Yet, when I sit here all I can think about are the 143 million+ orphans around the world that need forever families.  The over 1/2 million kids in the US foster care system that need their families loved on and repaired.  The over 100,000 that can’t go back home and need new families to step up and love them, despite their tough exteriors.  The teen mom’s that I serve on a daily basis that need mentors to help them become the best mothers they can be.  The medically fragile children that lay dying in orphanages. The children that go to bed hungry in our country and abroad.  The 30,000 kids that die every day of preventable, treatable illnesses.

My heart bleeds.  My eyes leak.

The Bible makes it very clear that these children are precious to the heart of God.

Adoption is at the very core of God’s plan for redemption and salvation.

So, today, instead of writing anything else I want to encourage you to visit some sites where you can learn and help and I pray that your heart is pricked for what hurts His.

No Greater Joy Mom
Adeye is sharing powerful testimonies on her blog this month, in honor of National Adoption Month. Grab your tissues!

Compassion Bloggers in Ecuador

Some of my all time favorite bloggers are serving Jesus in Ecuador this week and sharing the stories with us.

Ekubo Ministries

One of my favorite ministries in Uganda, loving and serving the people there.

Mercy House, Kenya

A ministry to unwed mothers in Kenya, truly a miracle working place.

Young Lives of Eastern Panhandle

Where I live out a calling to love on teen moms and their kids

Image via Wikipedia

But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ~Luke 6: 27

I wrote a post two years ago about where I was on that day.

Ten years later, I still remember. I still pray that the hatred that fills the hearts of men would be extinguished.  I still pray that the unity that existed between Americans and humans in general, the way we came together in the days and weeks that followed would be renewed.  I still pray that there is a special place in Heaven for those that gave their lives that day.

Today, I just pray.

Every child loves a good game of hide and seek. There are the fun butterflies they get in their tummies when they’re waiting to be discovered and the pride they feel when they’re able to count to ten and then yelling, “Ready or not, here I come!”

But children who are hidden from the U.S. Census counts (taken only once every 10 years) are not a laughing matter. So, ready or not, here comes 2010 Census … and you have an important role to play!

Many parents may not realize the importance of accurately reporting the number of children in their family, including newborns. The truth is that the undercount of children means that we do not get a true picture of our nation and our communities do not get their rightful share of public funds.

Why Children Count Too
Children have been undercounted in every census since the first one in 1790. Local communities rely on census information in planning for schools, child care, health and other critical services. Babies need to be counted today, so they can benefit tomorrow from community services.

Census counts are used, in whole or in part, for more than 140 programs that distribute more than $400 billion of federal funds to states and localities, including such child-focused programs as:

• Special Education Grants to states ($10.8 billion)
• Head Start ($6.9 billion)
• State Children’s Health Insurance Program ($5.9 billion)
• Foster Care Title IV-E ($4.7 billion)
• Improving Teacher Quality State Grants ($2.9 billion)

Unlike adults, who may bear some responsibility for making sure they are counted in the Census, children are dependent on others to make sure they are included. Yet in 1980, 1990, and 2000, Census Bureau data show children, particularly young children, are one of the groups most likely to be missed in the Census. In fact, in the 2000 Census, there was a net undercount of more than 1 million children under age 10.

When playing hide and seek your children have the opportunity to be found after ten seconds.

The Census only comes around every ten years. So when you receive your Census form in mid-March, make sure your child (no matter how old) is counted!

**I am helping to spread the word about the Census as a partner with the Global Influence network.  I may receive a gift card for my participation in this campaign.**

photo courtesy of Secret Agent Mama

to this:

the view from my front door (last night before more snow came!)

Crazy with a capital C!  This storm, blizzard, whatever you want to call it is ridiculous!  The federal government has been closed for three days in a row! We are happily snowed in (meaning the house is cleaner then ever, I am unpacked, we have watched every movie we own) and the kids have made snow tunnels, caves and a whole snow family.

Just a quick note to Mother Nature…you can stop now.  Thanks!

What are you doing to maintain your sanity in this snowstorm?

This post is linked here and here.

I borrowed this blog game from Tami at Hearts Make Families.

As if y’all wanted to know any more about me, right?

Here I go….

