"Find My Family"

A new show is coming to town and it's not gonna be as great as it looks. Read the following from Martha Osbourne of Rainbow Kids:

"In the most exploitive and disparaging-of-adoption media effort yet, ABC will air a sneak peak' of their new series Find My Family on Monday, November 23rd. With a sensationalized and soap-opera style, ABC will take viewers into the lives of adoptees and birth families in their Search to be reunited.

With the tagline " Some people have spent their whole lives searching for the one thing that matters most... Their wish will now come true. Let's find your family, producers completely discount any worth of the adoptive families who have loved and raised these children. Instead the show emphasizes the loss of a child's Real family' as the one-and-only central issue of all adopted children's lives.

The entire premise of this show is upsetting on so many levels. I encourage every family of an adopted child to prepare mentally for the public reaction, and the reaction of their children who may find themselves the sudden center of assumptions about their needs, desires, and personal feelings on their adoption.

This new series is being heavily promoted on ABC. Created by the producer of Extreme Makeover, Find My Family is laden with emotional angst and tearful moments meant to increase ratings and viewership. Unfortunately, the general public's opinion and understanding of adoption is largely shaped by the media. ABC's exploitive new series will focus on the most extreme issues in adoption, and is sure to have an effect on how our children's teachers, extended family, and friends view and accept adoption.

For years, the adoptive community has sought to rectify the past vilification of birth-parents as people who gave away their children. Birth parents are now widely recognized as the First Parents of children, deserving of love, respect, and understanding. It is in no one's best interest to turn the tables and begin to portray adoptive families as second-class, or less-than' a family created biologically. This new series is a step back for everyone."

I pray that this show does not discourage families from stepping out to care for the orphan and love them the way Jesus calls us to. Adoption is God's idea and definitely not a "Plan B" family growing option. Both the birth parents and adoptive parents are extremely important in this plan of God's and neither should be looked down upon.

Water.

Wow. We take so much for granted. In our minds I think we become used to the fact that in Africa, they walk to get their water and it's not so clean. What if it was us though? Our neighbors that we are supposed to be loving as ourselves are dying because we are comfortable with our lives. We are neglecting our 1.1 billion neighbors who drink parasite infested water while we safely drink our extra purified bottled water. May we not ignore the lives of others for the sake of maintaining our lifestyles any longer. Watch the video and get involved. www.safewaternexus.org

Anddd...IT'S UP!

As of November 8th, Etaala's website has officially launched! ( a few things to add still but for the most part it's done!) Click here and check it out.

Teaser. :)

Website being launched on Orphan Sunday November 8th 2009

Etaala International

Youth led, Youth focused, Orphan Care Ministry

143 million orphans worldwide

YOU can make a difference.

"Learn to do right, seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. " - Isaiah 1:17...Do you see age requirements? We don't.

"Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:16

(Photos courtesy of Sarah Herbert Photography.)

Story Time

I have a wee story to tell you. Speaking of the word "wee". There were quite a few people from Ireland at the camp that I went to this summer and they called me "Wee Girl." It was a little hilarious and I'm glad as Americans, we don't say "wee" on a regular basis.

Anyways. Here is a story about a girl and some boys. This girl was (most of the time) a kind and sweet hairdresser. She was getting ready to go to lunch one day when a mother walks in with three small boys needing a hair cut. She was most likely perturbed and hungry because she took out her wrath on the three little boys' hair. It looked similar to something that would result from Edward Scissor Hands closing his eyes and sneezing. Well, the mother was less than thrilled and repeatedly said over the next few days as she was extremely busy that she needed to fix the three boys' hair. Well, one small boy took matters in to his own hands and here are the results. (James protecting Jer's head from a picture.)

If he cocks his head just so...you can't really tell that the top of his head is mostly bald.

Etaala's website is coming along marvelously well! I can't wait until I can share it with you all!

random moments of everyday goodness.

Kez sporting the Gangster look. Uncles, Aunts, Nephews, Nieces galore. Yogurt fu manchu's are the greatest.

Cutie Patooties.

This time 2 years ago these cute little boys were praying for their "vwuzzo and sistos in Eepee-opia" and now they are together forever. and Inseperable might I add.

