thoughts

i'm a thinker. you can ask jamie, i ask questions ALL the time. here are some things i'm chewing on at the moment:

1. orphan statistics. i've meaning to post these recently and just haven't had a good chance. the numbers are sobering. half a million kids in foster care here in the US. millions of children overseas. all of them need loving homes. why haven't more people realized we are in a crisis? why doesn't it click with people that these children are living, breathing human beings? shouldn't humans be our #1 priority?

2. needs vs. wants. i've been chewing on this for awhile now as i continue to ask what my life is supposed to look like knowing that so many in our world live in poverty. recently, i've gone to my closet and thought, "i could definitely use some more sweaters." followed by a second thought about if i really do need more sweaters or if i just think i need more sweaters. i mean, i'm pretty sure a homeless woman would be very satisfied if she had my wardrobe. so shouldn't i be satisfied? but with these questions come many more about how far we go in giving up stuff in order to help the poor. jesus told the rich young ruler to sell everything he had and give to the poor, but i think that was more because his stuff had become his god. i don't think it's bad to have stuff, but quite honestly, i think it's very, very easy for even the most well-intentioned human being to idolize his stuff without even realizing it (because we're sinners, duh), which is why sometimes i wonder what the point of having stuff is (this is where i start sounding like an ascetic). but honestly, i fail at this all the time because the minute life starts getting busy, i'm begging jamie to let us eat out so i don't have to cook. and well, that money we spent at mcdonalds last weekend could definitely have fed a man for a day at the homeless shelter downtown. it's just that simple.

3. our sex culture. i'm in this trauma and addiction class at school, and we were discussing sex addiction on monday. and i definitely had one of those youth group moments where i wondered if i really should be watching movies and listening to secular music. but seriously, knowing how our culture uses sex to sell everything these days, and knowing how many people struggle with sex addiction (and not because they're horrible, gross people but because the majority of them experienced trauma earlier in life), i feel a little guilty indulging in the smorgasbord of sexual ineuendos that are plastered all over television, movies, and radio. i can say it doesn't affect me, but isn't it just as bad if i continue to allow these things knowing they are harmful to someone else? and what's really dismaying is that most people don't think much about any of this, as if it's just OK that teenagers are into "sexting" and accessing porn at a much younger age than in the past. churches -- and, in my opinion, especially liberal ones -- have neglected opportunities to instruct youth about healthy sexuality because they're too scared of appearing moralistic, like they're telling someone what to do and not do. well, i'm sorry, but there's a time to be moralistic and this is definitely one of those times.

4. people with disabilities. i've been doing a lot of reading about families raising children with disabilities for my senior project, so this has been on my mind a lot. and jamie has a disability, so it's really part of my everyday existence. but seriously, every time i think i've built up enough grace for ignorant people in the world, someone has to be annoyingly dramatic when they see jamie's guide dog or someone has to say something to me that they could just say to jamie, such as "does he have his ID" instead of just saying "sir, do you have your ID." i always want to ask people what they would do if they woke up blind the next morning and people started treating them the same way they treat jamie. seriously, don't people realize that people with disabilities are people too even if they can't see or hear or walk? and don't people realize that none of us are guaranteed perfect bodies? in one book i was reading, a mother who had given birth to a child with a disability said her first response was to ask "why me?" but then she realized it was just as logical to ask "why not me?"

5. selfish christianity. does it bother anybody else when the christian faith simply becomes an endeavor to avoid hell? i think about this all the freakin' time because i just get annoyed when people talk more about the joys of heaven than about jesus. i'm pretty sure that it's impossible to truly enjoy or even comprehend heaven without first living the life jesus modeled for us (ie, giving to the poor, caring for the sick, loving sinners, working for healing and restoration). because heaven will be a place where the restoration and redemption of all things is consummated. this (and the kingdom of God) is something i want to write more about later. it just happens to be on my mind now.

it's almost friday, everybody. i think we're going to an ethiopian orthodox church service on saturday. it's mainly for a project i'm doing for school, but we're obviously interested for other reasons as well...

where are you shopping this year?

my friend leigh has been doing a series of posts about alternative ways to christmas shop this year. up until recently, i wasn't aware of the many, many people who are constantly giving a cut of their profits away to worthy causes. case in point -- toms shoes. you may have seen their commercial on television. for every pair of shoes toms sells, they donate a pair of shoes to a child in need. right now, i think they're doing a huge holiday campaign in hopes of selling 30,000 pairs of shoes so they can donate 30,000 pairs to kids in ethiopia. by buying a pair of shoes for yourself, you can literally save a life since a child can die of something as simple as an infection caused from walking barefoot. i don't need any new shoes this holiday season, but when i do, i will be ordering a pair of toms. you can see their website here.


