One last thing...

If you've stuck with me this far, on this last day of National Adoption Awareness Month, I want to share with you one last thing....a beautiful song by Steven Curtis Chapman....When Love Takes You In.

http://www.scchapman.de/Visuelles/index.php?Show=ALEGROlogy&DocPor=&DocPro=http&DocNam=Main.Htm&DocDir=/Visuelles/&DocHoN=www.scchapman.deShow=ALEGROlogy&DocPor=&DocPro=http&DocNam=Main.Htm&DocDir=/Visuelles/&DocHoN=www.scchapman.de

Follow this link and scroll down until you see the title of this song to view the video.

FYI - I've heard that SCC's new Christmas CD is great. It's titled All I Really Want For Christmas. I heard the title song on the radio the other day and let me warn you...you'll need your hankie!

Have a GREAT day!

Jill

Help save this show!!!!

I just read this morning that one of my favorite shows Three Wishes may be ending. If you love this inspiring, "family friendly" show as much as I do, please consider sending a quick email to NBC to let them know that you want this show to continue. Click the link to find out more!

http://www.amygrant.com/

Thanks!

Have a great day!

Up early with the turkey and just popped in to say,
May you have a very blessed Thanksgiving Day!

(Okay, so I'm not a poet!)

Ministry to Orphans

So maybe you don't feel like adoption is for you. Here are some other ways that you can minister to orphans and other needy children of the world:

1. Sponsor a child through an organization such as Compassion International (http://www.compassion.com/Default)

2. Go on an organized mission trip to an orphanage.

3. Consider giving financial assistance to a family who is adopting.

4. Find out the needs of a particular orphanage (such as blankets, medicines, clothes, baby supplies) and send them along with a mission team or a family who is traveling to get their child.

5. Participate in Operation Christmas Child. (http://www.samaritanspurse.org/OCC_Index.asp)

6. Give financially to other organizations who provide humanitarian aid to orphans...such as Dillon International (http://www.orphancareintl.org/) or Here I Am Orphan Ministry (http://www.angelfire.com/or3/hereiam/Missions.html)

Most of all....PRAY!!!!!

Samuel

Samuel joined our children's choir at church this year. Yesterday they sang in church for the first time. Here's a picture that Grampa took of him in his choir robe.

Happy Adoption Day!

On this day meant to bring awareness to adoption, I look at my own children and acknowledge how blessed I am. To have had your family formed by God by bringing members together from opposite sides of the world is just mind-boggling. It truly is a miracle!

I am also reminded of the work of our adoption agency professionals and government officials (yes, even them!) on our behalf. We are so grateful for all the help, advice, and support we received.

Also, I think of all the loving encouragement and support we received and continue to receive from so many people....especially our family. Thank you!

Adoption is an amazing and wonderful blessing! It causes you to look beyond yourself in so many ways. But in return, you are blessed beyond measure. I hope that as I've shared thoughts and resources related to adoption this month that you have looked inside yourself to what YOU can do to show God's love to orphans all over the world.

Lastly, I want to say to my children, Samuel, Noah, and Grace.....Mommy loves you so much!!! I don't think I could love you any more than I do!!! You challenge me every day to be a better Mom and a better person. God did an amazing miracle when he brought us all together to be a family!

Happy Adoption Day!!!!!

Great is His faithfulness!

When you were a kid, did you ever read the book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day? Well, yesterday I felt like Alexander. I was doing the "ugly cry", as Oprah calls it, all over the place. [click here to hear this book read by the author - http://www.kennedy-center.org/multimedia/storytimeonline/alexander.html]

Lately it has hit home to me how we are so blessed to have a chance every morning to start over again. I've been praying that a lot at bedtime with the kids...."Thank you Lord that we have a new chance tomorrow to start over and to do a better job." Isn't it awesome that we have a God that is full of mercy and that his mercies are new every morning? (Lamentations 3)

Of course this brings to mind the words of my all-time favorite hymn, Great Is Thy Faithfulness.

http://www.cgmusic.com/cghymnal/others/greatisthyfaithfulness.htm

Have a great new day!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!!

We love you!!!!!!

You gotta try this!

This is bizarre!!!! Have you heard of this 20 questions game?
Try it. You'll be amazed!

http://www.20q.net/

More waiting children

Here is another photolisting of children waiting for a family.

http://www.adopting.com/photolisting/index.shtml

Updated photo of the three amigos

Samuel, Grace, and Noah!!

Ode to the pomegranate...

