Pages

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

31 Days

  
    Gavin has a little over 400 dollars in his Angel Tree fund for his adoption.  I have 31 days to get that amount up to 1,000.00 dollars.  We donated to his fund... will you?  I bet if Gavin had 20,000 in his fund a family would jump at the chance to adopt him.   Come on - every single 5.00 bill gets Gavin one step closer to finding a family.  The Angel Tree family for Tristan, (Gavin's buddy at the orphanage), is working towards getting 20,000 into his account!!  That just makes me heart sing!  But yikes... I'm being left in the dust!!  Help!!

     Okay - so here's the truth - I'm lousy at fundraising.  I confess.  I hate begging for money.  I am not craftzy and can't sew worth a darn, so selling handmade stuff is not an option.  No one would want to buy my baked goods (although Aaron thinks they are quite delicious) so baking pies is not going to work.   We cleaned out our house to raise money for Aaron so a yard sale wouldn't generate beans.  What to do... what to do...

    I can sell books.  Just yesterday I made 18.00 selling some books on-line that Rob's niece gave me.  Hurrah!!  18.00 dollars for Gavin!  Here's how I did it... I took the books and I went to
THIS WEBSITE  I plugged in the ISBN number of that book and they let me know if they would take it or not.  The really valuable books she gave me I actually listed on Amazon.com in hopes that someone would buy them but the nickel and dime books - I made 18.00 off those books that normally I would have discarded.  They were the ones that I would have thrown away.  After I went through the pile of books, agreed to sell the books they agreed to buy, filled out a very easy form, let them know that I wanted payment through Paypal - then printed the shipping label BECAUSE THEY PAY ALL SHIPPING FEES - boxed the books together and taped the shipping label to the top - I was done.  After they get the books - they will credit my Paypal and I will put that money in Gavin's account.  Easy. 

     Try it.  Pull some books off your shelf and see if they will sell.  (Textbooks are the BEST).  Dump them in a box, send them off and donate the money to Gavin or another child!  Every single nickel helps.  I was so excited to make 18.00 dollars for Gavin yesterday.  Ben told me (wisely) not to tell too many people because it won't last long.  How can I not share though??  How about we keep it a secret within the adoption world???  Sell your books - donate your money and maybe, just maybe the little ones on the Reece's Rainbow website will find families.  Shhh....  (If you live in my area - bring me your books and I will sell them for you!!)


     Gavin turns six in a few months.  He is going to be transferred soon.  PLEASE.... He is an absolute sweetheart.  His caretakers LOVE him.  He needs a Mama and a Papa.  He doesn't need to spent the rest of his life sitting in a shed with nothing to do.  PLEASE.  Someone out there jump off the cliff and go get Gavin... or  Brady... or Heath.... Little boys - so desperate for families.  They need Pooh Bears and clean sheets and train tracks and balls and presents under the Christmas tree.  They need brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and grandmom's who spoil them rotten.  They need trips to the ocean to play in the sand.  They need to hear the stories of Jesus so they can grow up to love Him with all their hearts and souls and minds.  PLEASE!  Who will tell them if someone doesn't go get them?

So Donate - Pray - and PLEASE search your hearts.  The Lost Boys are waiting.  They are not in a Neverland of fun and games.  They are not battling Hook on pirate ships.  They are Lost.  They are Lonely.  They are dying in their cribs and wasting away in orphanages and institutes.  Consider - just consider - sprinking on some fairy dust - flying across the ocean and rescuing one, or two so they can go home - where they belong.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Christmas picture bloopers...

Pictures that didn't pass the Christmas photo test....










Three goofy boys.  Counting my blessings each and every day.  Thank you Father for these three gifts!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

The Sad Reality, Part Two

A few weeks ago I wrote a post called The Sad Reality (you can link to it HERE if you missed it). Writing that post drained me. I needed nearly two months to find the courage to write it. Then I needed over a week to write it, and several days to come out of the deep funk that writing it caused. We saw a lot of ugly things at the institute where Aaron lived. Some we will never share publicly. We chose to share The Sad Reality because there are too many children who have no voice with which to tell the world of their suffering, and we have a responsibility to be their voice, as Proverbs 31: 8-9 demands:

     "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy."

There is more to the story of The Sad Reality. I didn't want to write it, and just by thinking about it, I am already slipping into a funk that only God can heal. But the story needs telling. So here it is: The Sad Reality, Part Two.

