We woke with our daughter, Molly coming in with her "baby" Leyla to open presents. Molly worked the rest of the day and this was her Christmas with us... Then we had our traditional brunch, cleaned up and left to visit Paul's mom and dad and on to visit Grandad. He is still in the rehab. home and they would not let him get out even for a few hours... We brought along our piano that Abraham played and we sang Christmas carols and danced (even some did some break dancing :)) Then we got home way latter than planned and we just fixed spaghetti instead of our lasagna...No one cared. When asked what was the best part of the day... most of them said it was, "visiting grandad". I would have to agree. We did not even eat dessert that evening... it was so late and no one wanted any... We ate cake and dessert for our breakfast instead this am...
This is such a busy time of year and I am sure most of you adults would agree... we are glad when things return to "normal". We have been nursing our older, mini dashund Abbie these past few days... we may have to make a decision about her soon, our Annie dog is also not doing well, last year our youngest dog, Levi died of a rare disease . These are all precious members of our family... then we also lost my mom in March and now my Daddy their grandaddy is very ill..... I reflect today on all the life that fills my home with these precious children- blessings given to us from the Lord and my heart is filled with much joy as I watch them change because of the love we have been able to give because He first loved us......
A few days ago I was watching some videos of a special done by BBC on Bulgarian orphanages. I saw deplorable conditions... children suffering at the hands of abusive caregivers. One little boy who looked about 4 yrs was actually older like 8 was trying desperately to such his thumb... when he moved his mouth off there was no thumb... someone in his orphanage had cut his thumb off because "they had gotten tired of him sucking it." Another little girl who was older as well than what she looked like was screaming as the caregiver moved her around lifting her leg and arm and swinging the kids into a tub to wash them... sort of hoisting them one armed and legged ( not gently). They were not concerned about her obvious pain... 6 months later when the BBC team arrived you could see when they showed this girl again she had a fracture in the top of her tibia the leg bone under her knee...
It is never pleasant to watch this and it is an outrageous way for people to treat another person ... and there is not much we can do to change it for all of the orphans... it can be very maddening for me.... However I can adopt and I can encourage others to help by adopting, or taking up the cause of these deperate orphans all over the world..... Here is a part of our Christmas letter ..... I beg, I beseech, I cry out to all of you reading my blog to be moved by the plight of children, orphans who have no one to comfort them, to stick up for them in abusive situations to let them know that someone cares...... PLEASE PRAY ABOUT HELPING OR ADOPTING THE CAUSE OF AN ORPHAN.......
Oh Jeanne,
ReplyDeletethere you go again makin' me cry.
I'm with you my dear kindred spirit. :)
Please pray for us as we have some decisions to make financially. We were given a new opportunity to possibly adopt through disruption again, but for some reason, in my spirit, I didn't have peace about this particular adoption. Was it age? Money? I don't know..... but I'm usually not like that, nor is Mike.
We do need to carefully plan our year financially,and I am thinking older children is where my heart is heading. (maybe because I am OLD?)LOL
I'm meaning older at least 8 or 9 or older......
Oh for unlimited resources! We had the turkey yesterday that YOU needed. It was a 44.5 lb turkey after plucking. Cleared the oven by 1/3" and took about 11 hours to cook, but he shore was good! :)
Time to go clean.....
I will pray Christie. You and I both know that when the Lord calls us He does provide... I do believe the Lord calls all the time and people just don't listen. We are actually beginning the adoption of a little guy in Bulgaria... who is 4 and blind. We have already sent our letter of intent to the MOJ and are waiting until the New Year to see if Paul's work has the benefit for adoption like they have in the past... if not it may affect our decision unless the Lord shows us another path :)
ReplyDeleteFor Thanksgiving we had 2 turkeys with a total of 40 lbs.... I wanted some leftovers... even just to eat one turkey sandwich the next day :)Was this one you all raised? I remember your last years post.
Yes, this is the one we raised. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm eating turkey right now.
Jeanne, can you tell me about the documentary you viewed. Can I find it to watch?
Just wanted to let you know that because of that special, the children were moved from that place and sent to different orphanages throughout Bulgaria(that's what Toni told me). The little one who currently has a huge hold on my heart was saved from that place and as a result had life changing surgery, is now in a much better orphanage and Lord willing, will soon follow down the same path as my Xander. I am praying so hard for this little one to find a family....wishing it could be me but with no clue where the money would come from. Not to mention that this little one is a *she*....which is the one stipulation my husband has (no girls). But, I can still pray! And, if you do end up heading to Bulgaria, please do let me know. If nothing else, I know that this little one needs a walker like Xander's and I have one that I'd love to send.
ReplyDeleteHere is the link to the Bulgarian videos... the one that has the 2 children I spoke of is titled The Bulgarian Children part 5. You can acess all 5 parts. All were very enlightening though. After seeing them how could one not want to adopt.....
ReplyDeleteopps I forgot to share the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyPcdyosNnI
ReplyDelete