Llama Drama

Yesterday was the first annual Ridgeway Springfest, and it turned out great! Our sleepy knocked out on Ambien town got a very nice boost yesterday. By our very rough estimate, over 400 people turned out for our first festival. We had crafts, a local author signing his books (if you like VA history check out Tom Perry's website http://www.freestateofpatrick.com/, super nice guy and a great author), several inflatable things for the kids for play on, a mini train ride for the kids, our local alpaca farm brought out several of their animals, some great food (I had the cuban sandwich, out of this world!!). It was chilly and cloudy all day, but everyone had fun anyway. We stayed so busy, we didn't get much time to take pics, but here's a few I grabbed with my phone.

Baby goats from Infinity Acres

This is Mambo the llama. He's a sweetheart, most of the time! He loves to nuzzle your face, giving you kisses. The 4-H kids love to hang out with him. At Springfest, the girls from 4-H, including my youngest, took turns leading him around, introducing him to people, many of whom had never seen a llama up close and personal. He was very well-behaved most of the day. At one point, though, something spooked him and he took off, getting away from the young girl who had been leading him. We all panicked and took off after him. R, the little girl, was just in tears. Not because she had gotten hurt, but because she was so afraid of getting in trouble. These kids learn very quickly in 4-H that your greatest responsibility is keeping the animals safe. She did everything she could, but if a 150 lb animal decides he's going to run, a 40 lb child can't really change his mind. He was caught quickly, by bribing him with food, no harm done at all, except to poor little R. She felt terrible about letting him get away, even though it wasn't her fault at all. She soon calmed down, after seeing that the adults were NOT mad at her.

I got to thinking about this later. When it happened, R was so upset thinking she had let someone down. They had given her a responsibility, and in her eyes, she failed. It was just an accident, and no one blamed her, but she didn't see it that way. Do we do that with God? When we screw up, do we really acknowledge the fact that we let God down? Do we stop to think that He is disappointed in us when we fail to do what He has commanded? This sweet girl took her responsibility very seriously. We need to take our Christian walk seriously. I think we get complacent, thinking that because we go to church, we say we love God, that everything's fine. God expects a lot from us, because He has given us a lot! (Luke 12:48). If you're reading this, you're probably sitting in front of a computer, in a house powered, heated and cooled with electricity, maybe with a snack beside you. Or you're on your internet capable phone. You and I have been given a lot, there's no doubt about it. What we are doing with what we have? I'm not talking about adoption here. I'm talking about living our lives for Christ, every aspect of our lives. I know I fail every single day. I don't study my Bible like I should, I don't help my brothers and sisters in Christ like I should. We were created in Christ for good works (Ephesian 2:10). Not to earn our way to heaven, don't get me wrong, but to do God's will. It's what He created us for! Do we even think about how He feels when we don't do what He has commanded? I'm not fussing at anyone except myself. I know how badly I fail at this every day. But maybe as you read this, it will help you too in your walk. Let's all be like R, and take our responsibilities seriously.

Celebrating spring and new beginnings

Warning: This post is very random and disjointed. Sometimes I'm not so good with the talking and putting the words together good thing (to quote Alex the Lion from Madagascar)

Spring is here in southern VA! At least, today it is. Three days ago I was busy keeping the fire going in the woodstove, freezing to death. Flowers and trees are blooming, birds are singing (both the ones outside and inside my house), people are sneezing and snotting from the allergies. Yep, it's spring! Tomorrow is the First Annual Springfest in Ridgeway VA. (should be said in a loud radio announcer voice to get the full effect). I live in a town that has one stop light, a library, a Dollar General, a local grocery store where they still carry your groceries out to your car, and it's also home to Ridgeway Drive-In, where you can get the best hot dogs around.
What more do we need? Well, we needed a community festival, a time to be proud of living in Ridgeway. We are home to NASCAR's Martinsville Speedway (I've yet to have anyone adequately explain why it's not the Ridgeway Speedway, as it has a Ridgeway address!). So me and a couple of my partners in crime have organized Springfest. One of them, Ethel (not her real name, she was dubbed Ethel when she and her daughter joined our GS troop for reasons that don't even make sense to anyone but us), is scheduled for a C-section on Tuesday. That's 4 days from now! She's already having contractions! We're supposed to go mark off the spots this afternoon for everyone's booths, and she's crazy enough to think she's still going. We're trying to bribe her with sesame chicken (and threatening with duct tape) to make her stay home in the bed. We want baby Harper (yes, we're allowing her to keep her real name, at least for now) to arrive safe and sound! I'm not birthing no babies in the middle of the hayfield this afternoon!

