My Life Is Crazy Too is a new series of reader submissions. This is your opportunity to share stories about life, love, and mommyhood to provide understanding, hope, and compassion in the unique situations each of us face every day. If you would like to submit a story to this series, email me. Today’s crazy guest is our SUPER-nanny, Dovie White!!!!!!

GODS TIMING IS PERFECT … It’s a promise that we can stand on.

Kari asked me to tell my story. To tell the world about God’s faithfulness in my life and how he brought me here to Addis.

It really began three summers ago. I was sitting on my bed shortly after school had ended my softmore year, contemplating weather to work at Cold Stone again or try something new, when I started begging and pleading with God that he take me out of the country.I longed to go on an adventure! Then I allowed myself to compromise and pleaded for at least something long term, even if it was still in the country, and eventually just that he would bring me a NEW opportunity. He was quick to answer by allowing me to be a nanny KAA for the Janke family. It was a month long job that ended up being EXACTLY what I needed that summer. It was the perfect amount of time, for the perfect amount of money, with the most perfect family for that time in my life.

What I did not understand then, was that God still heard my FIRST plea to travel the world, it just wasn’t time yet.

Fast Forward to the beginning of my senior year, my sweet friend Alex Snyder asked me to lead a bible study with her, for freshman girls. This is something we had been given as freshmen, and something we wanted to give as seniors. We wanted to invest in younger girls and be mentors, because we had been blessed with that gift by girls before us. However, the beginning of my senior year when Alex approached me about getting a group started, I was not quite feeling up to par. I had heard a thousand times though, “if you wait till you feel ready, you’ll wait forever.” So the small group began and I came to know Hannah Gibson and her family.

Since her brother and I graduated in the same class, I had mingled with them a few times over the years but never got to know them personally. The small group really sparked our friendship and gave us the foundations for a now “family” like relationship. Throughout the year I still felt less than awesome as a leader but was constantly encouraged by Alex, and my family and the girls! We ended up growing really close and meeting weekly to hang out and pray together.

One night probably in March, I ran into the Gibsons at my favorite Chinese restaurant, Panda House. We chit chatted for a while and Kari casually mentioned, “We are really hoping you join us this summer in Ethiopia as a nanny. Oh is that Lo Mein? Well we better head back to our table…” I was sure she wasn’t serious. That sounded too good to be true! But, sure enough, a week later she called me to ask formally  if I would come with them this summer to be a nanny for Zoe and a friend for Hannah, and to help them both with the transition. She told me right up front that they wanted to cover the expenses and that she wanted to meet with my family soon to discuss it! AND, that they had hardly any for sure details and that it would certainly be an adventure!

I was ECSTATIC! I hurried and told my parents who were 100% on board and amazed at such a wonderful blessing!

Then it started getting sticky, one thing after another sent Plan A (Three month adventure living and serving in Addis Ababa) further and further away. The house wouldn’t sell, the job wouldn’t end, the finances weren’t there yet. It looked doubtful. Kari eventually called me to tell me that it wasn’t going to happen. I was heartbroken for them, and sad I wouldn’t get to travel. Continue Reading

I can’t believe what YOU did!! You helped us sell 676 tee shirts for the mission trip giveaway AND support the Haiti and Moldova projects with Children’s HopeChest. You made a big difference in the life of countless children and communities that will benefit from your donations! The winner of the mission trip will be announced on April 2nd on Facebook (look to the right side of my blog and click on Like!)

This sweet family in Pignon, Haiti thanks you, too …

Don’t forget, CHC requests your patience on waiting for your new Simply Love and Man Up tees (did they do an amazing job or what!) They are ordering all 676 tees in bulk to save every penny for the mission projects. As soon as they get the tees printed … they will mail out to you! Again, THANK YOU for your cheers, prayers, support, and shout outs for the past two weeks!

What’s next in my crazy life? Here are my top three big events coming up …. Continue Reading

Over the past three years, I have received hundreds of guest posts from you, my crazy readers. These are your real stories and you inspire me, encourage me, and fill my heart with compassion as we embrace the unique situations each of us face in life. I learn from you…. you are beautiful, kind, smart and important!! I know … quoting The Help is kinda corny, but I mean it! I’m starting a brand new series to compile all your submissions in one “easy to find” spot- My Life Is Crazy Too. I’m going back through the years and including your guest posts to the series to make it overflowing with stories you can re-read and share. I want you to tell us your story. This is a 100% mom blog that wears a lot of hats… we support and cheer for moms, advocate for adoption, and take care of the fatherless living James 1:27. This blog is ALL about sharing real life stories about how crazy life gets- the good, the bad, and the crazy in life, love, and mommyhood. As a mom, I need daily encouragement from other moms, sometimes just to make it through my day with a 18, 15, and 4 year old! My Crazy Adoption is not just about encouraging parents through the adoption journey…. but so much more!

