Reaching Out to Orphans

Last night God spoke to me in my dream.
To put it simply He showed me the need,
the very real need of the 174 million orphans
(actually there are probably more than that).

The weight was huge and I wondered what it was that one person could do.
What beyond words would God require of me?

It is quite simple.  It boils down to heart,

submission (to Him)

and a phrase that we have all heard,

but perhaps haven't been brave enough to mutter aloud.

He said,

"Tell them this,

( to begin to get the Church (His people, Believers) to take action in caring for the orphans)

it begins with saying,

"Here am I Lord, send me."

Sending may mean a number of things, guess you will have to be brave enough to listen to Him whispering to your heart and then be willing to say it, knowing that He will indeed direct your path.

You see He has a heart for orphans.  
He has a plan for putting them in families and rescuing them from a future as an orphan. 
But He needs me and He needs you in order to do it.

He knows what life looks like in our day in and day out.  He knows all the reasons why we haven't said,
"Here am I send me." 

BUT

He is now saying it's time, submit your very lives and homes into my hands.

He is ready to show us the way.

How about it...are you willing?  

I'd love to hear what you think 

and whether you'd be willing to bow your head and seek Him on it.

I am.

Isaiah 6:8

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying,

"Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"

Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."

Thrift Store Finds... repurposing

one purple beanbag...$4

one square pillow-$.50

a little time with a large remnant of fabric I picked up for $1 

and wallah refurbished accents for the kids playroom.

Now we are ready to put them to use..

got to love some recycled love!

Good-bye my Sweet Raccoons...

Thankful,

sad,

 tearful,

happy...

so many thoughts running through my head...

tonight my three babies will run through their new world...

a piece of heaven tucked into a patch of protected forest,

a haven for 3 orphans to grow up under the watchful eye of their loving Father.

I will miss them more than words can ever capture. 

SkippyJon, Faith and Love you stole my heart

from the first moment I saw your tiny little handful of you. 

My life has been changed because you needed me.

Thank you and be joy filled running up and down all those trees.

LOVE Always;

Your Mama

Prayer Request Sunday

Prayer is like an egg...
it is full of life if you can wait on it with an expectant heart.

Need prayer?

Great Math Site (attention HOMESCHOOLers)

Need help with upper math levels? 

In looking to brush up on our Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Geometry and Pre- Calculus, I found this great site.  I am going to use it HEAVILY...for 3 of my older students this year.  Maybe you want to check it out too?  It claims to be an aid to 13-100 year old math students.

http://coolmath.com/

Easy to follow, practice available and done with an ere to eye appeal (for your visual learners!) Can you believe it is already back to school time!

Happy learning!

Princess Mercy's Hospital

Our wee-est babe has a gigAntic giraffe that graces her bedroom 

(thanks Becky).

 

Imagine my surprise when I found this giraffe laying on my bedroom floor wrapped in a towel.  

Turns out that Mrs. Giraffe has a bad sore throat and needed some extra rest. 

Oh how she is loved.

Guess she needed to be mothered more than Princess Mercy (3) could manage herself, as she somehow got her from her room to mine for recovery time.  I was told it was a very bad sore throat and that she was very worried about her.

Upon looking a little closer, I could see that truly old Mrs. Giraffe was concerned herself.

My little children, let us not love in word,
neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
~ I John 3:18

Tuesday's Thoughts (with update)

update:  no release today (Wed.)  
The Knight has cancelled a weekend camping trip (rain forecast)
and declared that we can release early next week instead.  
(I am rejoicing greatly at a few more days of being a Mama to my 3 fat waddlers!)

Tuesday's Thoughts:
tonight is our last night together...

Tomorrow...

we say our good-byes,

they have grown so well,

they are ready for the forest.

they will walk into the care of One who loves them even more than I do

(though I can't imagine that, as I find myself tearing up

just in thinking of introducing them to their beautiful new woodland habitat).

