This past week, our nation observed both the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The values represented by the two could not be more opposite.
Enter this woman. Gianna Jessen. Why am I just now learning about her? Gianna survived a third-trimester saline abortion and lives to bring glory to God for His immeasurable mercy. She and her story amaze me.
Part 1:
Part 2:
According to the World English Dictionary, holocaust means "great destruction or loss of life or the source of such destruction..." Even now, America is hosting a holocaust in the truest sense. The cost of our indifference is the very lives of the the least of these. This article is an example of what we allow to happen under our noses to the most vulnerable women in our society: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/01/22/women-claim-abortions-left-sterile/
Let us treasure and protect the tiniest lives, and let us love and protect the women tricked into believing abortion is the only way. I have nothing but the greatest compassion for these women and pray that one day we will have a culture that embraces them and loves them as well as the little lives they carry. But for a culture of death, babies would not be considered a problem, and abortion not a solution.
This stuff gets me fired up, friends.
~Katie
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Why Ethiopia? Why not Ethiopia?
It's a question we get from time to time when folks learn we're adopting a baby from Ethiopia: "Why Ethiopia?" This fantastic video answers that question with, "Why not Ethiopia?"
In other news, I realize that if this blog were a flower and my posts water, the blog would have died a quick, dry death months ago. I'm having blog issues as of late, and I'll get to it when I get to it. Other things have just been higher on the list, like checking things off my application and dossier list left and right. Yesterday was a field trip to the county courthouse...eye opening for my older boys and another check off my application list. Incidentally, I'm pretty sure no lawyer has ever been more lost in the courthouse than I usually am.
~Katie
In other news, I realize that if this blog were a flower and my posts water, the blog would have died a quick, dry death months ago. I'm having blog issues as of late, and I'll get to it when I get to it. Other things have just been higher on the list, like checking things off my application and dossier list left and right. Yesterday was a field trip to the county courthouse...eye opening for my older boys and another check off my application list. Incidentally, I'm pretty sure no lawyer has ever been more lost in the courthouse than I usually am.
~Katie
Saturday, January 1, 2011
January: The New August
As a kid, and really as long as I was in school, which was so many years and well into our marriage, I looked forward to August with great anticipation. I loved the reprieve from hot summers, from boredom. I relished in purchasing new school supplies, the obligatory pair of gym shoes, new Keds. New books, new notebooks, new pens, a new planner. The expectation of seeing old friends again. A new classroom. New challenges and expectations lay ahead, ready for me to exceed them. I loved fall and the starting over and newness it brought.
But I'm not in school anymore. June, July, August, September...until recently, all pretty much the same to me. When we undertook to teach our children at home, the thrill and excitement of a new school year was overshadowed by impossible expectations for myself, to create and stick to the perfect schedule, to choose the just-right-for-us curriculum, to do it all perfectly this time. All while effortlessly continuing and excelling at my other not insignificant charges, like my paying job, laundry, meal planning and preparing. Oh, and friends and time in the Word. Yeah, then August became an albatross. My love affair with August is over for now.
But January. Ahhh, January. By January, I've usually so thoroughly disappointed myself in the previous year, I know that the coming year can't help but be better. Also, since I'm a sprinter and not a marathoner (in the metaphorical sense only; I don't run, unless there's a kid heading into the street), I know that I have just half a school year left to accomplish my goals for the year. So I like the pressure. Less than half a year before the summer months roll around, when we plan summer family fun. And a break from the dark, cold days of winter will come in just a few short months. So much to look forward to, so much to accomplish. No time to waste. The promises of a new year.
I have great expectations for what the new year holds. We have high hopes for progress on our adoption process. For what our boys will learn academically and how they will grow in the Lord. How our home will more accurately reflect the glory of the One who established it. How our Father will draw us closer to Him this year and continue the work He has started in us.
While I could have done without the heartache we experienced in the last twelve months, I have in no small way seen how the Lord has worked all of our pain for our own good and for His glory. I am closer to Him, knowing that two of my children already worship in His court. He has given me the new lifelong expectation of reuniting with them. In light of our loss, He has fanned the flame in our family's heart to adopt. He has surrounded us with loving friends and supportive family. He has blessed our extended family with new life. He has tested and strengthened our marriage. 2010 was a year of devastation for us, of tearing down and refining. He has begun the work of building up, and we have every expectation that our God will accomplish it.