The boys are 16 months apart so the twins and Josiah are in different grades. They are in two separate classes at our co-op on Fridays and every week Jeremiah goes through his speech of how he is so sad that Josiah isn't in their class and how he misses him all day and he wants Josiah in HIS class. Then James is all "Uh-huh" and "Yea" 's. Their teachers say the twins are always asking if they have extra crafts so they can take one to "their brother who is in the 5 year old class." God is just so amazing. He brought these little boys from Africa and Mexico to North Carolina to be brothers and very best friends. And they are always doing crazy things to their room like this... Soon after this blurry picture was taken, every inch of every wall was covered in a picture that they colored. When the walls were full they started to stretch across the room and surrounded the bunkbeds so they couldn't see out of the bottom bunk. They even made it across the ceiling. (with some help) It was quite impressive. Until bedtime and we couldn't find their beds. Here is a virtual tour... And I just realized i never finished those videos from when mom was in africa. I realize now it was a bad idea to promise that the week before school started and the week our computer crashed. Maybe someday they'll make it on the blog.

Fun, fun.

This is what we do when we are bored. Sooo...we're never really bored because this is quite fun. James had his ear tubes out today and they drugged him up pretty good. He came home a little dizzy and an hour or so later began to tell me all about his time at the hospital. "I got to color on the bed! And decorate my mask! (they let the kids decorate the sleeping gas masks after? creative.) And I watched Handy Manny!..... And I don't think they ever took my tubes out!!!!!! I don't think they did!!!!"

The medicine worked. Here is the Jim himself being a ham on the far left. He gradually dropped from standing to leaning on the hay bale to resting his chin on his hand. I want to put him in a little box and keep him in my pocket. I will definitely be keeping everyone updated on all the Etaala news. Right now we're just working out a lot of details and the website is coming along! It's close!

Etaala International

Hello all 2 of my remaining faithful readers. I'm sorry that I fail at blogging. However, I have some exciting news to share with you both!

Ok, so I posted a while back about that camp I went to this summer with Precept Upon Precept Ministries. At this camp we studied The Sermon on the Mount in the Bible and there is a particular verse in there that really spoke to my heart over and over again as we were studying. It's Matthew 5:14-16 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

This is talking about the gospel and how we as Christians are to share the good news of Jesus with others and not hide the light that cast the darkness out of our hearts to ourselves. Through out the week, I just keep thinking about that verse and wondering if I was keeping the light of truth to myself. I felt God impress upon my heart that I was in fact, hiding the light of truth to myself in a way. The truth of how much He loves orphans and wants people to reach out to them and just how much the orphan crisis breaks His heart. Sure I love my siblings and take missions trips and speak on occasion but what was I doing to spread that light for others to truly see it and know how to respond to it? I kept feeling like I needed to share this with young people especially. I have a passion for other young people to act and make a difference for orphans and follow after God's heart but I wasn't really doing a whole lot to make that happen. Welllll. God has called me to start a ministry. After much prayer, I emailed 5 friends about what God was calling me to do and within an hour, I had heard back from one friend that I actually met at this camp and he told me to check out his brother's website. I did. (click here to see it and then come back and finish reading.) Very Long story shortened slightly...I prayed for a while and then emailed the said brother who's name is Matt Chambers. I emailed him about the ministry ideas and asked if Safewater Nexus would be open to having a team of people come out and serve sometime within the next 2 years or so. Just so happens, he has a trip scheduled but not a whole lot done with it yet and he offers to let me bring a team of people next May to Uganda for two weeks.

By the way. My mom is in Ethiopia through all of this so Elsa Mugyenzi (who is from Uganda) was staying with me to help me with the kids. I began to tell her all of this and she was a huge part of starting it. I felt like the ministry name should have something to do with "Light". Turns out, "Light" in Luganda is "Etaala" (Ehh-Tahl-Ah) so, "Etaala International" is underway! I'm working to get it certified as a non-profit organization and my cousin is building our website. God has been bringing people right at the time of need and He has been so faithful to open all the doors and hearts. My friend Rachel who traveled with me to China and Guatemala is my co-founder. God has been placing the same things on her heart for a while and has given her the same passion for orphan care and sharing the love of Christ with the hurting and she has been involved in this from the very beginning.

The ministry is a youth run, youth focused organization that will work to get young people involved in orphan care through seeing first hand the need, serving in those areas and giving tools necessary to bring that home. It's not about going and serving once a year, it's about living out the call to care for the orphan, the widow and those in need in our lives here at home and shining the light of Christ for the world to see. I know for me, seeing the need and having beautiful faces and names to associate with the 143 million orphans made all the difference and gave me the passion to make a difference for them with my life.

