So, I'm not cool?

Carter asked if he could make his own lunch from now on.  You see, I embarrass him with my lunches.  Yesterday morning, the groceries were low.  I hate grocery shopping and so I really try to save up the list and go once a week.  Yesterday morning we were out of snack crackers, pretzels, popcorn and such.  I don't give my kids chips in their lunches.  I made the kids a bean and cheese burrito, apple slices, little packet of M&M's, Caprisun drink, and a baggie of Alpha-Bits cereal(in place of crackers).  It looked good to me!  Last night Carter said "Mom, it is a little embarrassing for an 8th grader to pull out a baggie of Alpha-Bits and a Caprisun."  So, I bought some groceries and I just gave him a dollar, against every mother instinct in my body, to buy a drink out of the machine at school!

Tired-being real

Honesty, plain honesty:  I'm so tired sometimes!  I love being a mom.  But, sometimes, I'm so tired I can't stand it.  At this very moment, being a Yuppy who goes to work, then goes to the gym for an hour, drives a nice new car(with cd player that works), join my husband at Central Market for dinner, then go home to a quiet and clean home, all sounds really nice.  I know, I'm super blessed and have such a great privelage raising these 4 miracles.  Ohh, but sometimes, I'm just tired!

What about the kids right here?

Like I said several days ago, November 8th is Orphan Sunday(http://www.cryoftheorphan.org/) and November is National Adoption Month.  So, I promised that leading up to then, I'd be posting about the plight of children around the world.  Today I'm gonna talk about the kids right in my area.  I did some research on Texas Dept. of Family and Protective Services webiste.  In the fiscal year of 2008, 31 thousand children were in foster care in Texas.  In 2008, 6,375 children in the state's custody were waiting to be adopted.  You don't want to travel to another country?  Okay, how about kids in your own backyard?  You say you have no money for adoption fees?  No problem, adopt from the state and you will have extremely reduced, if not free adoption fees.  You say you want to specify gender?  No problem, lots of boys and girls are waiting(typically, boys are harder to place than girls).  Now, it won't be easy.  Heck, the state makes some of the dumbest requirements I've ever seen!  But it will be worth it!  As most of you know, my sister and her husband are in the 90 day waiting period to adopt their foster daughter.  I'm tellin ya, she is no foster child in our eyes!  The minute she came to live with them, she was "ours".  When I say ours, I mean everyone in the family felt like she belonged with all of us.  Yep, M and B have had to jump through some really stupid hoops to satisfy the state, but in the end, that makes adoption day all the more sweeter.
Okay, so you don't feel led to adopt.  No problem!  Did you know that children in foster care can only be cared for by other foster parents, or respite parents?  I can't babysit my neice.  My sister frequently babysits other children who are in foster care.  These parents NEED a break once in a while.  Go through the paperwork and become a respite family.  What a blessing to the tireless foster families!
Or, here is a great idea.  Be a transitional care family.  There is a couple at our church who provides transitional care for newborns whose birthfamilies have made an adoption plan, but for several different reasons, the child can't go to the adoptive home yet.  So, this couple takes care of the newborns for varying timeframes.  They currently have their 55th sweet baby!  Can you imagine a more selfless gift?  Caring for that newborn until his/her forever home is ready? 

So, I know, many of you who are new to this blog are asking, why did we go overseas?  Well, easy, God called us to the children of South Korea.  Children without families are all over the world AND in our own backyard.  Some people need to care for those here, some need to care for those afar.  No competition, they all need families.

Loving the people of Nicarauga and a great Sunday

According to Children's Hunger Relief Fund, one in three children in Nicarauga suffers from some form of chronic malnutrition.  In the summer of 2006, Carter(he was 10) and I went on a mission trip to a children's home in Nicarauga.  We went with an amazing couple who attend our church and have a full-time ministry, http://www.jodykennedy.com/.  They are helping the sweet family, pictured above, who began taking in local street children into their very modest home.  When we were there, there were about 30 children who recieved food, shelter, love, support, and some form of education with this one family.  I was especially touched by 2 brothers(age 12 and 14) who were found living alone in a tree.  The children were so sweet and precious.  The family  who took all these kids in were not rich.  In fact, according to my standards, they were very poor.  The home was small and made of cinder block, with a dirt floor.  There was 1 bathroom for over 30 people to share.  How did the mother feed all those kids??  I gripe about my grocery bill!  Would I be willing to take in 30 children who were abandoned, dirty, had nothing of their own, probably had emotional problems and learning difficulties?  The answer is an honest and selfish no.  You see, it isn't convenient, it isn't clean, it isn't fun, it isn't easy to care for children like that. But, what does the word of God say?
Isaiah 58:10-11
10 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.


