Tomorrow's Her Birthday!!

TOMORROW IS ESTY'S BIG DOUBLE DIGITS BIRTHDAY!!!!

And we are trying to get her HOME!!! As you may remember, I bought her a puzzle to work with her hands (Since she is in a wheelchair and loves to work with her hands, we won't be assembling it before she arrives...but we will give it to her as a gift! And bunny rabbits are her favorite!!)

How cool it is to have the dear people who are HELPING HER COME HOME have their names on the backs of these 300 pieces that she will work with her sweet hands!  (Progress report: we have 212 pieces left!!)
 Will you join us in celebrating Esty's 10th birthday by donating $10 to help bring her home from her orphanage? Each $10 gift will be celebrated by your name on the back of a piece of her bunny puzzle. If you choose to give more, you can just have your name on several pieces! We are hoping to close the gap on our remaining $14,500 we need to go and get her!  We are now waiting on our I-800 that will allow her to be approved for a visa to come to America! (we expect to go get her in 9-12 weeks!!!) If you choose to celebrate with us, you can use the donate button below or click here to give to our Adopt Together account. (Adopt Together donations will receive a tax deductible receipt.) Either place is wonderful! Let's let Esty know how much we want her home and how much we want her to have a HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY!!!!

10 Days till Esty's 10th Birthday!!

In 10 days, Esty will celebrate her 10th birthday.
Or, what she knows as "celebrate."
Every single one of her birthdays she has been without a family.
EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.
And now this year she turns "double digits."
Around here, we make a big deal about that. I wonder, will they do that for her?
My heart absolutely aches for my daughter half a world away.
As you may know, Esty has been waiting for a family for over 9 years. She was abandoned at 9 months of age...probably when she should have begun to crawl or walk and it was discovered that she could not.
Studies have proven that in the 9-11 month range, babies begin to develop their fears of being left. Separation anxiety. Have you dropped off a clingy, tear-filled 9 month old baby at the church nursery? It's a developmental stage. They are attached to you. They don't want you to vanish from their sight. They fear you leaving.
And that's what happened to our Esty. For real.
No one came back for her.
Alone.
Without anyone to tuck her in at night. To calm her fears, to celebrate her successes. To encourage her that she will be chosen for adoption...one day.

This is the first picture in her file. She is 5 years old. This means that no one prepared her file for adoption for years...they didn't think anyone would choose her with her specific needs. She waited in the orphanage for 4 years and 3 months before they deemed her worthy of being adopted.
{Oh. My heart.}
Well my friends, November 8th is going to be her FINAL birthday in an orphanage!!! It may be her double digit day, but it's going to be an exciting one...because we are going to get her OUT OF THERE!!!!
I want to share this video of our sweet girl here, and you don't have to watch all of it, but I want you to see how special she is. How focused, careful, intelligent and gentle she is. Notice how well she works with her hands. And if you do choose to finish the video, you will see her sweet smile over her success in creating her origami boat! (they turn the camera right side up at the :22 mark!)

Now, I have an idea. (A momma who wants to bring her daughter home gets ideas in the middle of the night!) :)
There are TEN DAYS until Esty's TENTH birthday. 
As you can see, she cannot walk, but loves to work with her hands. We have asked the nannies and they have told us her favorite animal is a bunny rabbit.
I bought my girl a bunny puzzle. It looks like this:

I think she is going to LOVE working on putting it together after she comes home!
How cool would it be if people who HELPED HER COME HOME had their names on the backs of those 300 pieces that she will work with her sweet hands? Do you think this might be meaningful to her?
I do.
So here's my challenge: for the next TEN DAYS, I'd like to find people who will celebrate Esty's 10th birthday by donating $10 to help bring her home from that orphanage.
Each $10 gift will be celebrated by your name on the back of a piece of her bunny puzzle. If you choose to give more, you can just have your name on several pieces!
We are hoping to close the gap on our remaining $19,000 we need to go and get her!  We are currently waiting on our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) that will begin our time clock of 3 months till we travel to bring her home! (We currently estimate going in February!)
If you choose to celebrate with us, you can use the donate button below or click here to give to our Adopt Together account. (Adopt Together donations will receive a tax deductible receipt.) Either place is wonderful!
Let's let Esty know how much we want her home and how much we want her to have a HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY!!!!