Last week, one of my best friends went through a miscarriage. It was so heartbreaking watching her go through the agony of losing a child. It brought me back to the terrible day we held our son when he died. The pain of loss is so severe that the only thing you really want to hear from your family and friends … I’m so sorry!! The joy now in my life, I can share from my own experiences …. I didn’t have to ask her what she needed, I already knew. Every loss is different, but the pain is the same. I wish like crazy she wasn’t a part of the “club” of moms who have lost a child, but this is real life. God adopted us and promised us that He will never leave us or abandon us. He will walk with us through the pain and craziness of life. Continue Reading

One of my favorite things (as a mom blogger) is when men speak up and want to share on my blog. I appreciated this post from my friend, Caleb David-  Machine Gun Camera here and thought this would be another cool perspective on short term mission trip. My guest, Ben Singleton, really challenged me to look deeply in the heart of what Jesus considers “wasteful.” I want you to feel like your growing and gaining greater understanding when you have the opportunity to go and share the gospel with the world’s unreached people groups- there IS a place for long or short term missionaries- mission-hearted people that want to simply love and live James 1:27 in a crazy way. I want to know your thoughts after you read this new post. This is a crazy reason to encourage your hubbys, brothers, uncles, and friends to Man Up and Go. Don’t forget to come over bright and early on March 5th to My Crazy Adoption and enter to WIN a mission trip with Tom Davis’ Children’s HopeChest ministry!!!! Mark your calendars!

I just read your post and the last couple from Tom Davis. There seemed to be a common theme so I thought I would weigh in…

First of all, I think the conversation about short-term mission trips vs. long-term holistic solutions should be started in scripture.  Matthew 25 provides crystal clear support for meeting urgent (short-term) needs.  Jesus recognizes his own by their response to hunger, thirst, nakedness, imprisonment, etc.  It is important to note the response that Christ affirms as “knowing Him” is embodied in giving a drink, a meal, a shirt, or a visit.  He doesn’t necessarily ask for holistic solutions, economic development, not even (interestingly) any preaching, teaching, or theology lessons.  What lessons can we take from this?  First, the obvious message is that if we truly indwelt by the Spirit of God, we will see people (especially “the least of these”) with love & compassion in a way that make’s their needs more important to us than our own agendas.  Second, the gospel can be clearly and effectively communicated to the lost and hurting by our attitudes and actions if we truly love God and love others as ourselves.  Third, each of us is not called to solve every problem under the sun, rather we are called to respond with love and compassion to needs that God puts in front of us.

It saddens me deeply to see people who are deeply committed to the ideas of compassion and justice diminish the value of short-term responses to deep, urgent, legitimate needs.  While we are all called to be good stewards of the abundant riches God has poured out on us, it is just as important not to lose sight of what God considers good stewardship.  For example, Judas chastised Mary for “wasting” expensive perfume anointing Jesus’ feet instead of giving it to the poor, but Christ sided with Mary’s action.  By all worldly standards, Judas was correct that it would be more prudent to sell the perfume for the benefit of the poor, but this was not God’s purpose for the perfume.  This account rings in my ears every time I hear believers criticize the “effectiveness” of Spirit-led acts of compassion.  Other examples that God’s accounting systems don’t work like the world’s are found in the Good Shepard leaving the ninety-nine just to find the one, or the poor widow whose two small coins were “more” than large bags given by rich people.

I have also heard people criticize the “wastefulness” of the thousands of dollars required for each participant to undertake a short-term mission trip; the common sentiment being that funds could be more effectively used in other ways to benefit the least of these.  Again, an empty bottle of perfume pops into my mind.  But so does the fact that almost all of us spend money to take a vacation every year, an act that is probably just as expensive and yet roundly accepted and even encouraged.  Why is a trip to Africa condemned as wasteful when a trip to the Bahamas is much needed break from our demanding lives?  The answer, I believe, is that the source of attacks on the prudence of short-term trips mission is the father of lies himself.  Let’s look at this another way.  Imagine that your best friend lives on the other side of the country and is diagnosed and hospitalized with advanced pancreatic cancer.  What would you do?  Your first response wouldn’t be to work overtime so you could send money to help with his medical bills, to make a donation to the American Cancer Society, or to start doing your own research in a desperate attempt to find a cure.  Obviously you would go see him, even if the trip cost a lot of money, required you be away from your family for a short time, take time off work, etc.  The same is true with short-term missions.  It is an entirely appropriate response to the love and compassion that Spirit gives us for orphans in Africa, for example, to go and be with them.

There are even camps of people who criticize adoption because it doesn’t solve the root causes of the orphan crisis.  Again, the enemy must surely be the source of these ideas because ADOPTION IS THE GOSPEL as clearly demonstrated in Ephesians 1.  There could have been no more holistic solution to the suffering of three of “the least of these” who now call me Dad.

On the other hand, Isaiah 58 instructs us to loose the chains of injustice, set the oppressed free, to spend ourselves on behalf of the hungry, to satisfy the needs of the oppressed, and to be repairers and restorers.  None of these directive can be accomplished in the short-term.  Accomplishing these Kingdom purposes requires time, wisdom, resources, and commitment in addition to the love and compassion required in Matthew 25.  The problem with focusing solely holistic solutions to fixing broken nations is two-fold.  First without the simple, compassionate love of Matthew 25, Christ-followers will not have the staying power to affect long-term change, and without first going, seeing, listening and living the pain of the least of these, Christ-followers will have the wisdom to understand the problems. Second, some of the least of these simply cannot wait for a long-term solution (revisiting again the wisdom of leaving the ninety-nine just to find the one).  Christ conquered BIG problems like sin and death, and he told us to solve big problems like poverty, oppression, suffering, hunger, thirst, and injustice.  I think it is worth while to note that before Jesus conjured the grave, he fed thousands, hugged lepers, ate supper with prostitutes and thieves, celebrated with friends, wept with the mourning, loved children, spoke the truth, and offered the Kingdom of God to all.  There is nothing wrong with his children doing the same smaller things before accomplishing the bigger ones.  

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