I Heart Faces Sun Flare

Katie and Kate at the park in the late afternoon. My attempt at sun flare :0)

Go to I Heart Faces to see more sunshine. http://www.iheartfaces.com/ Please click on my photo to see it larger.

I Heart Faces entry...Autumn Beauty

This weeks's theme is Autumn Beauty so I took Olivia up to the commons area in our subdivision where the kids all like to play in the trees that line the pond. I do not know what type of trees these are but this time of year they literally look like they are on fire! For more fall beauty check out http://www.iheartfaces.com/

Today was Orphan Sunday!

This link will take you to a very moving video about the plight of millions of children around the world. Check it out and think about what you can do to help:)
http://vimeo.com/6317258

I Heart Faces entry...Balloons

This photo was taken in the ancient city of Antigua , Guatemala last December. Kate had been with us for 2 days at the time. What better way to break the ice with our new daughter than with a balloon? After all, when you are 22 months old, balloons are sheer magic!!! (The stains around her mouth? ...our 2nd attempt to break the ice with chocolate ice cream) Click on Kate's photo to see full size. For more magic balloons, check out I Heart Faces this week at http://www.iheartfaces.com/

Kate's First Fall Festival

Last night we dressed up the kids and took everyone to the annual Fall Festival at the local Baptist church. Hunter did not come this year due to a stomachache.(I think she may have outgrown this aspect of childhood.) This was Kate's first experience with dancing and playing games for candy. Urekah! She likes this crazy American custom. Everytime I turned around her little face was peering into her bucket for another treat. All the girls entered in the cake walk and won multiple times. Nothing like home-baked goodies from the ladies of the church! Ran into a friend with her two daughters adopted from China. Gosh they had grown! She introduced me to another woman and her 4 Plilippino daughters. All 4 girls adopted last summer at one time! This family went from 1 child to 5 overnight! All the girls were precious and beaming! So fun to see. Love it when God encourages me through other people's adoption journeys. Happy Fall, y'all.....

Soooo Worth Reading....

I would love for anyone that happens across this blog to visit a friend of mine . I have never met her but she is a sister in Christ and another mom who has been touch by adoption. Her little boy Luke is just turning four and the story behind his adoption from China is amazing. Nicole and her husband set out to adopt their third child and expected it to go as the first 2 adoptions had. But adopting little Luke was full of surprises. And many of them heartwrenching. Now , many many months later, God has revealed to them that had they not been willing to go and get Luke and give him the care that he desperately needed , he probably would not have reached the age of 3.


Please check out http://Bakerssweets.blogspot.com in the list of my favorite blogs.

It is great to have girlfriends!!!

Last week I took my youngest two girls and headed to the local park to meet up with friends. This photo shows my Kate and her friend Katie , also from Guatemala, adopted within 6 weeks of each other last year. They have not been together in some months ,but they really don't seem to feel the distance when they are together. What a sweet gift that God would bring these two girls so far from their homeland through adoption and then put them together again in their new homes and families. Katie's mom and brother were there too, as well as Olivia, and we all had a great time. I am so thankful that Kate and Katie will have each other to weather the challenges that adopted children sometimes face. Girlfriends I pray they will always be....

I Heart Faces entry...Pink

This week's theme for I Heart Faces is "pink" in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month. I have a friend, another mom touched by adoption, who fights this battle as I type this post. She is a dear woman, a wife, a mother of two and a friend to many. Nancy, you are in my prayers...
For more pink inspiration, go to the I Heart Faces websight and please click on Olivia's photo to see in full size. http://www.iheartfaces.com/

Fair Days

It's that time again, time for the North Carolina State Fair. We took the kids yesterday and met some friends there. This was Kate's first trip and she was pretty spellbound by the lights, the crowd, the sights and sounds and smells. We had a nice, cool fall afternoon this year. Funnel cake and cotton candy were had by all. A lot of fun....

Amazing Evidence of God's Love

I went to read a post this morning by my friend in New England and wound up with tears in my eyes. I was so moved by what was written that i wanted to allow anyone who might come by my blog to access the story she told of a little girl who was lost and then found. Grab some tissue and go to http://jacobsjourneyhome.blogspot.com/ and look for the post about Bill and Lynsay. I know you will be blessed:)

I Heart Faces Entry...Excited!!!