Visits to the Children's Prison

We went to M one week ago.

A prison for children.

Yes. That's right. For children aged 8-18. Here in Uganda.

And I simply cannot get it out of my head...and heart.

I do not have adequate words to share with you what it was like being in this place. I have prayed, ached and wept over it for eight months.

Truly, I was astounded at what I found there. 

Not because of their stories--they (of course!) were heartbreaking. Not because of their conditions, I was already aware of what I might find. Not because they were a bit standoffish...I would be too if I had experienced what they had.

But I was surprised that JOY in Christ was there. I don't know why it surprised me, the entire book of Philippians was written from a prison!

I think this picture perfectly captures what I want to see done in this place. Jesus brought to the kids.
Sixty Feet is doing just that. Plus doing practical things too. Gotta love when both come together.

I am so blessed to be aligned with Sixty Feet. They are essentially bringing Jesus into the prisons of Uganda. Showing Jesus' love to children who would otherwise not know.

Here you see one of the older boys...genuinely worshiping a God who has met him in his darkest, most fearful place. He is not forgotten. He is loved.

And I am blessed to be with him.

You just had to be there.

I was honored to just greet the children. Brian and I introduced ourselves and I couldn't help explain my emotion...a mere eight months ago I had learned about this prison. I shared with the children how honored I felt to be in their presence. To be with the very people I had longed and prayed for. I told them to remember: God hears and answers your prayers. I have no idea if they were choked up, but I sure was!

No, we weren't playing Simon Says...he was translating my words into Lugandan, the common language spoken here.

The second trip to M I got to spend more time with specific kids. They were a true delight. I had promised to put a puzzle together with one girl in particular, and she was so happy I had remembered. It was pretty awesome to sit on a filthy floor surrounded by overly strong-smelling children and work on a puzzle. I was impressed by their ability to see it through to the end.

That second visit we also had time to sing and laugh and play while Moses (Sixty Feet Ugandan staff) worked on the car. (He joked that we might need to spend the night. I was wondering what God might have in store for us if that were the case! But truly, if they lived there each day, then certainly I could stay one night without my things. But he fixed the car eventually!) I delighted in hearing the kids sing and play and they LOVED being able to record themselves with my iPhone! We took this picture that still makes me laugh!


This is the little guy who greeted us at the gate on the first day. I love that I captured a smile on that precious face. It required taking a first shot, showing him what he looked like and then capturing the giggle on his face when he saw himself! Isn't he just precious????

And he sits in prison. Sigh.

When can I go back????

BLOWN Clear Outta the Watta!

These are the posts a blogger LOVES to write! A post full of PRAISES!!!!

Assuming you read my post from last night, you'll delight in this picture from 10 am this morning:

This was only one of many, many donations for the three babies whose lives hang in the balance. And yes, this really was a donation from one person. (Our amazing doctor and his wife!! Love you guys, T&N!)

With everyone's generous we-love-Ugandan-babies donations, we were able to buy and fill not one but TWO extra footlockers of baby formula!!! I bought all the vitamin drops out of our entire town too! (Any idea how FUN this was for me?!?!?! I was telling everyone I saw--every cashier, every phone call, EVERYONE what God was doing!!!) HEY! We even have the overweight fees covered! ($400!!)

This all came together in less than 24 hours. Seriously.

HOW INCREDIBLE IS THAT!!!?!?

Um, ONLY GOD!!!!

Now if you remember, we are not just going to Uganda to feed babies (although I might do that sometime!!) but ALSO to adopt our little Z!!

Do you remember one week ago?

Do you?

I almost don't, because life has been a big whirlwind around here!! I posted actually only SIX days ago about our financial needs that we were facing to be able to attend this crazy God-given courtdate. (Truth be told, I am STILL in shock over that miracle!!! To read about that miracle, click here!) I talked about stepping into the water and watching God part it AFTER we step out.

I admit it, that post was motivated from a place of fear in my heart.

