What Will It Take??

I am burdened to the point of tears.
My heart is so, so heavy within its cavity.

Named Connor James, by his hopeful adoptive family, he went to Jesus last night.

Another orphan has died in the orphanage.
This precious one HAD A FAMILY. (This is their family blog. PLEASE PRAY FOR THEM!!!) 
Oh the many that do not have families.
They who die unnoticed.
Unloved.
Some known only by a number, never having a name!
CHURCH, WHERE ARE YOU??????????
Do we not simply understand?
There is a GLOBAL ORPHAN CRISIS going on!!!!!!!

Do people simply turn away? Do they scroll past the posts I share on Facebook? {yes, i know certain ones have actually unfriended me to avoid it.}
"If I do not know, then I do not hurt over them."
Is that what we think?
How can we???
A very uncomfortable verse lies in Proverbs:
"Don't excuse yourself by saying,  "Look, we didn't know." For God understands all hearts, and He sees you. He who guards your soul knows you knew. He will repay all people as their actions deserve." (Prov 24:12, NLT)
I shared this post from a blog yesterday. The title is "It's Easier Not to Know."  It's not a happy comparison of what is happening to children in Russian orphanages.
This is a boy BEFORE he was transferred to a mental institution because no family came for him. And AFTER he had been in the Russian institution longer.

It got shared many, many times over.
So we are AWARE. We SEE.
What are we doing????
Are we stopping in our tracks and asking ourselves: WHAT CAN I DO????
What CAN you do, anyway? 
Can you sell your boat? Can you go on a mission trip? Can you support a family who is adopting a child from an institution? Can you take a meal to a family who is involved in foster care? 
Can you avail yourself and your resources to the Lord to do WHATEVER HE MIGHT in your life because YOU CANNOT STAND WHAT YOU SEE?????
Yes, you can.
You do not need to have a big house. You do not need to have other children (experience). You do not need to have a double income, a rich savings, or a big minivan.
You do not need to have off the charts patience or Pinterest mommy crafts.
You just have to have your heart BROKEN.
You have to make yourself AVAILABLE.
You have to turn your life over to your Creator and ask, "How do you want to involve me in help alleviate the suffering of the fatherless ALL.OVER.THE.WORLD????"
He will give the patience.
He will take care of your finances.
He will take care of giving you ALL YOU NEED to raise up His treasures.
This orphan crisis is SO GREAT that if you were able to gather up all of them together, they would form the 10th largest country in the world. 163 Million of them worldwide. That should knock you off your chair.
Are they all adoptable? No.
Are they all real people? Yes.
Are they all in desperate need? Yes. Will it matter to the one you parent? Oh my YES! YES! YES!
Can you alone need to solve the orphan crisis? No.
Can we together? That just might be a yes.*

*I am aware that the Global Orphan Crisis is incredibly complex. Adoption is not THE answer by any stretch. But I am an adoptive parent who has seen the lives of 2 orphans radically change. Their futures are marked with hope because God has chosen to not allow them to remain in orphanages. We did not do the choosing, God did. We couldn't sit back any longer and not act. Join us. Be a family for an orphan. They are waiting. And dying as they wait. And that's NOT OKAY WITH ME. **Addendum: are you from Canada? Would you be willing to stand in the gap for some of the pipeline children caught in the Russian ban against Americans adopting orphans? YOU might be the very person I've been praying for. Read THIS ARTICLE to get started!!

Book It for Baby!

Time for a FRESH NEW FUNDRAISER!!!

Why???

To bring this now BIGGER boy home to our family!

(Can you believe how different he looks than that little boy in the crib in the sidebar?!?! Me neither!!)

Anyway, back to the goods!

We have the fabulous opportunity to earn funds for bringing Toby home by hosting an Usborne Book Party!!

Yayyyyy!!!! (the crowd goes wild!)

I have a history of home schooling. Not a long history, about 2 years is all actually. But during that time we bought many Usborne books because they are SO WONDERFUL and full of awesomely colored pages and information that our kids gobbled up. These books are so wonderful that Sonlight curriculum uses volumes of them in their Core curriculums. So when my friend offered to hold a party with these same books to help bring The Tobster home, well, let's just say I JUMPED UP AND DOWN!!

Just to throw a little marketing your way, here is what they about their books:
Usborne and Kane Miller books are the most exciting, engaging and educational books on the market today. They are high quality, innovative, lavishly-illustrated and best of all they are the books kids love to read. Choose from almost 2,000 bright colorful and fun titles covering a wide variety of subjects.

And I agree!! My kids POUR over these books!!!

I went around our house just collecting the Usborne titles we have loved over the years and this is what I've come up with:

Most of our titles are science and history related, but clearly Usborne has fiction and other books too! ;)

So what do our mommy-minds think about after we've put our kiddos back on the school bus and kicked off the school year?

Christmas!

(Stop rolling your eyes, you KNOW it's coming in just 4 months, don't you???)

We also have birthdays in between now and then too!

So here's what I'm thinking. Let's all get AHEAD this year. Consider gifting your beloved ones with books! I can attest to all FIVE of our children pouring over these books for HOURS at a time!

If you choose to do this, you have the joint pleasure knowing that your purchases have helped bring our little Toby-man home!! Twenty-five percent of your purchase will be deposited into Toby's adoption fund. Plus, the more people buy Toby will earn free welcome home books! How cool is THAT?!? I absolutely cannot WAIT to hold him and read to him!!

Follow this linky-dink to shop! Click me! Just to be sure your purchase helps Toby, please select "Amy Shaw" under "choose your event" (never knew I was an event before, haha!) before you proceed to shop.

Awesome!