Moving Mountains

GUYS. I have some really, really, really incredible news. Reece's Rainbow has started a new project called Moving Mountains. Basically, combining the children's individual grants and other donations Reece's Rainbow has received, the financial barrier of adopting these children has been eliminated.

DID YOU HEAR ME? ELIMINATED. The entire process has been covered. NOTHING stands in the way of these children coming home except the right families finding them and committing to them.

I know that not everyone is in the position to adopt right now, but more than likely you know someone who is. Many families would love to have the blessing of adoption but have been inhibited by finances. If you want, share this news on your facebook, your twitter, your blog, word of mouth, wherever. And of course you can always pray for them when you think of it!

Do it for Sunny

Do it for Tim.

Do it for my precious Sergei-boy, who you all helped raise money for a year and a half ago and whose picture(s) have been on my fridge all this time. God is doing a mighty work in Sergei. The healing of his body from his baby pictures to this is absolutely astonishing.

Do it for Mark.

Do it for handsome little Morgan, with his giant brown eyes.


Do it for suffering little Owen who can't go much longer without medical attention but would blossom inconceivably from the benefits and corrective surgery and the unconditional love of a family.

Do it for Evie.

Do it for Brigita.

God is faithful for the orphan. He is faithful to the last dollar. Faithful to the last tear. Faithful to the last lonely one. Blessed be His name in all the earth.

Fleece Blanket Project

I'm still working to raise a fuss over my girl, Heidi.

And so is my friend Chelsea for her girl, Robyn.

Remember my attempt at raising money for Heidi by making necklaces? Well, I had a couple of requests but not much interest. The fact is, one of my lovely little siblings, who shall remain nameless, took it into his or her head that after I had spent three hours braiding enough silver thread to make two necklaces the best possible plan would be to sneak in with his or her scissors and cut them to pieces.

We all recovered.

However, my desire to complete that particular project was rather squashed. Thankfully, my friend Chelsea still had as much drive as ever, and we got together to brainstorm fundraisers for both of our Reece's Rainbow beauties. We decided on making fleece tie blankets, and we have these two above as examples. You can either order one just like one of these two or you can place a request for color/pattern combination and we'll do all we can to make it happen! Just leave a comment or email me at ama2@bellsouth.net to place and order.

The blankets are double layered fleece made made from 1 1/2 yard of material, and they cost 25$ a piece. It is for our girls, remember.

Unfortunately/fortunately I'm a fan of old school snail mail as far as paying goes (read: I have no idea how to implement one of those chip-in things). So, either send your check via envelope, owl post, whatever, or you can donate the amount directly to Reece's Rainbow and just tell me that you did. I trust you.

So, feeling sweaty? Loving this humid, summer weather? Spending time at the beach? Still in the month of July with the rest of the Western Hemisphere? What you need is definitely a double layered fleece throw blanket. Duh.

Thanks guys. :)

Jar Fundraiser for Heidi

First of all, sorry for the extremely blurry picture.

I've had a jar sitting out for my beautiful Heidi-lady since I became her 2011 warrior a couple of months ago. Tonight I turned on a movie and sat down to count out what we'd collected so far. The grand total came out to be $37.72!

This is truly the easiest fundraiser in the world and it sparks conversation when guests see the jar with his/her on your counter.

Set out a jar for your RR baby or your sponsor baby. Just do it.

I love you, Heidi.

Spreadin' the love....or the work.

We have a lot of work to do.

In fact, until Jesus returns we are called to be constantly doing one of three things: Working. Resting. Or Worshipping.

And by work I mean Kingdom work, and by rest I mean Kingdom rest (As in, not chocolate bar glutton rest and not endless hours of facebook rest. Real, healthful, body-spirit-soul rest. Says the chocolate-eating facebook addict. Not as I do, people. Not as I do.)

That being said, we have a lot of work to do. We are working with Christ in redeeming, in gardening the world. Our world is a mess, but our work is far from hopeless. Actually, our work is certain to succeed. Good will always prevail over evil in the end. Good is so much bigger than evil.

I digress. But happily. :)

My dear IRL* friend (to steal a phrase from this lovely blog), Chelsea, is working on raising money, like many of you, for a little Reece's Rainbow girl for the 5/5/5 project. I'd be delighted if you jumped over to her cute, green blog (doubtless she would be delighted as well) and poked around to learn more about her fundraising efforts and see what you can do to help.
*in real life

We're working together. We're gardening together. We have a lot of work to do.

And someOne has gone before us. Blessed be His name in all the earth.

