Waiting Child

This precious boy needs a mommy and daddy!

Timothy
Boy, Born August 12, 2006
Isn't Timothy DARLING?? This handsome, happy, active 2 year old boy is just waiting for his family to come get him!!! He will be 2 in August and is already up and walking. He does have an oval window, but this has not stopped him in any way. he eats and sleeps well, is social and active with the other typical children, and has been very well taken care of. He will make a wonderful addition to ANY family!

For more information on this precious boy contact Andrea at bamaroberts@comcast.net or go to www.reecesrainbow.com.

Just Between Friends

I am a bargain shopper and I love it when I find good deals so here is a very cool thing I have found out about. A lady in our church just bought into a franchise called Just Between Friends. This is a HUGE consignment sale that she will put on twice a year. I went to a workshop last night to get tips on how to be a consigner and it's sounds so cool.

This is like having a yard sale without having to sit there all weekend. You mark the prices (you print your tags off using their online system) on the things (a little higher than yard sales), you drop it off and she sells it. On the last day of the sale you can choose to pick your things up or she will donate them to a local charity and you get to write it off on your taxes.

The really cool thing is if you volunteer at the sale you get to shop the night before the sale opens and you make more money on your items. These sales are happening all over the country so you can look and see if there is one in your area. Even cooler if there is not one in your area you could consider buying into the franchise (the sales only twice a year).

OK, so enough jabber go check it out yourselves at www.jbfsale.com.

Thankful Thursday

Wow, it is already Thursday again. You know I was trying to think of what I could write about this week because there is so much to be thankful for. One thing though that I am very, very thankful for is ministries that are out there that work very hard to find homes for children that are the hidden treasures of this world. Children with special needs are a lot of times very hard to place and thank goodness there are people who understand so much about these hidden treasures that they do whatever they can to help these precious children find homes.

When we found Jaxson we were not looking to adopt. We knew someday maybe 5 years down the road but not then. We weren't ready, didn't have the money, had 2 very small children, wanted to build a house and the list could go on and on. Thank goodness for The Shepherd's Crook ministry I saw Jaxson's face and well you know the rest of the story. If it weren't for this ministry we could have missed out on our treasure (also if we would have looked at his medicals before knowing he was ours we could have missed out on this treasure).

So this Thankful Thursday I am so very thankful for these people than run and volunteer in these ministries. I will post some of them below and just click on them and it will take you to there site. Maybe God has a hidden treasure waiting for YOU.

The Shepherd's Crook Ministries

Brittany's Hope

Until All Have Homes

Rainbow Kids

CHASK

Reece's Rainbow (by the way I love, love, love this site and really do pray God puts everything in to place that someday we will be the parents to a child with down syndrome) About 90% of these precious, incredible babies get aborted that means the ones left are true miracles. If only people knew how precious these children are. Have you ever looked in the eyes of someone with down syndrome? If so you would know how much God loves these innocent souls.

Cool Website

I found this website, Simply Adorable Blankets, off of one of my yahoo groups. This is a business started by moms of some girls with down syndrome. They also have a sister site where they sell some food items.

If you go to the site read their mission, I love what they wrote at the end.

I am just crazy about kids with down syndrome and maybe someday God will bless us with one of these little miracles.

Thank you!

I just wanted to say a very BIG thank you to those that follow my blog and those that leave comments for me. When I write a post I do it from my heart and sometimes that's scary. My last post I wanted to get sick because I was afraid I would lose some of my readers.

So for those of you that left me a comment after the last post, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!

Things God Has Been Teaching Me

Do you ever have those times in your life where so many things fall in to place that just makes you say "OK God, I hear you". Well, God has been doing that to me for the past several months. Back in the fall I started reading Linny's blog. God started showing me these children in a place called Uganda that have nothing. I guess I'm not completely right on that because some of the kids are blessed enough to be taught that they have a Father in heaven that loves them very much. I just hurt so bad though that these kids are in need of so much including families.

When Linny traveled to Uganda to bring home her 2 miracle children she met this little girl named Martha. Martha was a girl they guessed to be around 2 that weighed less than 10 pounds when they found her on the street. Oh how I cried, prayed, cried, prayed and cried some more. I wanted more than anything to jump on a plane and bring this baby home. I started praying that God would let us be her parents but deep down I knew Jaxson wasn't ready yet for me to leave him to travel to Africa. I started praying that God would find Martha a family fast that could get to Africa before she died. I knew if God let her make it that long there had to be a reason he saved her. God answered my prayer and I'm sure the prayer of many others and Martha has a family working to bring her home.

