He is Mine

Some Sunday morning snapshots with my love taken by our 8 year old daughter.  With a little Photoshop, I thought they turned out great.  Love Him!!!!!!!

I love him more everyday!

The Difference

Through tear-filled eyes you hear the words, "Nobody wanted us."  Left at a young age, not the only child, but one of 4, and the oldest only 15 years old and the youngest 3 years old.  Their father left them years before for someone other than them and their mother.  Years later, their mother abandons them.  None of their family would take them in.  They had no one to care for them, no one to provide for them.

They were born into turmoil and extreme poverty.  A world where life was already very hard, and it just  got even harder.  When they became abandoned, their grandmother offered to take their older brother but none of the other siblings.  They went into government custody and remained there for four years until their mother decided to resurface.  They lived in a system with so many other orphans and abandoned children, where the common thought is, "I was not wanted.  I am not wanted.  I am not loved."

This is not a Costa Rica epidemic, it is a worldwide epidemic.  It is an epedemic of people not having the knowledge of what a true father is, and most of all who our heavenly father is.  It is an epedemic of people never learning what love is and how to love.  These children knew their father left them long ago, made another life for himself that excluded them from his heart and his life altogether, and the only thing they had left was their mother.  Left with nothing and in government custody, they call their father, begging for him to get them out.  He appeared for a few visits, but left them there.  Four years, these children were left in an orphanage, until their mother came back.  They left the orphanage and returned back to a place where there mother still couldn't provide and care for them.

These people are no different than you and I .  I was born in the United States of America.  I was born in a land where education is everyone's opportunity, where those who have nothing can obtain food stamps, women can feed their children with WIC, provide their children with free medical care, receive unemployment checks for a time until they can find a job, and so many more benefits that it is really just embarrassing when you think about the extreme suffering in the rest of the world.  I lived in a place where even if I couldn't find the job of my dreams to provide all the comforts and necessities to my family, I could have flipped burgers making minimum wage to provide them with food and shelter.   I could make minimum wage and obtain a higher salary than most people in the world and buy goods that are at a much lower price and more readily available than anywhere in the world.   I was born with parents who loved me, cared for me, and provided above and beyond what I ever needed.

The difference is millions of children in the world are born in a place where their life seems impossible to change.  They live in circumstances, that just aren't realistic to residents of the United States.  They live in places where they cannot continue their education enough to even read.  They live in a place, some with parents, some without, and they all think "no one wants me."

And the biggest difference is so many don't know God, they don't know Jesus, and they don't know His love.  How do you imagine a heavenly Father who is so awesome when all you have ever seen is the polar opposite of what God is?  And how will they ever know, if we do not "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation" Mark 16:15.  How will they ever know what LOVE is and that,  "God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" 1 John 4:16 if we are not teaching and being a light to the world?

God Made the Truth

How simple the mind of a child works, how truthful it is, and how basic it is.  We are told to be this way in Matthew 18:3-4 "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

God made the truth.

God is TRUTH. Hebrews 10:8 "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever." He stands for the truth and what is righteous.  He doesn't waver.  He doesn't change.  He is a constant.  

God made me.

He made me in his image.  Genesis 1:27 "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."  He made me and knows everything about us.

We have the Bible, His word, to guide us through this life.  Do we look?  Do we listen?  Do we LOVE it?  There are times in life when I think I have not looked and listened, and in turn didn't love it enough because I chose not to look and listen to what He says.  As I dig deeper, strive to listen harder, and love it more than ever, I realize that His ways are the only ways.  I must stand for His truth, what He says.  

It so humbling to see the mind of a child loving God, loving His word.  I must say it makes my heart swell to see my child express this love.  To be more like a child, more like Jesus...and less like me.

A Broken Heart.....

I have been researching about Democratic Republic of Congo and piece of my heart tore off into a million pieces.  The children and people of that country have no hope.  They are inhabitants of the poorest country in the world...that is FACT!!  The number of orphans in that country is astounding and that does not even count the number of street children that are roaming living on the brink of death with every breath they take. 
I recently had the privilege to speak with a native Congolese woman, who now lives in the United States.  She now travels back and forth.  She described the poverty to me in such detail.  People say it is all relative.  It is NOT!!!!  I am sorry, but it is not.  I have been to other countries and it is not relative.  They still need basic necessities to live, and they are not any cheaper in those countries.  Thus far, every country I have been on most items are the same price as here or more expensive.  So for someone who lives on less than $1 per day cannot buy beans to feed their family, because enough beans to feed their family would more than deplete their monthly income.  And that is only food to put in their starving bellies.  That does not pay for $2 medicine to save their child from dying of Malaria, clean water to drink, electricity, schooling for their children, and the list can keep going and never end. 
A piece of my heart broke off when I was told and read in various places that in the Congo, little girls as young as 4 and 5 years old will sell themselves to survive.  They will become victims of child molestation to simply survive.  They will become victims of extensive sexual, mental, and physical abuse.  It starts at that age and NEVER ends...NEVER!!!!!  My oldest daughter is 6 years old, and I will say again my heart is broken...BROKEN!!!  Your child, your daughter will have to sell herself at the young age of 4 years old because she has no food to put in her mouth.  She has had no food for days, weeks.  Her belly is distended and full of parasites.  She will willingly make herself a victim of horrid abuse to simply be able to take another breath of life.  This child has no hope.  She has no future.  She will not go to school and she will never be able to break the cycle.  She has no voice.  She does these things and cannot cry out, because who is she going to cry to?  She has NO ONE!!  My heart not only is broken for these girls, but is in a million pieces because people, Christians, so not care.  They care more about themselves.  When you do nothing to change the world...you simply do not care.  I can sadly say I was there once.  I was there where it was out of sight, out of mind.  But now it is not out of sight, and it sure is not out of my mind.  Those children do  not deserve to live like that.  They do not deserve to be orphans.  They do not deserve to starve to death.  They do not deserve to live with a broken heart.  What they do DESERVE is for our HEARTS to BREAK so then we can then mend their heart back together with our love.  They deserve a life of HOPE and LOVE.  Will you allow your heart to break so that an orphan's heart can be healed?

                                     
If you have the time go here and read some gut-wrenching facts and thoughts that should make your heart stop a few beats and cause a tear-stained face.

Minus 1

147 Million is a huge number. But, just think, it could be 147 million minus 1, 2, 3, and so on. All it takes is a heart open to love. I love the orphans with a passion I cannot describe. And, God loves us so much more than that. Don't be afraid of the unknown. There is a child out there that NEEDS you, and you NEED them. You walk ten months with a life growing inside of you and your love for that child grows so much before you even meet that child. When you adopt, you have an adoption pregnancy that can sometimes last from 2-3 years...just think of how much love you would have for that child after that long of waiting to hold that precious one.
My husband says I cannot adopt them all, but if there were a way I could, I would. My heart breaks for them, cries for them, and loves them from the other side of the world. I challenge you to look into the eyes of an orphan and tell them, "No, I cannot protect you. I cannot feed you. I cannot clothe you. I cannot hold you. I cannot handle you in my life. You might be too much for me to handle." Did Gid say that to us? I hardly think so. He loves us so much that he sent his son to DIE for you.
As you lay in bed tonight thinking there is nothing You can do for the orphans, think of the child who has no one to call their own, has no food, has no clothes, cries out and knows there is no one to soften that cry and fear for them.