Our need for newness, for starting over, to be refreshed and recreated is an imprint from our Creator. Our Maker's mark, wherein we long to be made new, just as we are created for eternity, not this vapor of a life. We long for everything around us to be new again. We long for a time and a place where everything will be made new, will be in order, will not fall apart. What a stark contrast to the world we live in, where death and age and illness mar a new creation. What an amazing promise that in the midst of this old world that we can be made new even now. My prayer for you is that you would be made new in the Lord this year, and that He would continue the work He has already begun in you.
Thanking God for the work He has done and for the promise that He will once and for all make all things new, happy new year!
Oh, and just because I don't usually share these, but because I love him so, my tiniest fella. Isn't he so serious?
~Katie
But I'm not in school anymore. June, July, August, September...until recently, all pretty much the same to me. When we undertook to teach our children at home, the thrill and excitement of a new school year was overshadowed by impossible expectations for myself, to create and stick to the perfect schedule, to choose the just-right-for-us curriculum, to do it all perfectly this time. All while effortlessly continuing and excelling at my other not insignificant charges, like my paying job, laundry, meal planning and preparing. Oh, and friends and time in the Word. Yeah, then August became an albatross. My love affair with August is over for now.
But January. Ahhh, January. By January, I've usually so thoroughly disappointed myself in the previous year, I know that the coming year can't help but be better. Also, since I'm a sprinter and not a marathoner (in the metaphorical sense only; I don't run, unless there's a kid heading into the street), I know that I have just half a school year left to accomplish my goals for the year. So I like the pressure. Less than half a year before the summer months roll around, when we plan summer family fun. And a break from the dark, cold days of winter will come in just a few short months. So much to look forward to, so much to accomplish. No time to waste. The promises of a new year.
I have great expectations for what the new year holds. We have high hopes for progress on our adoption process. For what our boys will learn academically and how they will grow in the Lord. How our home will more accurately reflect the glory of the One who established it. How our Father will draw us closer to Him this year and continue the work He has started in us.
While I could have done without the heartache we experienced in the last twelve months, I have in no small way seen how the Lord has worked all of our pain for our own good and for His glory. I am closer to Him, knowing that two of my children already worship in His court. He has given me the new lifelong expectation of reuniting with them. In light of our loss, He has fanned the flame in our family's heart to adopt. He has surrounded us with loving friends and supportive family. He has blessed our extended family with new life. He has tested and strengthened our marriage. 2010 was a year of devastation for us, of tearing down and refining. He has begun the work of building up, and we have every expectation that our God will accomplish it.
Our need for newness, for starting over, to be refreshed and recreated is an imprint from our Creator. Our Maker's mark, wherein we long to be made new, just as we are created for eternity, not this vapor of a life. We long for everything around us to be new again. We long for a time and a place where everything will be made new, will be in order, will not fall apart. What a stark contrast to the world we live in, where death and age and illness mar a new creation. What an amazing promise that in the midst of this old world that we can be made new even now. My prayer for you is that you would be made new in the Lord this year, and that He would continue the work He has already begun in you.
Thanking God for the work He has done and for the promise that He will once and for all make all things new, happy new year!
Oh, and just because I don't usually share these, but because I love him so, my tiniest fella. Isn't he so serious?
~Katie
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Pump You Up
Hi folks, I'd love for you to watch this video that's been circulating. This will get you pumped. The great need that Eric Ludy talks about is exactly why we have this blog, why we humbly beg for your support, your prayers, your help. Our child waits, and we pray she does not wait one moment longer than absolutely necessary. We pray that God will cover the sin of our indifference, our lack of urgency, our delay and that she would not suffer one moment longer than she absolutely must before we scoop her up and carry her home.
As we work through getting all of our doctor visits, blood tests, forms and paperwork completed, we are moving closer to our home study. Pray with us that as we complete our application, the Lord will provide the funds we need to submit it. We are so blessed by the generosity of friends and strangers, but we are still far from our goal.
Thanks for coming back.
~Katie
Monday, November 15, 2010
Practical Providence
Our God cares about one child. About one family. Here's one encouraging story from one family adopting one little girl. Our God does provide. We come to Him with impossible, unreasonable requests, and He happily provides for his children whom He loves. In ways that we should, but dare not, expect.
This past weekend, we saw families in our church come together to support this family with their adoption fundraiser, a massive, well-attended yard sale. Although our efforts to help another family raise adoption funds with a yard sale the weekend before were washed out, all of our collecting over the recent weeks was not for nothing. The rain last weekend meant that blessings rained down for the Youngs this weekend. Pretty amazing.
Thanks for coming back.
