What I Have Learned

So much I want to talk about... but tonight it is on my heart to talk about Levi!  Some of it may seem a little out of order... sorry... been sick and my head is a little fuzzy.  Hope you can read and understand my heart in all of it!

Isaiah 61:1-3

 

 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me,
    for the Lord has anointed me
    to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted
    and to proclaim that captives will be released
    and prisoners will be freed.
² He has sent me to tell those who mourn
    that the time of the Lord’s favor has come, and with it, the day of God’s anger                            against their enemies.
³ To all who mourn in Israel,
    he will give a crown of beauty for ashes,
a joyous blessing instead of mourning,
    festive praise instead of despair.
In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks
    that the Lord has planted for his own glory.

 

 

 

As I started a new devotional book tonight, I prayed that God would give me the words to start this post.  He never fails to give me what I need!  When I prayed I asked him to give me the words that His people needed to hear.  Those words flew off the page for me tonight...and went straight to my heart. I will share them with you and then share why they are so important to me and our family.

 

The devotional book I am doing is about John.  The Beloved Disciple.  Here is what spoke to me..

"John was free to love because he was so utterly (love that!) convinced that he was loved himself.  We have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.  1 John 4:16."  How differently would each follower live if we characterized ourselves above all else as the beloved disciple of Jesus Christ?

 

Amazing.... really amazing because it is an answer to a question on my heart for several weeks now, probably longer but only really nagging at me lately. 

So what is the question? 

The question is..... 

How is it that a child can be so extremely hurt and damaged and disregarded so much that he cannot believe that he is actually worthy and loveable?

 

Our Levi works so hard..... he really does.   We are continually, day in day out, working on building our bond and attachment so that it will penetrate him so deeply that he will only know our love.....and through that love he will know the love of the Father! To never ever- EVER- doubt that he belongs with us, that he is valuable, that he is smart, that he is capable, that he can make mistakes and still have supper, that we will love him even if he messes up and that we will Never Ever send him back!

 

We were talking yesterday and I realized that it has been 1 year since Levi started to share his life with us.  His life of pain, torture, abuse in every form and the life of fear he has lived for so long. I am completely proud of and amazed by the perseverance this little boy has.

Only now, after 1 year, am I able to really see this life of his for what it is.  Well what it was.... He was "owned" by his abusers.  He has a bond with them that still haunts him to this day. We fight for ownership of this little boys life!  I believe that God has his heart....

I believe that God has claimed him for his own.  

I know God is at work....  

We praise the Father who does all things well!  We see the softening of Levi's heart.  Before when he would get mad or not want to talk about the painful things it could take hours to get to a place of calm and conversation. Now we can see it unfold in a matter of minutes.... not only in his mind, but we can see his whole body soften, especially his face!  His eyes begin to shine and sparkle and he is ready.  He is beginning to 'reason' things out in his mind.... the "part of his brain that was not connected, because only the "fear and physical" part of his brain would respond, is now at work!!! Thank you Jesus!  He is making strides. We see it and we see his feelings for us growing as well.  We see this little "captive being set free" all because of Gods love.

I am going to be totally honest here....One of the things that I fear the most is that in my moments of craziness when I don't have any self control, my own behaviors will cause him to be afraid of me! What if one of the times I loose it and yell he totally thinks I am just like those who hurt him before?  What if that time I was so angry because he flat out told me NO, I got into his face and actually spit on him while I scolded him.  Only by God's grace can I walk away.  He can push my buttons like none of my other children. It can be hard to parent a child who is so strong willed and so determined not to let you in.

While it is sometimes hard in the moment, I have to remember that he comes from a place where he never knew..... never experienced the love of a mommy who held him for hours because he was scared or hungry or sick.  He has never known love.

He doesn't know how to love!

He just doesn't. 

So the words from our Father tonight in my devotional answer so many questions and doubts....

My job is really very clear.

He needs to be convinced that he is loved....and then he will "love freely". 

He needs to trust us before he can love us. 

 

I am sorry but the truth is we cannot expect love to heal all of our adopted children's  wounds and take their pain away.  We all have good intentions, we are "idealistic and romantically" in love with the children God has for our family.  But we cannot and should not, fool ourselves into thinking that changing the scenery and their wardrobe will magically be the band aid their broken hearts need. While those things are great these children have  wounds that go all the way back to their time in the womb. Children from lives of trauma need to feel safe before they can love.  Before they can feel safe and let their guard down, they need to trust you and THAT takes a long time.                    But it is so worth it!

Some of what I have learned....

love is more than a hug and kiss at night in a warm bed without bugs and predators

 

if a behavior seems strange to you... it probably is... ask questions!

 

evil people are more intentional about doing evil than good people are about doing good

 

for children who have been hurt in any way, safety and trust are what they desire the most

trust. takes. time.