But fear is an interesting thing. You can have fear but still move forward. As you move forward, your fear lessens as God proves Himself to you. (Sadly, we humans want this over and over again--which is why God wants us to REMEMBER and TELL OTHERS about the miracles He performs! He wants us to TRUST HIM MORE NEXT TIME!!!)

So we stepped. And you guessed it, He parted the waters.

Our ugly giant with hair growing out of the mole on his chin...you remember him? The pricetag on his hat read $6,000. Remember?

Guess what? In 6 days time...

God has brought in a total of $6,381.13.

Wha...??????? YES!!! NOT LYING!!!!

So, as if we don't have enough things to do...we are working on this:

And we are diligently recording your names on the back...so it looks something like this:

It's a pretty cool thing.

YOU are a pretty cool thing. We are adopting a precious child from Uganda by your support, love, prayers and giving. It's truly amazing. God is doing this, we know. But YOU are responding. You are not hardening your hearts. You are choosing to act. You are not saying, "someone else will do it," but you are actively jumping into our story.

We cannot thank you enough.

And soon, I'll have tangible evidence of what all this has been for. Stay tuned!!! :)

Until then, just party on in rejoicing over God's miracles! And I'd be curious, how does our story impact you? I know I am encouraged by the stories I read on blogs of God's faithfulness! All these stories weave a stronger and stronger faith in us and we have more guts to step out in faith in what He's asking us personally to do. I'd love it if you'd leave a comment and share with us how God's faithfulness here is encouraging you there.

Let me leave you with a favorite verse of mine:

The One who calls you is faithful

       And He will do it.

                                                              1 Thessalonians 5:24

It's coming together...

Just have to show you what the puzzle looks like...and MORE pieces are being lovingly written with YOUR names on the back and fitted into place!

THANK YOU!!!!

Puzzle Progress!

Many people have asked about our puzzle...so excited to show you it's progress!!

Out of 750 pieces, we have sold 215!!! YAY!!!!!


We did some calculations today about the upcoming events (going to court/lawyer fees, visa and embassy fees, medical exam, food, lodging, transportation, changing my ticket and purchasing a ticket for Z) and we estimate our need over the next 4-6 weeks is going to be approximately $6,000.

No big deal.

                                                     Not for our God!!

For us, yes. This presents a HUGE problem. But we are not doing this, God is. I think He's made that ABUNDANTLY clear!! giggle!

A friend of mine says, "His will is His bill!" :)

What a tapestry of people are there on the back of this growing puzzle--he will KNOW that he was meant for this family!!! :)

Become part of our family puzzle!

Hey everyone!! We have a brand new way for you to become part of our family story!!

See this lovely guy?

Ohhhh! I love him so!

We have this glorious lion who will one day hang in our future children's bedroom in a double-sided glass frame. The front will be so he can see out and watch over my kids (hee hee) and the back will be so we can turn it over and show our children how ALL OF YOU became a part of our story to bring them home!

You can "buy" a piece of the lion puzzle for $10 each. For each $10 you donate, we will write your name (or the name of someone you choose--one of your children perhaps?) on the back of a puzzle piece. If you give $100, we will write your name(s) over ten pieces. As pieces are purchased, we will begin to fit them together. I will periodically post pictures of our puzzle so you can see how we are progressing. You can watch him come together--just like you will be helping to bring our family together! Isn't this such a cool idea?!!! Yes! But no, it wasn't mine!! ;)

So, how many people/pieces do we need to "sponsor" in order for this king of the jungle to be complete?

750! A TALL order, right? Well guess what? SO IS ADOPTION!!! And our great and mighty God specializes in things that are WAY too big for us. I have story after story to prove it. Someday over a nice cup of java, I'd love to share with you and hear your God stories too! :)

To be clear, when you give to our puzzle project it is a donation that will directly benefit two children who are currently orphaned in Uganda and are destined to become our Shaw children. All monies will be used solely for our adoption costs. They are not tax deductible.

If you are feeling that you want to make a donation toward our adoption but you would like it to be tax deductible, you can do that too! Our church has graciously set up an account called "One Less Orphan." All donations are received through the church and are then divided among the families who are currently embarking on the adoption journey.

