Shoes for Sergey!!!!

We are CRAZY EXCITED to announce that we have found the fundraiser to beat all fundraisers. We gather up used shoes (no matter HOW OLD or beat down, no matter what kind - sandals, cleats, tennis shoes, dress shoes, whatever) and then we send them to this organization (amazing group started by the guy who started Soles4souls). We collect bags with 25 pairs of shoes each, and if we can collect 300 bags we can earn $3000 towards our adoption fund!!! They send the shoes to poorer countries and use them to bless the folks there, both by providing shoes as well as jobs, since they will restore the shoes before they distribute them. THE ULTIMATE WIN-WIN!!!! I have flyers to hand out, bags to give out, huge collection boxes that can be placed anywhere you suggest, posters, etc, and now we just need your help . We would LOVE for you to ask your friends/neighbors/co-workers for shoes and gather up as many as you can. We are also looking for anyone who might have ideas of where we could collect larger amounts, like from an office/church/organization. If you would just take a few minutes to think through any ideas you might have for us/any people you know who might have shoes they could contribute/anyone you could share this with who might be able to help/anywhere we might be able to stick up one of our flyers/pray that this will be an amazing success, we would be SOOOO grateful!!!! 

I would also just like to add a little bit to make sure that God gets the glory on this one - Clint received an email about this a few weeks ago. It was out of the blue, and we have no idea how he got on the email list that went out.  We were trying to figure out where it came from, and were so happy to be able to say that it truly came from God :-).  He is taking care of raising this money to bring us to Sergey - and He is doing it through all of you.  We are WILDLY grateful to Him and to you.  Seeing how He has provided through each and every one of you, and being showered by your love and support, has been my FAVORITE part of this journey (well, except of course, getting to adopt Sergey ;-). LOVE!!!

Liv

I read an article recently about how there is a indirect correlation between the amount of time that you spend on Facebook and the amount of happiness and satisfaction in your life - the more time on Facebook, the less happiness you experience.  One of the main points was this: everyone posts their pictures, stories, etc, at their very best.  We only see the tiny little window of perfect life posted in shiny color, and then we extrapolate to assume that everyone is living that perfect life all the time, while we plod away in our dull, every day, I have to make-lunches-clean-the-house-go-to-the-store lives.  We all know this isn't true, but apparently the more you look at it, the more unhappy you will become.

However, I thought more about this today and thought about the fact that we just need to be able to see these glimpses with the right eyes, and then we could actually increase our happiness by looking at Facebook.  Over the last months, since I have moved from Facebook reader to Facebook poster, I have often felt the urge to post when something great happens. It is not that I want to brag, or want anyone else to feel bad that they did not experience what I just did. I don't want to engender jealousy, and I definitely don't want anyone to be sad.  I just want to share the joy.  It's like when you bite into a super yummy dessert and you want everyone else at the table to take a bite and see just how amazing it is. Or you see a rainbow and you want to tell everyone to look up at the sky. Or the way that the males in my family always feel that I need to come into the living room where the TV is, stop whatever I am doing in the kitchen or elsewhere in the house, and "watch this AWESOME play."  We just want others to share in our joy, and for some of us at home with kids, or alone at work, or whatever, the easiest/only way to share that in the moment with a whole bunch of people might be to post it on Facebook.

The reason I was thinking about this was that I really wanted to post a picture of Liv on her first day of school today.  She looked absolutely beautiful in her uniform.  She is just truly a picture of loveliness, both inside and out, and I felt like my heart would burst looking at her as she headed out the door to her new school.  For those of you who know us, you know that this road has been long and hard for everyone involved, especially Liv, and to see her head out so bravely to this new part of her journey, ready to embrace what lies ahead, filled me with such pride.  Without complaint, she has given up her cute wardrobe for a uniform (but she still looks SOOOO cute!!!), read the Odyssey (and fully annotated it), spent a week this summer at Latin boot camp (yes, I said Latin boot camp), and left behind everything she has known since kindergarten to embark on this new journey.  She has been willing to pour herself immediately into new friendships, into new buildings, into new languages, into new everything, and she has done it with the same grace and beauty that she brings to everything she does.  However, like I said, it was not an easy road for her to get here. And there were sacrifices made by all involved.  We were supported so very strongly by so many dear friends, praying that God would show us the right place for our daughter to develop into the young woman that He wants her to be (and we are SOOO grateful to each of you!!).  We were given a wildly generous scholarship, so that we could send her there in the midst of a very expensive adoption.  We were prayed for and prayed for and prayed for.  We were encouraged, loved on, asked about, and loved on some more.  So this day was such a true gift, in every sense of the word. Just a gift, given to us by our dear Father in heaven.

