Hi all,
I suppose that after 23 days of not posting you are wondering what is going on. Well...nothing, really. We are still awaiting the infamous phone call that will confirm a court date. We learned that the process has progressed to the last step and there is only the scheduling of our court appearance remaining.
I hold my phone in my hand everyday at 11:30 a.m. I'm thinking that since our case worker is three hours behind and gets to work at 8:30 a.m. her time, she may check her email, see that a court date has been assigned, and call us right away. My phone has a crazy habit of unexpectedly turning off so not only do not set it down for at least 30 minutes, I check it incessantly to make sure that it is still turned on.
In the meantime, Rebekah read a recent post on Ann Voskamp's blog about bucket lists. I loved every word of it and thought I'd post the link here. I hope you will enjoy it. It is challenging to our safe and comfortable lives so be prepared to be motivated to action.
Think of this as you read it....as we pour out the buckets that He has filled, He also does not allow them to remain empty. He keeps refilling. Over and over. He never runs out and has called us to be like Him.
http://www.aholyexperience.com/2012/08/best-bucket-list/
Until next time....
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Sunday, August 5, 2012
I haven't found out why yet, but someone sent our caseworker new pictures of Hugo. Here's the best one.
There are twelve in all but they basically all look like this. We think the blue shirt and cool sandals make him look like he is on a tropical vacation. Can't wait to see him in real life. So amazingly cute!
There are twelve in all but they basically all look like this. We think the blue shirt and cool sandals make him look like he is on a tropical vacation. Can't wait to see him in real life. So amazingly cute!
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Being Compassionate
Welcome back. As I was considering topics to blog about during this waiting time I realized I never told you a really fun part of the story. It pertains to a wonderful organization that I'm going to take this opportunity to plug: Compassion International.
If you've never heard of Compassion, it is an organization dedicated to child advocacy. It was started in 1952 to provide for the needs of 35 impoverished orphans in Korea after the Korean War. It has grown significantly and now reaches 1.2 million children in 26 countries. You may be familiar with other child advocacy groups, such as World Vision, Manna Worldwide, or Save the Children. I'm not familiar with how all of these organizations work but we got involved with Compassion because they provide for the needs of the children and also share the Gospel of Jesus Christ through programs at local churches and community centers.
There are three ways you can become involved in Compassion. One is by sponsoring a child through a financial commitment only. In this way, you can help meet the needs of a specific child. Your donation would not go into a large fund that would eventually make its way to your sponsored child's area. Rather, the money you donate goes directly to help your child.
If you want, you can go a step further. In addition to a financial commitment, you can write letters to your sponsored child and receive letters from him as well. This is what we chose to do and the letter writing is among the most rewarding things we've done.
If you do not have the funds available for a financial commitment, you can be matched with a child for letter writing without the financial part.
We got involved about three years ago when Rebekah discovered Compassion and started investigating whether or not we should be involved. She found that it was an excellent program which creates opportunities for impoverished children, in some cases literally saving their lives. We were matched with a little boy named Wincey who was about the same age as our oldest son. We exchanged letters with Wincey and learned that he lived with his grandma, attended a local school funded by Compassion, and loved playing soccer. His parents had gone away to look for work and when they found it, they sent for Wincey to join them. While we were pleased for his family that they were able to find work, he unfortunately moved to a place that was outside the reach of Compassion and so we lost contact with him.
We were then matched with another child named William with whom we still contact regularly. William is about the same age as Wincey and from the same area. We've learned about his interests and have been able to send him birthday and Christmas cards. We wants to be a police officer and so we are sending him a picture of my brother in his uniform. It is a fabulous feeling to know that we are contributing in a small way to help this little boy.
And now the fun part. Remember when I said that Wincey and William were from about the same area. You guessed it, Ghana. We have been in contact with Compassion and when we travel to adopt Hugo, we will be able to visit William as well. This was not planned, I promise. Our involvement with William started long before our call to adopt.
I hope you will consider looking into Compassion International. If you are not a Christian and have issues with Compassion's mission statement, don't let that be an excuse to not get involved in child advocacy. Needy people have needs and it's good to help no matter your religious affiliation. Feel free to investigate other organizations. If you do want to learn more about Compassion, check it out here:
http://www.compassion.com/default.htm
I promise it will be a rewarding experience for everyone involved. If you have questions about how it works, how you can get your whole family involved, or how to sponsor a Compassion Sunday at your church, ask us. We love talking about this stuff.