leigh knows several people who have started their own etsy.com shops to raise money for adoptions and other causes. if you've never visited esty, you really should. basically, it's just a huge website where people sell stuff they've made. from what i've seen, people normally note on their websites if they're donating to a specific cause. you can find ANYTHING on etsy, so it's a great place to buy presents AND support an adoption or other worthy cause. you can see leigh's recommendations here and here.


i just found a great new website from an artist in tennessee who was selling clothes, canvas art, and other doo-dads to bring her son home from ethiopia. now that he's home, the profits from her work are going to benefit a camp for AIDS patients in the bahamas. she has some pretty creative ideas for kids, like making a matching game (like memory) out of cute fabric. check her out here. i love the africa t-shirt on the left and put it on my christmas wish list.




if you'd like to help the dean cause specifically, we just got our coffee website up and running today. all you have to do is visit our website, order as many bags of coffee that you'd like, and wait for them to send it to you in the mail. we get $5 per bag of coffee, $5 per t-shirt, and $3 per coffee mug bought through our page. each month, they'll send us a check for our profits that we'll deposit directly towards our adoption. seriously, i can't think of a better gift for a friend or co-worker who is difficult to buy for than a bag of fresh coffee.

another great idea is buying apparel from one of the many non-profits doing wonderful work around the world. i'm currently obsessed with a t-shirt from the AHOPE store. AHOPE is a non-profit in ethiopia that cares for HIV positive orphans. they run 2 orphanages in the capital city. we first learned of AHOPE from reading there is no me without you. you can learn more about AHOPE by clicking the link on the sidebar. there's a great video on the homepage right now about AIDS orphans in ethiopia. but think about it -- for 20 bucks you can buy an awesome t-shirt. your 20 bucks might help AHOPE pay their light bill for a month in one of their orphanages. and by wearing your t-shirt, you advertise AHOPE and its mission to the rest of the world. they also have cute stuff for kids... check out the t-shirt i love:


now, i'm not saying you can't go out to toys-r-us and buy your kids a few toys. nor am i saying you can't buy your mom that sweater she's been hankering for from macy's. but we can all be more intentional with our money this holiday season. maybe you'll choose to buy your daughter one less doll this christmas and instead buy her a shirt from AHOPE. or maybe you'll forego a new pair of high heels and buy a pair of toms instead. in doing so, i think we can begin to reclaim what christmas is really supposed to be about.

lots o' pics!

these pictures don't do justice to all the blessings we have been given over the past couple of days. people have been so generous to us not only with their money and their stuff, but also with their time. people have served us generously, and we are so thankful. i don't have pictures of all those who donated items to our yard sale. nor do i have pictures of our sweet neighbors who searched through their garages and attics for boxes on friday night that we could use to hold the mass amount of clothes we had for the yard sale. nor do i have pictures of every person or family who came out to support us at chick-fil-a. but i CAN'T WAIT to share these stories and pictures with our children one day so that they know how many people wanted to help bring them home. as far as money goes, we made $430 at the yard sale. it rained all morning, so we didn't have near as many people as i think we would have had if it had been sunny. plus, we didn't get to put everything out. SO, we're going to advertise an open garage for the next couple of weekends in hopes of selling a lot more. and chick-fil-a should be sending us a check in the next few days. BUT, we honestly can say that no amount of money compares to how much love we've been shown in the last few days. THANK YOU!

jesus, multiply these loaves

this week, i'm trying to rest in knowing that jesus is jehovah jireh -- God provides.

honestly, i don't have high expectations for our chick-fil-a night or our yard sale. i don't have numbers swirling around in my head about how much we're going to make. it helps that i have no clue what a chick-fil-a would normally make in sales from 5-8pm on a thursday night, so i don't have much to work with as far as numbers are concerned. and well, we could have zero people show up at our yard sale which would equal zero profits. so making guesses at how much money we'll have for our adoption after these 2 events is a big waste of my time.

really, i'm just continually praying "jesus, multiply the loaves." i know he can do it. i know he can take 10% of sales (or profits...apparently, they're different, and i don't know which one we're getting) at chick-fil-a and turn that into a load of money. i know he can compel people to come out and eat more chicken than they ever have before. i know he can inspire the manager (who has a daughter adopted from guatemala) to give us more than 10%. and i know that he can take what most people consider a bunch of junk and turn that into enough money to pay our second agency fee. i know he can compel someone to pay more than they normally would for a used futon simply because the money is going to a good cause. i know that he could make all these discussions we've had about what to do with everything we don't sell obselete.

so i am thankful for chicken nuggets and french fries, trash bags full of clothes, and old coffee tables, because they are my loaves that i am asking jesus to multiply. i believe that he can do it. i believe that, in the end, we might have our needs met plus some. so jesus, multiply these loaves.