 

being loved is not the same as being able to love

 

God has chosen the perfect child for your family and the perfect family for his child

 

never ever give up! you never know how close you are to a victory

 

you must accept the grace God freely gives you and then freely give it away

 

we are always learning

 

 

In His Embrace, laurie

 

p.s.  did you notice our new gadget....more on that tomorrow!

 

Have You Heard?!!!

 

Isaiah 58:10 nlt

Feed the hungry,
and help those in trouble.
Then your light will shine out from the darkness,
and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon

 

 

Whatever you did.....pray, send$, pray, share the story, pray..... 

THANK YOU!  

Read the follow up blog post from Our friends at

A Place Called Simplicity!  Here

 

Thursday, June 20, 2013

YOU Did It!

Yesterday I received an email from the couple who had
generously offered the Matching Grant for
$12,500.

Their email was completely crazy.

They had been praying and felt the Lord wanted them
to up the amount by another $2,500.

WHAT?

Seriously?

Yes indeed -

they graciously and generously upped the ante and
now the challenge was for:

$15,000.00

****

Well on behalf of International Voice of the Orphan, I am overjoyed, elated and giddy
to announce that you all have
generously given
and the challenge has been met!

You guys are amazing!
Gracious be...I just keep giggling...


**We now have $15,000 in donations,
matched with the $15,000 in Matching Grant
for a grand total of $30,000
enabling the GO team to accomplish
all that God has called them to.**

May Almighty God richly bless you each and every one!

Yippee Jesus to all of you who have contributed -
no matter the size of your gift -
you gave and God honors the giver...

"A generous person will prosper..."
Proverbs 11:25

Celebrate with us!!
The faithfulness of God is beyond comprehension.


God Please Help Us to See!

Friends... this will be hard to read! But because this is so near to my heart and it is representative of how these little ones live all over the world I am passing it on!

It is a post from another voice for the orphan..but please take a moment to read it through.... Then Listen.........Listen for what God is speaking to your heart.... 

love laurie

 

 

 

A Yukky Story That Must Be Shared...

This story is a serious one.

I have prayed for a couple of months about sharing it.

Because of the yukkiness of it, I just couldn't bring myself to.

However, the circumstances are such that,

the time is now.

I would ask that you kindly read it in it's entirety or

feel free to skip it altogether.

At this moment, I am sitting in the comfort of my home,

the kids are watching Despicable Me {one of my personal favorites}.

We picnicked on the floor for lunch {my littles favorite thing to do}.

Liberty made a yummy Mexican dish she found on Pinterest.

It wasn't an expensive nor was it a fancy meal, but it was yummy.

This morning my treasures and I were talking about life.

One of them was sharing their heart about being an orphan

and their pre-family days.

It was a serious discussion.

And although their life was not-so-nice prior to coming home,

they are home.

Safe.

Protected.

Loved.

Cared for.

Wanted.

Snuggled.

No longer lonely.

No longer wondering.

"What's wrong with me that I don't have a family?"

Such a sharp contrast to a situation on the other side

of the world.

At this moment Dw, Graham, Savannah and the rest of the June 2013 GO Team

are speeding their way toward Uganda.

They will land in a few hours.

They have chosen to GO because of the needs they have either seen or heard about.

But this trip is different, on a level that is hard to describe.

Let me back up a speck.

A few years back Dw and I began a ministry {501c3} called

International Voice of the Orphan.

We felt that God would use it be the voice of the orphaned

and vulnerable children around the world.

Among many "arms",

one of the most prominent is the our feeding program.

Many of you have graciously given to it.

Shopping at Orphan Wares or donating something handmade

for others to buy,

provides food for Front Lines + feeding program.

International Voice of the Orphan's Front Lines+ Feeding program feeds

both the street orphans of Kampala and an orphanage where we have served.

Which brings me to the yukky part of the story....

A couple of months ago we received a Facebook message.

It was from our "daughter" Praise who runs the orphanage, House of Praise,

where we serve and where we feed the children there..

Praise wrote that the day before, one of the little treasures in

House of Praise had had an accident outside, his finger had been cut pretty badly

and they had wrapped it up.

However, in the night a rat had come, smelling the blood,

had gnawed on his finger and had eaten a good portion of it off.

His finger now had the bone largely exposed.

He was taken to the hospital where they attempted to fix the finger.

Friends,

What are we doing?

We {me included} live in a beautiful home,

where laughter, joy, friendship,

food, commodities, perks and goodness flow freely.

Yet on the other side of the world,

a little boy in an orphanage has a good portion of his finger eaten off

by a rat in the night as he sleeps?

I can barely talk about it.

This just shouldn't be so.

We must do something!

Little ones who already feel rejected by life,

having a rat gnaw their finger off as they sleep?

