Driving on curvy mountain roads

Admiring the snow blanketing the landscape

Remembering why I love living in West Virginia

Miss S and I pull into a quaint little town, a tad over an hour from our home, as we do at least one time a month.

We find the little sign that indicates we have reached our destination

We gather a birthday present, Sweet Pea and her diaper bag and of course, the camera.

And we go see Mr S.

He turns 10 years old tomorrow.  He has a smile that lights up a room {I wish that I could show it to you}  He loves spending time with his big sis, Miss S.

Mr S has Down Syndrome and is in the foster care system {as his sister was before she aged out}

He lives in a wonderful group home with caretakers that love him, teach him sign language {he is non-verbal} and eat family style meals with him three times a day.

He likes to do chores, especially sweeping and vacuuming.

I love visiting with him.  I love seeing him interact with Miss S and I love what it does for her soul to see her brother on a regular basis.  We had a great time today as he played with the car that Miss S got him for his birthday. Our time with him was full of smiles, laughter and hugs.

But, each time we leave that little town and begin the road trip back home, my heart hurts.

My heart hurts for the thousands of children with down syndrome that live in other parts of the world, most that if not adopted, that will not live to see their 10th birthday.  Children with down syndrome in other countries, such as the Ukraine, are transferred to institutions on their 4th birthday.  They are not eligible for adoption after that move and many do not survive the first year.

Would you join me in praying for the special {in more ways than one} children and consider helping them find their forever families?  Details about how you can help are available through a wonderful ministry called Reece’s Rainbow.

It looked like this…

Many emotions swirled in my mind and heart.  Most of them related to self pity about my disability(s) and the seeming prematurity of needing Medicare.

I loathe self pity.  So, I turned to God for an attitude check.  He is always faithful in providing those for me.

God brought my thoughts around to the children helped by Reece’s Rainbow, including the little boy I pray for, Blake (you can find a link to donate to his adoption fund in my side bar).

Children with down syndrome and other “disabilities” in the Ukraine and other parts of the world are discarded to orphanages, where they can live until 4 or 5 years old.  If they have not been adopted by then they are transferred to an institution where many transferred children do not survive the first year after transfer.

I have friends who have adopted these special little ones and have given me first hand accounts of the horrendous conditions of the orphanages and nursing homes in these countries.

When I think of those deplorable conditions, my disability seems insignificant.  Medicare at 32 is a blessing, not a curse.  Quality medical care is a miracle.

I thank God for my change of heart and attitude and pray for each one of the least of these waiting for their forever families.

Please consider donating to this important cause this holiday season.  Every dollar goes to helping a family fund a special needs adoption.  I can’t think of a better gift than a family!  Can you?

to watch this video and not be moved.

to read God’s Word and not see His heart for orphans

to not be moved to give to this incredible cause.

Go ahead and watch:

I dare you!

http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=c31c5b34c11927a7e1ddb4&skin_id=1901&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Now, reading Radical, has lit a fire under that passion once again. Reignited the passion of my heart in a way that can’t and won’t burn out.

 Yes, my hubby and I donate to Reece’s Rainbow and Compassion and many other agencies but we want to do more.  We need to do more.

I am spending a lot of time asking God how He would like us to proceed- what should we be doing to help.  Our help will take many different forms over the next few months but today I feel God wanting me to use this platform- my blog- to raise awareness.

The title of this blog post comes straight out of the Word:

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy dwelling.  God sets the lonely in families…Psalm 68: 5-6a

A blogging friend that I had the pleasure of meeting in February recently traveled to Africa with Compassion International.  The posts she wrote from their stirred my heart.  The photos were gripping.  And she was changed. 

There is a verse in Proverbs that says:

Don’t excuse yourself by saying, “Look, we didn’t know.”
      For God understands all hearts, and he sees you.
   He who guards your soul knows you knew.
      He will repay all people as their actions deserve. Proverbs 24:12

How about this version from another translation:

 Rescue the perishing;
   don’t hesitate to step in and help.
If you say, “Hey, that’s none of my business,”
   will that get you off the hook?
Someone is watching you closely, you know—
   Someone not impressed with weak excuses. (The Message)

Those verses pierce my heart.  Because I know it.  I see it. 

The commercials on TV that make me cringe and change the channel.

The blog posts from my friends who have heeded the call to care for the orphan through adoption or mission work.

