Sometimes I Have to Remind Myself

Psalm 46

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

There is a river whose streams make glad the City of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.

Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Come and see what the LORD has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth.

He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.

He says,

"Be still and know that I am God;

 I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth." 

The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. 

Jacob-wrestling God fights for us, God-of-Angel-Armies protects us.

(So what the heck am I so afraid of? )

Perfect Timing

This has been somewhat of a chaotic, insane, out-of-control week. I showed up for work this morning expecting nothing less than another crazy day.

Then this morning one of my students presented me with this: 

  and very sweetly wished me a happy birthday.

As you might remember, my birthday is in May :) 

Her mom also wrote me a note, as her daughter had convinced her that it was in fact my birthday, and she told me how hard she had worked on making me this card.

It was a sweet moment.

Turns out that it did end up being a chaotic, insane, hard day.

But it was nice to have this little reminder of how sweet life can be in this crazy world.

And how God uses these little ones to be His hands and feet through the simple things.

Life is good.

Introducing Bethany

Around the world today there are approximately 143 million orphans, many of them waiting for their forever families to find them.

The numbers are overwhelming. Sometimes it is easy to let the numbers paralyze. But each of these children have names, faces, personalities, dreams.

Today I am going to introduce you to one of them.

This is Bethany. She is five years old and is from Eastern Europe. She has delays in psychomotor and physical development, as well as being HIV+.

Bethany will turn 6 years old in March of 2012. At this time she will likely be moved to a larger institution for older children, where her care and chances of being adopted will greatly decrease. Sadly, because of her HIV status, this means her chances of survival will decrease as well.

Two days ago I saw Bethany for the first time, and I couldn't stop thinking about her; so today I became her warrior.

Bethany is a Reece's Rainbow child. As her warrior, I have taken the honor of advocating for Bethany, as well as raising funds for her adoption. Many families who would like to adopt just don't have the financial resources to do so. By having funds available to help with the cost of her adoption, it will increase the chances of finding Bethany's family.

There are a few ways you can help connect Bethany with her forever family.

You can donate through Bethany's page at Reece's Rainbow. All donations are tax deductible and will help get this angel girl home where she belongs.

You can also help by spreading the word about Bethany. The more people who see her darling face, the better the chance her family will see her.  Feel free to share her page on facebook, twitter, or anywhere else that people gather! Also, you can grab her button to share on your blog. (I created a button, be impressed.)

 

<br /> <a border="0" href="http://reecesrainbow.org/bethany1606" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1178.photobucket.com/albums/x376/shebecomes/Bethany2.jpg"/></a><br />

The task of finding this sweet girl her family by March can feel a bit intimidating, but I have no doubt that God has the perfect family ready and waiting to find their daughter. I hope you'll join me in warrioring for Bethany to make this possible!

If you would like to become a warrior for a waiting child with special needs, please visit Reece's Rainbow.

P.S. I am linking up with Forget Me Not Friday.

Hold Him Closer

This little boy has been on my heart and mind a lot lately, even more than usual.

If you are not familiar with Joseph's story, you can find it here, and an update can be found here.

Although Joseph is not an orphan, he became part of Tecla's orphan ministry when we first met him as an infant, in 2006, because of his dire situation.

Like so many families, Joseph's has been torn apart by alcohol and infidelity. Throughout Joseph's life, his father has been mostly absent. And when he has been present, his example has been less than ideal.

I recieved an email back in April that Joseph's father was in prison. I had mixed emotions about this. It is never a joyful thing for a child to lose his father to prison, but at the same time, he would be less destructive behind bars.

Then just last week I recieved another email. Joseph's father is now home. He was released from prison, not because he had finished his sentence, but because he is sick. The hospital has turned him away, and now he lies at home, waiting to die.

I am sad for Joseph. Sad that a loving father figure has been absent from his life. Sad that the time he spends with him now is simply because his father has no other choice. Sad that he must watch him suffer. And I am sad that Joseph will soon lose his father, because as imperfect as he has been, he is his father.

I wonder how much pain and disappointment Joseph has felt because of this man, yet I know his death will only cause more sadness.

Its one of those times I wish I could be there to hug him and hold him and love him. But I must remember that we share the love of The Father, who loves him even more than I.

And He is there to hug him and hold him and love him every second of everday.

So I ask you, Father, if it is possible, could you hold this little boy a little closer and love him a little louder, because what he needs ~now more than ever~ is the love of a Father.

Amen.

Pop a Squat

I'm sorry for the lack of depth my posts have had lately, but I have spent the last day catching up on life and the internet, and this is one of those things that just needs to be said.

Since when is squatting cool?

Incase you haven't seen this yet, the new "thing to do" is owling.

Basically owling is squatting and posing like an owl, and posting the pictures online. The sillier places you squat, the "cooler" you are.

This is a real thing people. I read about it in the Washington Post for crying outloud. It is the new planking, which I didn't understand either, but this is getting out of control.

I am all for doing crazy weird things, but I am 97% sure that there is a person whose goal in life is to make people look as stupid as possible, and thus came up with a way to get them to squat in public for no apparently good reason.

Source

Should this photo be called

Owling

or

How to Use a Squatty Potty

???

I just don't get it. If you do, please explain. Maybe everyone is losing their mind. Maybe people spend so much time in front of the computer that they don't know there are actual fun and cool things to do in the world. Or maybe I'm just getting old.

I should stop there, but with all that said, I must say that for some unexplainable reason, I think this guy is cool.

Source

Maybe he started it all and everyone wants to be like him. I don't know. I'm just so confused.

And the Winners Are...