Ok, so back to Springfest! We will have crafts, food, music in the park, a flag retiring ceremony by the boy scouts, lots of bouncy stuff for the kids to play on. I want to tell you about one booth in particular. It's for CDH awareness. What is CDH? It's Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia. There are about 1500 babies born with it every year, as many as are born with things like spina bifida and cystic fibrosis, but most people have never heard of it and there is very little research funding for it. About half of all babies born with this do not survive. What happens is that in the womb, the baby's diaphragm develops a hernia, or hole, and their organs wind up pushing through that hole, leaving little room for their lungs to grow. They are hooked up to machines as soon as they are born to help them breathe, have surgery after surgery, all in hopes that it will be enough to save them. Their parents don't even get to hold them, for fear of infection and complications. It's a terrible, awful thing to happen to babies and their parents. There's no known cause or cure yet. I know all this because I know a family who went through this last spring. Baby Penelope lived 33 days. She was my son in law's cousin. Parents should be bringing their babies home from the hospital, not having to take down their crib and make funeral arrangements. Please, take a few minutes and read more about CDH at the Cherubs website. We have to get this thing out in the public eye so more can be done to save these babies. You can donate to help fund research, donate items to be included in tote bags for the parents to have during their stay, and of course pray for these families. Hopefully soon everyone will know CDH as a condition that USED to happen to babies.

Hope, renewal, beginnings. Spring symbolizes all of this. It's a time to look ahead. Make it a new beginning for you. This spring has felt like a turning point for me, and I'm ready to begin the next season of my life. Just like the weather, I have no idea what tomorrow will bring, but I trust in the One who brings it!

So many to help!

First, non adoption related gripe. I hate this new look to blogger! I don't deal well with technology change, so this stinks!

Ok, got that out of the way. I want to use my blog to help other families. There are so many that need help fundraising, need prayers, need prizes to give away. A quick note about that to those who are unfamiliar. You might wonder how families who need to fundraise can give away such cool stuff. Most of the time, these prizes are donated by other families who want to help. Some families will fundraise with a particular prize in  mind, and then buy the prize out of the money raised. This is ok, but it cuts into their money raised of course. So families REALLY appreciate items donated to them. You have no idea how much! Do you have a rebate gift card coming from upgrading your cell phone? How about donating it to a family? Get a safety award from work that you really don't need? Families can use almost anything new. Gift certificates/cards to national brands, you name it, we can find a use for it!

The first family is the one closest to my heart, the Pickett family. I met Chandres through Girl Scouts about a year ago, and she is very special to me! They are adopting Cullen and Katrin from Eastern Europe. I can't wait to have Katrin join our GS troop, she will be a blessing to all of her sister girl scouts. They have a HUGE giveaway going on right now at their blog Upcycled Purpose. Their immediate need is close to $3000. Chandres has been such a great Christian example to me, and you just need to go read her blog!

Another one dear to me is the Quinn family. They are adopting Autumn (Donna on RR), and will be traveling in a few short months. They are short about $10,000! A sweet friend of theirs has helped organize a giveaway for them, you can find it here: Quinn giveaway.

I've just read on another blog about the Reed family. They are adopting two boys, will be traveling soon, and still need about $2000. But the cool thing is, they have a matching grant for $800 that starts this afternoon and runs for just 24 hours. Let's all pull together and get them funded. If $800 gets donated, it will be doubled to $1600, which will still leave $400. We can make that happen easily though, right? Go check them out here Reed matching grant and also read about their amazing and large, 15 kids!!! family! If they can step out in faith, why can't we??

How about winning a Kindle Fire? Who wants to do that, besides me?? Find out how at Our Journey to Eli.

The Sheffield family is hosting a giveaway to help bring their Vinnie home by giving away a Miche bag. This goes through May 7th, and has very few entries so far.

Oh, and one more: The Cooper family is bringing home beautiful little Harper. She needs medical attention as she gets home, so let's help get them funded! Harper deserves every chance at a happy and healthy life, to be a girl scout and do all the fun things girls her ago do. They need to go soon to get her, and still have a mountain to move with funding. Please please please help them!

I could go on and on, but I don't want any of them to get lost in the crowd. I'll list others very often, and if you know of a family that needs a spotlight on them, let me know and I'll do all I can to help!

Tulle and boots and sleeping giants

Last night my middle daughter C went to her first prom. For something as auspicious as that, she was pretty low-key about it. Came home from her friend's house about an hour before she needed to be ready (yes, giving mama a heart attack, knowing her hair still needed to be done and everything!). I curled her hair, helped her lace up her big poofy dress (that she paid for with her part time job), and we made it just in time. My friend K took some pics of her for me. Of course I'm going to show you pics, what kind of mother would I be otherwise??

