Fighting the Good Fight

My heart has been broken this week. While I sit in the comforts of my air conditioning and pick out tile for my new bathroom, there is an orphaned baby named Yaavesh who was lying alone in a shack because his mother is a prostitute in the streets of Nepal. She did not name her child because she said there was no point, "no one would ever be around to call him by a name". While I got in my SUV and drove my children to school, a preacher in Nepal traveled 12 hours on foot to bring two orphaned boys to a home for children and begged that they take them in. Their father was killed and their mother is too impoverished to care for them. Though the home was at capacity, the "father" of the orphanage could not turn away the weeping man and children and so he took them in.

How is someone to process such knowledge? How can anyone fathom such atrocities? I have a hard time even grasping the concept that anyone lives under such conditions. I suppose it is because I am so far removed from it, it is so far from my sight. It is not however, far from the sight of God. He is not far removed from the injustice of it all. In fact, He's right in the middle of it. He does not miss one unjust act committed to a young girl. His eye does not miss the young boys that live orphaned on the side of the road begging for food. He does not turn His watch from the baby that lies abused and abandoned. Isn't He an awesome God to draw near the suffering of His people. He is a God that came to earth to set these captives free....and I want to be a part of that, don't you? I don't want to have a heart that is so hard that I do not react when I hear about such things.

This week, I met a man that is walking what he is talking! His name is Doug and he is the director of Tiny Hands International. I could sit and listen to he and his wife talk for hours. They are the kind of people the bible says 'the earth is not worthy of'. They have committed their lives to serving God by freeing and providing for His children. Tiny Hands International is a small group that helps rescue woman that are being trafficked into slavery and orphaned children in Nepal. I know there are like hmmmm....4 people that read this blog, but I urge you to click on over to http://www.tinyhandsinternational.org/ and see the good fight they are fighting. You can link up there to Doug's blog and get more specific information about the homes they are running in Nepal. You can send Doug an email and he will quickly respond with lots of ways you can make an eternal difference in the life of a desperate soul.

Blessings!

So I know this photographer...

I wonder if she regrets deciding she wanted to learn photography? Every time she picks up her camera and gets ready to photograph my kids, I think she undoubtedly regrets learning the trade. She must. It is not a fun job photographing my crew. There is always whining, always bribing, and sometimes even a little threatening. Then comes the editing after the photo shoot...I know that it is not a fun job! And did I mention that I never pay her? You see, she is my sister, and when your sister is a photographer you get to abuse her a little. In fact, I abuse her every time I head her way for a visit.

Though the circumstances are never right, she always seems to somehow capture my children in the perfect light. Without a doubt it is a gift, one I am grateful she has been given. And though I know she wasn't given this gift so that she could simply photograph my children...I pray she keeps pursuing it to find what treasures are hidden inside this talent that was lavishly bestowed upon her.

Blue Sashes

Little girls are precious gifts wrapped in love serene. Their dresses tied with sashes, futures tied with dreams. -Unknown

Oh to have the faith of a child!

I know why Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it". This thought came to me the this morning while driving with the kids. Ella requested I put on "real Jesus music", as opposed to the fake Christian music other children listen to. What she is referring to would be adult contemporary Christian worship music. She sang "take the shackles off my feet so I can dance" as loud as she could. She didn't care that the car next to her was looking at us (our windows were down); and she certainly did not care that she really cannot hold much of a tune. In fact, in this instance, it never occurred to her to care. She knows she loves Jesus, she knows He died for her, and she knows she loves to sing about it...end of story. Child-like faith, plain and simple.

Children receive truth so freely. They look to their parents for support, encouragement, love and answers. Though the time comes quickly when they start asking why and digging deeper for answers, there is an age of innocence that all children pass through when they simply trust. They simply trust that God is who is he says he is. They simply trust that God never ceases watching over them and will always provide for their needs. They sing as loud as they can in a car, with the windows down and hands raised to heaven because that's just what you do. Ella once took into school the song "Shackles" to share and sing to her class, because they had to bring in something that started with the letter "S". She told her teacher that God had taken shackles off her feet and she wanted to sing about it...she was four at the time. How many adults would do that?