If you need more convincing about Compassion's impact on the lives of individual children, follow the next link to a blog post written by Ann Voskamp. It tells the story of Jonathan, a boy she met while visiting an area along the Amazon River that Compassion reaches. It was life-changing for me.
http://www.aholyexperience.com/2012/07/when-compassion-becomes-a-gold-rush-2/
Finally, check out this video of a young African man who was a sponsored child himself and is appearing at a convention during an advocacy event for Compassion. Unknown to him, his sponsor, with whom he has exchanged letters for years but has never met, is going to join him on stage. Amazing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rIElUTPBi0&feature=related
Thank you again.
If you've never heard of Compassion, it is an organization dedicated to child advocacy. It was started in 1952 to provide for the needs of 35 impoverished orphans in Korea after the Korean War. It has grown significantly and now reaches 1.2 million children in 26 countries. You may be familiar with other child advocacy groups, such as World Vision, Manna Worldwide, or Save the Children. I'm not familiar with how all of these organizations work but we got involved with Compassion because they provide for the needs of the children and also share the Gospel of Jesus Christ through programs at local churches and community centers.
There are three ways you can become involved in Compassion. One is by sponsoring a child through a financial commitment only. In this way, you can help meet the needs of a specific child. Your donation would not go into a large fund that would eventually make its way to your sponsored child's area. Rather, the money you donate goes directly to help your child.
If you want, you can go a step further. In addition to a financial commitment, you can write letters to your sponsored child and receive letters from him as well. This is what we chose to do and the letter writing is among the most rewarding things we've done.
If you do not have the funds available for a financial commitment, you can be matched with a child for letter writing without the financial part.
We got involved about three years ago when Rebekah discovered Compassion and started investigating whether or not we should be involved. She found that it was an excellent program which creates opportunities for impoverished children, in some cases literally saving their lives. We were matched with a little boy named Wincey who was about the same age as our oldest son. We exchanged letters with Wincey and learned that he lived with his grandma, attended a local school funded by Compassion, and loved playing soccer. His parents had gone away to look for work and when they found it, they sent for Wincey to join them. While we were pleased for his family that they were able to find work, he unfortunately moved to a place that was outside the reach of Compassion and so we lost contact with him.
We were then matched with another child named William with whom we still contact regularly. William is about the same age as Wincey and from the same area. We've learned about his interests and have been able to send him birthday and Christmas cards. We wants to be a police officer and so we are sending him a picture of my brother in his uniform. It is a fabulous feeling to know that we are contributing in a small way to help this little boy.
And now the fun part. Remember when I said that Wincey and William were from about the same area. You guessed it, Ghana. We have been in contact with Compassion and when we travel to adopt Hugo, we will be able to visit William as well. This was not planned, I promise. Our involvement with William started long before our call to adopt.
I hope you will consider looking into Compassion International. If you are not a Christian and have issues with Compassion's mission statement, don't let that be an excuse to not get involved in child advocacy. Needy people have needs and it's good to help no matter your religious affiliation. Feel free to investigate other organizations. If you do want to learn more about Compassion, check it out here:
http://www.compassion.com/default.htm
I promise it will be a rewarding experience for everyone involved. If you have questions about how it works, how you can get your whole family involved, or how to sponsor a Compassion Sunday at your church, ask us. We love talking about this stuff.
If you need more convincing about Compassion's impact on the lives of individual children, follow the next link to a blog post written by Ann Voskamp. It tells the story of Jonathan, a boy she met while visiting an area along the Amazon River that Compassion reaches. It was life-changing for me.
http://www.aholyexperience.com/2012/07/when-compassion-becomes-a-gold-rush-2/
Finally, check out this video of a young African man who was a sponsored child himself and is appearing at a convention during an advocacy event for Compassion. Unknown to him, his sponsor, with whom he has exchanged letters for years but has never met, is going to join him on stage. Amazing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rIElUTPBi0&feature=related
Thank you again.
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