One More Home

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." James 1:27 ESV While in Haiti, our team visited three different orphanages. I, myself, went to two, and they were two very different experiences. I probably won't share both stories in this one post. Anyhow, if you can recall, before I left for this trip, I wrote that one of my reasons for going to Haiti was that I didn't just want to write and share my heart for orphans when I'd never been face to face with one. I wanted to be hands-on. I wanted to be a woman of my words, not just a writer of my words. So, before we departed, Jerry (a wonderful godly man who helped arrange our trip) asked us what did we want to do while we were in Haiti. And several of us girls, with smiles on our faces while bouncing a little in our seats replied, "We want to go to the orphanages!" Yes, we want ...

" 1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,  because the Lord has anointed me  to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,  to proclaim freedom for the captives  and release from darkness for the prisoners,  2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor  and the day of vengeance of our God,  to comfort all who mourn, 3  and provide for those who grieve in Zion -  to bestow on them a crown of beauty  instead of ashes,  the oil of joy  instead of mourning,  and a garment of praise  instead of a spirit of despair.  They will be called oaks of righteousness,  a planting of the Lord   for the display of his splendor."  Isaiah 61:1-3 NIV One week ago today, I stood in the place where this picture was taken by my own camera. Haiti. A place that seemed far away from the bluegrass hills of Kentucky. A country that many said they would never go to. Unfam...

I've yet to mention the price tag that comes along with this adoption, and I'm not about to start giving spouting a list of facts and figures to you right now. Surprising, I know, as I love that kind of thing. Suffice it to say, adoption is more expensive then a brand new car and less than your average mortgage. For many, that many-digit figure will be the stopping point. It can be overwhelming to look at the bottom line. Hopeful musings turn into impossible dreams, and adoption becomes that thing that other people do. The people that can pay that much money. As for me and my house, we aren't those people on paper. I don't have thousands sitting in an account that I just couldn't figure out how to spend, nor do we live at the top of the tax bracket. In fact, most of the adopting families I spend time with fall into the same category. But, we do recognize that God has blessed us with more than enough, and so we choose to sacrifice, to budget, to save and to work ...