We cannot sit back!

We must do more!

Trust me, I hate asking for anything.

But I promised the Lord I would spend the rest of my

life being the Voice of the Orphan.

Which brings me to now....a few days ago

we received a message from a friend of IVO.

They wondered if they could talk to Dw.

Dw called and spoke to the husband.

This generous couple had been praying and had

wondered if we would be willing to take their very generous donation

and use it for

Matching Grants?

We were overjoyed.

The team that is speeding their way toward Uganda is going to work

on several projects.

One of their projects will be to begin building a rat free dorm for House of Praise.

They will build as much as we can afford.

That's where the matching grant comes in.

Trust me, I hate asking for anything.

But I promised the Lord I would spend the rest of my

life being the Voice of the Orphan.

Every dollar donated will have

a dollar matched

from this generous donor.

As you look around your home,

open your fridge, peek in your pantry,

glance in your closet, gander into your garage...

Is there a chance that you give a generous gift

to build this dorm for House of Praise?

The thought of rats running freely as the little ones sleep

is something that is

beyond our comprehension.

These are the projects that the team will be doing,

{and gifts, no matter the project, will be donor matched}:

~ dorm for House of Praise

~ building a rabbit hutch for API

~ a secret project {that will be shared before too long}

~ a Legacy Pastor's Conference where local Ugandan pastors will be

challenged and encouraged to live lives

that leave a Legacy for future generations.

If there a chance you can help with one of these?

There are two places to donate:

IVO's website here.

or

IVO's Facebook page has a donate button here.

{please like our page while you are there,

it encourages the heart so much}

Or if you prefer to mail a check:

International Voice of the Orphan
3820 West Happy Valley Road
Suite141 - #510
Glendale, AZ 85310

As always,

100% of the money donated to the projects will be used for the projects.

Thank you, in advance for your gift ~

no matter how big or small, we commit to steward it well.

Update

Summer greetings!  I am sure that for most of you (like us) the sudden arrival of summer has you running hard and fast!  Even though for us here in Wisconsin it seems as though we sort of "missed out" on spring, we are so thankful for the warmer weather to finally be here. 

I wanted to pass on an update on our process!

On (or about) May 27th our documents were submitted to the Ministry of Justice for approval!  We are so excited about that!  This approval can, and usually does take a while to receive.  To add to the wait, there were elections in our Eastern European country.  This placed a new Minister of Justice in office and that can certainly add to the wait.  We are hoping for our approval to come in 2-3 more weeks.... after that our agency over there works with the courts to set up a court date and then we can travel 10 days after that to bring our boys home!  This time frame is about the same... 4-6 weeks out.  So without any huge or unexpected delays, we are hoping for late July or early to mid August to travel to bring the boys home.  Nothing is for sure when you adopt... you really are at the mercy and timetable of the country you are adopting from.

I can honestly say I am anxious to go but very much at peace with things. God has been working in our home and our hearts to prepare us for these 2 special boys!  Our big boys that live here are growing so fast. I cannot believe they will be freshmen in high school this fall!  And they don't look like my little boys anymore... they are growing into young men!  Levi is working hard! Everyday he seems to be fighting a battle! We know that we already have Victory, but there is still work to do! His face is shining...his smile is wider (if it gets any bigger it will split!) He is doing great!  We have 2 beautiful grand daughters that we get to spend time with!  That is a treasure and a blessing!  In all of this God has the perfectly planned time for our trip and the arrival of 2 more gifts to our home! (But I would SO get on a plane tonight if He asked me to!)

We have been blessed to keep in a bit of contact with our boys through the wonder of computers!  We recently received news that both boys are now walking!  Yes...well actually RUNNING!!!  When we were there in early April only one of them could walk alone...now they both are! Thank You Father!  They are gaining lost ground all of the time! We are so thankful for this foster family to love them and nurture them all of this time!  Foster care is a new thing over there...but it is growing as a better alternative to orphanage care. Children are getting the one on one attention they need from families that are loving them!

We are more than Blessed and oh so thankful for all of our friends and partners in this adoption journey. Many are there supporting us and we have never met face to face..... but our hearts are united by Christ who is us!  We are never done being amazed at all that God has done and continues to do with this "family building" of his!  We just say yes to what He places before us!  Thank you for walking the road with us!  WE do really love you all!

Ephesians 2:7

So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.



In His Embrace,
laurie

One More Redeemed!!

Colossians 3:16-18

New Living Translation (NLT)

 Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.  And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.

 

 

 

Oh thank you Jesus!!  Another precious life redeemed through the miracle of adoption! 

 

 

 

 

Read his story here

DROP IT NOW.......

Psalm 69:13

 But I pray to you, Lord,
    in the time of your favor;
in your great love, O God,
    answer me with your sure salvation. 

