Man Up & Protect.  My hubby’s story….

I’m with my two daughters picking up a few items at my least favorite store in the world to be at on a Saturday afternoon … Walmart Supercenter.  After spending time in the toy section with Zoie and then wondering over to the make up section to pick up a few items for Hannah, we finally make our way to the check out line.  Before I proceed any further, I need to share that we live in the Ozarks and whenever you make a trip to our local Walmart you just might see … real Hillbillies. Yes, I’m serious. I’m talking … overalls, sleeveless t-shirt, John Deere ball cap, missing a few front teeth, and a big Rebel flag tattoo on their bicep for everyone to see.

On this particular day, we just happened to get behind a particular big “hillbilly” as I described above at the check out line. I don’t know why I picked this line, but I did (It was probably the shortest). Anyways, whenever you go out with Zoie she is guaranteed to make a lot of noise and the case here was no different.  As Zoie was begging for her favorite candy – M&M’s, I noticed the man turned around and eyeballed back and forth between me and Zo as she was shouting “pretty, pretty please daddy. “  I could sense his brain trying to figure out the connection.  I’m sure I read more into it than what it really was, but in an instant, I felt a sudden rush of adrenaline kick in and I was in protective mode. Thankfully, nothing bizarre happened and life continued on peacefully.

Unfortunately, there are millions (YES! Millions!) of orphans without a Christ-centered Man Up kind of a dude in their lives. A man who will love BIG to guard their hearts, minds, and bodies from the kind of pain that takes advantage of their innocence or leave a child malnourished. I still think about the first six months of Zoie’s life when I was not there for her. I wonder if she ever had to endure the hardship of living on the streets like the baby twins that we met at Korah in Ethiopia, whose mother was so malnourished that she couldn’t produce enough milk for them to eat. What about that 14 year old girl in Moldova who just recently left her orphanage with dreams only to have a predator rob her of her freedom by turning her into a sex slave. What about the boy in Uganda who had to watch his father be murdered and his mother be beaten, raped repeatedly, and left to die.

There is a very special picture of Zoie I have that was taken in an orphanage of her before I even met her.  In the picture, there is a teenage boy holding Zoie.  I don’t even know his name, but I can see in the picture as he is looking down at Zoie with a playful laugh and Zoie with her big chocolate brown eyes looking straight up in his eyes with a smile from ear to ear.  As an adoptive dad, I treasure to know that my girl was being loved on by a man that I didn’t even know before I even met my daughter.  The loving touch of a man is huge for babies, children, and teenagers, but it all starts with us (men) creating a safe place for kids.  I love hearing about the men here in the States and overseas who are Manning Up to build and create a home of safety and food for orphans. I created the Man Up trip with Visiting Orphans for the sole purpose of men coming together to LOVE BIG on orphans., but prayerfully I’m hoping that God moves hearts of men to want to invest, wherever in this world, in the real lives of orphans to have a safe place to live , nourishment, clean water, and most importantly a man who will teach them to Go BIG & LOVE BIG by his example.   Thanks- Roger

2 Week Man Up Blitz

Purchase a new Man Up tee shirt (2 styles and 4 colors) and help us raise funds for Korah (where Zoie was born) Home Make-overs and projects the team will do in Uganda.  Click on the Store button- top right side.  Allow 2 weeks after purchase for shipping.  We only buy what we sell to save every penny for missions.  You can also make a monetary donation directly to Visiting Orphans designated to the “Man Up July 31-Aug. 14th” mission trip.

NEW MAN UP MISSION TRIP 2012

July 14- 28th 2012- Apply Now Visiting Orphans!!  The trip is filling up fast, so don’t miss out to Simply Love orphans in Ethiopia and Uganda!!!

Hi everyone, you don’t know me, but my name is Amanda Zerkle and im currently trying to raise the money to go on the Visiting Orphans August mission trip to Ethiopia and Rwanda. I have recently found my faith and decided to give my life to God on October 14th, 2010. It was the best and worst day of my life, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. Here is my testimonial, which I have never done, but am hoping that you can understand what I went through and how hard of a battle spiritually, physically, and psychologically it was for me.

