Hope and Fulfillment

I must start today's blog with a passage from Proverbs.  Proverbs 13:12 says that, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life".  Many times I have quoted the first part of that.  I usually said it when I felt that life wasn't giving me what I wanted, when I wanted it.  It was sort of a way to say to God, "Hey, come on.  Answer my prayer, already!"  The ole "hope deferred" line also represented a certain frustration with life, not to mention a feeling of entitlement.  Historically speaking, none of those thoughts, feelings and even attempts to manipulate the heavens ever seemed to make much difference in the outcomes.  But today, I am reminded that life does, in fact, provide its moments when our desires are realized and something good comes our way.  My devotion this morning was from Psalm 35 and I noticed that in a difficult time David reminds himself that God does take pleasure in the "prosperity" of His children.  We wake up this morning with this wonderful feeling of having a desire to come to us.  Yesterday, we were informed that we have been selected to adopt 4 beautiful children pending one more interview that seems to be fairly perfunctory.  Finally!  After several years, the last 15 months of which have been up and down, we have found our kids!  Suddenly, life is full of energy and our hearts feel a sense of gratitude that God has placed this burden on our hearts to adopt and has now fulfilled that burden.  Although we are facing a few more weeks of waiting, administrative activities and of course, paperwork, we are finally going to receive our 4 new little blessings.  We could go on right now describing this moment and how it feels, but well save that for future posts over the next couple of days.  Until we talk again....

Passing through Nowhere Land...

Passing through Nowhere Land...Maybe I'm the only one, but sometimes when you feel you are suppose to do something in life, it doesn't always feel like you are making progress.  One minute you know exactly what you're doing and where you're at and then, without warning, you get this feeling of being completely out of your element and in the middle of "Nowhere Land".

 

As many of you know, we have been involved in the adoption process for well over three years now.  Its not just a noble idea for us, its a calling.  And it not only involves us simply finding our kids and opening our heart and home to them, but to join in with those in the Body of Christ who are encouraging others to get involved in some capacity.  Whether its adopting, supporting an agency or orphanage, sponsoring a child or encouraging a friend that we know is in the adoption process, we know that the world cannot afford to lose these little ones to our fears, apathy and indifference. 

 

At times it has felt as if we were making progress and at other times it has felt like we were at ground zero...yet again!  The words of Rudyard Kipling's poem, "IF", "if you can...risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss, and lose, and start again at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss..." more than capture the feeling that we've had over and over.  In this process of finding our kids we can go to bed one night knowing that God's got it all under control, convinced that tomorrow the social worker is going to call, only to wake up the next morning in Nowhere Land "starting over again".  But then something beautiful happens.  God will send something or somebody into our path that offers the strength and energy to stay the course.  Recently, I experienced one such moment. 

 

I was in a grocery store, minding my own business, waiting for the deli people to slice my roast beef, when a young lady approached me.  She began to tell me how the course of her and her husband's life was changed dramatically in response to something we had said.  At first, I had no idea what she was talking about and she thought that perhaps she had mistaken me for somebody else.  But then she went on to say that she and her husband were involved in the adoption of a sibling group.  What persuaded them to take the leap was a presentation we had done in our local church last year.  To be more precise, it was the second presentation that persuaded them to pursue adoption.  As she recounted to me, after the first presentation, she and her husband began to pray about adopting.  One of their prayers went something like "Lord, if you are wanting us to adopt, then let the man do another presentation".  To their amazement, the next Sunday, we did a second presentation about the need for families to adopt.  With tears streaming down her face she thanked me for the presentation and the encouragement to step out and open their hearts and homes to parent "the fatherless".  And in that instant, I went from wondering what in the world we were thinking about when we answered our call to adopt, to a place where it all made sense.  Our frustrations and disappointments melted and for a moment I had one of those genuine "rejoice with those that rejoice" moments.  It is such moments that remind me that a Being far more wise than I orchestrates life and fits all the pieces of the puzzle together for each and every one of us. 

 

We have shared many such orchestrated moments with each other and with many of you along our path to finding our kids.  We want to take a moment to thank each of you who have shared with us.  We can only say thank you and keep it coming.  Continue to share with us your stories of how God has touched you in some capacity to serve the fatherless of this world.  Its the difference between settling in "Nowhere Land" and just passing through.  God bless you and let me just close this blog with the words of James who said,

 

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

 

until we talk again...

10-10-10 Born 2 Fly

I came across this blog today and wanted to share it. You can read more about it on the following blogs but here is a summary about it.

Most kids are lured into sex slavery because they don’t know the deceptive tactics of traffickers. Wherever awareness training takes place, the rate of trafficking plummets. There’s just not enough, nor is it available in the languages of most at-risk kids.

The Born to Fly Project is a strategic 4-stage plan to educate kids, parents, and teachers about the dangers of child trafficking—with the ultimate goal of ending it.

http://www.born2fly.org/index_working.html

Each year more than a million kids are lured into modern-day slavery where they’re raped for profit 30 or 40 times a night—night after night. Some of them are just 4 years old. Many are right in the U.S.

If that makes you angry, there IS something we can do about it.

Most kids are tricked into sex slavery because they don’t know the deceptive tactics of traffickers. What if we could warn children and their parents ahead of time?

What if we taught them about the lies traffickers use—and how to stand up against them? The rate of trafficking would drop and millions of kids would never enter the dark world of trafficking.