 

Dear Friends.... Please take a moment.....

 

Drop what you are doing.......

 

Drop to your knees.......

 

Please join us in praying for a special little boy named Mattie!  Only our Great Healer can restore this boy to health!  This is from another blogging friend's blog....  it brought me to tears to see this precious little boy and hear of his needs... 

 

 

 

 

 

For those who have been around adoptions in the United States,

you have likely heard of Tracie Loux.

Adoptive mom.

God-fearing.

Orphan advocate.

Tracie is also an adoption consultant and friend of our family.

Tracie and her husband John's youngest little guy is a precious treasure named Mattie

 

Medically fragile.

A few days ago Mattie began to get sick.

His health deteriorated rather quickly.

At this moment Mattie is in the hospital desperately needing our prayers.

The situation is serious.

Would you pray with us for Mattie's healing

 

 

 

Jehovah Rapha is healer.

Let us contend together for Mattie's healing.

Mattie will be three in October.

and you can find Tracie's blog here.

Please spread the word and 

ask others to pray for Mattie's healing

 

 

 

Teaching Those Things Eternal.....

I want to pass along this opportunity to those in our local area.  Our dear friends are preparing to head out on the mission fields of El Salvador! This is an awesome opportunity for you to hear how God has led them to this next step of faith!  Please consider attending and bring your whole family!


How often do you catch yourself thinking about what your children are going to do for different subjects this fall?

Maybe you haven't spent much time thinking about it, maybe you are in the research mode, or maybe you have it all planned out. As we spend time reflecting on why it is important to have our children learn certain subjects, we, as Christians, need to remember that on that glorious day when we meet Jesus, it truly won't matter if our children did every problem in their math books or wrote a beautiful five paragraph essay or if we followed a relaxed, unschooled, or classical approach. What will matter will be how they loved God and loved their neighbor. As I sit and reflect on those things that will be gone in smoke that day, I think about eternal things. Eternal things. How do we open our minds and hearts to those things that will stand on that day? How can we build our time with our children to always be open to what Matthew 25 teaches? In what areas am I putting too much emphasis on what the world feels about education/child raising and not enough emphasis in what HE feels?

We have a family who's experienced God move in amazing ways in their lives. Please come and hear about the Schuenke family's journey---a journey that started with a mission trip and now has them moving to San Salvador, El Salvador---something they never would have imagined when they started homeschooling their children years ago, a time when they wondered which curriculum to use and what teaching style to focus on. Find out how God has moved in Lisa and James' hearts to give them a love for a country and broken people there who need to hear about Christ and His love for them. Hear about how God has worked to grow them and lead them to this life changing experience.

We all, as homeschooling parents, want to do the best we can for our children. Sometimes we get caught up in what the world feels about raising children—what type of education they need, what activities they should be a part of, what things they should have filling their childhood. Come and hear the Schuenke's amazing story of surrender and obedience to His calling. Be inspired to view your child's "education" in a completely different way! Be challenged to be the change.

Here is a piece of their story taken from their blog http://schuenkefam5.blogspot.com/—

"The way to live with significance is to devote yourself to a purpose that is larger than your life. The only way this is achieved is to call upon and offer our broken lives to the only One who can make something of them. Empty hands held high...such a small sacrifice! Not to hold anything back but lay everything down....uninhibited surrender. Surrender is the key to knowing God's will. Surrender gives you uninhibited access to the deepest possible intimacy with Jesus. You only find that place after walking the road of humility. And if you are anything like me, my pride is often a road block that prevents me from getting there. This journey is teaching me the only way to know and truly live out your God-given purpose, is one small surrendered step at a time. You never know what the next step is unless you surrender the one before. It is in these small moments wrapped in grace that we witness His miracles in our life...one act of surrender at a time. One act of surrender changes everything!

Unconditional obedience means doing the will of God regardless...or for me it meant going where He sends me without placing conditions on it...no strings attached. Why and how could I do this? The answer...the cross. Why because I trust Him and how because I choose too. Christ demonstrated the ultimate act of love through sacrifice and obedience and that love transformed my life."

Meet a family doing something of eternal value and see what God may desire you to do as well! This will be a great opportunity for your family to meet James, Lisa, Skyler , Raleigh, and Makai and for the next two years follow their lives---learning about a different culture and seeing how God works through them. We read in books about missionaries---let your kids get to know the Schuenke's and have a real connection to missionaries that they will know personally. Your children will learn about the beautiful country of El Salvador in ways that they could never learn through a book.

Join us on Tuesday, June 11th at 6:30 at Calvary Bible Church in Neenah, room 131. It will be an inspirational night! Contact Amy at 205-9188 michaletz@centurytel.net or Kris at tkpetsche@petscheww.com with any questions.