A little about me….I had a very rough upbringing in that my mother was very abusive and a very bad drug addict/alcoholic. I have two brothers who also had to go through this with me which was a very difficult situation. My mother sold anything and everything we had(including food and clothing) for her drugs. She took us on all her drug runs and one time even almost killed us by almost driving drunk off a cliff. She constantly took her anger out on us and it was always a new item to hurt us with, whether it included: knives, bats, pots and pans, or just a plain belt. At one point I watched her stab my older brother in the leg after she had punched my little brother in the face. When I was five I was molested by one of my mothers friends boys, but because my mother was too drunk, when she walked in on it she walked right back out. I just never really knew her sober, which breaks my heart to this day. Cps finally came in and told us we had to live with the father or they would remove us completely. The last words I remember saying to my mom was, “I hate you.” When I was seven years old I was informed that my mother had died, but never honestly informed how. My oldest brother, Bo, went to live with my aunt and uncle in Washington state and my little brother, Bj, and I went to live with “our dad”. I say “our dad” because for eight years of my life that’s what I knew him as, but truth was he wasn’t my dad. After my mother died at the age of seven I began to act out. Getting kicked out of school after school after school. I was making myself throw up, hurting my pets, and starting fires in my house. At one point I was jumping on Bj’s stomach and while he was turning blue I just laughed. I was stuck in counseling and went through counselor after counselor and put on meds after meds.I was constantly questioning my mothers death as nobody ever really told me how she died just that she had died. My “dad” finally told me the truth which was more painful that any child could ever experience. After CPS came in and told us that we had to find other means of a living situation and we moved with “our dad”, mom went to live with a man she had met through AA. He explained to her she could live there and exchange for rent, do chores and take care of the farm, but no drugs or alcohol was allowed. My mother took that opportunity with open arms, but soon realized she couldn’t handle it. Trying to come off of drugs and alcohol and not being able to see her kids was too much for her to handle. The man came back and my mother was lying on the floor dead, gun next to her. My mother committed suicide on November 26, 1995, at the age of 32. Between what was going on and the questioning my “dad” decided he couldn’t take it anymore and there was no way I was his kid so he had a blood test done. After he found out that I wasn’t his real kid he handed me over to the State of California, I became award of the court. I bounced around from foster care, to shelter, to group home, one after the other. Constantly getting in trouble and continuously making myself sick. Not only had I just lost my mother and got separated from my older brother, I then found out the guy I had known for eight years of my life to be my dad wasn’t. Then, on top of that I was separated from my little brother, and not able to see any of my family. Bounced around and tossed around like a ping pong ball nobody cared about. It was the hardest years of my life and I wouldn’t go back for anything.

Finally, when I was 11 my aunt and uncle were down visiting and I got to see them!!!! I begged and pleaded, and cried for them to take me back and adopt me. So after a lot of paperwork and a lot of decisions, it was decided that I would be getting adopted and moving to Washington State with them!!!! I was so excited to get out of the system, but still so lost as I was still mourning over the loss of my mother. There were so many trials, tribulations, and button pushing going on it was absurd. I had never really had the chance to be a kid, so I didn’t know how to act or react to situations such as birthdays, Christmas, or even the 4th of July. School was going a little better, but once I started high school things just kind of went downhill. I began drinking at the age of 14, along with smoking weed. Since I had an older brother, I hung out with an older crowd. After all, my brother was my best friend and the only one that I knew I could really trust. I was good at school so my school work was always done and on time, but in my spare time all I wanted to do was drink. I ran away, got in fights, got in trouble with the law, and went through so many friends. Things at home weren’t going good at all as my parents weren’t getting along and the way they handled it was drinking, which made it that much harder on me. At the age of 15, i tried to commit suicide. I took a whole bottle of extra strength Tylenol and out of panic ran to tell my parents what I had just done. They didn’t believe me until I started foaming out of the mouth. From what I can remember, 911 was called and I was rushed to Southwest Hospital. They were trying to pump my stomach as well as getting me to drink charcoal, in hopes that I would throw up the vile. My liver was failing severely and acid was shooting up into my chest, so they then rushed me to Doernbecher’s children’s hospital and put me in ICU. I was not allowed to be alone at any point in time and was hooked up on so many machines and ivy’s than I could imagine. At one point I remember the doctor telling my parent’s I wasn’t going to make it. I was in ICU for 3 days and by what I as well as everyone else considers a miracle everything turned around. My vitals were looking up, the acid stopped, and my liver started to heal itself. I was then put in a psych ward for a week and told that I was not allowed to drink. After I got out and returned to school, nobody looked at me the same. Everyone was asking me if I was okay, if I needed anything, and what the could do. I WAS FINE!!!! Or so I thought. The rest of my High School was kind of a blur as it just zoomed on by and all I can truly remember is focusing on my school work and being depressed.

