Changing Education Paradigms

Love these kids!

Boom - boom

Welcome to the family! Love you so much!

Abortion Survivor in Australia Part 2

Abortion Survivor in Australia Part 1

josiah

it did not come easy

it did not come easy.


i will not lie and say i did not toss and turn about it.


i asked God to make me willing.


i asked God to open my heart.




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i went.


with my own eyes "i saw".


i saw so much beauty, pain, but all wrapped up in need.


my heart was so open i left wounded.


i wanted to run somewhere and pretend i has not seen such life.


i wanted to forget the stories i heard.


i wanted to forget the eyes that had looked at me with hope.


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as much as i wanted to.


i chose to not.


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i thought of the boy i met.


i thought what would be best for him.


i thought of how my heart was just handed to me.


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i thought about how weak i am.


i thought about how our life was in a good place.


i thought about how how our kids were happy.


i thought about how i was happy.


i thought about all the obstacles.


i thought about the money.


i thought our families would not accept it.


i thought adoption would be too hard.


i thought i might not be a good adoptive mom.


i thought i might not love him like i should.


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after so much time thinking it became simple.


we have love, we have a house, we are a family, we can be his family.


all my fears subsided.


we will give this one boy a family.


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i chose to adopt because God opened my heart.


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i will not lie and say that adoption has been easy.


it has been hard.


we have never had to give so much.


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BUT.......

this is what loving like Jesus is, right?

sacrifice?


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what i have read about him was raw and hard and honest.
he loved so much that he literally died so that i could have life.
all i did was invite this little boy to live in our already life.


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our life was not meant to be easy.
it was not meant to be about us.
that is what the American Dream tries to tell us.
actually life was meant to be shared, to be given.
this crazy hard season is life.
we have never served another more.
this is ministry.
the kind you don't get paid for. the kind people don't see.


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-Debra " the sunshine chronicles"

Info From the Together for Adoption Conference

1. On any given day, half a million abused and neglected children are in foster care in our country,
2. More than half of foster children spend at least two years in the foster care system
3. On average, children in foster care move through three different foster care placments with little or no warning.
4. 118,000 of the children currently in foster care are waiting to be adopted
5. 19,000 children "age out" of foster care esch year without a permanent family to support and love them

As a result, the future - for many of these children- is anything but bright :

6. Over a third of foster kids earn neither a high school diploma nor a GED

7.After aging out more than half of the kids are unemlpoyed

8. One third of the kids who age out of foster care have mental health

9. Most are diagnosed with PTSD, alcohol or drug abuse, and major depression

10. One fourth of these kids are in prison within 2yrs of leaving the system

11 Over 1/5 of these kids will become homeless after age 18

How He Loves Me

He is jealous for me,

Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,

Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy.

When all of a sudden,

I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,

And realize just how beautiful You are,

And how great Your affections are for me.

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We are His portion and He is our prize,

Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,

If His grace is an ocean, we're all sinking,

And Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,

And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,

I don't have time to maintain these regrets,

When I think about, the way.....

That He loves us,

Oh how He loves us.

- David Crowder Band