We walked the mile to and from Aaron's institute sixty-five times before we were finally allowed to cart him away to freedom. Sixty-five times we entered those shoddy gates and trod those uneven walks. Sixty-five times we struggled to accept the sights, sounds and smells of a hidden world that shook us to the core. Sixty-five times we walked, watched and grieved.

It is difficult to describe the despair I felt every day as we passed a shed filled with boys who had absolutely nothing to do. It filled me with grief when some of them cried out, "Mama!" hoping that I could offer them the same escape I was offering Aaron. It was hard to process this world, in which survival of the fittest reigned and played out every day between boys of widely varying sizes and ages-- a world in which hitting, fighting and abuse is normal and goes largely unchecked. Beyond that, how could we face the reality of the hidden boys, the ones we only glimpsed, the ones whom we knew lay behind closed doors in their cribs-- silent, lonely, attention-starved, stiff, far beyond any hope of release-- dying?

We couldn't. We just walked back and forth to and from the institute, holding hands, supporting each other, joking about anything we could find, scheming about our blog posts, biding our time until the wheels of bureaucracy turned far enough to allow us to go back to our safe, predictable world with Aaron in tow.



Aaron's institute housed older boys from a wide area of his country. So far as we know, only a few had any family in town, and only about two or three of these had any visits during our time there. Because of this, his institute wasn't well set up for visitors. There were no indoor visiting rooms at all, and for outdoor visits there was only one designated area: a painted steel gazebo with rotting wooden benches, situated just outside the administration office's door.

Aaron quickly got tired of this gazebo. After a year of confinement, he was ready to explore, and we were his passport to freedom. For our part, we preferred the gazebo. It was our assigned visiting area, the only place anyone ever really gave us permission to be. We were safe there. No dogs bothered us there, and no one shooed us away there. Each time we followed our wandering fugitive out of that gazebo, we knew that we were setting ourselves up for trouble. And we did get into trouble, more than once.



We finally reached a compromise with Aaron. We gravitated toward a neutral spot at the center of the institute, a sort of crossroads from which we could see nearly everything that was happening there. We could see the main gate, so we wouldn't miss the arrivals and departures of the institute's vehicles-- in Aaron's opinion the most important events of any day. We could see the dining sheds in which the boys took meals and snacks (picture below, at Rob's back). And we were on the paths by which all three groups of outdoor boys reached these sheds, so we could watch and join their parades to and from meals. Just down the path (to Rob's right) was the shed filled with the moaning boys, the lowest-functioning of the outdoor boys. Beside us was the building in which they slept. We didn't really like being there, but Aaron was happy there, and at least when we were there no one could accuse us of spying.


     



And so the crossroads became our new home at the institute. By accident or design, we received an unspoken, tenuous permission to spend three hours every day at the center of a secretive facility. We saw nothing of what went on behind closed doors, but everything that happened in the open, we saw. That's how we came to see the second part of our sad reality.

In that lowest functioning group of outdoor boys, there were three older ones whom we got to know. They had a job carrying things back and forth from their shed area to their building, strange benches with multiple holes, so we saw them every day. All three were precious. One laughed and called out to Aaron and to us with glee every time he passed. His vocabulary was limited, but he always spoke with gusto. His legs were bent at odd angles, and one was much longer than the other, so he hobbled up and down the path each day; but he always laughed and clapped his hands, filled with joy. The second was silent, lost in his own world. He stared at us from a distance and gave us crooked smiles. The third was a sweet angel with Down Syndrome. He was short, bowlegged and as gentle as can be. Alone of the three, this one would wander over to spend time with us. He gently handled and played with Aaron's toys. He spoke to us softly. He was a perfect gentleman in his behavior. Unfortunately, in his person he was anything but gentlemanly. His smell was overpowering, and when he offered his hand for us to shake, we could see why: his hands were stained with excrement.

At first we assumed that he simply didn't know how to take care of himself. We also assumed that the caretakers gave older boys like him much less help in taking care of themselves than they gave the younger ones. It wasn't really surprising that a boy of his age and in his condition would need a bath.

But later, we began to understand that all three of these boys were dirty every day. And we knew that Aaron's institute had a good staff that wouldn't put up with filth. One day, every boy at that institute got new clothes in preparation for a visit from a psychiatric professional, but these three boys were still dirty. It took us forever to understand, finally, what was happening: The mysterious things the boys were carrying every day were potty benches. These boys were washing out potty chairs every day and moving the benches back and forth from the building to the shed. They were responsible for cleaning up after 20 boys every day, probably twice per day. They were the boys from "the picture," all grown up and graduated to the next logical step in their sad existence.