After I graduated, I moved in with a friend and began drinking and partying again. My family moved to Kansas and I bounced around from friend to friend to friend. Finally, I got a job at a fast food restaurant and got an apartment with one of my high school friends. Since i was drinking and partying all the time I began to get behind in my rent, my car payment, my insurance, and my utilities. All of the money I was making was going to gas, liquor, smokes, and weed. I realized that something needed to be done or I was gonna crash and crash hard. I decided to move to Kansas with my family and try to turn my life around. I moved to Kansas in May of 2008, I was 19. I started working for in the kitchen at a nursing home and got an government-funded apartment. I ended up getting my CNA license and working at the nursing home on the floor. I bought a truck and started working a lot of hours taking time away from being able to do anything else. Work started getting stressful, as dealing with the elderly is not only a physically but an emotionally job as well. All I was doing was working and working, so naturally I started to get back into the party scene. When I turned 21 it was easier for me to get alcohol since I could now buy it, and I cold go to the bars. I then moved from town to town to town as that’s where my “friends” were who all partied with me. I could out-drink almost all of the guys or girls I knew so I became the “ONE” to party with. Every night was a party nigh and in the mean time my family started falling apart horribly and there was nothing I could do to stop it. My parents started filing for a divorce and my siblings started acting out. One by one, each one of my siblings tried to commit suicide and I was the one trying to be the strong one. My parents were running to me for advice, my siblings were hurting, work was stressing me out to no return, and I was too hungover and stressed to deal with it. I was letting my “friends” move in with me because their lives were falling apart, but in reality so was mine.

On October 14, 2010 I decided to do something I had NEVER done before and that was turn to God. I never believed in him up until this point, but I had leaned on anything and everything and it hadn’t worked. So, I figured why not, what could hurt. I ran up to my pastor’s house and his wife answered the door. I starting bawling and telling her I didn’t know her, but something bad was about to happen and I needed her help. We talked for probably an hour and by the end of the conversation I had decided to give my life to God. The VERY next day I decided to go out to the bar with a “friend”. So many things went wrong from: forgetting my make-up to losing my keys to losing my wallet. All I remember was walking out of the bar. The next day I woke up in jail and was soaking wet from head to toe and not sure why. I flipped out and lit my ticket on fire screaming and fighting jailers for answers. I had no idea what I had done and wanted answers. I had no truck, no phone, no money, no family, and no friends there. Everything I knew and had was gone. I was with a bunch of strangers. I decided to bond myself out, call a friend, and find out what exactly had happened. According to the State Patrolman who had pulled me over. I was found at 2am driving down a main road on the wrong side of the road, on a curb and had stopped suddenly six inches from a telephone pole. I have no recollection of this at all as apparently I was in a blackout. When they checked my BAC level EIGHT HOURS after I had started drinking it was .199( over double the legal limit)!!!! I had went to 3 bars that night and drove clear across town not hitting anyone or anything. God saved my life AGAIN that night. That was the ONLY explanation I could come up with. I found my truck in impound, slowly but surely paid to get it out and it cost me over $500. Went to court and applied for a diversion (which was granted ) and had to pay about $1400 in fines. I had two classes to attend,got my license taken away for a year, and had to attend 10 AA classes. I then decided I was an alcoholic and needed to quit drinking. I went to God, my church, and my pastor’s wife. I knew if I was going to give my life to God, I had to give him EVERYTHING not just part of me. I started going to church, dropped all of my friends, stopped going out, and started focusing on God and I. I asked God to show me where he wanted me to go and what he wanted me to do and asked him to walk with me. After I made that decision I can honestly say it has been a HUGE spiritual battle as Satan is really REALLY trying to destroy what I have accomplished. Through prayer and lots of faith building conversations things slowly started looking up and up. In May of 2011 God lead me to Barclay College( a bible college) in Haviland, Kansas. It seemed the more and more I tried to run from it the more and more I ran into it. I continuously was having meetings with my pastor and his wife and praying praying praying about where God wanted me. When she told me about Africa I instantly felt called to it. I’m a nursing assistant and LOVE helping people, so when I get a chance to I go for it!!!