1. What color is your favorite hoodie? Red (My Maryland Terrapins hoodie)
2. Do you plan outfits? Most of the time.
3. What’s the closest thing to you that’s red? A Christmas catalog
4. Did you meet anybody new today? Yes, I met my friend’s new boyfriend, Michael
5. What are you craving right now? chocolate, of course!
6. Do you floss? Yes
7. What comes to mind when I say cabbage? Yum Yum, my mom’s ham and cabbage soup.
8. Are you emotional? Sometimes more than others
9. Would you dance to the taco song? I have never heard the taco song so I don’t know- not much of a dancer
10. Have you ever counted to 1,000? I have
11. Do you bite into your ice cream or just lick it? who bites ice cream?
12. Do you like your hair? No but the style is convenient for me right now.
13. Have you ever met a celebrity? Yes, Rosie O’Donnell (a loooong time ago)
14. What are you listening to right now? the dog barking, my son’s video game, America’s Funniest Home Videos and the sound of me typing
15. Are your parents strict? Depends on what year it was…
16. Would you go sky diving? No way in Hades would this girl jump out of anything moving!
17. Would you go out to eat with George W. Bush? I wouldn’t have much of an appetite but…
18. Is there anything sparkly in the room you’re in? the heart on my puppy’s dress
19. Have you ever been in a castle? Yes, when I lived in Berkeley Springs, WV I visited the Berkeley Castle- really cool!
20. Do you know your neighbors? I know our neighbors and love some of them
21. Have you made a prank phone call? No!
22. Do you own a gun? No but my hubby does
23. Can you count backwards from 74? I would certainly hope so….
24. Brown or white eggs? Doesn’t matter
25. Ever been on a train? Yes….
26. What year did you graduate? I dropped out when I was in 10th grade (1996, was pregnant with Jared) and got my GED in 1998.
27. Is your hair curly? Straight, no matter what I do
28. Last time you cried? a few weeks ago when I was having a pity party for myself
29. Ever walked into a wall? More times than I care to admit
30. Do you like your life right now? I love my life.  I feel blessed to be alive, watch my kids grow up, be Mike’s wife and experience everything God places in my path.  There are moments, in my flesh, when I wish I wasn’t sick but then I remember there are so many people worse off than me and I shift my focus back to my blessings.
31. How often do you talk on the phone? I am not a phone person.  I answer it (if I feel like it, to be honest) and speak as briefly as possible.  What is that about?  No idea.
32. What is your favorite animal? My mini schnauzer puppy, Chloe is my favorite pet.  I love pigs though, have since I was a very  little girl.
33. What was the most recent thing you bought? birthday presents for my best friend’s kids
34. Can you hula hoop? I use to…haven’t tried recently
35. Have you ever crawled through a window? yes… ’nuff

So how about you?  Feel free to copy and paste and answer these questions on your blog OR choose your favorite and answer in the comments!

Wondering if anyone cares about your future….

Wondering if this is what the rest of your life will look like…

Wondering if there is a point to even trying to do your best because no one is there to notice….

I will never forget the year+ that I spent in the US foster care system.  It was a scary and lonely time, full of disappointment, full of experiences I would rather not remember.  I was moved to three different homes in that short period of time (the last family was a sweet Christian family that I will always remember with fondness) and I was separated from my brothers for the first time in my life.

People forget that the majority of children in the foster care system are there because of something their parents did or did not do, not because of something the children have done.

These are not “bad” children, they are children that need to know what unconditional love and permanency look like.

November is National Adoption Month.  Obviously, children in the foster care system are close to my heart due to my personal experience as a child.  I am also an adoptive parent of a child who needed a mom after his biological mother’s parental rights were terminated due to her abuse and neglect.  I am proud to use my platform, my blog to tell you about an organization dedicated to helping foster kids find their forever families.

The mission of AdoptUsKids is to recruit and connect foster and adoptive families with waiting children throughout the United States.  Funded by the Children’s Bureau of the Administration for Children and Families, the national photolisting website contains photos and information about children in foster care. A national adoption public service advertising recruitment campaign was launched in July 2004 in a partnership of the Children’s Bureau, the Ad Council, and AdoptUsKids, with the goal of raising awareness of the significant number of children in this country waiting to be adopted. New PSAs have been developed as an extension of this highly successful campaign. The latest series of ads in this award-winning campaign target the African American community, in keeping with the effort to diligently recruit from communities representative of the children in care.  Thirty-one percent of the children in foster care waiting to be adopted are African American; African American children are overrepresented in the foster care population relative to their percentage in the U.S. general population. Because of this, African American children often wait longer to be adopted.

Please take a moment and visit http://www.adoptuskids.org/adoption-and-foster-care-advocacy/ to learn more about adoption from foster care and how to help spread the word about children in care waiting for a forever family. You can also search for children in their area by visiting: http://www.adoptuskids.org/Child/ChildSearch.aspx.

If you are on Twitter you can follow @perfectparent (http://twitter.com/perfectparent or http://twitter.com/adoptuskids) and become a fan of AdoptUsKids on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/AdoptUsKids.

I was fortunate enough to have grandparents that were awarded custody of me so I didn’t have to spend a prolonged period of time in the foster care system.  There are MANY children that are not that fortunate.  Please consider how you can help them.

This campaign is brought to you by Global Influence, the former Momfluence network.