We already knew that the older boys performed essential jobs there. Aaron's institute was poor, and needed every available resource. They had to put the boys to work. We had seen some carrying water from the outside well, carrying laundry and setting tables in the sheds before meals. The luckiest ones worked with the hired caretakers on the grounds, bringing in food or keeping things neat. The unluckiest, our three friends, scrubbed the potty chairs. They did their job with an innocent willingness that brought tears to our eyes. And they carried the marks of their job everywhere they went, in the form of filth that in their circumstances was just too hard to remove.

Why do I share this? Why is poop so important? Because of the indignity of their situation. There is nothing wrong with requiring the boys to work; in fact, it is probably a benefit for most. But for these three sweet boys to end up in this sad situation, doomed to hold the least desirable job at the institute for who knows how long, is just deeply sad. It lowers them to subhuman status. As we said before, their plight is a result of poverty, not of neglect. Those caretakers do the best they can with what they have, and they work hard. Where there are no plumbing facilities for so many boys, someone must scrub potty chairs. The only practical way to solve the problem would be to remove these boys from their untenable situation. They simply shoudn't be there in the first place. If so many boys were not cast off at birth, doomed for life to impoverished institutions, then no one would have to scrub potty chairs for 20 boys at a time. If more people in their country and ours would open their homes to these children who have been orphaned through no fault of their own, then no one would have to suffer degradation like this. If the nutty bureaucracies of their country and ours didn't set up so many hurdles in the adoption track, then more of these poor kids could find homes and families of their own.

Nearly every child in the Eastern European orphanages (baby houses) who has a mental or physical disability is transferred to an institution like Aaron's by the age of four, five or six. All are stowed away in these underfunded institutes, in villages far off the beaten path. They receive no education and no therapy, so they make no progress. They will live and die at these places or the even worse adult institutions that await them.  They have little to no hope of ever leaving. It is their sad reality.

And as long as they live in such places, the unlucky ones will get demeaning jobs like these. When we finally realized what was going on, our next thought was that this would probably be Brady's fate. He fits the profile. If no one rescues Brady, then he may very well spend his days scrubbing potty chairs and carting benches-- when he could be doing so much more. Poor Brady. How sad to have so little hope for the future when you're only six.

That's why we're still shouting about all of this months down the road. It's why we often find ourselves discussing, agonizing, praying and struggling with our memories and stories.  It's why we want the church to march into these places.  Where the church has entered, there have been life-giving changes for the boys and girls inside these institutions. We need the church to march into that village and that institute. We have no idea how it will happen, or when. We are two very small people with a bit of knowledge and little else. We don't know where to turn. We cry out again and again for God to send families for Brady and Heath. We can't believe that God would open those gates for us, leave us there far longer than need be, show us all of this hurt and then leave the situation forever unchanged.

All we know to do is pray, advocate, yell, holler, scream and shout. It takes a lot of time, and it's exhausting.  Sometimes it seems pointless and fruitless. But those poor boys need a voice. They need someone to cry out for them. The Lost Boys need to be found.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Just Saying...

I'm thankful I worship a Risen Savior.

I'm thankful for family and that I live in a free country. 

I'm thankful our THANKSGIVING Feast does NOT include Borscht.

I'm thankful that I get to tell the littlest member of our family over and over and over and over again that Mama AND Papa AND Ben AND Elijah AND Aaron and Pooh Bear are ALL going to go to Aunt Tracey's house and that Mama AND Papa AND Ben AND Elijah AND Aaron and of course Pooh Bear are ALL going to go back home after two sleeps. 

I'm thankful for the 350+ Reece's Rainbow children who are with their families this Thanksgiving Day.

I'm thankful for the 100+ Reece's Rainbow children who have families longing for the day when they will be seated at their table.

.... But I'm grieving for my Lost Boys... It can't be helped.... Just Saying...

