Fundraising...

Crazy Hair!



So fundraising is exciting! When I get a notification telling me someone has purchased a magnet I get really happy :) Seeing other people get excited about adoption is so fulfilling :) The local newspaper is going to do a story on our family and an upcoming garage sale to raise money for donations to Ethiopian orphans during my upcoming trip to ET in January. So many people have really stepped up and donated items to be sold. I'm talking appliances, clothing, furniture and a nearly brand new canoe all because they feel led to "do the right thing". I hope it will be a great success!
I was reading the Reed family's blog tonight and seeing them holding their new daughter for the first time is so heartwarming after all they've been through but also seeing them visiting the grave of their baby girl who passed away while still in Ethiopia was heartbreaking. So many babies and toddlers are dying of preventable diseases with no one to advocate for them. I want to be part of the change that I hope to see. I need to know whole heartedly that I am doing everything I possibly can to serve the Lord by being his "hands and feet" for these children. Adoption is only a small part of the answer... there literally aren't words that I can find to describe how my body aches for Africa and her children. It's so much more then just emotional or ethical... my internal organs actually feel physical hurt and longing to do more, to be more for these kids.
It's hard not to get angry when I see people who seem to promote the idea of "the best of everything for their kids", like buying them the best car, the best Nintendo games, the newest cell phones, etc. yet they don't take a minute to think that the price of the Wii they just bought could feed at least TEN kids for a MONTH, or would pay for a child to have cleft lip/palatte surgery, would drill a well so people wouldn't die from diarrhea! They insert "things" where they should be inserting Jesus' teachings...the biblical idea that says "if you want to find your life you must lose it." Kids aren't taught to fear God or to want to live their life to glorify the Lord in all that they do. Parents today seem to be too busy trying to make more money to buy more "things". I feel like kids today are suffering from a different type of neglect. Kids now enter the world as adults who feel entitled, like they are owed something and can't really appreciate the little things in life. They don't know how to give back because they feel as if someone would be robbing them of what they feel they "deserve".
Now that I have had my eyes forced open, I see humanitarian aid in EVERYTHING. The boat that gets brought out twice a year, the 4-wheeler that you haven't used in years, the jet ski that broke but you've never bothered to have fixed, the endless array of Nintendo game systems and accessories, the Versace pumps that I had to have but can't even wear for more then 5 minutes without having to sit down. I now only see "things" in terms of their monetary value and want to beg people to let me sell their stuff to give the money to aid organizations. It just breaks my heart to see so much needless excess compared with such destitution. No SEVEN year old should EVER weigh 15 pounds and yet I know of a boy in Uganda right now who does b/c of starvation! What if he was your child, what if he was your nephew or your grandson, or your child's playmate? He is that to someone, can you imagine having to look at him everyday and know that you don't have any way to help him, no food to give, no medications... just prayers for a miracle. Just $15.00 would have feed him for a MONTH! That's the price of a small box of Legos, or a barbie doll. If you want to be part of the solution please donate to our next adoption or to one of the charities mentioned in the sidebar. Or just give up some time to organize a shoe drive for Buckner International or an Operation Christmas Child with Samaritan's Purse. There are so many opportunities to serve but you have to take the first step.

"Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." Psalm 82:3-4