The B2F Project educates at-risk children and their parents about the dangers of trafficking through a strategic 6-week community campaign. The project's centerpiece is a wordless book that teaches kids to make wise choices—wordless so we don’t have to translate it into hundreds of languages. A 70-page companion curriculum reinforces the important concepts in the book.

The B2F wordless book and curriculum are complete and ready for testing next month in the Dominican Republic.

Once we have feedback from teachers and kids, we’ll begin distributing these amazing materials all over the world. The 1-day fundraiser will raise money to do that—and prevent millions of kids from ever being trafficked.

What you can do

• Donate: Use the Chip-in widget above (or here) to donate $10. (You don't have to wait til 10/10/10 to donate of course.)
• Email: Tell 10 people about 10/10/10 and send them towww.born2fly.org or this blog.
• Blog: Post about 10/10/10. Include the Chip-in widget (see code below).
• Facebook: Talk about 10/10/10; include the Chip-in widget.
• Twitter: Tweet about it. Follow me, @DianaScimone, director of The B2F Project.
• Updates: Check my blog for the latest: www.dianascimone.com
• Show: Add a Twibbon to your Twitter and Facebook photos: http://twb.ly/9Hccsi
• Paste: Copy and paste this code for the Chip-in widget onto your blog and Facebook:

Traffickers think kids are commodities. On 10/10/10, tell kids they’re priceless.

All it takes is $10.

Happy Scrappy Quilt Giveaway!

Would you like to win this colorful happy scrappy quilt?

This happy scrappy was made with a fun mix of prints from Jennifer Paganelli's fabric collections.  It's approximately 67" x 90", 100% cotton.  We pieced this quilt ourselves, with lots of love!  And it's been machine quilted for extra durability... freshly laundered, too.  The flip-side of the quilt is pink Claire blocks, from Jennifer's Bell Bottom collection.

I saw this post on a blog that I follow and wanted to share it with you as well. The Long ladies are a lovely family of girls that sew and sew beautifully. You can see more of what they do and what they sell by going to their blog or website. I have bought material and patterns from them and they are great to do business with as well.

To enter go to their blog and follow the instructions. http://www.mariemadelinestudio.typepad.com/

Good Luck!

My World Vision House Party

Since I began applying to host House Parties, I entered every one that looked the slightest bit interesting to me. The Star Wars was the first one I was accepted for and it was a perfect fit for us. I loved hosting the party for my son and his friends and we had a great time. When I saw the World Vision party I almost didnt apply for it. Not because I am not interested in World Vision. I am very interested and I support what they do and I love it! But I didnt want to make my guests feel like they were being pressured into 'buying' something. With the other product parties, guests come and are served using the product and are introduced to the product. Whether or not they buy is totally up to them and I will never know what they do in their shopping later. The party is totally about having good fellowship and fun and there is no pressure at all. Just the thought of World Vision brings to mind that something will be required of us....of me, of my guest, of us all. So I resisted. Then, I was convicted. What if no one hosted the World Vision party for that reason? What if by hosting it one child was sponsored? What difference would that make in his life? What if by hosting it I planted seeds and even if no one came or no one sponsored a child this time, seeds were planted that grew later? How can I only host when it is easy for me and not when it really makes a difference in someone's life? So I applied and Surprise! I was chosen to host the party. Only now I feel different about it. I am honored to be a part of it. I am excited to share the vision. I hope it makes a difference in the lives of children around the world but it has already made a difference in my life. I invited everyone I know that is local to me and so far I have one person confirmed to come. It might be a small party :) we are not done yet.

http://www.houseparty.com/party/365862

One thing that was a lesson for us in planning for the party this week. We live in the country and have well water with an electric pump. We woke up yesterday morning and our water didn't work. We tried everything to fix it ourselves and after working on it all day and replacing several parts on the pump we had to call in a professional to replace the whole thing. We were without running water all day. It was a small taste of what these children we are sponsoring experience on a daily basis.  Showers couldnt be taken, toilets couldnt be flushed, hands couldnt be washed. The thought of children living each day without food and fresh water is one that pierces my heart and compels me to continue fighting not only for our adoption, but for children all around the world.  No child should have to go to bed hungry!

If anyone  is interested in sponsoring a child through World Vision, You can go to this link and choose a child to sponsor. You dont have to go to a party to do it :)

http://sn.im/12cgie

You can even pick  a child with your same birthday or the birthday of your child. We choose a child that has the same birthday as Jeffrey and they will get to be penpals through our sponsorship.

Star Wars Party pics

This is Jeffrey painting a backdrop for the party. It turned out nice.

Jeffrey ready for the guest to arrive.

Party shots.......

Everyone had a blast!

House Party everything you need for a great party FREE!!!

We signed up several months ago to host parties for House Party. I applied over and over and never got chosen until now.....

It is amazing the incredible opportunities they give people to introduce new products by throwing a party and sharing the products with their friends and family. 

We were chosen to host a Star Wars the Clone Wars 3 season premier  party and our son, Jeffrey is over the top excited!

This is the party pack they sent.......

We are going to have a great time and his friends are going to love the games and activities planned.

We have painted a space backdrop for the party and planned Star Wars themed foods. They will play the Hasbro Galactic Battle game and watch the season premier together. Everyone is coming in costume and it will be a blast.

I will post pictures after the party as well.