Gorgeous, right? And this is what I love about her. She wore her boots with her dress! Her only splurge for the evening was the dress. No fancy hairdo to pay for, no fake nails, she didn't even go out to eat before. She's a unique young lady, always has been.

Now, this post isn't just to brag on C. While I could spend hours talking about her, she actually isn't the focus of the post. As we were out taking pictures, I couldn't help but think about all the girls close to her age in orphanages and institutions around the world. What they wouldn't give for a fraction of the freedom and love that C has every day. I hope next year we get to see pics of Laurel at her high school prom, showing off her new dress. Erin in a few years, all dolled up. There are so many that won't get the chance to be a happy teenage girl. Or even a hormonal my-parents-don't-understand-me teenage girl. Because that would mean they HAD parents. Look again at C's picture. Now look at this one:



Her face is blocked out for her privacy. How old do you think she is? Hard to tell in the crib, but maybe 2, 3? Try 15 years old. 2 years younger than my daughter. P weighed about 18 lbs in this picture. 34 inches long. Colleen was 5'6" at the same age. This is the reality of many orphans across the globe. Please tell me it breaks your heart like it does mine. There is a wonderful woman drawing all the attention she can to this one particular orphanage where P is. Her blog is here. We can help these kids. I read something the other day, and if I could remember where it was, I would link to it, but I can't, so I hope the author will forgive me borrowing and mangling their original quote. We can look at things like this, and say "where's God? Why is He letting this happen?" But maybe God is looking at us and asking the same question. "Where are you? Why are you letting this happen?"

The other night at church my friend was giving the devotional and he made the comparison that the church is like a sleeping giant. And he is absolutely right. God has COMMANDED us to take care of the orphans of the world. There are Christians in every country on earth. Imagine if we all truly took to heart James 1:27. Say it with me: "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".  We could make a real difference to these kids! Why isn't more being done? If we call ourselves Christians, and yet turn our backs when we see something like this, what are we really? We should be ashamed of ourselves, for one thing. I know a few months ago I was oblivious to how drastic the problem was. I didn't know. But now I do. And if you are reading this, you do too. It's horrible! In Psalms 68, it says "A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land."   
But guess what? God doesn't do it by Himself. He can set the lonely in families, but there have to be families willing to step up and accept these orphans. Maybe you aren't in a position to adopt. But you can do SOMETHING! Tell others, help these families financially. Just please, don't turn your back. I know I can't.

I wish I could bring home so many kids. I have seen so many that touched my heart. Right now God has that door shut for me. But that doesn't mean my responsibility, or my zeal for it, is gone. I want to help these kids. However I can. Telling others about the need, advocating for particular orphans, donating financially where I can, and anything else I can think of. I'm at a crossroads employment-wise right now, with the possibility of going back to school full time soon. This is an opportunity I'm not going to waste. How can I put this need into a job that will make a difference? I'm trying to find out where God can best use me. Where can He use you?

Great news about Laurel

Very happy to report that Laurel is on MFFM! (My family found me) She was running out of time, just like Sam and Duncan, but just like it says, HER.FAMILY.FOUND.HER! There are so many people that have been praying for her and advocating for her, and we are all rejoicing for her and her family tonight. The joy we have has to be like the joy the angels have when someone comes to the Lord. She was lost, but now she's found! (yeah, I'm not so great with the analogies, but you get the picture!) Can't wait to "meet" her family on the FSP page. With her aging out so soon, there's not much time to fundraise. I have no idea if they will need to or not, but let's all make sure they get a boost as soon as their FSP is up. Whether it's needed for fees, or if we can just leave them with more money for her some new clothes, things for her very own room, and all the other things a sweet sixteen year old girl needs, let's shower them with love! What a wonderful birthday this will be for her!

A carrot, an egg, or coffee - what these past few months have taught me

My mom reminded me this week of the story of the carrot, the egg, and the coffee. If you're not familiar with it, a young woman was talking to her mother about a hardship she was enduring. Her mother took 3 pots, filled them with water, and put them on to boil. In one she dropped a raw carrot, another a raw egg, and in the third a spoonful of coffee grounds. After a little while, she pulled them out and placed them before her daughter. She asked her what had changed about each of them while in hot water. The daughter replied, well, the carrot was hard before, but now it's all soft and easy to break apart. The egg was fragile before, but now it's hard on the inside. And the coffee grounds, it turned the water into coffee. The mother said, you have the choice of how you react to hardship and trials. You can fall apart like the carrot, become bitter and hardened like the egg, or you can change the water around you into something better than before.

This past week, I've felt a lot like the carrot, and I'll admit, I've even had some moments like the egg, being bitter and angry. But I've chosen to be like the coffee. I can still make a difference around me, even if it's not how I expected to. So what have I learned? A lot, and here's a few things for starters.

