kids.  We hear almost weekly that our kids love us.  Something about the distance of an ocean doesn’t seem quite so vast when a new message comes through.  Threads are being sewn between our hearts, even during this time when the ocean separates us.   

Little bits of love at a time!

Tie our hearts together. 

V = Valentine’s Day
Oh, how I wish I were allowed to share a few of the photos that we have together.  If I could just show you how Miss M constantly had to be hugging or touching me, or how Mr A liked to climb up on Lukas’ back and get a ride from a much higher view.  I know that if you could just flip through our Shutterfly book of our times together, you would feel the love that radiates out of everyone when we are together.  You can’t package that up like a heart shaped box full of chocolate, but something about picturing their waiting arms makes the word LOVE feel a whole lot stronger this Valentine’s Day. 

One of the first notes we received.

E = Everyone Can Make a Difference

We know that there are families out there that think what we are doing is amazing and inspiring – we hear that a lot and it helps my anxious heart; however, I actually appreciate it when people tell me that I’m out of my mind! Obviously, there is something a little crazy about an incredibly busy and involved family deciding to take on two more teenagers, but you cannot ignore an orphan once you know their name!  You can’t.  I can’t.  

The thing is… God doesn’t call all of us to adopt them.  He may ask you to sponsor, or take a mission trip, or dig a well or be a prayer warrior.  My prayer for the last month has been that my friends would surround us in three ways.


1.  Drown us in prayer!
I know you have been because every time I get a call or an email from our agency, we are blessed with great news.  If we were a normal family, we would still be working on our Home Study.  We aren’t normal.  I had our Home Study and Dossier done and mailed off in 17 days.  Our Dossier now sits in Ethiopia, we’ve been submitted to court, we have been submitted to PAIR, we have our Birth Family Interview at the end of the month and then we can head over ourselves and hug … not orphans… but OUR KIDS for the first time in five months. 

We know you are praying, and we thank God for you!! Please keep lifting us up!

2.  Participate in our adorable fundraiser!

My girlfriends are making me laugh because they have called this stage of mine “nesting.”  I couldn’t think of a better way to define it.  I agree.  I am surrounding myself in little art projects for what I hope to be our only fundraiser.  I know life pulls all of us in different directions and finances are important to every person, but if you are in a place in life that might allow you to share $10 or $100 … or whatever you have stuck in the couch… it would be a huge deal to us.   

Here’s how my “nesting” fundraiser works:

1     - Think of a number between 1-150.

2     - Tell me that you are taking that number.  I’ll take it down off my board. 

3     - Mail our family a check with the dollar amount of the number you choose
(#1 = $1, #24 = $24, #150 = #150… and so on).

4     - I’ll mail you the project that has that number on it and a picture of our new family as a Thank You.

              Sounds easy, right??  And you can stay in your sweats and hoodie!

3.  Pray for Miss M and Mr A to continue to trust Jesus with their future. 

As their mom, I want them to trust in me and know I’ll always make it better.  Sadly, I fall short, a lot, especially when I’m hungry or lacking coffee.  I don’t want them to put their faith in me.  I want them to remember what they have been taught in a song they sang with His Little Feet, “Our God is so great, so big and so mighty, there’s nothing our God cannot do.” 

Please ask God to be present and real to my son and daughter. 

As you celebrate Valentine’s Day today, please know that LOVE is so much more than hearts, chocolate and flowers.  

Love is…

 … “caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.”
 James 1:27