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

My Bracelet

    For 3 months now I have worn around my wrist a bracelet.  I bought it from a friend.  She was selling them to raise money for their adoption.  I bought it in August, at a time in their process when she had completely reached the end of her rope.  She was burned out and exhausted from the constant roadblocks they had encountered on their journey to adopt a little girl with down syndrome from Aaron's former country.  It had been over a year of mountain after mountain for them and there just didn't seem to be an end in sight.  The possibility that they would not make it through to the end was very real. There were no words of comfort I could give my friend except to say that I was praying.  Our adoption at that time was also stuck in mire.  We were home, hoping and praying that a judge would have mercy and grant us court to go back and get Aaron.  We were swimming in our own shock as we waded through the system, but our grief did not compare to the cross my friend was carrying for their child. 

     You see they had already lost a child.  A beautiful little girl with down syndrome who died of cancer in 2008.  They knew all about grief and loss.  They had walked a road I couldn't understand and hope to never take.   When they committed to a Reece's Rainbow child, it was not to replace their precious Caylyn.  They didn't originally plan to adopt the child they picked, Marina, only to advocate for her.  But they could not get her out of their hearts and minds and so in a massive leap of faith they committed to adopt her.  That was in June 2009.  But major obstacles were in their way and by August 2010, my friend had just reached the end.  They seemed no closer to getting over the mountain than when they started. 

      All I could offer was prayer, a shoulder to cry on and a purchase of a bracelet. I bought the bracelet and put it on.  My constant, hourly reminder to pray. Marina needed a family.  My friend needed Marina.

     Today I am looking at the bracelet with tears in my eyes.  Good tears.  Happy tears.  Marina is home.  She came home yesterday.  The journey to get her is over. 

     In church on Sunday, as the people around me were singing and worshipping, and with Aaron sitting happily on the chair beside me I put my head in my hands and quietly began to weep.  I was holding my bracelet and thinking of my friend.  Realizing anew what a Mighty God we serve.  Marveling at His tender mercies. 

     I worried when they flew out in October to get Marina.  Their process from June 2009 to September 2010 was so horrific, I just trembled in fear that they would get hit with more mess and mire.  My heart longed for them to have peace over there.  I was so afraid that the same paperwork issues that caused them to stumble here, would prevent them from completing the adoption.  But God in His Love and Kindness granted them peace.  He allowed them to fight all their paperwork giants on this side of the ocean.  He let them battle their faith issues on US soil.  By prolonging the process, He forced them to face their loss and grief and anger and hurt before they boarded the plane.  But once on Marina's soil, He calmed the storm.  He granted them rest.  They breezed through their days.  My friend, her husband and their precious boy.  Together, they met Marina.  Joy Unspeakable.  She was alive, happy, fiesty and so full of life she knocked their breath away. He hand picked a little girl who fit perfectly in their family, in the same way God handpicked Aaron for us.  Oh how marvelous is our God to know exactly what we need and to so graciously offer it to us.  How loving a Savior.  I wept on Sunday and I weep again today.  I can't wait to meet Marina.  To hear her sassy little voice and her bossy little ways.  I look forward to laughing at how quickly she has whipped her family into shape.  I rejoice that God kept her carefully and tenderly all these years for this family.  Oh the healing as they love on their new precious treasure.  No she doesn't replace their loss... but as my friend so aptly put it a few days ago on her blog:

     "Our family once again has managed to complete a journey and embark on one all at the same time, yet again.  God has been very gracious.  More than I ever ever dreamed.  Cay would love this gal.  But without Caylyn and her journey I can surely say there would not be a Marina Hope Bachman in our lives.


       So this morning I cry.  Happy tears.  Marina is home safe.  One more orphan in the arms of a loving, Godly family.  I marvel at God's goodness and I rejoice at His tender love.  My friend and her family - though tested in their faith - have come through. 

Psalm 30: 5b - "Weeping may endure for the night, but JOY comes in the morning."

Monday, November 22, 2010

He SHALL Reign!

I stole this.  I confess.  My dear friend, Lu, had it on her blog this morning and it was just what I needed.  I rarely ever make two posts in one day.  I rarely post Video's because they take SOOO LOOONGG to download and watch.  But because it was LU I downloaded it and watched it.  I am so glad I did.  I cried.  Big tears!  Laughter too.  Rejoicing! 

For all those who are discouraged, struggling, wondering, questioning - take the time to download this.  For those who just want to be blessed... really blessed - watch this.  It is worth the time it takes to get it loaded.  Show it to your kids. 

He Shall Reign.  He Has Won.  We serve a LIVING GOD!  HALLELUJAH!!