When I was a kid and I would get a present for Christmas or my birthday that I really loved, I would immediately grab it, jump up and down, run around like crazy, yell and scream, hug my mom, hug my dad, clap my hands, and basically go nuts. (The truth is, I still do that, and if you'd like to see, feel free to give me a gift anytime - I love presents ;-).  I wanted everyone to see it - I wanted to call my friends and tell them about it.  It's the natural reaction, I think, to having something given to you that you find lovely - you just want to share it.  It's the reason we crazy Christians want to tell people about Jesus - we just want everyone to share Him.  So I think when people post super fun awesome things on Facebook, it's not because they want to brag, or make other people jealous, or show off what they have - I think it is just the modern day equivalent of running around your house, jumping up and down and showing everyone your present.  So today, I'd like to jump up and down and clap my hands and show you the amazing, incredible, indescribably wonderful daughter (who by the way now goes by Liv) that God gave us as a gift 14 years ago.  We are not bragging, because we did not make her. We are celebrating the one who gave her to us, the one who did make her, the one who continues to lavish her with love.  Please celebrate with us and share in our joy (and see how cute she looks in her uniform :-). We love you Livvy Grace.  More than you will ever know.

You Were Made for This

This past week we had the blessing of spending the last week of summer at my parents' lake house at Smith Mountain Lake. We allowed the kids to each bring one friend, so we had a full house and tons of fun.  On one of the nights we were there, a rain storm passed through just as the sun was setting. The air got cooler, but we didn't have any lightning or thunder, just rain.  A few of the kids really wanted to go knee boarding, and we had just come in from the boat, so I offered to take them on the wave runner.  As I was driving the wave runner in the chilly rain with the darkness beginning to close in, something hit me that I have been thinking about ever since.  It was this simple - "I love this, and would rather be doing this than anything else, right now."  I can think of many, many people who would not have been happy doing what I was doing - too cold, too wet, already been on the lake all day, super hungry, just-want-to-sit-on-the-dock-and-read-my-book.  For me, though, I am the person who wants to be out on the lake.  Even in the rain. And the cold.  I just want to.  Especially if it involves driving the wave runner. At high speeds :-).

Here is why this struck me:  There are so many other things that I see moms doing and wish so desperately that I were that mom.  I wish my kids had scrapbooks, or even a baby book (or cute pictures from every first day of school holding those cute signs!!!).  I wish I wrote notes and put them in their lunches. I wish that every night I tucked them in and sang to them in a beautiful voice.  I wish I read the Bible with them more, prayed with them more.  I wish I told them more often that I love them.  I wish our house was always clean, or I always cooked dinner, or I didn't have days where I just cannot deal with them and just want them to leave me alone so I can be sad.  I wish I were kinder.  More patient.  More encouraging. A better listener.  I wish they always felt safe and always knew they could tell me anything.  I wish I were less critical. Less judgmental.  Less quick to tell them what to do and then less quick to be mad at them when they don't follow my advice.  More of so many things and less of so many other things.

Now please hear me that I am NOT saying that I shouldn't try harder to be a better mom and love my kids better in so many ways. It is not okay for me to just say "Oh well, I'm a critical person and my kids are just going to have to get over it." I need to pray for God to change me, and to make conscious decisions to hold my tongue when I'd rather not.  I TOTALLY realize that, and I am not AT ALL excusing my sin by saying, "Oh that's just my personality."  What I AM SAYING is that I would like to celebrate that God made me as someone who wants to drive the wave runner in the cold rain.  I don't have to tell myself, "The kids really want to do this and so I need to do it, whether or not I want to." (There are plenty of those times in my life as well!!)  Instead, I honestly want to do it.  It made me so thankful to God, that He created me in this exact way, to be the exact parent He wants me to be.  And instead of looking at all the folks out there doing all the crafty, creative, beautiful things that they are doing and wishing that was me, I was just so happy that I could be driving that wave runner. And loving it.

I have been rejoicing even more in this as the days have passed, thinking about how adopting Sergey fits into this.  My game-playing, adrenaline-seeking tendencies work out so well.  Most games can be played without a common language, and they bring a unique kind of bonding (and BOY HOWDY I have played a lot of games with that boy).  And the fact that I have never made a single scrap book for my kids or even a baby book just means that he won't be the only one in the family who doesn't have one ;-).  Young Life re-branded themselves a few years back with the slogan "You were made for this," and that is the phrase that came to mind as I zoomed around that cove at Smith Mountain Lake with the raindrops pelting my face, covered in goosebumps.  I was made for this, for being the mom that Liv, Harry and Sam need, and one day soon, for being the mom that Sergey needs.  And being the wife that Clint needs, since my drive for adrenaline allows him to sit on the dock and read ;-).

PS - I just reread this and before I post it, I would like to add one post-script.  I feel like I read things often that women have written about their lives - as friends, or moms, or wives, or whatever - and end up feeling worse about myself after reading them.  Please hear me that I truly, TRULY TRULY want this to be the opposite for you, if you feel that.  Hear this instead: those of you who know me well know how DEEPLY I struggle with feelings of insufficiency, with an inability to see anything good in myself, with a desperate desire to be anyone but me (and now all of you know :-).  So this blog is NOT about me bragging or telling everyone how great I am just because I like to drive wave runners. It is a thank you note to God, an answer to prayer, a praise that I want to share with everyone, because here, in this one little thing, I saw the love and kindness of God towards me, and actually believed it in my heart.  So if you are discouraged, I challenge you to think of one thing, even a tiny small thing like the fact that you love watching movies, or enjoy reading historical fiction, or adore eating chocolate, or are fantastic at organizing, or think that cooking is beautiful, or are awesome at knitting - and ask God to show you how He is using that in your life.  Because it IS true:  You were made for this.