Last year I was introduced to the pomegranate. Pomegranate season is rather short, about November to January. In honor of having my first pomegranate of the season yesterday (thanks to Grandma & Grace - a.k.a. The Shopping Buddies), I was going to write a few tidbits about the joys of this wonderful and unique fruit.

In doing a Google search I discovered that not only is November National Adoption Awareness Month it is ALSO National Pomegranate Month....WHO KNEW???????

Soooooo.....in honor of National Pomegranate Month here is a little info for you. You can file it under "Everything I never needed to know about pomegranates." Oh, and I promise that I won't write about pomegranates every day for the rest of the month! Although.....I do have one more sitting on my counter so I may get inspired....you never know!

www.pomwonderful.com

www.pomegranates.org

America's waiting children

As you probably know there are thousands of children of all ages waiting in our country's foster care system for permanent homes and a family who will love them forever.

If you do a search, most states have web sites with photolistings of available children. Here is Ohio's.

http://jfs.ohio.gov/oapl/

Leaving comments

Okay, for all you regular readers who have told me that you don't know how to leave a comment (and you know who you are! ;o) ), here are some instructions. It is really very easy!

At the bottom of one of my posts you will see the number of comments that have been left...in my case that's usually ZERO! ANYWAYS...just click on that. You'll see the spot to type your comment. When you are done choose "Other" then type in your name. You do not have to have a web address so you can leave that blank. Then click "Publish".

And PULEEEEEZ...you KNOW how I feel about anonymous comments, so please sign your name!!!!!!!!

And if you'd like, you can shoot me an email about a particular post by clicking on the envelope at the bottom of the post as well.

Party photos

Happy Birthday Noah!!!!!!

[Noah at age 1 and today]
Our little guy is 6 today!! Happy Birthday Noah-Bean!!!!!!!
We love you!!!!!!

Hope For Orphans

FamilyLife (part of Campus Crusade) has started a ministry to provide information to those who are interested in adoption. The ministry is called Hope For Orphans. One thing they do is have all-day workshops called If You Were Mine. From the information on their web site, it looks like they cover just about everything you would need to know about adopting. I wish this was available when we first started out.

http://www.familylife.com/hopefororphans/

Helpful ideas

Things to do to help an adopting family:

1. Encourage them while they wait. (But don't continually ask them "So when ARE you going to get that baby/child?" It's like asking a pregnant woman, "Haven't you had that baby YET?")

2. Provide meals, offer to run errands, or help with housework for them after their child arrives, just like you would do for a mom who just delivered.

3. Provide financial help for their adoption or travel.

4. Host a baby shower for an adoptive family while they wait or after their child is home.

5. Ask to see pictures of the child they are waiting for.

6. Be supportive and positive.

7. Love them!

8. Pray for them!

Adoption books for kids

A Mother For Choco is a about a cute little bird who goes looking for a mother of his own.

Happy Adoption Day! is a colorful book celebrating the day a child becomes part of a forever family.

I Love You Like Crazy Cakes is a beautiful book about a mother waiting for her daughter in China.

Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born by Jamie Lee Curtis is a fun book about a couple's wild trip to get their newborn baby.

Shaoey and Dot is about a baby girl named Shaoey and her adventure to finding her own mother. This one was written by Mary Beth and Steven Curtis Chapman.
www.shaoeyanddot.com

12 years and counting

On Sunday, Mike and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. Wow....it's hard to believe! But on the other hand it seems like our wedding day was ages ago. I am blessed to be married to a man who loves the Lord and truly is a man of God.

To celebrate our "special day", Mike took yesterday off from work so we could spend the day together. We got the kids off to school and Grandma's and headed out for a day of window shopping and lunch. It was a BEAUTIFUL Autumn day (It snowed on our wedding day!) and we were able to relax and enjoy ourselves. It was nice to be able to share some quiet time together....that doesn't happen much any more!

Anyways, I'm thankful for a wonderful husband and a special day to share together!

Financial assistance for adoption

I think there are probably a lot of people who are interested in adopting a child but they just assume that the costs are out of their reach. Personally, I believe that if God puts adoption on your heart and you step out in faith and say "Yes", He will provide the funds. And He may do it in some very unexpected ways.

Here is a link to a huge listing adoption assistance programs.

http://www.angelfire.com/journal/adoptionhelp/adopthelp.html

You were adopted too!

