Little Lost Lamb

 "His eyes cross badly, his teeth are rotten, he cannot bear his own weight, he smelled horrible.....BUT he is PERFECT!!!"

A Mama holding her little one for the first time.  The smell so horrid that she gags when he is placed in her arms.

Yet to her - he is perfect.

Chosen.

Loved.

Cherished.

Wanted.

Already claimed as her son.

What a beautiful picture of love in action.  

Despite the distended belly and the rotten teeth and the overwhelming smell - he is deemed perfect.  

Rob and I sat here and choked back tears as we read their blog this morning.  We remembered sitting with them last year on the steps in the Capital of that country.  Both of our families agreeing we would never ever cross that ocean again.  It was too hard and we just wanted to get through the process and go home.  But God called them back.  He called them back.  We marvel at this dear family who made their decision to get this little guy based on who needed rescue the most.  Their choice wasn't based on a picture - their love wasn't dependent upon ability.  Their choice was based on the desperate need of the little five year old in their arms who faced transfer any day and who would not have survived.  

"He will need immediate medical care...like straight from the airport to the hospital."

They crossed the ocean for him.  They took out loans and sacrificed earthly pleasure to get him.  A little lost foul-smelling neglected boy.  Of little value to the rest of the world but considered a priceless treasure to the Carmichaels.

Luke 15: 3-7 Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’  I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent."

Little lost lamb... You are a beautiful demonstration of the love God has lavishly bestowed upon each of us.

Dirty, sinful, sick and lost human beings that we are.... He gave His ALL for us.

 I John 3: 16:  "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us."

 I John 4: 9-10 "God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. "

Wonderful Wednesday

What a difference a week makes!!

Aaron's first casting was HUGE. 

 The difference between the first and second casting was enough to shock the doctor into saying we may only have to do this two or three more times!!

WOW!!

Wow!!

We were expecting at least 8 weeks of grueling trips, and now we may only be doing half that number.

Wow!!

Aaron is only looking pleasant in this picture because Dr. Z has not started the hard part.  When the real casting starts... Mama is not taking pictures but is instead loving on her screaming babe!!

But Wow!!

We are so relieved!  Of course we are not being overly optimistic.... but cautiously happy.... Oh Yes!!

Okay... On this Wonderful Wednesday....

While I rejoice in our casting good news...

 I want to share what one 19 year old girl is doing for a couple of needy TRANSFERRED orphans....

She's doing a LOST GET FOUND Giveaway... 

and DO YOU RECOGNIZE ONE OF THOSE ORPHANS???? 

SWEET LITTLE HEATH!!

One of our Lost Boys.

Both these babes have been transferred and both are just desperate for a family.  

And a 19 year old girl who has her head on straight is doing everything she can to help them find families!!

She gets a standing ovation in my book.

She is fighting for these two babes and people... we need to support her!!!

  

She was able to acquire a whole ton of Giveaway items so your chances of winning something is pretty huge!!  So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE donate to either Heath or Celine.

PLEASE GO HERE AND SUPPORT THE EFFORTS OF A GIRL WHO IS NOT OUT PARTYING BUT WHO IS FIGHTING FOR TWO HELPLESS BABES ACROSS THE OCEAN.  

And finally.... whoever sent us the sweet package from Art of Appreciation Gift Baskets... Goodness me what a sweet surprise!!  Thank you so much... And the family who sent Aaron a 150 piece large sized puzzle... THANK YOU - he is chomping at the bit to build it!  And the other family who sent him a nerf gun he can use with his mouth.... WE ARE JUST OVERCOME!!  The kindness of strangers takes my breath away!!  These are but a few of the gifts we have received over the last year.  I am so lousy at thank you's.... I get stunned by the gifts and just overcome with how to even express our gratitude.  Please know that we are so blessed to have so many who love our son and who have lavished him and his family with blessing upon blessing.

History

I have a confession to make.

 I love history. I love reading history books.  I love writing history curriculum. I love teaching history at a Christian homeschooling co-op. I most especially love studying history with my own kids.

But for the last two years... I have not done history at home with the boys.

I MISS IT.

Last year Ben started taking classes at our local Community College. He took two wonderful semesters of U.S. History. He had outgrown me. Elijah took my class at our Co-op that same year, so we didn't do it at home. This year Elijah is doing history on his own. Next year he probably will be taking classes at the community college. He has outgrown me too.

Aaron is not ready for me to start history yet, although he does play on the floor while I teach my middle school history class.

I MISS DOING HISTORY WITH THE BOYS.

It was the highlight of our early homeschooling years.

We spent time reading history together every single day.  We had great discussions.  After we read our history together, they read literature books that matched what we were studying.  We did it as a family.  For two of those years, I had several other children that I was "homeschooling" along with my own, and even though each of them was in a different grade, it didn't matter. We all still did history together. 

Studying it in order, from  beginning to end.

I didn't start out doing history that way.