After lots of prayer and conversations with God, I decided to move in May of 2011. I moved to a Quaker town where I am surrounded by GOOD CHRISTIAN people and my COLLEGE!!!! I am currently enrolled and start school in August hoping to major in Missions and Nursing. I have two jobs and am NOT drinking OR SMOKING and my faith in God grows more and more each day. I still don’t have my license back, but am working on it and I just recently got back from Camp QuakerHaven(which was a blast)!!! I now know that NOTHING is impossible with God. God saved my life not once, not twice, but THREE times. I am more thankful for my life and appreciate it WAY MORE than I EVER have. I’m not saying things are peach pie, but I also know “Facing storms is never easy, but they are inevitable. They will come. However, God doesn’t allow storms in our lives just for the sake of them happening. He has a plan, He has a purpose, and through them all He is with us.” I am here for a reason and I cannot wait to see what that reason is!!!! GOD IS AMAZING!!!

The total cost for this trip to Ethiopia and Rwanda is $3400-$3600 and I have already raised $1400. I’m coming upon deadlines and although I know that God will never let me down, he does expect me to do my part. I’m working sixteen hour shifts and working as much as I can between two jobs that I can (It’s a struggle to get there since I don’t have a license, so I have to pay someone for rides). I am asking for your help PLEASE as a friend in Christ for either prayers or donations to my trip. My pastor and his wife (Randi) are the ones leading it and it is through Visiting Orphans. We will be visiting different orphanages and spreading God’s love to everyone, in hopes to make a difference. We leave August 7th and return on the 18th, so as you can see my deadlines are approaching fast and I’m already behind. If you would like to donate to me PLEASE either email me back for further information, or feel free to call me. Anything helps, and prayers are strongly encouraged and always welcome. God saved my life and made a difference in me, please help me to spread the word and make a difference in someone else’s life! Thank you!!!!

In his hands,
Amanda Lee Zerkle
512 N Kingman
Haviland, KS 67059

YOU CAN DONATE HERE AT VISITING ORPHANS (Designate the love gift to Amanda Zerkle account)

First of all, thank you to all my crazy guest bloggers and their amazing stories they shared with readers during the month of June!!

I’m back from my mission trip… changed and ready to share some amazing stories with you from Uganda and my mini 2-day visit to Ethiopia!  The most exciting news, YOU filled up my next Visiting Orphans June 2012 trip “Simply Love Ethiopia & Uganda” in 48 hours! This is a world record- you did this!  We are at full capacity, but with a waiting list (we are working on expanding the team bigger) If you want to go, turn in your application online at Visiting Orphans and pray for a mighty miracle! I only have 10 spots left for the “Simply Love Haiti” trip in January- don’t miss this incredible opportunity to minister to orphans in Haiti (I’m bringing along Jack Bauer).

For the next two weeks, right here on My Crazy Adoption Blog- I’ll share my top 6 mission trip stories from the children and ministries that radically changed my life in Uganda.  I love this quote from Francis Chan’s Crazy Love … by standing in awed silence before a mighty, fearsome God, whose tremendous worth become even more apparent as we see our own puny selves in comparison.  I’m just a crazy mom, puny sized faith at times (not puny hips) constantly having to do His work afraid, but learning more and more each mission trip I go on.  God really healed my heart in Uganda and I can’t wait to share what He did for thousands of orphans living in Kampala and Jinja.  We serve a mighty God!

What things in your life is holding you back from doing what God wants you to do?

Thank you!!

You helped the Man Up trip raise over $2000 with the purchase of the new Man Up tees!!

On Orphan Sunday, Christians stand for the orphan . We are a people called to defend the fatherless…to care for the child that has no family…to visit orphans in their distress.  Orphan Sunday is hundreds of events across America and beyond, all sharing a single goal: that God’s great love for the orphan will find echo in our lives as well.  Every person can get involved.  Events can be whatever the Lord calls you to do.  Some events in the past have included sermons, small groups, concerts, prayer gatherings, etc.—each rousing believers with God’s call to care for the orphan…and what we can do in response.  Orphan Sunday is your opportunity to rouse church, community and friends to God’s call to care for the orphan.

The seeds of this united Orphan Sunday come especially as a gift from the Church in Africa. While attending a church service in Zambia, an American visitor was struck by the pastor’s passionate call to care for orphans in the local community, which had been ravaged by AIDS and poverty. Members of the church faced deep need themselves. But as the service ended, one after another stepped forward with money, food and other goods-some even taking off their own shoes and placing them in the offering for orphans.  The visitor, Gary Schneider, was so impacted that he began to help Zambian leaders coordinate Orphan Sunday efforts across Zambia. These efforts spread to the U.S. in 2003 with help from Every Orphan’s Hope and other organizations.  The Christian Alliance for Orphans honors the church in Zambia for the gift of Orphan Sunday. We pray the Church in America may be as faithful to reflect God’s heart for the orphan, both near and far.