11 The LORD will guide you always;


he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land


and will strengthen your frame.


You will be like a well-watered garden,


like a spring whose waters never fail. 

About yesterday, we had a great day!!  Abby took a neighbor friend to church.  Our church is the most diverse church I've ever seen.  It is sooooo cool!  There are lots of African-Americans, a lady from India who wears a traditional Sari to church, many inter-racial couples, several Koreans, a few Brazilian families, and several multiracial adoptive families.  We are so blessed to have a loving atmostphere.  The praise band totally rocked the house yesterday.  Our lead electric guitar player could very easily be professional.  I'd tell you the name of our church, but there could be kooky stalkers out there and if I say the name  the city where we live would be given away!  Last night Hudson went to sleep without the usual drama of crying, getting up and roaming, coughing and gagging, basically acting like he is being tortured slowly.  He was sweet, peaceful and just went to sleep(with me reading in the room of course).  Yippeee!  Maybe we've turned a corner.  He is sooooo smart guys!  He is loving, and funny and the cutest little hunk of toddler ever!!!!

True Servants

Yesterday I was hit with a thought.  Well, really it was the Holy Spirit slapping me upside the head!  I'm a flake.  No, really, I am.  I'm a bit rebellious, I hate tradition(or doing things the same way just cause), I can't stand being told what to do.  I dream big dreams and have grand ideas but rarely follow them to completion.  Last year I started a Special Needs Adoption Support Group for this area and had 3 get togethers.  Never did anything else.  I don't commit to teaching kids at church because I don't want to be tied down(okay, in my defense, I work 1 Sunday a month).   Now, offer a big mission trip to China or something and I'm all over it.  The daily service thing:  not my cup of  tea.  I'm so glad there are people like that!  God gifts us in all different talents and personalities.  Take Mike's family for instance.  His grandma, mother, and sister have all been going to the same church for years.  His mother and grandmother have taught children Sunday School classes for at least 12-13 years, Sunday after Sunday, year after year.  They make birthday cakes for the kids.  They have Christmas parties and bring gifts for the kids.  The church leaders never have to worry about who will teach their 2 classes--they will be there.  His sister teaches GA's(have to be Baptist to know what that is) and children's choir.  His brother-in-law is a deacon and on probably every committee at the church.  Faithful, dutiful, quiet, humble servants!!  My hats off to them all!

The article that started the journey to Hudson

In May, 2008, Mike and I took the kids to an old, favorite pizza place.  We ordered our food and sodas and sat down to eat.  We picked up the newspaper someone had left lying nearby and began looking it over.  Mike got really quiet and handed me an article to read.  I read it.  Then, I was sick.  We'd just dropped 30.00 without blinking an eye on pizza and soda to fill our already overfed bellies.  The article broke us.  It was from the AP about a 9 yr old orphan in Uganda.  Stephen, his name, lives alone in a mud hut and busts rocks with a hammer every day, 12 hours a day.  He has been working there since he was 4 years old!!!!!  Our 4 yr olds go to PreK and Barney Live shows, and eat happy meals, and learn letters.  According the the book "Children of Hope" 1 million children in Uganda alone are orphaned due to AIDS.
Here is a portion of the article for you to read.

KAMPALA, Uganda -- Stephen Batte works in a quarry under the blazing sun, chipping rocks into gravel with a homemade hammer. It's tiring, boring and dangerous.


Stephen is 9 years old and has been on the rock pile since he was 4.


"Life has always been hard here," he whispers, carefully positioning a sharp rock before striking it with well-practiced accuracy. "But since my mother died, things have been much harder."

His mother, the woman who taught him to smash rocks when he was a toddler, was killed here in a landslide in August.

His T-shirt torn and his feet bare, Stephen is one of hundreds of people who work in the quarry on the outskirts of Uganda's capital, Kampala. Their shabby figures sit hunched over their heaps of gravel. The chink of metal against stone bounces off the rock faces.

Most of the workers are refugees who fled a civil war in northern Uganda. Now they make 100 Uganda shillings, 6 U.S. cents, for every 5-gallon bucket that they fill with chipped rocks. Stephen works 12 hours a day to fill three buckets.

There's no safety code or protective clothing. The children's arms and legs are covered in scabs from flying stones. Stephen says a friend lost an eye.


Rock falls are frequent. Stephen remembers the one that killed his mother.