When I first started homeschooling, Ben had been attending a Christian school, and I just continued the history curriculum that his school had been following. I hated it. It was primarily U.S. history, and its focuses were memorizing and testing. We went through the motions for the remainder of that year while I scoured the internet for better options.

I found one. Right in my own backyard.

BiblioPlan.

Originally written by some ladies at our Christian homeschooling co-op, BiblioPlan was designed around two ideas: (1) integrating the study of history and literature (studying both at the same time), and (2) studying the events of history chronologically (as much as possible).  BiblioPlan students followed a four-year plan: They studied the Ancient era, the Medieval era, the Early Modern era and then the Modern era. When they reached the Early Modern era, they studied U.S. and World history at the same time. When they were finished, they started over with the Ancient era again-- only this time, they read more advanced literature and studied each topic in greater depth. In a perfect system, each student would cycle through the four years of study three times, getting more and more advanced as he or she grew. The repetition would cement their history lessons in their minds forever.

When we first started using it, BiblioPlan was just a reading guide that told you two things: (1) Which history lessons to read each week, and (2) What literature readings matched your history lessons for the week.

There were no maps.  No homework assignments.  No tests.  No books full of timeline figures.  No craft ideas.

Just a reading guide.

And we loved it.

My boys came to the table eagerly every single morning for our history readings.  Since the Guide didn't have bells and whistles, I scoured the internet to find maps.  I had to create my own questions to quiz the boys, and we had to find pictures to fill our timeline books.  I even found art projects to accompany what we were doing.  I spent hours pulling it all together.... Plus more hours at the library and on Amazon tracking down the good quality books that BiblioPlan suggested.

We were happy.

I miss it.

Rob and I are part-owners in BiblioPlan now.  We create all of the bells and whistles so that parents don't have to do all of the extra labor that we had to do when we first used BiblioPlan.  We now offer maps, question pages, timeline books, craft ideas and our own history texts that add in the Christian element.  All that parents have to do on their own now is find the suggested literature books in their libraries or on e-readers.

It is a good history program.

But I am not doing it with my own boys, and I miss it.

Teaching at the Co-op is not the same as sitting at a table with my own kids and reading stories of the past to them.

It makes me sad.

I'm looking forward to starting Aaron in BiblioPlan next year.

We'll start in Ancients... I definitely think he will like it!!

  

If you are a homeschooling family... And if you want to bring all of your children to the table together... And if you want to watch history unfold... And if you want to read good quality literature... And if you want to learn Geography as you learn history... and if you want to watch God's story woven into the human story... and if you want your children to LOVE your time together... then you ought to consider using BiblioPlan.  I'm not putting my heart and soul into a curriculum that I don't believe in 100%!!

We have Teacher's Guides to sell to Christian and Classical schools too!!

   

Mama's Art

What do you get when your cast is boring old white???

You get Mama art!!

It might not win any Art Awards but Aaron likes it!!

I wonder what Mama will come up with next week???

Aaron and I are dragging out of bed again tomorrow morning at 1:30 am for round two at Shriners!  We PLAN on getting in and out as fast as we can since we are only seeing ONE doctor (amazing) and just getting the cast removed and replaced.  Would love some prayers as we travel to Philly and back.  Last week we drove through a good bit of snow which was a surprise. 

For a bit of Aaron trivia.... For the first 16 van rides - Aaron refused to sleep.  I tried everything from bribes to penalties but nothing worked.  He could not stop watching the cars and trucks on the road.  We would lay his seat back, get everyone in the van to stop talking, tell him to sleep... etc. etc.

Nothing worked.

He would sleep for five minutes and then be up and watching the happenings outside his window.

When Aaron doesn't sleep - Mama doesn't sleep and it made for 16 very very miserable van rides.

In desperation I went to extreme measures...

A blindfold.

On ride 17 I put a blindfold on him and told him it was time to sleep.  I was so worried about traumatizing him though that I only laid it on top of his eyes and then removed it a few minutes later for fear he was laying there freaked out.  He was sound asleep.  Gone.  I didn't believe it.  I thought he was pretending so I sat there and waited for him to move.  Nothing.  He slept until the drivers stopped for a rest break.  Two hours of bliss.

Of course I didn't sleep because I was too busy waiting for his little head to pop up.

Last week... We didn't just lay that old blindfold on his head.  We tied it on.  He promptly went to sleep.  It eventually worked its way off but he was sleeping so we left it off.  When the drivers stopped  and he woke up... we just tied it back on and he fell right back to sleep.  He slept the entire way to Philly.

Woo Hoo for Blindfolds!!

Woo Hoo for Sleeping Aarons!!

Woo Hoo....

We will see if it works tomorrow!!

Shocking Update

It has been a hard week.  I have felt worn down, tired and overwhelmed with life.  I'm being honest.  For a multitude of reasons I have just been running on empty.