1. First and foremost, I've learned I have control over nothing. I said from the beginning, when I first saw Sam's pic, that God's hand was on all of this. For whatever reason, He changed up our plans. He is still in control, and I have to believe that, even if I don't understand.
2. God doesn't owe me an explanation. He is under no obligation to help me understand it. As He has said, He is the Potter, and I am the clay. I have to do what He wants, even if I don't have a clue as to why.
3. I have learned how important patience is. I'm not saying I've completely learned it yet, far from that! But through this He's teaching me patience.
4. I have learned love. Sure, I've always loved my family and friends. But I have seen such selfless love over the last several weeks. From the ones who gave out of the little they had, the ones who took time to offer encouragement to a stranger, to meeting those who are sacrificing so much to make the world a better place.   When I say sacrificing, I mean material possessions and money to get these children home.  Two of my good friends have been working diligently to pay the ransom for their children, a new friend, still working on paying for one adoption, is sacrificing again for their two new children.
5. Sacrificing material goods - yeah, I've learned about that, and so has my whole family. From the minute we decided to commit, I have saved every single penny. Nothing was bought that wasn't absolutely essential. We ate from our couponing stockpile so grocery money could go to the adoption fund. (My girl scout troop even brought me groceries!) I felt guilty for even buying a $1 tea from Hardee's! Wanting to help so many other families, even after our commitment ended, has made me so conscious of wasteful spending. That value meal for lunch, that's a donation to a family who desperately needs it.
6. I've also learned that support can come from unexpectedly places. There are people in my life that I expected encouragement from, and never heard a kind word spoken by them. But there are others that showed overwhelming support, let me know they were praying for me. Some were total strangers before this.
7. Saving the best for last, as far as God's commandment for caring for orphans... I can now say, I get it. I didn't before. Sure, the Bible says pure and undefiled religion is this, to care for widows and orphans in their distress. But in my little corner of the world, orphans were well taken care of in foster homes. I didn't personally know any orphans. All was good, right? WRONG. This has opened my eyes to what the orphans of our world are going through. I know some will never get it. The ones who say, oh too bad you didn't get to adopt, but maybe next time you can adopt from here. Or, why are you so emotional over this? You never even met these boys, how can you act so heartbroken? Aren't you overreacting just a little? No, they don't get it. I pray they will some day. I feel terrible that it's taken me this long to "get it", but I am so glad I do now.

I guess I could go on and on, but this gives you the basic idea. Sure, it still hurts when I see "Sam's room" and realize he won't see how hard Dave worked to make it just right for him, or when I think about Duncan and how he and Kacey won't get to sit together and share their birthday over cake. But I wouldn't trade it for the world. I hope I'm a better person now than I was at the end of February, and I hope I can be like those coffee grounds and turn a boiling pot of water into a rich cup of coffee. If I can help someone else, or make my little corner of the world just a tiny bit better, that's priceless. The woman in that story was a smart one, and so is my mom.

Playing Them Home (1st Annual!)

Today was our Playing Them Home soccer fundraising event! We were blessed with beautiful weather, a great turnout, and just an overall great day! Where to even start to tell you about this incredible day??

 First, I guess, is to thank everyone who came out to help and support. The Rogers family came all the way from the other end of the state to support us, even though they are in the middle of something huge themselves! Berndadette/Jessica and Mason will soon be forever members of the Rogers family! It was sooo great to meet them! If you aren't familiar with them, you need to be - here's how! Meet the Rogers family. And we were also blessed with a special member of Team Sam, Tara Sartain! They are also in the process of adopting, and you really need to check out their site at http://fit2adopt.com/. They are doing a very unique fundraiser and getting in great shape at the same time! Enjoyed meeting both of these special ladies so much!

We had lots of things going on, including the kids and adults soccer games, a fun run for the kids, a 5k for the adults, some fun games for the kids (sack race, beanbag toss, hula hoop contest, etc), a bake sale, and we had t-shirts and other goodies for sale! Like I said, a LOT going on. One special thing we did was to set up a donation jar, and everyone who made at least a $5 donation was entered to win a $50 gift card. What we DIDN'T tell everyone was that the money in that jar would be going to the Rogers family! We surprised them with that before they left. It gets better though, and even Erika doesn't know this yet... She won! They had no idea it was for them, and they made a donation to it. So, surprise, Erika! I'll be putting that in the mail to you this week.

I was so happy to be a part of this event, and we hope to make it an annual event, to help various adopting families. We pulled this one together in about a month, so with 11 extra months to plan, we should be able to really do a great one next year. Will it be for YOUR family?