Shuffling for Stingrays
Not long ago, our family went to Florida for a week of playing in the waves and building sandcastles. Some very dear friends of ours have a family beach house and they invited us to join them on their annual trek to the beach. You know when you travel with friends, it either endears you to them more, or it makes you never want to see them again. In this case, it made us life long friends and we are so grateful.

As a part of their annual trip, they rent a pontoon boat and travel along the bay to a place called Shell Island. My friend has bragged and bragged about this place and the huge, beautiful shells you can find there. I am a sucker for finding a cool shell on the beach, so I was very excited to go. When Shell Island was in our distant sight, my friend, let’s call her, Jenn, pointed it out to me and said, it looks really weedy on this side, but once you get over that sand dune to the other side, it opens up to the most beautiful beach you have ever seen. This really got my heart beating fast. I am a sucker for a beautiful beach.

We anchored the boat, at what seemed to me, way too far out in the bay. As I sat on my comfortable seat in the boat, I surmised that to get to the most beautiful beach I have ever seen, I would have to walk a long way and through some nasty, murky ocean water. This did not excite me. I am not a sucker for walking in cloudy water, especially cloudy ocean water. There’s all sorts of things swimming around in there.

And as I continued sitting, wondering how I was going to get to the other side, Jenn said to me….Now, Dawn, when you are walking towards the shore, you have to kind of shuffle your feet and stir up the water. Don’t walk like normal, you have to shuffle. You have to shuffle for the stingrays.

The what?

The stingrays. You shuffle your feet so they know you are there. Apparently it scares them away so that you do not accidentally step on the stinger.

Alrighty.

My first step off of the boat was gross. My flip flop stuck to the ocean floor and I had to pull it out of the thick murk in order to shuffle. And shuffle I did. I shuffled all the way to the shore. Once I got there, I had to walk through tall ocean grass and step on broken shells that crunched under the weight of my shoes. I walked over the dune and as I looked ahead, the most beautiful beach was before me. Water bluer than my mind has ever imagined. Sand so soft and white that my feet sank into it like a fleece blanket.

It really was the most beautiful ocean view I have ever seen. I had to walk through some pretty gross water to get there. I had to shuffle my feet so that a sting ray would not attack me. I had to change my attitude because I did not want to even walk over there.

Isn’t that how it is with life sometimes? We have to walk through some pretty tough stuff to get to the beauty that God has before us. Most of the time we are afraid to take the first step and we resist. We kick and scream, we throw a fit, we hold on to all that we know to be true, and all God is asking is for us to take one little step, a few shuffles here and a few shuffles there.

There is a beautiful beach awaiting.

Written by Dawn Funderburk (friend)

I am blessed to get to be part of this crazy blog while Kari is in Uganda.  We are one of those families that God has chosen and blessed to grow by adoption.  Our family is currently a family of four and is growing to become a family of six.  We have one homemade daughter, a son adopted from Russia, and are adopting twin girls from Uganda.  While in the adoption process we decided to everything we could do to adopt debt free.

Our family began to find ways to cut cost on household items.  One of the first things we started to do was make our own laundry detergent.  It takes roughly 30 minutes and the savings are great.
Most of you might think this is crazy and that’s okay.  I hope your opinion of that changes when you see the savings a family can have.  The average cost for one load of laundry detergent by leading brands is $0.40 to $0.50 a load.  The average family household does 400 loads a year.  That is a cost between $160 and $200 a year.  The recipe I use makes enough laundry detergent for 680 loads in a front loading washer.  It will last us approximately 18 months.  The best part about this detergent is that one batch of 680 loads cost a whole $2.00.  Most families spend around $240 to $300 for 18 months of laundry detergent; my family spends $2.00.  Store bought laundry detergent is mostly water so why pay so much for it.
I know you must be thinking does it really work?  Is that possible?  Yes, it does.  I hope most of my close family friends will vouch for me on this but we don’t smell and our clothes our clean.  It doesn’t take a degree in chemistry to make.  I bet if you can make jello you can make your own laundry detergent.