Because of how I am feeling and because of the treadmill we will be running in the coming months as we try to write for BiblioPlan.... and as we make the weekly treks to Shriners for Aaron... I have felt like taking a blog break.  Letting someone else yell for a bit.

Just stopping.



Yesterday I had little to no energy to write a post even though it was Fatherless Friday.  The temptation to just not do one was very very strong.

But I made a promise that I had put off for far too long and so I wrote yesterday's blog.

As I was writing I became a bit overwhelmed when I saw how many of the older children had 0.00 in their accounts. I started putting pictures up and it just seemed like it was every other child.

I made a decision after doing the first page that I would focus only on the boys.  I was on overload seeing all their sweet faces.

BY THE TIME I WAS DONE I HAD PUT UP PICTURES OF THIRTY NINE LOST BOYS LANGUISHING IN ORPHANAGES AND INSTITUTES IN EASTERN EUROPE AND ASIA.

THIRTY NINE.

I walked away from the computer.  The post had depressed me.  I was in and out all day.  I checked comments a few times but I never went to the website at all to check to see how the boys were doing.  It was just too much.

Until last night when I received an e-mail that only 9 boys out of the THIRTY NINE had 0's by their name.

WHAT??

I immediately opened up the RR website and began scrolling through... Every single boy in the 6-9 category had money in their account.  Many of them had more than $5.00.  At least one had almost $100.00.

I started crying.

 I went from page to page ticking off boy after boy who had received a gift of love from one or more of you.

When I was done... Only 5 boys had 0's by their name.

FIVE.

This morning.

It is down to three.

THREE

Three little boys - All on THIS PAGE.

                                      Daniel                          Marlowe                                Dixon

  

After such a demonstration of love yesterday, I have no doubt that by the end of the day - these little guys are not going to be left behind!

Now some scoffers would click their tongues and say that little difference was made yesterday.  Thirty Six boys received a drop of money into their account.  So what.  Most of them now "only" have $5.00.   A pittance compared to what they need.

Yes in today's economy $5.00 is a pittance.  It doesn't even fill the bottom of the bucket.  Against adoption fees that  normally run over $20,000.00 it is a joke.

But I stand against any scoffer who would mock what quietly took place yesterday.

I stand against anyone who would scorn the offerings of love that were shown.

I have seen God take $5.00 given in love - just a pittance by the world's standards - and I have seen a child brought home because of it.

Yesterday 36 boys were given those same gifts of love.

I know that the God I serve can take $5.00 measly dollars and multiply it beyond our wildest dreams. I know He can because I have seen Him do it.

What took place yesterday was precious beyond words.

You let 36 boys know that they have value.  They are precious.  They are of great worth.



You rallied around the Least of These.

Thank you! Thank you!

If I could give every one of you a hug I would.

If I could even  begin to express in words how much it meant to me to scroll through their pictures last night and see all the offerings of love I would quickly write those words down here.

But I am at a total loss as to how to express how I feel at the present.

Just know that I am grateful beyond words to be part of a community of believers who sees a need and puts love in action.

Thank you!!

    

   

Fatherless Friday

This is a LONG OVERDUE Fatherless Friday!!

    

I promised months ago I would support a fellow blogger in her lonely pursuit to get the zero's erased on all the Reece's Rainbow children who are 6 and up. 

    

 She e-mailed me in October and asked for help and I have wanted to do a Fatherless Friday to support her ever since.  

   

To make sure that every child listed on Reece's Rainbow who is six and older has at least $5.00 in their grant account.

   

It doesn't seem like much.

But when you see a $0.00 under a child's name.... 

  

Well....It just kind of makes your heart bleed a bit.

   

Doesn't anyone care?  Is this child worth so little that they don't even merit $5.00?? 

  

    

I feel my friend's pain.  The older kids are the ones who are least likely to ever be adopted. 

   

Their ages scare people off.  They are no longer cute and cuddly.

   

Bonding is sometimes harder.

   

The orphanage behavior is often increased.

And with no grant money.... Well... The cost can seem way out of reach!

    

And the boys... the hard to place boys... They are the ones least likely to be adopted with no grant money.

    

Time and again - they are the ones left behind.

    

So on this Fatherless Friday... Will you help?

Zero the Zero's?  

EVERY SINGLE CHILD ON THIS PAGE HAS A $0.00 UNDER HIS NAME.  These are ALL the boys on Reece's Rainbow who are 6 and older.   They have NO GRANT MONEY.  Nothing.  Not one nickel that indicates that someone out there cares.  

Will you care?  Will you pick one or two or a few more and make a donation to their grant account?  These are precious treasures.  Boys created in the image of God.  All of them stuck.  Many of them sitting in cribs or in wheelchairs with nothing to do day after day.  All of them would benefit from being in a family.  Not one should be left behind.

Will you help Zero at least one Zero on this Fatherless Friday??

Please??

REECE'S RAINBOW

For those who do....I thank you in advance....