Congratulations to the winners of the Beautiful Giveaway.....

1. Jane from Flight Platform Living

2. Katie from Imperfect People

Coincidentally, both of these ladies have awesome and very meaningful blogs. I encourage you to stop on by and say hi :)

And if you haven't yet, check out Beautiful Feet Global Outreach!

God Bless,

Good ol' Google

I just checked my stats and discovered that people have been coming to my blog through a google search of

Jerry Springer that baby aint mine....

I just searched it and my blog came up numero uno.

Is it weird that this makes me happy?

Why You Should Wear Your Glasses...Especially in the Woods

First I must say that this story is likely one of those "you had to be there" stories, but I thought I should share it anyways. If not for a laugh, then for your safety.

One of my favorite things to do is hiking. I grew up camping and fishing and running around barefoot and dirty in the woods, so it really is a place that feels like home.

Last weekend my friend Mary Ann and I went up the mountain to hike to the top of a waterfall. It was a beautiful day and we were ready for some adventure.

We had no idea what we were in for.

We started on our trail, and a few minutes later as we turned a corner Mary Ann grabbed my arm and whispered that there was a bear to our right.

Fact. Bears eat beets. Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.

I look up ahead to the right, and I see it there, the large brown bear by the trail that my friend was assumably talking about. 

I start to back up from the big scary bear when she points out the bear that she is actually talking about, which is to our immediate right, way too close for comfort.

Then I see the bear cubs that are now closely to the back of us.

We are going to die.

She starts to pull me forward, but frantically I tell her to stop because she obviously is blind and doesn't see the other huge, gigantic, massive bear to the front of us. We are surrounded.

We can't go back without getting closer to the cubs, we can't move forward because of the huge bear that waits for us at the next corner, and if we stay there we will die by the sharp teeth of an angry momma. So we go to the left, up the mountain, around the mamma and babies, and finally around the other bear that my friend still doesn't see....

We get a safe distance and stop to breathe and to take some pictures.

After a few moments my eyes focus on the other bear, and realize why she didn't see it...

Because it was a log.

Yes, I almost died of a heart attack and made my friend climb up the side of the mountain to safely get around a huge log.

Blind. Old. Lady.

Long story short, we survived the real bears, and the stupid log bear, and we made it to the top of the falls.

On our way back down the hill we laughed hysterically about that stupid log that I was freaking out about, and I made note that a lot of logs really do look like bears.

We decided that on the way back we should stop by the bear log and take a picture so we could look back at it and laugh.  

But then, as we neared the log, we saw this...

Needless to say,

we got the heck out of the bear haven, 

Mary Ann's husband will never let her go hiking with me again, 

and you should always wear your glasses in the woods.  

Confessions

You know how people make comments on facebook and twitter followed by a #andmorewords. I don't know what that means.

I am blind but I don't wear my glasses. I am even required to wear them when I drive, but they make me feel like I am hovering. Not sure thats safer.

When I leave comments on other blogs I almost always forget to click "subscribe to comments"...so I spend a good amount of time trying to remember what comments I made so I can check back and see if they replied...because if their reply requires my reply I don't want to be rude.

My world is spinning way too fast and I have accepted the fact that I am not going to catch up with everything that has happened over the last month with all my bloggy friends. So if there was something important, just tell me.

When I read or write posts with links and the links do not open in a new window it drives me nuts. Anyone know how to make it do that?

And last but not least, school starts next week, and that makes me want to curl up and cry. For the first time ever I am not excited and or ready for the first day. I haven't had time to rest and refuel. My patience is at a low, and in my job patience is the number one job requirement. Help.

Oh, Yeah. And I haven't worked out at all this week (other than swimming) because I washed my tennis shoes four days ago, and I have been too lazy to lace them.

 

Beautiful Giveaway

About a year ago, as I was scanning through blogs, I came across this beautiful lady.

Her name is Melissa, and she had lots of good stuff to say. But the words on her blog that kept jumping out at me were:

ZIMBABWE. ORPHANS. ZIMBABWE.

Some may say that it was a coincidence, but I would say this was a God thing.

Whenever I (rarely) meet a person who shares my love for Zimbabwe, there seems to be an instant bond. And Melissa was no different.

Over the last year I have seen more and more of her beautiful heart, not only for Zimbabwe, but for orphans and special needs children all over the world.

From this passion Melissa has founded an organization called Beautiful Feet Global Outreach.

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news...Romans 10:14,15

In celebration of BFGO becoming and official Tax-Exempt Non-Profit Organization, I am going to give you stuff!

In exchange I just ask that you check out the awesome things that are happening with BFGO, and open your heart up to falling in love with this ministry as I have.

For this giveaway there will be two winners, each will recieve one of these lovely necklaces, handmade by Melissa. (You can read the story behing these jasper rocks or buy one of these lovely necklaces here. All proceeds go to Beautiful Feet Global Outreach.) 

Tear shaped brown colored jasper neclace.

A rectangular shaped greenish blue Jasper rock with beautiful brown markings. I want one.

How to enter:

1. Check out the BFGO website and let me know you did. I'll take your word for it. I'm trustworthy like that. (This is mandatory to be qualified for the other entries.)

2. Follow or subscribe to the BFGO blog 

3. Like the Facebook page.

4. Share this on your blog, facebook, twitter, and/or other social forums. Each share will count as one entry.

Please be sure to leave a seperate comment for each entry so I don't miss any! The winner will be drawn on Monday, August 8th. The first winner drawn will have the choice of  which necklace they would like. Oh, and last but not least, make sure that somewhere in your comment there is a link to your blog or email so I can contact you if you win!

God Bless,