You will need a large 5 gallon bucket to make it in and store.  You will need a dispenser, I have a laundry detergent bottle from a leading brand that has a spout on it.  I keep this full in my laundry room for easy access.
The ingredients are:   1 bar of soap (preferably one without dyes or perfumes; I use Ivory)
1 cup of Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda (don’t use any type of substitute, I find this at Kroger)
1/2 cup of Borax
You are going to grate the bar of soap.  I have been very successful using the grating plate on my food processor for this. Add this to a medium size sauce pan filled with water on medium heat, stirring continuously until all the soap is dissolved.  Fill the 5 gallon bucket approximately half full with hot tap water.  Add the melted soap, washing soda, and borax.  Stir until it is all dissolved.  Then fill the bucket to the top with more hot tap water.  Let this sit undisturbed for 24 hours.  During this time the process of saponification will occur; the process of soap making.  The mixture will turn into a slimy gel.  If you would like you can add essential oils to scent the detergent at this point, I use a scented fabric softener added to my washing machine.   Fill the dispenser in your laundry room with half water and half laundry soap. When you get ready to use the soap you will need to give it a good stir or shake before each use.  For front loading washers use 1/4 cup.  For top loading machines use 5/8 a cup.
Please follow our family on our adoption journey to learn other ways we have learned to save money in order to fund our adoptions.

www.stewartsadoption.blogspot.com

A Hard Conversation With Myself – Alisa Martin
I started thinking about this as we were completing our second adoption.  Fund-raising.  And can I just say we did a lot of fund-raising, which was probably what made me think long and hard about it—coffee, t-shirts, celebration cards, garage sales, silent auctions—and I’m sure I left something out.  Oh, yeah, begging.  But that doesn’t count, does it?
With the adoption of our first son from Ethiopia we weren’t very schooled in fundraising, so we didn’t really make any grand attempts at it.  Yet we were still blessed to bring Micah home without incurring any debt.  I was working part-time, which helped a little.  And we had some very special Brothers and Sisters in the Lord make some very generous donations toward our adoption expenses, which helped a lot!!
Even still with our second adoption I think I lost a little faith.  God did such miracles to bring our Micah home that I really just expected to have to suck it up with Judah.  So the fund-raising ensued.
But something really started to haunt me as we pursued different fund-raising efforts.  I was asking others to give toward our adoption, but what was I willing to give??  Or maybe give up is the better question.  I’m a stay-at-home mom and my husband is a minister, so we don’t have much expendable income that we just blow.  Our cars are older, and paid for.  We don’t take luxurious vacations.  We never spend more than $20 when we eat out.  I don’t own a pair of jeans that cost more than $35.  So there’s really no where to cut back.  Right?
Well for some reason, I was still never able to find peace about our adoption fund-raising.  Yet I pushed ahead anyway…hoping for that generous donor.  Let’s face it, if we’re honest, fund-raising is really just an elaborate way to say, give me money, please—and preferably ten times the cost of whatever I’m selling.  In the end, God graciously (despite my waning faith) provided in a beautiful and unexpected way.  However we still returned home from China with adoption debt.
Where in the world am I going with all this?  Oh yeah, fundraising.  Or maybe I could call it stealing.  Here’s where it gets sticky.  And let me just say that my husband and I have had some heated discussions about this, and he’s not in total agreement with me—but please let me think out-loud anyway.
Stealing??  Who in the world was my family stealing from??
For starters, the 14-year old sexually-abused girl in Russia who will never have a home…the exhausted pastor in Haiti who’s pouring himself out for orphaned children in his community…the little boy in Cambodia in desperate need of surgery to repair his club foot.
A deep, lasting impression was made upon me when I read King David’s words in the Old Testament many years ago (1 Chronicles 21), “I will not take for the Lord what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”  Now I know there are adoptive families who have given their all, and I know others who have very little to give.  But I can’t help but wonder if maybe you’re like our family, giving to God what really cost us nothing and stealing from the poor all the meanwhile.  And maybe even robbing other adoptive families who desperately need assistance, but aren’t cool enough in the blog-world to be known.
What could we have done differently?  I believe if we would have had the audacity to ask God that He would have shown us.  Maybe down-sized our rental home to an apartment, sold one of our vehicles.  I realize this isn’t possible for all families, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have possibilities of your own!  And I hope you’ll consider them as you press forward in God’s call for your family.  I know we will.
When we chose to fund-raise first instead of sacrifice, stop and consider, who are we cheating?  Amid the masses, could it even be that we’re cheating ourselves.  Hear me!  Fund-raising isn’t inherently wrong—but instead of using our adoptions as platforms to pedal our goods, maybe we could make some major life-style changes, and fully-devote our platforms to the Gospel and orphan care.  Educating and encouraging friends and families who’ve not been called to adopt about ways they can serve the fatherless whom will never have families coming to get them.  And most importantly, open the doors wide for the laborers who are sharing the good news with the destitute fatherless about the Father of the fatherless—a Heavenly Father—a righteous judge

Who will execute their justice!