When Love Takes You In

I'm not sure how I've never heard this song before but I just cried as I listed to the words of Steven Curtis Chapman's, "When Love Takes You In".  What an amazing beautiful song about the love that takes in a child into a home.  Here's the video and lyrics.  If you don't understand adoption just listen to the words and think about being the child that is praying every night for a family.

I know you’ve heard the stories
But they all sound too good to be true
You’ve heard about a place called home
But there doesn’t seem to be one for you
So one more night you cry yourself to sleep
And drift off to a distant dream

Where love takes you in and everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
When love takes you home and says you belong here
The loneliness ends and a new life begins
When love takes you in

And somewhere while you’re sleeping
Someone else is dreaming too
Counting down the days until
They hold you close and say I love you
And like the rain that falls into the sea
In a moment what has been is lost in what will be

When love takes you in everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart

And this love will never let you go
There is nothing that could ever
cause this love to lose its hold

When love takes you in everything changes
A miracle starts with the beat of a heart
When love takes you home and says you belong here
The loneliness ends and a new life begins
When love takes you in it takes you in for good
When love takes you in

Adoption Poetry

Here are some poems I wrote many years ago.  Until I was in my mid-twenties and married I struggled with deep issues of abandonment.  As a child who was taken from her mother at a young age, placed in foster home after foster home, rejected and abused by an adopted mom and rejected often by peers, I had a lot of build up issues.  I'm happy to say that most of them are gone and replaced with a deep desire to help others simply because I don't want anyone to feel the pain I felt and because I love God and this is a desire I believe He has put in me.  I wouldn't change any part of my life or what I went through because I am happy to be exactly where I am, doing what I'm doing, loving the family I love and living the life that destiny brought me.  I choose not to live in regret because one changed event would mean a different set of circumstances and I can't imagine that (nor do I have time to try to).  Enjoy!

A Place for Me?

A place all my own

that's all that I long.

A place that's mine,

a place I belong.

Is there such a place?

I'm not even sure.

A place that's safe?

A place that's secure?

Will there ever be, 

a place just for me

or is this a dream

that will just never be?

A Real Love

When you tell me that you love me

When you tell me that you care

I want so much to believe you

I don't want to have to be scared

Scared that you're going to leave me

Scared that you'll walk away

Scared that those were words

You never meant to say

So help me understand

Please help me to believe

That this is a love that's real

That this love will never leave

Auction - Juicy Couture Yellow Fluff Handbag

Juicy Couture Yellow baby Fluff Handbag

Preowned

White Leather flowers on both ends

Rhinstone gold chain Charm pullie with the Juicy J logo

Bid to help us raise adoption funds.  

The bidding will be open from Dec. 5 - Dec. 6. at 5pm.  
Simply reply with your e-mail address and bid amount and at 5pm, Dec. 6th 
the one with the highest bid wins.  

Happy bidding.

What's the point of adoption?

So I have recently been harassing my FB and Twitter friends for donations to help with our adoption.  I shared the blog before this on on my wall and was asked by a teenager, "What's the point in adopting?".  He said he wasn't trying to be rude, he just didn't get it.  I was actually very sad that he didn't know and if he doesn't know then how many others don't understand the need for adoption.  Here was my response:

I'm not sure what your home life was/is like but think about times in your life when you were scared....who was there to make you feel better? When you accomplished something great, who was there to congratulation you or cheer you on? Was it family? Now imagine not having any of that. Imagine never getting tucked in at night because there are 50 other kids and only a few workers who treat you like a job, not a child. Imagine that no one listens to your dreams, your hopes or your fears. Imagine turning 18 and going into the world and you have NO ONE to turn to when times get tough. You have NO WHERE to go at Thanksgiving or Christmas....no one to celebrate with. Why would anyone want to withhold that from a child? Being in foster care or a children's home or an orphanage is not the same as having a family. When you aren't a part of the family you know that you all alone and whether it's true or not, deep down you believe that no one wants you or loves you. Would you want to go through life thinking that no one loved you enough to call you their child? If I could I would take every child in or find a good, loving home for every child so they never had to feel like that. I know how it feels and no one, especially children should have to feel that way.

I've filled my life with a lot of distractions and unnecessary things.  I've pursued personal goals and accomplished many of them but as I get deeper into my own adoption and as I connect with others going through adoption or helping families with adoption the more the fire in the core of my being burns with desire to do more.  This may be IT.  This may be what I've been destined to do with my life.  I love technology, I love people, I love Haiti, I love to help those in need, I love orphans and hurting teens......put all that together and I can become an advocate, a doer and leader in adoption and connecting families together.  All these things I've filled my life with have been preparing me for this season and while I'm scared to fail I am so excited to see what God can do with me.  Please pray that I will do what I'm called to do and I will do it well.

