goodbye and hello

we have been honored to sponsor two children through compassion international.  i have been so impressed with their ministry--their heart for truly making a difference not only in children's lives, but their family's and community's as well, their integrity, their financial wisdom...i could gush on and on.

this past week we received some rather sad news from them.  mwamnyazi--our nine year old from kenya--had to move away from this compassion project due to the fact that both of his parents have passed and no one was able to take care of him in the area.  he has moved to live with his uncle.  his uncle does not live in a compassion area, so our sponsorship of him has come to a close.  i cried.  there was a sweet departure letter, but the goodbye seemed so abrupt as we were just beginning to learn his story and who he is.  as i called compassion's sponsor relations line to determine the next step, the counselor shared some very dear things.  she reminded us that it is so good that he will be with some family instead of being passed to an orphanage.  she reminded us that we need to continue praying not only for mwamnyazi, but for his uncle as well...that the seeds that were planted will continue to grow and he will become a man of God and live his life for Jesus.  the compassion staff was so supportive and understanding and reassuring that God has a plan for Him and this is a part of it all.

so...we had the privilege of supporting him for a brief season and will never forget the things he shared in letters and the beautiful dark brown eyes in his picture.  i hate saying goodbye--especially when we do not know if there will ever be an opportunity for a 'hello' again this side of Heaven.  i pray that God does mighty, mighty things in his life.

after knowing the difference that compassion sponsorship can do in a child's life, we did not hesitate a moment about asking for the opportunity to sponsor another child.  thinking and praying about it all, compassion worked with our requests and found us another child in brazil--same country as micaelly--that was in a similar predicament as mwamnyazi...awaiting a sponsor and has limited family to help in their care.  looking online, we learned that we will now be sponsoring a fourteen year old girl named maria.  i cannot wait to get our packet and first letter from her.  she is more than a story, she is a girl that has dreams and plans...and hopefully now is filled with hope of what God can do in her future.

one goodbye and one hello.

we may never get to meet these dear, dear children here on earth.  i cannot wait to hug them in Heaven and see all that God made them to be!

p.s.  would you please consider making the difference in the life of a child here and now?  sponsorship is about a dollar a day and can truly be the difference of life and death for a child. visit Compassion International online today.  honestly, i have been blessed beyond measure for the few dollars...it changes me every day and i am grateful!

insomnia...kind of

i am tired but cannot sleep.

i want to be productive but am having a hard time focusing.

it is times like these when often God is trying to get my attention.

i am going to be quiet and listen.

there are small thoughts that are swirling and rising.

i need to listen.

whirlwind

been a whirlwind of a week and the next week is looking like one too.

better find a quiet moment to get ready for the new week.

seriously stylish

my almost four year old has been expanding his vocabulary lately.  kids are little sponges, soaking the world in around them.  it has been fun to talk and to figure out his understanding of the world around him.

a couple days ago, i rearranged colin's room to make it 'new' for his birthday week.  yesterday, i was cleaning windows when he came up behind me and asked me this question:

"mom, do you think my room is stylish?" 

my reply: "stylish?  well...  ahhh...what do you think 'stylish' is?"

colin: "stylish means it is very clean."

my reply: "then, yes, it is stylish right now.  we'll ask that again in ten minutes!"

this morning, colin came up to me and said "mom, i am seriously ready to go."

"seriously, colin?"

"seriously, mom."

he proceded to use 'seriously' in as many sentences as possible today.

i seriously loved it! :)

cliche phrases

i grew up hearing the phrase 'treat others the way you want to be treated'.

as Christians, people who look to Jesus Christ as their source of life and for the ultimate model of how to live life daily, this phrase is more than some cliche.  we are not just to live this phrase out, we are to go beyond it--we are to treat others better than ourselves.  

wow.

it saddens me that every day, i am surrounded by people who claim Christianity as their credo, their religion, their lifestyle preference, yet the actions simply do not align with this principle of treating others better than you would yourself.  i know we all have faults, selfish moments, sin--but the Bible makes it abundantly clear that selfish behavior is not a sign of God at work in our lives.  we should be known for our selfless love, our servant hearts, our humility because of the work that God is doing in us daily.  it is that selfless love and humility that will draw others to who Jesus is because it is only He that can help us get past ourselves and love others without condition.  

religion can be filled with cliche phrases.  i pray that my life is filled with signs of God at work in me...love, patience, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  i know i am incapable of those things in their purest essence without His work in me.  i want Him to unleash those things so i can only point to God and say that it is all Him.

timeless classics

this afternoon, colin and i snuggled under a down blanket to read stories on a cold day.

sick dinosaurs and bears that talk helped us learn a small lesson or two.

he asked me to sing him a song i knew when i was a little girl.  (i love when he asks things out of the blue!)  the only thing that came to mind right away were nursery rhyme songs--

jack and jill

humpty dumpty

london bridge

he kept asking for song after song.

i forgot a few words of some of the more obscure ones,

so we went and got my mother goose book out that my grandparents gave me for christmas.

we opened the cover and there was a note from them, dated 1975.

i got a little teary.

we read and sang and sang and read.

little boy blue

what little boys are made of

little jack horner

colin loved it.  we went through the over one hundred pages in this book with yellowed pages and drawings that they don't do anymore.  i loved that he loved it.  he asked if we could read them again later.  how can i say no?

(i am trying to figure out how to use some of mother goose's vocabulary in my daily conversation...'betwixt' has got to fit in there somehow!)

terrible patient

i have been fighting a cold for about a week.  i am not a very good sick person.

i have to be incredibly intentional about taking things easy,

about intentionally stepping back and laying low,

about giving the body time to heal while it is fighting infection.

one of the boys has the same cold,

so we have taken times to snuggle for a tad longer than normal.

cannot complain about that :)

colin is a go-getter even when he is under the weather.

(it just requires you following behind with kleenex and antibacterial hand sanitizer.)

hoping we are on the downhill side of the colds.

at least this round.

(going to get some orange juice...)

things don't always make sense

one of the lessons i have been learning lately is that things do not always make sense and that is okay.  things may happen that are unexpected, that are different than the way we would like them to be, may seem unrelated, just seem plain wrong in our perspective...but here is the kicker--the problem is our perspective.  we see things completely from our own vantage point with our interest in mind.  we can be aware of others perspectives, but will not see things fully from their point of view no matter how hard we try.

now pull back and recognize that there is a God who has the full perspective--of all plans, of all circumstances and situations, of all goals and outcomes, from the beginning to beyond infinity.  He has and knows the big picture.  it is His perspective that we should be trusting in.  it is okay if something may not make sense to me because in God's plans, it has already been orchestrated fully with a final outcome and plan in mind.

knowing that God has what's best for each one of us in mind, we can trust Him for all the things in our life--tragedies and triumphs, big and small steps, logical and illogical...He is the perspective we need in our lives.

vote--it's a right and responsibility here.

running circles

i am sitting on my couch watching colin and chewy run circles around each other, around the upstairs, around me.  i am not dizzy...yet.  although i am becoming exhausted--they do not stop...ever!