I will walk away (in the arms of my Knight who will accompany me)

trusting that the Lord will watch over and keep them for me.

How thankful I am to hear His voice saying that He will care for them now.

Maybe we will see each other again,

as I plan on stopping by and bringing tasty treats for my babies.

A mother's heart is a tender thing, 

it longs to raise them up in the way they are to go,

hoping that all that was poured into them will help them in their coming days of life.

Ultimately we need to let go and put our trust in Him.

Love is hard, it hurts sometimes.

But the option of not loving, is no option at all.

So, I am so thankful I chose to open my heart to 3 tiny helpless masked creatures, whose eyes were hardly yet open.

The four months I've had as their Mama was life changing.

I have so many memories to cherish...(would you like to know some of them?)

• How a large bathroom can become a haven to orphaned babies 

• How I asked God ten years ago for one (after reading Rascal) and how He blessed me with three

• mopping up piles of mess, only to have them run through it (laughing I think)and spreading it in every direction of the wind.

• barely getting down the newspaper that they have trained themselves to use for potty time...and having all three hustle in and dirty it all up before I could even step back to admire the clean newness of the rectangular toilet

• How much smarter they are than dogs or cats

• having my boy always look at me with puppy eyes, so that I will stop mopping so he can suck my thumb

• When I am too rushed to sit down with them, how he will nurse on his own foot (and purr like crazy doing it)

• How my biggest girl can jump on my back for a piggy back anytime I crouch low enough for her to make the running leap

• For their love of marshmallows and how they roll them around in their paws as they eat them (kind of like how some eat corn on the cob)

• How they don't like corn, though it is supposed to be a favorite

• How they eat chicken~ bones and all

• How they nurse on my clothes while I feed one of their siblings with the special bottle

• The days of dropper feeding that turned into syringe feeding, which in turn headed to the special bottle

• Seeing them smile while they ate cut up bananas

• How they loved to get a new toy and how much they would enjoy it

• How fast they could undo anything we tied

• How gentle they are

• How feisty they can be playing with each other

• How many ants we've squashed since May because I refused to put down ant poison thinking they might eat one of them 

• How cute they are, even when they are keeping us up being nocturnal

• How even when they are half asleep how they can wake up to say hello

• How they destroyed my mop and I am not sure I want to replace it with a new non-chewed version (each tooth mark now is precious)

• The night they got under the sink, pulled off the plywood behind the plumbing and climbed through the walls with great joy (much to our fear that they would never come out)

• How I think I am allergic to them (suddenly I have eczema on my face and occasional swollen eyes after kissing and hugging them) 

and how I still would love to keep them forever (for very selfish reasons)

• How blessed I am that God put me on someones heart and I got to be their Mama for a time such as this!

 

Prayer Request Sunday-How about it?

"God does nothing except in response to believing prayer."

John Wesley 

(who spent 2 hours daily in prayer)

Could I interest you in some prayer today? 

I'd love to pray with you...leave me a note and we will get right to it.

Does your life feel dull, how about your heart and spirit?

"Prayer is where the action is." John Wesley

Feasting On His Goodness

121.  For 4 months of raising 3 masked critters, 

which will be released next week to a perfectly beautiful serene spot in the forest 

(PRAY FOR ME...!)

122.  Glad we will be able to do food drop offs 

for the 3 critters until they get established in their new home

123.For beautiful memories of my r.a.c.c.o.o.n mama-ing days

(everyone was worried about them bonding to me,

but everyone seemed to forget that I would be bonded to them!

Oh, a mother's heart !)

124.  For the tiny paws that helped to rub the conditioner through my hair as I bathed 

(yes, hard not to laugh, but they are obsessed with running their fingers through my hair.)

125. For the mop I bought at target that has been used 3-5 times dail

in my master bathroom (i.e. clean up after the 3 wild things).