"She had left the house early to work," he says through a translator. His voice falters. "We did not know that she was underneath the rocks -- not until we saw her sandals.


The article goes on to tell of the horrible conditions of refugees in Uganda.  Mike and I knew we'd never be the same after reading about Stephen Batte.  We tore the article from the paper and put it on our refigerator, committing to pray for the child and what our response should be.  We discussed adopting a child from Africa, or even moving to Africa to work in an orphanage or clinic.  My dad has been to the Congo and my mom to Botswana so we had some practical avenues to work with.  I saw a 7months old baby girl in Ethiopia listed on a waiting child site who was blind.  We sent a copy of our homestudy to the agency saying we were interested in adopting her.  I named that baby girl Chloe and prayed for her to have the family God wanted her to have.  I couldn't imagine a sadder life than being an orphaned, blind girl in an Ethiopian orphanage.  We heard a few weeks later that the agency had a family for her!!  Praise the Lord.  So, now what?  Mike and I didn't know what God was doing in our lives, but we knew something.  In the fall of 2008, we decided to save for our next adventure--maybe a mission trip, maybe an adoption.  We didn't know, but God did!  In February, He revealed what that adventure was---Hudson!  I still struggle with "what about children like Stephen?'  Adopting Hudson was fairly easy.  What about the children of Africa??

Updates and book you HAVE to read

So Hudson isn't keen on his Halloween costume!!  It is Mickey Mouse and he is terrified of it.  Maybe if I put it on him once a day for the next week and a half, he'll like it by then?  Today is 6 weeks home.  Hudson is doing remarkably well.  He added the sign for "milk" a few days ago.  It really is so nice for him to have some way to tell us what he wants.  He is SOOOOO busy.  I'm not being dramatic folks.  Everywhere we go, people say "boy, he is busy isn't he?"  He is very curious, especially when it comes to buttons he is not supposed to touch :)  I think it is a sign of super intelligence!  Hudson is generally cheery from waking to when I make him go to bed.  Literally, he never acts grumpy.  He sings and jabbers and follows me around happily all day. He is super attached to me.  Mike is still earning trust.  Hudson likes him, but doesn't let him do actual childcare activities for him.   He cannot fall asleep on his own.  I've been sitting next to his pallet, reading by flashlight at nap and bedtime.  It stinks to be stuck for so long while he gets good and asleep.  But, I'm reading through the Yada Yada Prayer Group series of 7 books and am really really enjoying them!  Hudson is still struggling with his lungs being junky.  For 4 weeks now he has been coughing, congested and wheezing.  Everyday I give him allergy med, neb treatments and an inhaled  steroid.  I finally took him back to our pediatrician yesterday and told him that no matter what I do, I can't get his lungs cleared up.  Wouldn't you know, for that one hour, when the doc listened, he was crystal clear!!!!  AHHHH, I give up!  So, the doc recommends adding Mucinex Mini Melts and doing chest percussion at night to loosen his mucus.  I did that last night and finally, a night without a coughing fit so strong that he throws up. 

A quick Praise:  due to paying for our trip to Korea and adoption fees, we have no cushion left!  Praise God we can pay the bills, but there is no room for error at the moment.  Well, Friday a large portion of Carter's 8th grade trip to DC is due.  The Lord provided for 3 expeneses for us yesterday, in creative ways.  3 items that came up on their own and we didn't have to use our money!  In the words of Florida(you have to read Yada Yada to know who I'm talking about) Thank Ya, Jesus!!

Now, about the book.  You must read Jansten's Gift by Pam Cope(http://www.touchalifekids.org/).  Seriously folks, this book will totally change the way you view the world.  It is a true story about a regular middle class lady who grew up in a little town in the midwest.  She had the life most of us want:  2 kids, nice house, spent too much money and time on things that don't matter like decorating and shuttling kids to too many activities.  Then, tragedy struck.  After that she began learning what it means to live a life that really has meaning.  She and her husband have an organization that helps rescue African children sold in to slavery, orphans running the streets in Cambodia and Viet Nam.  If you think Human Trafficking in't really a problem in 2009, you are dead wrong!!!  Please read this book and get informed.  The Bible commands that we care guys. 

Psalm 82:3-4 says Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless;  maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed, rescue the weak and needy;  deliver them from the had of the wicked.

Heads up:  November 8th is Orphan  Day.  Does your church staff know this??  Are you willing to speak up for those who can't speak up for themselves??  I'll be focusing a lot of posts in the next 2 weeks about the plight of children in the world.  Get ready, I'm excited!