Wouldn't it be wonderful if I started acting a little more like Ella. Wouldn't it please my Father in heaven to watch me raise my hands without inhibitions a little higher while praising Him in the car, even if someone was sitting next to me watching. Wouldn't it please our Lord if he saw us walk into work, push play on the CD player and sing about the shackles He took off our feet so we could dance. I don't mean to imply He frowns in disapproval if we do not, I just believe that He rejoices in our rejoicing. In Luke 10:21 Jesus says "I praise you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children". Jesus was referring to the seventy-two messengers that returned with such joy over the success they had seen and experienced while ministering in Jesus' name. There are two things from this verse that I think are relevant here: First, He thanked God for giving those with child-like faith the authority to minister in His name...what a lesson! Secondly, the word for Jesus' joy in this instance means to "exult, leap for joy, to show one's joy by leaping or skipping". This is how even Jesus showed His joy....loudly without inhibitions!

Thank you Ella for being an example to me of what true faith and worship look like. In Luke 21, Jesus came along side of his people and was full of joy with them. I know without a doubt, He sat right next to you in our car this morning full of child-like joy right along side of you!

I love you Ella!

Mom

Only a freak would put swords in a dedication cupcake!

Dedicating a son to the Lord...much different than dedicating a daughter. What makes it different? We are doing the same thing regardless of gender, yet for some reason my heart had a different kind of gladness. Could it be that in a small back corner of my mind I fear the path a son may be called to take? Not that a daughter cannot to be called to the same thing; but if we raise our sons to be warriors, does it not make sense that a mother may get a flutter in her stomach as she says, "Okay Lord, he is yours, use him mightily for your kingdom".

A very dear friend has told me on several occasions when I start in on my nonsensical fretting, that fear is not the spirit of the Lord. And she is absolutely right. So I suppose I must choose faith, trust and joy and reject the fear that tries to steal me of the others. I also suppose I could have not chosen swords to stick in his dedication cupcakes that we served at the luncheon....that could have something to do with my fear. I have already mentally sent off my ten month old to battle. Sometimes I wonder if I am the weirdest human alive.

Stopping Time

Dear Ella and Caroline,

I believe without a doubt that I will never enjoy you two more than I do right now. Your very wise Big Pop says that the best age of a child is the one they are right now, at this very moment. I believe him, I want to believe him, I really do, but what else could be better than two daughters that are 4 and 6. What will I do when I am no longer awakened every night by a 4 year old coming into our room to announce that she is going to go to the bathroom (as if she needed permission at 2 am)? What will I do without a 6 year old who every night during prayers wants to know what the "game plan" is for tomorrow? What will I do when I no longer have a 4 year old who tells me she cannot clean up because she is a "teeny tiny baby, and teeny tiny babies do not clean up"? What will I do when I no longer have a 6 year old who tells me "I just feel like I can't stop hugging you today mommy"? What will I do without a 4 year old who wants to say the blessing every night at dinner, but then says she can't, so she instead follows the lead of her father and says everything he prays? What will I do without a 6 year old who pushes back the little girl who just pushed her little sister out the way, and then looks across the room at me and smiles proudly at how she just stood up for her little sister? What will I do without two little girls that let me dress them alike and put pink bows in their hair? What will I do without the giggles and the screaming that I hear coming from the upstairs playroom everyday? What will I do without two little girls to watch out my back window catching fireflies?

The time is approaching. It is happening so fast it almost takes my breath away. I feel is coming like a freight train. I see the way those little hands that used to have a baby feel have a little girl feel. I see how your faces are changing from that of a toddler and preschooler to that of little girls. I hear the way the questions are changing from simple to more complex. The desires of your heart are turning just a bit....you are just starting to think about what else is there...what is going on outside the doors of our home. Stop time! Stop! I am not ready! It wasn't long enough, and I will never get it back...just a little while longer...please. Please!

Though time will not stop, I do still have today....and for that I am grateful.

I love you both more than words could express....

Mom

I love decorating for girls!

So here is the inspiration. Can you see it? Look very carefully behind this bed and you can barely see the tulle that cascades from the ceiling behind the headboard. It is a combination of soft tulle and white lights...quite beautiful! This is that store I told you about several posts ago, As For Me and My House in Pawleys Island. I could move into this place and live there for the rest of my life. It is a lovely store!So I came home and looked at the pile of unused trim that we have stacked in the corner of our room that is under construction. I picked out a few pieces and oh so sweetly asked the cute carpenter if he would mind whipping up a little cornice board type thing for me. He rolled his eyes, but he loves me, so he did it.I painted them in about 15 minutes and hung them the next day. I used tension rods for window treatments inside the cornice boards to hold the tulle and lights. I love tulle because you just cut it, NO sewing! The lights behind the tulle add a girly, princess touch. The girls (especially Caroline) are thrilled!