Keeping it in Perspective

Do you remember Tori?  The precious little one that we were praying would find a family?  The little one who is sitting day after lonely day in an adult mental institute?  The little one who has a family who has had EVERY SINGLE MOUNTAIN moved and is within WEEKS of getting over there to see her, hold her and bring her home?  Our mighty God moved an entire mountain so that her family could get her - not in months but literally in weeks.  Not only Tori.  Nope.  They are also getting another sweet child.


Anastasiya


Sisters.  Soon to be given new names, parents, siblings, home, HOPE. 

This is for whom we pray. 

     Dear Friends,  The latest news on the vote is that the hearing for the bill concerning adoptions is set for the week of December 14-17.  If the bill stands as written, adoptions would stop unless the country involved has a bilateral agreement with Aaron's former country. 

The United States does not have a bilateral agreement.  Thus, all US adoptions would stop. 

     The entire situation is complicated and messy.  A bilateral agreement is a good thing, and in the long run would streamline the adoption process - making it easier and much less stressful.  What we went through with Aaron would not happen if an agreement was in place. 

     BUT - the way the bill is written - ADOPTIONS WOULD STOP until the agreement is worked out.  This could take months or years to hash out. 

     The reality in the short term is that right now... there are fragile children who will die if left in their cribs for months or years.  Just a few weeks ago a Reece's Rainbow family brought back, out of an institute, a seven year old precious little girl who weighed 16 lbs.  You read that correctly.  SIXTEEN POUNDS.  She came home only a few weeks ago.  She had been drugged in her crib to keep her calm.  The doctors on our side of the ocean wept when they saw her.   She didn't have months or years. 

     Right now there are families who are IN COUNTRY, with their children, waiting for their court dates, holding their breath and hoping that they receive their court documents BEFORE this vote takes place.  Many of those in country right now will make the cut off.  They will be whisking their children out before the gavel lands.  Praise God.  Every single time I hear that a family has their court documents in hand, I start to weep at my computer.  One more life saved.  One more snatched out of darkness. 

     But the reality is that there are too many families on the edge of that vote.  Some will have court on THE VERY WEEK of that vote.  Some will only arrive that week, some will be in the middle of their 10 day waiting period.  Some will be coming in afterwards.  Dear Tori and Anastasiya's family will be there just as the vote is taking place

      Did you read that?  Do you understand church why we have to pray?  We screamed and hollered and raised funds and God moved in the hearts of the Burmans to go get Tori and He moved in their hearts AGAIN to get Anastasiya and THEN He moved the mountain to get their paperwork done in absolute record time because Tori does not have much time BUT THE BIGGEST MOUNTAIN stands in their way.  A bill that would stop their adoption.

     But Our God is bigger than that mountain, and these are His kids.  He has stirred in so many hearts in the last number of years to rescue these forgotten ones and it wasn't so that they would become lost again.  He has a purpose and a plan set in motion.  What takes place across our world in regards to the 'least of these' is heart breaking.  In our country they are aborted - discarded in the garbage.  In other countries they are abandoned - discarded into orphanages.  The church needs to rise up and take a stand.  Both in our country and in the rest of the world.  We start by getting on our knees and praying for these families who are sacrificing so much to get these children out in time.  We pray that God will still the storm raging in their hearts.  We pray that they will be covered - drenched in His peace as they cross the waters.

     We pray for the men who will be voting for the bill.  We pray that God would move in their hearts.  We pray that these men would have the grace to consider the 'least of these' in their country - both the special needs and the hard to place older children - that they would spare their lives and futures by placing, into the bill, wording that allows adoptions to continue as they work towards a better system for all.  We pray that those men who have it in their hearts to end adoptions altogether - regardless of wording or agreements - we pray their attempts would be halted.  We pray that their desires would be thwarted and that the voice of those guided by the Holy Spirit would be heard.  Pray Church. 

     The little ones below ALL HAVE FAMILIES WHO WANT THEM.  These are the ones for whom you pray.  These are the children who are being affected RIGHT now.  Their families are on their knees. Please join them. 

Church - Pray!


There are so many more. 

Sunday, November 21, 2010

From Aaron... Part One

Did you know that Mama's name isn't Mama anymore - She is now Ma...  Yikes!!

Did you know that 100% juice out of a juice box is AMAZING but.... 100% juice out of a cup is not nearly as good? 

Just LOOK what I can do!!








