REFERRAL!!!!!

Today was THE day. THE call. It was THE day our lives changed. Today we saw the face of our sweet daughter. She is precious and we love her. She is two months old and is described as “a tiny bundle of sweetness!” We can’t post any pictures or her name online, until we pass court. Trust me, she is adorable. Her name begins with an M.

The feeling is surreal. It doesn’t feel like it has really sunk in. We decided to change our referral request from two children to an infant girl the week of Thanksgiving. She was brought to the orphanage on November 26, Thanksgiving Day. As we were thinking about the future of our family and making some big decisions, her birth mother made a very big decision too. We feel God’s hand in all of this and we feel so blessed to have the opportunity to be able to call little Miss M. our daughter.

We will now wait for a court date, which can take one to three months. After we pass court, which might not happen on the first try, we will travel within 2-5 weeks to pick her up. We hope to be holding her and kissing her squishy cheeks within 3-6 months!!!

Bono

There are several celebrities who are trying to make their mark in history by jumping on the humanitarian bandwagon. Although we will never know the true reasons for their philanthropy, they are, at the very least, bringing attention to the needs of the poor. One of these people is Bono. Bono received the NAACP Image Award’s Chairman’s Award in 2007 for his work. You can watch his speech on the following video:



In his speech he says, “Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die". Think about that. These words impact me. They feel like a heavy load sitting upon my shoulders.

I was born into an upper-middle class family. Hunger and death were nothing that I ever worried about as a child. My parents never had to question from where the next meal would come. As parents, they still worried. Their worries were not of money or food, but instead they worried about my future. They wondered what I would do with my life and they did everything they could to make sure I had every opportunity to be whoever I wanted to be.

I remember, from a fairly young age, questioning the reason for my existence in this world. I remember skiing down the slopes in Colorado and wondering why God put me on the Earth. I have always loved solitude. I loved to go skiing and sing all the way down the mountain. It was in the beautiful, open world that I could really think. I remember thinking that it seemed kind of pointless to be put on this Earth if we were just going to die eventually. I also remember thinking how strange the concept of humanity was in general. What were we all doing here? Yes, I was eight. This just shows the kind of weird kid I was. This thought eventually progressed into the thought of how different my life would be if I were across the world. As I got older and heard stories of little girls getting raped or killed, I always felt so lucky to be born into the family I was. I knew that one of those little girls could be me. Their innocence was taken away at such a young age, while mine remained intact. This brings me back to Bono’s words, “Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die".

As an adult I still wonder why God put me on this Earth. I know God has called me to great things. My life has a purpose and part of that purpose is to help break the cycle of poverty. I have yet to determine what that entails, but I look forward to finding out.

Suffer the Little Children

I am constantly blown away by those who can abandon the life they know and follow God. This faithfulness is such an admirable and humbling quality. As Christians this is what we should all seek to do, but do we? Are you willing to get out of the boat? What would it take for you follow God with reckless abandon? What are you being called to? I have to ask myself these same questions too.

I love following the lives of those doing the nitty gritty work. You know, those people who can live their lives without the luxuries we take for granted every day? Andy and Lisa Langdon are two of those people. I do not know them, but I like reading their blog, Suffer the Little Children. They have picked up their lives and moved their family to Malawi. They felt called to start a crisis nursery for infant orphans through Ministry of Hope. They have been there for a year and their blog is a testament of their faith. You can feel the heaviness on their hearts for these babies. They got out of the boat and followed God with reckless abandon.



These are the Langdon's with five of the babies in their care!