Why God, why are children suffering?

Then our church did a series called The Love Movement. Chris and I love to give, giving is part of who we are. I have to tell you though that I learned a very BIG lesson from this series. We give because we love to give. There are things we give up like cable internet, vacations and other fancy things but those are easy things to give up. I learned that we need to give even when it's not easy. We need to love when it stretches us way beyond our comfort zone. We need to give things that aren't easy to give.

Did you watch the video I posted a while back? If you did well, I don't even need to say anything about the tears, the anger I felt from that.

I posted this quote this week: Sometimes I'd like to ask God why He allows poverty, famine and injustice when He could do something about it. But I'm afraid God might ask me the same question.

To top it off I read one of my favorite blogs today called The Journey. This is a clip from her post today. You can click here to read the whole post.

I get caught up sometimes in "I deserve this" moments, moments where I compare myself to some other people I know and trick myself into believing that I am doing pretty good. Moments where I "deserve" a hot shower, or I "deserve" that chocolate bar even though I know it is expensive, moments when I "deserve" a new pair of shoes, because hey, I work hard. TRUTH: this is not at all scriptural. NO WHERE does it say that I am worthy or deserve a reward here on earth. Colossians 3:23 says "Whatever you do work at it with all your heart." It does not end in "and after this hard work you deserve a long hot bath and a chocolate bar." It does end in, "since you know that you will recieve an inheritance from the Lord as a reward."

Jesus said that the GREATEST commandment besides loving the Lord God with all my heart, mind, and soul is to love my NEIGHBOR as myself. Doesn't that mean, then, that I should be spending as much on my neighbor as I do on myself and my family? Doesn't that mean that I should feed my neighbor as well as I feed myself?

So this is what God is teaching me. First God has showed me that I am spoiled. God is teaching me that I don't need a huge house someday with fancy ceilings and a fancy countertop. God is showing me that we are to be his hands and feet. We as Christians are the ones letting children lay starving on the street, we are the ones letting people abort their babies, we are the ones letting children sit in orphanages and on streets as orphans. God has given us spoiled Christians the ability to stop these things but instead we choose to ask God why he allows it to happen.

PS If you have a nice house with fancy ceilings and countertops I'm not saying anything bad against you. Chris and I are praying God let's us build on our land someday and I dream of what our house will be like someday. God is teaching ME that all I need is something simple. Please I don't want anyone to think I'm judging you.

Thankful Thursday

This Thankful Thursday I am so very thankful for this amazing miracle child of ours.
Amaya is a true gift from God. All children are a gift from God but this precious child is the child we cried everyday for 4 years over because we thought God was choosing not to give us children. When we finally gave up and took things in our own hands my mom decided to take over the praying for us. Mom had even ask me to give up something and pray about it and I told her I was done. I said if God hasn't given us a baby yet why after 4 years would he. Mom had the strength I didn't have and she gave up (fasted) something and prayed. During the time she was fasting God told her we would get pregnant and even told her the day we would tell her and where we would tell her. When all that God told her happened just like he said she about fell to the floor.

My pregnancy with Amaya was ANYTHING but easy. I was soooooo sick I sat on the bed one night and ask Chris if I was going to die. As hard as that was though I am so thankful I went through everything I did because that is how God has brought us to where we are today. I am so thankful God blessed us with 2 bio children but God also showed me that pregnancy wasn't my thing.

Amaya is so compassionate! This child at the age of 3 was watching an adoption DVD with me and looked up at me and said "Mom, look it's a miracle". Oh how wise at the age of 3 to know that adoption is a true miracle from God.

I have been sick the last week and a half so I've spent a lot of time resting and a lot of time with kiddos in my lap. Yesterday Amaya sat and talked to me for a long time. Amaya said that it's time we go back to China or Hong Kong and bring another child home but this time it needs to be a girl. Then she told me that we are going to have 18 more kids come home.

Amaya also told me yesterday that when she grows up she is going to bring children home from China and if their big they will go to school but if their little they will go to pre-school. She said they had to go to school because she is going to be working at T*co Bell and will be busy making tacos.

Maybe we won't have to have those "awkward" talks with our kids when they get older because they think babies come home on airplanes.

Oh, I am so thankful for this miracle child of ours!