~Katie
This past weekend, we saw families in our church come together to support this family with their adoption fundraiser, a massive, well-attended yard sale. Although our efforts to help another family raise adoption funds with a yard sale the weekend before were washed out, all of our collecting over the recent weeks was not for nothing. The rain last weekend meant that blessings rained down for the Youngs this weekend. Pretty amazing.
Thanks for coming back.
~Katie
Friday, November 12, 2010
Video Games and Orphans
I'm sharing today one way adoption has changed me, or at least changed my perspective. No, we're not any further in the process, and no, no generous benefactor has materialized yet to write the single check that will remove all financial barriers to our adoption. (I think $30,000 would do it, FYI, and I think this would cover us if we were able to get siblings.)
But as we take baby steps procedurally and fundraising wise, I continue to observe what I consider significant spiritual progress for myself and my family. And this week, what I've noticed is how I count orphans where I see dollar signs. Sounds a bit crude, but this article from USA Today illustrated this phenomenon for me this week. $360 million. One day sales for a new video game. $360 million. A number so big I can't really grasp it. In one day. For a video game.
My overriding thought when I saw this massive, obscene number, is that, assuming $30,000 would help one family bring home two orphaned siblings from Ethiopia, then the amount spent in one day on a new video game could unite approximately 24,000 orphans with their forever families. 24,000 orphans. One day of video game sales. And still the orphans and their families struggle and wait.
It's not crazy to think that the folks who bought those games would give the price of one game for one less orphan. So how do we get those discretionary dollars to the families struggling to finance their adoptions? How do we convince the masses that a relatively small donation, collectively, can have such a profound effect?
I don't know. But you can bet it keeps me up some nights. Brighter folks than I have wrestled with this and work to make the funding of expensive adoptions a reality for real families. They work tirelessly to offer grants, guidance, interest-free loans, and support to families working to finance their adoptions, and for their work I'm grateful. They make life-changing differences to orphans and their forever families. But they are able to help so few, and so many more families and orphans wait.
All it takes is one idea, one gift, to make a huge difference. So, do you have an idea? What's standing between the people of a church with an attendance of around 4000 each week from helping as many families as are willing to adopt their waiting children? I'm inviting you to offer ideas and suggestions here in the comment section. Got an idea for an individual family fundraiser, or a big idea to help fund a church's Orphan Fund? Share it here!
Thanks for coming back.
~Katie
But as we take baby steps procedurally and fundraising wise, I continue to observe what I consider significant spiritual progress for myself and my family. And this week, what I've noticed is how I count orphans where I see dollar signs. Sounds a bit crude, but this article from USA Today illustrated this phenomenon for me this week. $360 million. One day sales for a new video game. $360 million. A number so big I can't really grasp it. In one day. For a video game.
My overriding thought when I saw this massive, obscene number, is that, assuming $30,000 would help one family bring home two orphaned siblings from Ethiopia, then the amount spent in one day on a new video game could unite approximately 24,000 orphans with their forever families. 24,000 orphans. One day of video game sales. And still the orphans and their families struggle and wait.
It's not crazy to think that the folks who bought those games would give the price of one game for one less orphan. So how do we get those discretionary dollars to the families struggling to finance their adoptions? How do we convince the masses that a relatively small donation, collectively, can have such a profound effect?
I don't know. But you can bet it keeps me up some nights. Brighter folks than I have wrestled with this and work to make the funding of expensive adoptions a reality for real families. They work tirelessly to offer grants, guidance, interest-free loans, and support to families working to finance their adoptions, and for their work I'm grateful. They make life-changing differences to orphans and their forever families. But they are able to help so few, and so many more families and orphans wait.
All it takes is one idea, one gift, to make a huge difference. So, do you have an idea? What's standing between the people of a church with an attendance of around 4000 each week from helping as many families as are willing to adopt their waiting children? I'm inviting you to offer ideas and suggestions here in the comment section. Got an idea for an individual family fundraiser, or a big idea to help fund a church's Orphan Fund? Share it here!
Thanks for coming back.
~Katie
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Eat Mor Chikin for the Allisons
On the list of adoption fundraisers, this has to be one of the most fun. The Allison family from our church is raising money to adopt and bring home their son Wyatt from Rwanda. Everyone in the RDU area is invited to help them out by printing out the flier below and bringing it to the Falls Village Chick-fil-A (6701 Falls of Neuse Rd, Raleigh) tonight (Wednesday, November 10, 2010) between 5 and 8pm. 20% of the proceeds raised from sales with fliers will be given to the Allisons for adoption expenses. So come on out, and eat more chikin for Wyatt and his family!
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