I will not be able to stand before God and say “but I didn’t know”.  Because I do know.  We all know.

So, what are we called to do about it?

I can’t answer that for you. It is between you and God.  What I can say is that James 1:27 was not written for a select few.  It was written to all who read and believe in God’s Word.  And what He said is this:

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this; to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.  James 1:27

The world has polluted us into believing that we aren’t responsible for the 147 million orphans around this world.  For the 26, 000 children that will die today from preventable, treatable conditions. WE ARE RESPONSIBLE!

As my family and I sort through what God wants us to do next, I’m not going to do nothing in the interim.  Wouldn’t the enemy just love that?  Get me riled up, let me feel passionate and then discover how overwhelming the need is and decide to do nothing?  No, that is not the way.  We are mighty warriors that serve the powerful God.  If this is what He sees as pure and faultless, isn’t it obvious that He will provide ways for us to make life better for these hurting people?

Kristen hosted an adoption link-up where families adopting could post their needs and we, as Christians, can help meet those needs.  Here are a few whose heart and creativity really touched me:

Adoption magnets

Custom Clothes

CD’s

Custom Art

Hope Suds

T-shirt (that I love!)

Signs of Faith

And there were more!  Those are just a few of the ways you can make a difference in an orphan’s life.

Then, in a very God ordained sort of way, I read this post from another blog I follow.  Today.  Yes, I don’t believe in coincidences either. 

What are we supposed to do?  I think the answer is actually quite simple.

Do something!

People are often taken aback when I say that I am thankful for my illness.  There are many reasons that I feel that my MS diagnosis has been a blessing for me and my family.  I would have probably never slowed down and lived for the moment if not for MS.  I would not have been forced to deal with the deep-seated emotional issues I had spent my whole life holding in.  I would not have learned to let go of the small stuff and be (a tad) less controlling.

In the grand scheme of things our time on this earth is not about us.  It is about how we live our lives for God’s glory.  I spent a week or two really upset last month when I found out I also have systemic lupus. “It’s not fair” and “why me” came out of my mouth and my heart.  I was feeling very sorry for myself And then I remembered:  my trials and issues are really insignificant.  When you are able to step out of your pity party and look at the world around you, it is easy to see that I don’t have it so bad.  I have learned about the plight of chronically ill people in third world countries- hello?  How can I complain when they have no access to healthcare at all?  There are orphans in Eastern Europe that are institutionalized for life (just put in cribs at the age of four) simply because they have Down Syndrome.  Babies that are suffocated at birth because of deformities.

I think of how much this type of atrocity must pain our Lord.  How He must yearn for us to get out of our own little self absorbed box and find ways to help those that are less fortunate and more oppressed than we could ever imagine being.

What would the world be like if we all took an interest in other people’s problems rather than our own?  If we focused on loving everyone we come in contact with instead of trying to leverage situations for our own benefit?

I have been just as guilty as the rest of allowing myself to wallow in my trials.  But, the Lord is speaking to my heart so loudly lately, particularly through a passage in Isaiah 58:6-12

Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break over every yoke?  Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?  Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.  Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say:  Here am I.

If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noonday.

The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sunscorched land and will strengthen your frame.  You will be like a well watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

Now, I don’t know about you but I am interested in feeling like a well watered garden and am thankful the Lord provides the guidelines for doing so.

And, in the midst of a season of thankfulness I pray that none of us lose sight of the true reason for the season!

Happy Thanksgiving!

If finances aren’t a way you can help, please look across their photos and say a prayer that each one will find their forever family soon. Reece’s Rainbow is an International Down Syndrome Orphan Ministry which also advocates for orphans with other disabilites across the globe. Please “grab this button” and post it with a message to your own readers as well. It starts with ONE, but then grows exponentially. You never know, your own post may be one that finds a family for one of these precious children.”

Isn’t that amazing? I have encountered many people with Down’s and other developmenta disabilities during my career. I stumbled across this ministry by a post on another blog. It immediately struck my heart. I have always wanted to adopt a child, a little girl, since I myself was a little girl. Circumstances have always prevented it and I’m not sure if an adoption will ever occur. But, while my family is praying about that we can certainly make a donation and pray, pray, pray for this incredible ministry. Please click on the button on my sidebar for more information and say a prayer for all the children around the world facing institutionalization for the rest of their lives when their 4th birthday rolls around.