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU in advance for your help in bringing our family together!!! You are a CRITICAL part of our family puzzle!!!

Don't be puzzled, just show up!

If you think you are too small to make a difference,

try spending the night in a closed room with a mosquito.

--AFRICAN SAYING

One of my favorite books is The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns. I not only got to enjoy reading it, but I got to study it with a fabulous group of women. (I love you, Water Girls!!) One of his final analogies in one of the last chapters really resonated with me. He titles the chapter, "How Many Loaves Do You Have?"

You see the point is not the immensity of the world's problems, although he spends a good half of the near 300 page book exploring the depth of the world's hunger, lack of clean water, disease and poverty issues. The point is that we, as individuals changed by the power of Christ, can make a difference. Just like the little boy who donated his lunch to feed the 5,000 on that hillside when the Great Galilean Teacher told his disciples, "you give them something to eat." Certainly there had to be other little boys whose mothers had the foresight to pack them a sack lunch, but Jesus worked through just one little boy's lunch.

I want to be that little boy giving my lunch.

It's not that the little boy was a hero, no, all eyes in the story are on Jesus. Jesus got the glory. But it had to be a great thrill for that sweet little boy who gave his 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish and watched it get multiplied, passed out to so many and then gathered up in 12 LEFTOVER BASKETS when it was all over. Did he thrill, "Wow! That was my lunch! God used my stuff!" I bet so.

You see, the thought here is not that you must create a great master plan of how to solve world hunger, or become a millionaire to fund a huge well project by yourself, but you simply show up.

I love this:

 We might imagine that God's vision for our world is like a great jigsaw puzzle. You and I are the pieces in His hand, and He places them in just the spots where our particular shapes, sizes, and patterns best fit with the other pieces. The full picture only takes shape as all of the pieces come together in their proper places. In this view, no single piece is insignificant. Have you ever completed a puzzle only to find that one or two piece were missing? I have, and the missing pieces compelled me to pull the cushions out of the couch, lift the tables and chairs, and scour the room to find them. Those mislaid pieces made a huge difference to the outcome. They were obviously not insignificant. (p. 250-251)

Stearn continues...

God has created each of us with a unique contribution to make to our world and our times. No other person has our same abilities, motivations, network of friends and relationships, perspectives, ideas, or experiences. When we, like misplaced puzzle pieces, fail to show up, the overall picture is diminished. (p.251)

So, what if everyone else but YOU decided to show up for their part in the cosmic plan? Perhaps you feel that you are untalented, too uneducated, your past is too dark or your heart is just simply too selfish? You'd remain sitting there while others volunteered themselves to the plan of God.

What would the overall picture look like then, if you stubbornly sat out...holding onto your fear, your self hatred, or maybe your own ideas that you knew better? The picture would suffer. It's just not the same without you. 

Where is that missing piece?!?!

Stearn finishes his puzzle analogy:

One of the most common mistakes we can make is to beleive that we have nothing of significance to offer--that we're not rich enough, smart enough, skilled enough, or spiritual enough to make much difference at all, especially  in the face of huge global problems...Deluded, we sit on the bench watching the game from a distance, content to let others play. But the very good news for those of us who want to follow Christ and be part of God's plan for our world is that he uses what we have to offer, no matter how unimportant we think it might be. (p. 251)

Recently my parents bought a 1,000 piece puzzle. My dad said it was one of the hardest puzzles they had ever attempted. What made them absolutely crazy at the end was that after 999 pieces were successfully put into place, the 1,000th piece was incorrect. It didn't match the puzzle. It had the wrong colors, wrong shape and was a huge disappointment! My dad took the puzzle back to the store saying incredulously, "This puzzle is wrong! Something must have gone wrong at the manufacturer!" The clerk probably was a bit skeptical of my dad's story, even inquiring if the puzzle was sealed when he bought it.

What is so comforting is that God's plan for the world will not get messed up at the manufacturer. You are precisely the perfect piece He wants to use. You need not worry that you are not enough, that you only have 5 little loaves and 2 measely fish---this is about God's plan here, and He wants to bless your socks off by letting you participate. Don't miss it--just show up!

That's better!