This week's theme is EXCITED! So, this is what we call Kate's "bathtub" face. The child is partly mermaid and simply lights up when we say the word...bath. For more excitement , check out the other photos at IHeartFaces. http://www.iheartfaces.com/

I Have A Good Brain....

As I was driving my 6 yr old , Olivia, to soccer practice the other day she said to me, "Mom, you have a good brain!!"
"I do, I replied. Why do you think so?"
"Because you decided to get Kate and I JUST LOVE HER!"
(Believe me ...it was one of those moments where your heart smiles.)
So ...I guess I have a good brain....cool.

Quote for the day...

"Never fear to suffer; but oh! fear to sin. If you must choose between them, prefer the greatest suffering to the smallest sin." Thomas Guthrie

Our world makes light of sin, but our God calls us to live a life of holiness, conformed to the likeness of His Son and unstained by the world.

Blue....

Another week, another theme for the I HEART FACES photo blog. This week's pictures have to have blue as a dominant color in them. I knew right away which photo I would choose. This shot was taken at the coast late in the evening. I don't usually take pictures past evening light, but the kids were running on the beach and having fun so we stayed out later. Much to our delight , as the sun was close to setting , the sky turned a beautiful deep blue and pink. So intense were the colors that they cascaded off the water and the sand. As I am photographing, I see my totally dressed 2 year old headed for the surf. I said "Kate, do not get wet!" and this was the look I got...

For more "Blue" shots, head to http://www.iheartfaces.com/

Completely Candid.....

Ok...this week's theme at I HEART FACES is "completely candid" so I thought I would put this photo in of Olivia at the beach this summer. She was so enveloped in studying the sea life in the tide pool that I was able to take this shot without disrupting her concentration. Please click on photo to see it full screen. Check out I HEART FACES starting tomorrow to see other great candid shots...

http://www.iheartfaces.com/

Please read...

Hi Everyone,

It was so fun to discover a couple of comments from some friends of the family last night, Thomas and Leslie Hudgens. Randy had the pleasure and honor of leading Thomas to Christ a few years back and Leslie is the woman he met and married a year ago, a woman he discovered on a missions trip to Honduras. Thomas has been a friend of the family since the beginning of our adoption journey to Olivia from China. The process and the roller coaster of emotion and faith building and testing left an impact on him as a new and growing believer in the Lord. He has now witnessed the adoption of our youngest , Kate, from Guatemala and all the highs and lows that have accompanied that journey. Last night Thomas left some of his thoughts about adoption as two comments under the "How Beautiful" post. I tried to copy and paste them as a new post but to no avail. So...please backtrack to the comment section under that post and read what Thomas and Leslie's insights are. I believe you will be blessed by what God has taught them through adoption (comments #5 and #6).

How Beautiful...

How Beautiful the hands that served
The Wine and the Bread and the sons of the earth
How beautiful the feet that walked
The long dusty roads and the hill to the cross
How Beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ
How Beautiful the heart that bled
That took all my sin and bore it instead
How beautiful the tender eyes
That choose to forgive and never despise
How beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ
And as He lay down His life
We offer this sacrifice
That we will live just as He died
Willing to pay the price
Willing to pay the price
How Beautiful the radiant bride
Who waits for her Groom with His light in her eyes
How Beautiful when humble hearts give
The fruit of pure lives so that others may live
How beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ
How beautiful the feet that bring
The sound of good news and the love of the King
How Beautiful the hands that serve
The wine and the bread and the sons of the Earth
How Beautiful, how beautiful, how beautiful is the body of Christ

by Twila Paris

This song was sung last Sunday at my church. It is one of my favorites so I thought i would print the words for anyone and everyone to read. These lyrics always bring me to tears as i am reminded just how much my God loves me. I especially love the line that talks about the" radiant bride who waits for her groom with his light in her eyes". I know this was true of me 18years ago as I walked down the aisle toward Randy . I hope it still rings true today. But even more, I pray and hope that the light of Christ shines in my eyes for a lost world to see. How amazing to think though the words of this song that reflect all that God ,through His Son, has done for mankind. Completely beautiful!
"How beautiful when humble hearts give the fruit of pure life so that others may live." Another of my favorite lines. May this always be true of me, Lord.