126.  For homemade coleslaw that came out awesome

127. For my friend Becky who shares her gifts, talents and time with me
(and my love for coffee at Starbucks)

*I had the revelation of how in May God told me to take a sabbatical from
friendships-I was struggling with one that had gone bad and not knowing what to expect anymore from the ones that I still had.   As I stepped out in obedience,
He began to bless me in ways only HE knew could
(i.e. see above picture)
as I draw to a close with my furry friends,
He has brought me a new friendship with Becky.
Funny how you can know someone for a long time,
but not realize that actually they were a kindred spirit!

(Becky making a tart for a treat for us...taking a break from teaching me how to quilt!)

128.  For my oldest who always is willing to help watch the littles,

so I can occasionally meet up with friends (or just escape!)

129.  For a beautiful 25th anniversary dinner (which my kids all insisted that we go out alone)

at a little bistro called Cafe Mangia

130.  For homemade sangria 

which my Knight makes better than anyone else~

because he knows how much I like it

Growing Like Weeds

A quick stop at a park after Shakespeare camp for 4 big girls

• a Mama with a camera

(and an itchy trigger finger),

• a field full of wild flowers free for the picking 

and 

• 5 smiling girls willing to be captured.

 

Celebrate with Me!!! (a big ONE!)

 

Happy anniversary love of my life...

it has been a wild ride to say the least! 

 

Who would have thought that two kids that bumped into each other at a tiny country church 

would fall in love 

(while I was vacuuming and cleaning his parents home),

get married, have 8 children

(soon 9!) 

and still be head over heals in love after over 30 years together!

How thankful we are to God for the gift He has bestowed upon our lives.  Knowing He placed us together and is using our lives to impact this world.  

I love you my dashing Knight!

Rejoice with us for a moment would you?

Teens in the Kitchen (Ethiopian cooking)

Friendship

Princess Sweetness has a guest visiting- it is a girl she grew up with in Ethiopia.  Both she and her sweet friend Genet shared the orphanage experience together for several years.  A year post their adoptions, God has reconnected them for 3 weeks at our house!  How good is our God!

They have enjoyed cooking together, reminiscing over their time in the orphanage kitchen when the wise director, Eyob, had each girl pair with another and learn under the hand of the nanny; how to cook Ethiopian food.  And learn they did, as these girls are amazing in the kitchen.  I am speaking as a girl experienced in the kitchen, they really far exceed my knife skills.  

I made the injera (Ethiopian flat bread) and they made the rest;  doro wat (spicy chicken with boiled eggs), denish wot (potatoes in a berbere sauce...spicy too!), a green bean dish that I don't know the name of (yummy), and a lentil dish that also is nameless currently, but more than delicious.   

They beamed at the opportunity to take over the kitchen.  Several hours of prep work and we sat down to a wonderful authentic Ethiopian dinner.  This week they will cook another Ethiopian meal, I am salivating already just at the mere thought of it. If you have never eaten Ethiopian food, I recommend that you search out a local restaurant and give it a try.  Never did I think I would eat Ethiopian food, never did I think that I would someday have two Ethiopian princess' of my own, but then again God is full of all kinds of surprises.

Genet has been the best guest we ever had.  She is sweet, gentle spirited, kind and helpful.  A low maintenance girl with a heart of gold.  We hope to have her visit again and again and again.

A messy kitchen is a happy kitchen, 

and this one is delirious!

anonymous

Can I Pray for you?

How about it...

would you like to join hearts this week with your prayer request?

Not Quite Whispering Sweet Nothings

 

Funny how children treat their Mama, even such 

wild children.

I know my little masked wild things love me,

but...

Love certainly has many different facets and formulas! 

Professional Taste Tester

This 3 year old girl enjoys food. 

Princess Mercy happily offers to stop from her busy schedule

to help her Mama see if it tastes good, doesn't matter what is cooking, she is willing. Today's tasting was about strawberry jam.

Bless her sweet Ethiopian tongue...

truly she is quite the little taste tester.