Imperishable

Sorry, this is going to be a long one. I am not sleeping. I love sleep and it is rather late, but about 100 things are keeping me awake. First of all, the Gould family adoption fundraiser was a smashing success! I can't even describe how wonderful it all was and how faithful the Lord has been through the whole process. Originally my mom and I were heading it up, but I have a tendency to get really excited about and idea and rally and go crazy and then fall off the band wagon when things get tough. Its a sin and its wrong and God is really revealing that to me lately. Anyway, my mom was really the lady of the day, along with several other amazing women who have more perseverence than me. We held the event at Sodium, which is really a pretty amazing ministry in itself.

Michael and Julia enjoying some lunch.

My mom working the silent auction in her one less orphan shirt from the Elliots. She is my hero and my best friend. I love her. :)

The soon to be big sister of a beautiful Ethiopian sibling! Me working the silent auction. Lela Grace and the Gould's youngest son Ian (affectionately known as Sho on the blog:)

My brother Joseph (in the Titans shirt) and the oldest son of the family that lived with us last summer. Love them.

The Lord brought in SO much more money than any of us were expecting, which was such a huge blessing. I was so blown away and the thought I was carrying around in my head all day was "Lord, you really are good!" I think its something I know in my head all the time, but yesterday literally everywhere I turned all I could see was the goodness of the Lord. He is who He says He is. He is faithful. He is good.

The second reason I can't sleep is because of this girl.

Meet Diana.

Isn't she beautiful? Her precious little pixie cut and missing tooth, ah. Diana is an orphan on Reece's Rainbow. She has Cystic Fibrosis, a lung condition that is terminal if untreated. Diana needs a family badly so that she can get vital medical attention, her time is short and every breath is a struggle for her. Several people are working hard to get her story out there so if you have a blog or a facebook page be sure to share about Diana. You can see her information on the Reece's Rainbow website and visit Dreams For Diana which is a blog all about her! Her eighth birthday is approaching in April the 24th, wouldn't it be amazing if her forever family could commit to her by then? Please help spread the word where ever you can!

Finally, just lately I've been convicted about advocating for the orphan, sure, its easy to do on a blog or with people who already know about and love orphan care, but what about in everyday life? How can we get loud about orphans on a daily basis? I have several ideas that will probably each get a post in themselves in the next week but I do want to mention one thing.

At my school, the seniors final project is an oral defense of a thesis they have written. I've written about the thesis process before, but this year its a little different. We give a 3-5 minute speech in front of more than just the school and then answer three questions defending our thesis. My paper is about adoption and I am excited for the opportunity to get to share in a way and to a group that I wouldn't normally get to. While was at my teacher's house the other night practicing, she threw me a practice question about practical ways for people to get involved. I was surprised. I was expecting something a little more scholarly or historical perhaps. I listed off a few things, but now I am going to make a list and have several really doable ways for people to get involved in orphan care after hearing my speech. I am so excited and nervous, I really need the Lord to just use me and have it actually be all Him.

My pastor preached recently about Sodom and Gomorrah and about how God didn't destroy those cities because their was too much sin, but because their weren't any guardians. Not even 10 were to be found in the city, Abraham asked. We as Christians are called to be guardians and preists in this world, interceding and covering. We are called to be preservers. We are called to be salt.

This evening I was praying for Diana and asking the Lord for a specific verse for her.

"For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality."

~1 Corinthians 15:53~

What does salt do? Salt is a preservative. Salt makes that which is perishable, imperishable. God is swallowing up death in victory and we are a part of the story. We are the salt. He is making all things new.

So we do not loose heart.

I need Africa

Have you ever heard of African Leadership?



They are an incredible organization working in 22 different countries with many different projects, but focusing on pastor training. When my mom and I first went to Africa in 2004, we went on one of their short-term, vision trips and our family has been involved with them ever since.

Anyway, the reason I bring that up is that they have started to spread this idea that totally makes my heart sing: "I need Africa more than Africa needs me." How incredible is that? If you've got Africa (or any people group/country) on your heart you know exactly what I mean. They are selling these incredible t-shirts (there are more on the website) for just twenty dollars as a fundraiser, and I'm hoping to give a lot of them as Christmas gifts this year.








In case you're interested. :)

EDIT******
ok, so when I just tried those links none of them worked, so here they are in order:
African Leadership: http://www.africanleadership.org/
"this idea...": https://www.mochaclub.org/i-need-africa
T-shirts: http://www.zambooie.com/mochaclub/

try that.... :) sorry for my lack of computer skills!