Randy

My husband would kill me if he knew I was writing this post ,but I have felt compelled lately. I have had the honor and pleasure of being married to a gem for the past 18 years. My husband has every quality I ever dreamed my prince would have when I was a little girl. He also has one quality that i never asked or hoped for because it did not occur to me that he would need it. I never thought that i would marry a man who would lay down his plans and desires so readily for the cause of adoption. We have 2 biological daughters , as well as Randy has 2 grown daughters from his first marriage. So ,safe to say, our home has its share of estrogen. However, when I suggested(7 years ago) to him that we look into adopting a little girl from half way around the world, I wasn't sure what to expect. Not only did Randy agree, but he travelled to China without me to pick her up. Amazing man! Six years later, he and i would travel again (this time to Guatemala) to rescue another little girl and bring her home. I watch him when he isn't looking and I delight in Randy's interaction with these 2 children. We don't know the details of Olivia's abandonment in China. But we know the whole sad truth of Kate's relinquishment in Guatemala. Kate's birthmom wasn't married, but she did have a boyfriend. Upon finding out that Kate's mom was pregnant with Kate, he left her. When Kate was born, her birthmom turned her over to an adoption attorney. Kate's birthfather was never heard from again. And this is where Randy stepped into the picture. Despite the cost financially,the time, the energy, the added years of needed income, the emotional tole that accompanies any child, and the risks associated with attaching yourself to another human being, Randy took responsibility for this other man's actions... the results of a night of sex with a woman that he wasn't married or committed to. Kate's birthparents did not anticipate the new life that was forming ...a life that both would later find burdensome. Neither wanted any part of this new life and both parties walked away. Randy was able to see the situation in a different light, through God's eyes. He viewed Kate through God's lens. She was not the disposable consequence of some nameless, faceless man. She was God's daughter. His child. HE is the Father to the Fatherless and Kate belonged to HIM alone. And now she needed God's arms to tangibly hold and care for her while on this earth. Randy said, "OK , Lord". This little one will never look like Randy, she will never share a single gene, but it is of little consequence to him. My husband is not perfect, but words really cannot describe how I view his selflessness in this matter. Even when I faltered, Randy was steady. When my eyes turned toward myself, he kept his gaze up. Amazing man! He is a hero to me. He placed his life on the back burner to rescue a child from uncertain fate. Twice! He is a soldier willing to go into harm's way for another. I don't know when or if he will discover this post. I don't know how often he reads my blog. But i wanted to sing his praises for a moment, because i am thankful for him. He is an incredible gift to me : )

Fields of the Fatherless

I just finished a great little book by C. Thomas Davis called Fields of the Fatherless. I was fascinated to read some of his points as to the role of The Church (the actual body of Christ) in caring for the "least of these". For instance, in the Old Testament, God showed His concern, compassion, and heart for the poor when He commanded His people to set aside a portion of their crops to provide food for the widows, aliens , and the fatherless (Deut 24:19) He was insistent and to violate this command was to sin against Him:

"Do not move an ancient boundary stone, or encroach on the fields of the fatherless. For their Defender is strong: He will take up their case against you." Proverbs 23:10, 11 NIV



He commanded His people to provide for these groups of people and they all knew it. It wasn't a suggestion or even "a nice thing to do". He considered this portion to belong to the poor and the fatherless.

"Scripture mentions the importance of caring for these individuals more than sixty times! Clearly, the protection and well-being of this group are one of God's great and constant concerns. So much so, in fact, He actually defines Who He is by His promises to them..." C. Thomas Davis

A Father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy
habitation. Psalm 68:5-6


Just imagine how God's people could change the world today if we would all tithe for "the least of these". Could we empty out the orphanages of the world? Would the homeless be able to leave the streets for good? Would the alien feel warm and received wherever he journeyed? Just imagine....

"God gave the responsibility to care for the defenseless to those claiming to be followers of Christ. It is through our hands the Father's love comes, it is through our voices His voice is heard, it is through our efforts and those of the church that His care is revealed to the ones the rest of the world has forgotten." C. Thomas Davis

Thank you....

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for our family vacation. And for the magnificent ocean and all the creatures within. Thank you for providing a place for us to stay that we could afford and for giving us the money to pay for the gas and food that we needed while on vacation. Thank you for the pretty weather during the week ,and for allowing us to fellowship with family and friends. Thank you for keeping us safe travelling to and from the coast and while we were there. Thank you for children that DELIGHT in your creation. Thank you for all the blessings that you have provided and may we never take them for granted.

In Jesus' name, Amen