The world has such low expectations for teenagers and I believe that part of the reason God is doing all of this is to show people that He is raising up a new generation of people to follow after Him. Isaiah 1:17 does NOT say "Everyone over 18 learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed you who have your college degree. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow... but only you wealthy got-it-all-together people of course!" He calls us to defend the case of the fatherless and there are no age requirements in this command. He promises that if we are seeking Him first above all things, He will provide for our needs. I believe that He finds joy in using people who don't seem like the greatest pick to bring about His plan and show how great He is and how capable He is of doing incredible things. He used David, probably a middle schooler, to kill Goliath the giant. He used Moses, the one afraid to speak in public, to represent the Israelites and demand that the Pharaoh of Egypt, (the most powerful man in the world at the time) release them. There are countless stories of God doing miraculous things through extremely normal, sometimes even pathetic sounding people.

Today, people expect teenagers to be irresponsible, facebook-a-holics who can not be separated from their ipods and survive longer than five minutes. I believe God has designed us for so much more. He is calling us to wake up to the reality that we were not made for this. We were created to glorify Him and one way that we can do that is through showing others what His love is like through serving without expecting anything in return. We are the next generation of leaders and it is our responsibility to act and ensure that the orphans in the world today are cared for and loved. We are to make sure that we are so in tune to God's heart, that in our generation there will be no orphan crisis. That we will love so well that when we see someone in need, we take responsibility and care for them as our own. Etaala International wants to change the world for orphans through changing hearts of young people in America and enabling them to make a difference. Please add me as a friend on facebook and join the Etaala International group to read a little more about it. Also, if you are interested in joining us on the Uganda trip, email me at etaalainternational@gmail.com . I'll post the link to the website (complete with trip applications) as soon as I have it. :) (Not to sound like a grammy winner or anything but..) I have been blessed with the greatest, most supportive group of family and friends that a girl could ask for. I have wonderful godly parents that support me and encourage me to follow after God's will for my life, even when it sounds slightly crazy. It would be so easy for them to tell me that these issues are too big and be more concerned for my personal safety than to send me to Africa. or China. or Guatemala.

I believe deep down, they are terrified at times but they know God is bigger than any plan's of man. So, you...yea you. If your child has a heart for missions or orphans or serving God in a way that seems slightly crazy to the outside world, don't crush their dreams but encourage them to follow after God's heart and His will for them. They can make a difference. In the words of my friend Elsa "We have to lose our minds in order to take on God's mind." Quite frankly, most of the time when we take on God's mind and forsake our old ways of thinking, it appears we have lost our minds. And there is not another more rewarding state to be in than this.

"We are too young to realize that such things are impossible so we will do them anyway." ---William Pitt (spoken about the abolition of the slave trade in the film Amazing Grace)

Love.

A sneek peek into our week.

The Littles have been angels. The girls are more of the type of angels that hit each other occasionally and sometimes bite and sometimes take off their diapers at nap and have an obsession with flushing the toilets and washing their hands every five minutes... but overall, angels would be a good word. :) If you've ever the met the girls, you know they are 100% full of energy and too smart for their own good. The only thing is they are so fast and so busy and they move in the opposite direction. They are incredible and I love them with all of my heart but they can be difficult at times.

It's almost like God has given them a heavenly dose of benadryl this week, not even kidding. They have been so much fun and so well behaved. Thank you Jesus. :)

God has been so good. Everything has gone so smoothly and everyone has had wonderful attitudes and loving hearts. I so appreciate everyone's offers to help but we have been surviving quite comfortably!! More than surviving, we've been living quite comfortably. Elsa is a Godsend. I love her.

Today we had a case of a popcorn kernel up a nostril. We almost had an experiment on whether corn stalks could grow in sinuses but luckily we handled it before the situation was too far gone. or up. or...yea.

I have pulled three loose teeth in the past two days leaving two little boys with no front teeth. It's precious. Two years of speech therapy has gone out the window, lisps are inevitable. Ever wonder if the whole "tie a piece of string around your tooth and then tie the other end to a door knob and shut the door" method works? It does.

We really are documenting everything I just haven't had any time at all to compile our videos together yet! They are coming soon I promise. :) Pictures from Marbles Kids museum (my fave place in NC pretty much), the park, frog catching etc.

She painted her own face at Marbles. :) Swingin at the park with our poodle the way cool people do. Frog hunting. "I CAUGHT A BIG FAT PAPA FROG!!! I "FOT" IT WAS A ROCK AND DEN IT JUMPED!!!" Rennie's masterpiece involving lots of glue and feathers. :)

Kezzie looking more than slightly suspicious on the far left and the other little girl on the far right looking shocked.

We took the littles to drive their truck around at Joyner's Park. They had a blast.

This was fun until the bees came. :) First soccer practice this week!! Fun at Marbles.

Videos coming soon. :)>