Did you know that my big brothers do really strange stuff like tie each other up and then flip upside down. 




They think it is funny but I am just not convinced.



Did you know that when I fall and hit my head really hard on the ground, that my Mama and Papa will hold me?  Did you know that it feels good to lay my hurting head against their chest?   Did you know that I have never laid my head against anyone before?   I still won't cry very loud but I will let them hold me. 

Did you know that my Mama makes the BEST cookies in the world?  Did you know that if she is working in the office and if Elijah is upstairs and if NO ONE IS PAYING ATTENTION than I can eat lots of cookies off the counter before anyone catches me?  Did you know that I am capable of eating 10 cookies in just a few minutes?  Did you know that climbing under the train table doesn't hide me well enough when Mama notices that she is missing a whole host of cookies? 

P.S. - She thinks I understand that next time I have to say "Please, cookies, Mama" but I'm not sure I do....

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Attack

     We've been so blessed over the last 10 months to have been spared from unkind comments on our blog.  Reading our comments has always been a fun activity for our entire family.  We love all the stories, verses, words of encouragement, prayer requests and other reflections that have been left for us to read.  We have loved getting to know so many of you through the comments.  Your hearts, your struggles, your  journey's.    While we were in Aaron's country they were a lifeline to us.   Each word from every reader helped remind us that we were not alone over there.  Over the last two months, since we have been home, the comments have helped to ease us back into life on this side of the ocean.  We have made so many friends through the comments left on our blog.  It has truly been a pleasure to read each and every one.

It was bound to change and in the last 48 hours, we have discovered what many blog writers have already faced on their blogs.  Unkind remarks, accusations and threats.  It caught us off guard.  It hurts.  It feels like a kick in the gut.    We find it interesting that after 10 months of writing - we have been hit by not one but several really nasty comments - all in the last few days.  Being threatened is a bit shocking.  I'll be honest, it makes us want to cut and run.  Neither of us like controversy.  We tend to avoid conflict like the plague. But God opened our eyes a few months ago and we cannot stop advocating for those who don't have a voice.  So, though we feel a bit battered, we will continue to post, advocate and encourage.  We will continue to prayerfully consider every word we write so that it is uplifting, encouraging and God-honoring.   And we will continue to stand for what we believe is right.

I Corinthians 15:58 - "Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

Friday, November 19, 2010

Update on Gavin

We just found out last night that dear Gavin has not been transferred .... YET! 
He is still in the baby house! 

THANK YOU DEAR LORD!

Not ALL is good news though...

There were three little boys all with Down Syndrome at that same baby house together....

My Gavin...

Sweet Tristan

and precious Alexander....

It was ALEXANDER who was transferred.  

THERE IS NO REJOICING IN THAT NEWS!

Tristan and Gavin are next.
All three of these boys are going to a place that is off the beaten path. 
A closed place.  A hidden institute filled with Lost Boys who are living out their lives alone and lonely.
 
THIS IS WHERE ALEXANDER HAS BEEN SENT.
 
Thankfully - They are OPEN to Alexander finding a family!!  HE CAN STILL BE ADOPTED!!
He is STILL available. 

HE HAS $7,105.00 in his grant account
That is huge!!!

Come on.  Somebody go get him!!  He turns six in April!!  Please!  He has been on Reece's Rainbow for TWO YEARS and has been passed over by everybody

NO ONE HAS EVER ASKED ABOUT THIS CHILD

EVER!

Break.my.heart

Gavin turns six in February.  HE COULD BE TRANSFERRED ANY DAY.   He has close to 1,000.00 in his grant account (angel tree plus his other grant money).  Maybe that doesn't seem like much but...That is how much grant money Aaron had when we committed to him.  GOD PROVIDES!  HE DOES PROVIDE! 

Tristan too is on the transfer list.  He has barely 700.00 in his grant accounts.   He needs money and he needs a family.   He is so little.  Helpless.  Where are you church??

ALL THREE OF THESE BOYS NEED FAMILIES!!

I can't stand the thought of these three tiny boys in the back of a line of boys who are twice their size.
Alexander, the boy NOBODY wanted, is already there. 
I rejoice that Gavin is not there yet but he is going soon. 
Tristan is right behind. 
Three little boys.

One already a Lost Boy.. two on their way. 

Come on church.  Step up.  They need money in their accounts.  They need to be rescued. 

Plain and simple. 

Isaiah 1:17 
Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.