Ephesians 1:3-14

3 How we praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we belong to Christ.
4 Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.
5 His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure.
6 So we praise God for the wonderful kindness he has poured out on us because we belong to his dearly loved Son.
7 He is so rich in kindness that he purchased our freedom through the blood of his Son, and our sins are forgiven.
8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
9 God's secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ, designed long ago according to his good pleasure.
10 And this is his plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ – everything in heaven and on earth.
11 Furthermore, because of Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us from the beginning, and all things happen just as he decided long ago.
12 God's purpose was that we who were the first to trust in Christ should praise our glorious God.
13 And now you also have heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago.
14 The Spirit is God's guarantee that he will give us everything he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. This is just one more reason for us to praise our glorious God.

(New Living Translation)

Waiting children

Here is a photolisting of children waiting for their forever families.

http://www.rainbowkids.com/wc/viewChildren.jsp?sort=7

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans.....James 1:27

Better late than never!

Here are photos of the kids in their Halloween costumes. They had so much fun!

Favorite Link Friday - 11/4/05

In keeping with the adoption theme for the month, here is a link to a site with just about any information on adoption that you could possibly need. It is kind of a clearinghouse for adoption information and has tons of links. I often recommend this site to people who ask me about adoption or are just beginning the adoption process and are trying to decide which direction to go.

http://www.adopting.com

Oh my!!!!!

Have you seen this??? I would be on my hands and knees....that is if you could get me on it at all!! It is pretty cool though!

August 26, 2005—Fear of heights? This is definitely no place for you.
The all-glass, balcony-like "Skywalk"--shown in an illustration released this week--will extend over the edge of the Grand Canyon, 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) above the Colorado River.
"The Skywalk will be an attraction unlike any other in the world," said Sheri Yellowhawk, CEO of the Grand Canyon Resort Corporation. The company is building the bridge in the Hualapai Indian Reservation on the south rim of the canyon.
The Skywalk is scheduled to open to the public in January 2006 as part of a new resort on the reservation. The resort, known as Grand Canyon West, is to include a re-created Indian village and a restaurant perched on the edge of the canyon. Tourism is the reservation's biggest source of income.
Grand Canyon West will be on the western edge of Grand Canyon National Park, about 120 miles (about 200 kilometers) from Las Vegas. But perhaps not even the Las Vegas Strip's over-the-top attractions will be a match for this glass-bottom walkway over the world's biggest gorge.
—David Braun

Why adoption?

Maybe you've never thought about adoption. Maybe you're thinking "Why WOULD I think about adoption?"

Christian recording artist Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife Mary Beth shared their story of adoption on the Family Life Today radio broadcast a couple years ago. Maybe you have some of the same thoughts and questions that they did. Or maybe you've never even considered adoption. I hope you will take time to listen to this 2-part broadcast (Each part is about 20 minutes long) and maybe it will change your perspective.

http://www.familylife.com/fltoday/default.asp?id=6887&search=1&showType=&guests=steven+curtis+chapman&strMonth=&strDay=&strYear=&keywords=&image1.x=35&image1.y=11

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans.....James 1:27

Blahhhh!!!!

I'm so tired of this! I'm sick AGAIN...sore throat and chills this time. I think all that Halloween candy did me in! And I slept horribly last night...tossed and turned all night....and kept poor Mike awake too. I feel like crawling under a rock until Spring!!

It's going to be a LONGggggg winter!!!

Staggering statistics regarding orphans

According to the United Nations, there are more than
5.5 million orphans in Africa
3.5 million orphans in Asia
1.5 million orphans in Eastern Europe
Nearly 400,000 orphans in Latin America
Over 135,000 children in the US foster care system!


Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans.....James 1:27

November is Adoption Awareness Month!!

Welcome to November!!

In case you didn't know it, November has been designated as Adoption Awareness Month. Here is a little history of how this came to be.

Adoption Month History

The first major effort to promote awareness of the need for adoptive families for children in the foster care system occurred in Massachusetts. In 1976, then-Governor Mike Dukakis proclaimed Adoption Week and the idea grew in popularity and spread throughout the nation. President Gerald Ford made the first National Adoption Week proclamation, and in 1990, the week was expanded to a month due to the number of states participating and the number of events.
During the month, states, communities, public and private organizations, businesses, families, and individuals celebrate adoption as a positive way to build families. Across the nation, activities and observances such as recognition dinners, public awareness and recruitment campaigns, and special events spotlight the needs of children who need permanent families. It also includes National Adoption Day, traditionally a Saturday, which is observed in courthouses across the nation as hundreds of adoptions are finalized simultaneously.

Obviously, adoption is something that is close to our hearts. Because of that, I hope to share something related to adoption every day this month. Hopefully, it will inspire someone to consider this wonderful way to build a family.