Why Adopt?

Not everyone is called to adopt but those who are have to follow through or it haunts your thoughts, your dreams, your future.  As an adoptee I always believed I would adopt through the foster care system, and I probably still will, however, I fell in love with these two kids at an orphanage in Haiti and there's no turning back now.  I love them, ache for them, dream about the, envision their future and pray for them as I do for Destiny and Christopher....they are my children. 

Not everyone understands that, especially when there are so many needy children right here, in the US.  I have a personal belief that ALL children deserve a forever family, not just US kids, not just Haiti kids or China kids....ALL kids.  I can't give ALL kids a home so if someone is passionate enough about the kids in foster care to be offended at my (or anyone's) international adoption then that person needs to go do something about their passion.  I will jump off the soapbox and onto the reason I started this post......

I just read this on another blog and loved it (www.addingtotheandrews.blogspot.com).

We don't adopt to "rescue" children.

We don't adopt to become the next Brangelina.

We don't adopt to get a pass into Heaven.

She goes on to list all the reasons they are adopting so I wanted to make my own little list......

We adopt because I know the feeling of rejection and abandonment and the amazing feeling of being accepted in a family through adoption.

We adopt because every child deserves to know and believe they are valuable and special.

We adopt because kids shouldn't have to cry alone or celebrate accomplishments alone.

We adopt because we see our own kids in the kids at these orphanages and we can't handle the thought of our children having to live without the love we share with them.

We adopt because we love God and He tells us to do something to help those in need.  He tells us to help the widows and the orphans.  He puts something in each of us that we have to answer to and we are not going to ignore it to make our secure, US lives as cushy as it can be.

We adopt because our heart won't let us not.  We didn't ask to fall in love with these kids.  We didn't go to Haiti with the intent of adoption at this time in our lives.  We just went to help, like we have been for many years.  Now our heart told us to help more.

Hope in Adoption

I spend hours each night searching the internet for adoption hope...... I hope that I will learn of some miraculous new way to adopt our kids from Haiti in a month or less.  I hope I will read that Martelly has sign the new law allowing parents to be over 30 years old instead of 35.  I hope I will cry with joy because everyone is posting of homecomings.  I hope I don't cry, yet again, because of the deep sorrow and pain that we all feel in this time of wait.

I am thankful that in this agonizing time of wait that I do have hope in Christ.  My true hope isn't in the process of adoption or the people that process them and that's a really good thing, especially when it comes to adopting from Haiti.  I can't imagine what this would be like if I didn't have the knowledge that God has a plan for us and that His plan and His timing is perfect.  Even if I don't like His timing I can still rest assured that He works all things out for good.  So in the end He is the only thing that keeps me hoping in the process and knowing it will all work out in the end.

If you are going through adoption and you don't have that hope I really can't imagine how hard it is for you, but I want you to know that Jesus wants to walk through this with you so that when you don't think you can go on with the pain of waiting, He will carry you through.

Starting the process

In March of 2010 I took a team to work at an orphanage in Bercy, Cabaret, Haiti. I quickly fell in love with a little boy named Fritzon. While I love and adore all the kids there, Fritzon stood out. When I looked at him I saw my own little Christopher. Soon after, Wanna captured my heart with her energy, her spirit and the feeling she gave me that I was hanging out with my own Destiny when I was with her. Since the spring of 2010 I have been waiting to start the adoption process. The Haitian law requires adoptive parents to be 35 and since Chris and I are only 31, we could do nothing but wait. We were recently told that the new president of Haiti is just weeks away from signing in a new law changing the age to 30. We can now proceed with gathering papers and documents but we will need your support. Please consider helping support us as we work towards this adoption. Having been adopted myself I know how life changing adoption can be. I want to make a difference in the world and while I can't change the world, I can change Fritzon and Wanna's world. Will you help me do that?

It's hard to imagine that 2 years ago tomorrow, Haiti was devastated by the worst earthquake there ever. Since then I have traveled to Haiti 13 times, a total of 25 times in 12 years, and fallen in love with the kids at the Cabaret Baptist Children's Home. My life will never be the same because of them. Each of us has a passion put in us from God and Haiti is mine. I don't expect everyone to understand or accept that but I ask that you figure out what the passion is in you and do something with it. Don't look to others who are doing things you don't agree with and spend your time arguing or upset with the way they use their time or resources. Focus on your call in life and make a difference! Go!!!
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