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 ...

Friend, let's have a little personal confession moment. I am an emotional eater. Just about any day that falls on the calendar is a good day for food. And, if you'd like any recipe, restaurant, grocery store item recommendations, I'm pretty much your girl. So, as mother of three (including one teenager), as well as trying to be mother to four (insert long wait for fourth child via mountains of paperwork, interviews, and international adoption process), this point of my life has a variety of emotions. They aren't even what I would classify as "negative" emotions. Mixed in with the stressful, "pretty sure all my hair is going fall out before this is said and done" moments, and more often than the "what am I thinking, I'm not even doing a good job parenting the ones I have" moments, are plenty of "life is wonderful" and "God is just blessing my socks off" moments. Cue emotional eating. Graciously, God has been...

I teach a class on Wednesday nights that's going through the book "Orphan Justice" by Johnny Carr. You may remember it was one I recommended people read. I'd even go so far as to say, that book was the spark that started this whole adventure of trying to speak up and reach out to the fatherless. Anyhow, this week's chapter was entitled, The Unseen Enemy - Orphans and HIV/AIDS. On my way to class that night, I shared with my middle child that we would be talking about HIV in class. His reply was, "Oh yeah, I know what that is, it's that disease they have over in Africa." I quickly explained that, yes, HIV is prevalent in Africa, but it's found in all parts of the globe to varying degrees. I don't know about you, but I can remember when HIV, or rather AIDS made it's big debut in the headlines. Some said it was a disease for needle-pushing drug users, others labeled it the gay man's disease. Either way, people were terrified. It was...

Guess who got her passport in the mail last week? This girl! I feel a certain sense of freedom in knowing that I can travel to far off destinations, and yet, still be allowed back into the U.S. when the day is done. Like my boundaries just expanded ten-fold and I've got a whole new list of places that just became available to me that weren't just two weeks ago. So, what's a newly passported world traveler to do? I'm leaving the country, of course! But, I'm not going to China just yet. I know, I know. We'll get there, friend. And when we do, you know I'll write at least a word or two about the trip for you to read. For now our destination is......HAITI!!! In less than two months, I will be leaving on a jet plane headed south to Haiti to hit the mission field. And, oh my goodness, I'm excited. I haven't been on a mission trip since the days where I was sportin' big bangs courtesy of Aqua Net and Kriss Kross was all about making ya...

I believe that forewarned is fair warned, so I'm stating up front, I'm grouchy. I'm in one of those moods where I could just sit and stew on the things running in my mind, just indulging my bad mood and feeding it so it grows even bigger, consuming my entire day. It's my hope that maybe if I share my thoughts, I'll drag myself out of this sticky pit and be able to proceed forward with a fresh outlook on the rest of my day. Let's start with how I got here... I'm a social media type of girl. I may not let you know what I had for breakfast/lunch/dinner or check in every moment of my day so you know that I have "left the building" and am on my way home/to soccer practice/ dance practice/ church, but I do check my Facebook, have a Twitter account, and I even post an Instagram photo or two. So, it's not surprising that I follow some of my favorite preachers, teachers, writers, musicians on these media venues. This morning I was scrolling thr...