(oh, and stay tuned for pictures. i'm planning to take my camera to chick-fil-a tomorrow night to get pictures of everyone who comes out. plus, jamie is dressing up as the cow. and i'll also post pictures from our yard sale. my parents will be there and our friends the burkholders. i can't wait to show our kids these pictures someday so they know just how many people wanted to help bring them home. this is for you liam and elijah!)

who we are

as more people are hearing about our fundraisers, i'm hoping they will be encouraged to follow our journey. if you're new to our story, here's what we're about:

jamie and i have always wanted to adopt. i have a 11-year-old cousin adopted from china. her presence in my life instilled in me the desire to adopt. knowing that she could have ended up in slavery, as a prostitute, or even dead had she not been adopted showed me that adoption is literally a miracle from God. jamie has always had a passion for justice, especially justice on behalf of children. when he went to law school, his dream job was (and probably still is) working for the department of justice or a non-profit organization to prosecute child traffickers and other abusers of children. so for jamie, adoption has just always made sense.

to clear some things up (for those who are wondering) -- we have no idea if we can have biological kids. we've never even tried. we are so in love with adoption right now. everyday, i'm more and more impassioned about the plight of the orphan. we chose ethiopia simply because we're pretty convinced most kids born in africa these days have only a small chance at a real life. there are 6 million orphans in ethiopia right now, many of them orphaned because of HIV. people ask why we're requesting 2 kids, and we say "why not?" people wonder if our kids will be HIV positive, and we say "probably not, but so what if they are?" people ask if we will have biological kids, and we say "maybe. probably. maybe. but right now, our hearts are in africa with 2 children that are meant to be ours."

God gave us hearts for adoption a long time ago, but he has now flung them wide open in ways that we never even could have imagined. adoption has not just opened our hearts to 2 new family members but also to the poor, the sick, the suffering, the dying, and the oppressed of our world.

but if you're wondering about those 2 new family members -- we expect 2 boys, though a boy and a girl are certainly possible. we are open to either siblings or unrelated children. and right now, we're requesting that one child be 36 months or under and the other child be 12 months or under (we may be willing to increase the age of the oldest by a few months). and yes, we already have their names picked out and aren't afraid to share them. if we have 2 sons, they will be liam and elijah. if we have a son and a daughter, they will be liam and charlotte. we plan to send off our dossier (all our paperwork) to ethiopia in january, after which we will be officially on a waitlist. right now, they're estimating 4-6 months for a referral for 2 unrelated children, but anything could happen. it could be shorter or longer. so we won't actually know who are kids are for quite some time.

OK, that's [a succinct version of] our story. we hope you'll keep journeying with us...

blessed by adoption

Drawn From Water, Adopt from Drawn From Water on Vimeo.

i haven't written much lately about how i think adoption is one of the most beautiful things on earth. today, jamie and i had the great pleasure of meeting jackson and mary cameron littleton. their parents, scott and erin, met jackson and MC while working in an orphanage in uganda a few years ago. they knew pretty quickly these kids were meant to be theirs. i just can't get over how adoption changes lives. seriously, my heart was full after meeting jackson and MC. to look into their sweet, beautiful faces and know that they are infinitely loved -- i was blessed today.

i know many people are discouraged from adopting for various reasons -- money, fear of the process, fear of raising a child of a different race. but let me tell you, no fear is worth risking the chance to be a part of something as beautiful as adoption. if you feel the least inkling in your soul that God is asking you to consider this journey, don't be afraid. listen. be obedient. something tells me somebody out there can watch that video and see the eyes of their child in the eyes of one of those children. is it YOU?

dogs

i've been meaning to share a few pictures i took recently of hudson and priscilla. we put an old mat of hudson's in our sunroom so the dogs could have a place to lay downstairs without slipping and sliding on the hardwood floors. lately, they've been sharing the mat, which is no small feat because hudson is huge and the mat is really only big enough for one of them. any time i see them displaying even the least bit of attention towards one another, i grab the camera. i think this should shed some light on how obsessed i'm going to be with taking pictures of our children...

also, we've had enough people tell us that hudson looks like a great dane that we're now convinced he must be a great dane-lab mix. we are also starting to wonder if when the vet estimated hudson to be 2 years old, could he possibly have meant 10? hudson is literally the laziest, slowest dog i've ever known. plus, he's got a creaky knee. and while i'm telling hudson stories...last night, jamie was out of town on business, which confused the heck out of hudson at bedtime. after i laid down in bed, i'm pretty sure hudson started looking for jamie...he searched the closet, the bedrooms upstairs, and then ran back downstairs and searched there as well. if you don't know our hudson in real life, you really should. he has terrible separation anxiety and can be a real pain in the butt sometimes, but we love him (and priscilla too). oh, and we're still soliciting opinions about hudson's great dane DNA.