Friday Adoption Adventures - The Sculptor

As I sat in talks and perused the vendors at the San Antonio FEAST Home School Convention and Curriculum Fair, I was struck once again with thankfulness to God for our two precious children that were brought into our lives through adoption. I am so thankful that He chose them for us and that I have the privilege of homeschooling them. 

In light of these thoughts, I wanted to share a poem one of the speakers read to us about the importance of molding and shaping our children from an early age. All my ramblings could not express this as well as this poem, so I will let Mr. Springer speak. 

The Sculptor 

by Vance Springer, 1909 

I took a piece of plastic clay
And idly fashioned it one day,
And as my fingers pressed it, still
It bent and yielded to my will.

I came again, when days were passed,
The bit of clay was hard at last,
The form I gave it, still it bore,
But I could change that form no more.

Then I took a piece of living clay
And gently formed it, day by day
And molded with my power and art,
A young child’s soft and yielding heart.

I came again when years were gone,
It was a man I looked upon.
He still that early impress bore,
And I could change it, nevermore.

Godly Character Qualities and Darling "My Princess Bible Purse" Giveaway!

Weekly Wednesday Word - Character

I have been thinking a lot lately about the importance of instilling godly character qualities in my children. As parents, we have been entrusted with our precious children to guide and lead them in their faith and train them up in the way they should go so when they are old they will not depart from it (Prov. 22:6).

We have been focusing on obedience for the past couple of weeks. I have the word "Obey" taped up around the house, so we can talk about it whenever we see it and remind them the importance of obeying God, us, as their parents, and whoever is placed in authority over them. I am working on a list of words and verses so we can move on to other verses. 

The book I get to giveaway this month from Tommy Nelson goes along with a character quality study perfectly for Grace! 

My Princess Bible Purse

Sparkly fun for the princess who’s pretty inside and out!
*Ages 2-5
*A sparkly, glittery pink purse that will make little girls feel all grown-up
*Bible teachings of the fruit of the spirit help girls develop a generous princess heart
*Wide, “carry-me” handle makes this purse a perfect accessory for any little girl
Check out the Flipbook for a peak inside the book!

To attract little girls from the moment they see this book, it is actually shaped as a purse which is super fun!!! The text of the book is just precious. It presents different character qualities of God and qualities we should display perfectly for our sweet little girls! Grace and I both love this book!!!

Sign up for the giveaway and share this book with your little girls! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Reflections on Motherhood and Infertility

Mother's Day used to be a day of great sorrow for me as we were struggling to begin a family, and there are still moments and days where the fact that I didn't carry my children within me stirs great sadness. When I hear moms talk about feeling their baby kick or discuss their birth experiences, a desolation sometimes wells up within me reminding me of what I missed, but then God whispers in my heart, "Beloved, why are you letting these thoughts and feelings cover the plan I have for your life, one that I had planned for you before the foundation of world. Stop dwelling on what you think you missed, but rather think of what you have gained because of Me and My plan! My plan is perfect and your children are perfect and came to you exactly as I intended."

Our God is amazing with wisdom beyond our comprehension, and I am so thankful that after a difficult journey through infertility, our hearts were opened to His plan which is so much better than anything my finite mind imagined.

I am also thankful for the Chinese women who choose life for my precious babies and carried them for me. You will be in my thoughts and prayers always.

I wish Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful and amazing women in my life. You are all so beautiful and inspirational to me! Some of you may still be waiting for God's timing and plan in regard to motherhood for you and some of you may have lost precious children or moms. My heart is with yours, dear ones, and I look forward to seeing how God moves and works in your lives according to His perfect plan.

My precious new son took part in the Mother's Day Performance at church today. It is always such a blessings to hear the sweet voices of children lifted up in praise to God, so I thought I would share it with you. You can't really ever see Anthony because people are in front of him, but he is there singing his heart out. How far he has come from the little boy we first met in China in January. I am truly blessed. Please say a prayer for him tomorrow as he is having oral surgery and is nervous about going under anesthesia.



Blessings to all on this special day.

Friday Adoption Adventures

I was working with Anthony on school, and it suddenly struck me that I had not even thought about what to share today on Friday Adoption Adventures. 

And then, another thought struck me, how typical is that of our daily lives as moms! There are so many things happening all around that it is so easy for something to fall through the cracks. 

First and foremost to everyday should be my time spent with our Lord. If I can't make time for Him, how can I truly love and care for my children and husband. I want Christ's light to shine so brightly through me that it is the first thing my family, friends, co-workers, clients and the world around me see. When I neglect my Father, due to various lame excuses, it is always so very evident to me. All I need to do is stop and look back at the wreckage from my day to realize my focus was on me instead of God. So while all these extraneous things push and pull at my time and attention, if I keep my focus on Christ, all that stems from that will be all that needs to happen in a given day!

So does it really matter that some things seem to fall through the cracks? As long as the things that fall through cracks aren't things that involve fellowship with my Savior and the welfare and care of my family and friends, why not just let them fall. 

Because, if I'm being honest with myself, how much of my day is wasted on Facebook or the latest fad game (right now, I'm obsessed with the Candy Crush Saga) or worrying about what someone thinks of me or if I have all the ingredients for dinner. Foolishness. 

So where is our focus today? 

"May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, 

O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."

(Psalm 19:14, NLT)

Have a blessed weekend and mother's day! I will post some thoughts about Mother's Day on Sunday. 

Grace's Gotcha Day . . . two years . . . memories

It's a sultry day in Fuzhou.

Two people, soon to be first time parents, anxiously pace back and forth across a hot hotel room.

Excitement, anticipation and fear hang heavy in the air.

And not just in that hotel room.

A few floors below, a little 18 month old girl waits, without understanding, for her new parents.

The phone rings in the hotel room.

It is time.

Time to meet their daughter for the first time.

Time for this precious little girl to meet these strangers who will become her forever family.

The tension in the air could be cut with a knife as orphanage workers usher the new parents into a hotel conference room where the little girl is waiting.

"Quick!" They say.

"Over here by her for a picture for the adoption decree before she starts crying."

"What?!" The new parents think as they pushed up against a wall by their baby and told to smile.

And then it begins.

The crying.

Crying out of fear.

Crying out of joy.

Crying out of confusion.

Signature after signature.

Fighting through tears.

Would chocolate help?

"Shove a chocolate in her mouth!" exclaims an orphanage worker.

"WHAT?!" exasperated new parents cry out.

Finally.

Just the three of them.

Alone.

In a hot hotel.

Soothing, praying, snuggling, hugging, praising, crying.

JOY.

"What precious gift has been bestowed upon us, oh God?"

"Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him.
Like arrow in the hands of a warrior are children born in one's youth.
Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. . . ." (Psalm 127:3-5a, NIV)

Memories . . .

Gotcha Day - May 8, 2011

China 2011

China 2011

First family photo - China 2011

Hong Kong Airport

Silliness - Summer 2011

First family vacation - August 2011 

Our little trooper after hand surgery - Fall 2011

Chinese New Year - 2012

Beach - April 2012

Summer 2012

Halloween 2012

3rd Birthday - November 2012

Shanghai - January 2013

First family photo with Anthony - January 2013

Sleeping beauty - February 2013

Easter 2013

First family trip to the beach as a family of four - April 2013

We love you, Grace Lihua Meledeo. You are forever ours.

Friday Adoption Adventures - Build the Nest!

Thinking about or considering adoption? Looking to experience your own adoption adventures? :)

There are so many wonderful resources today to help, aid and encourage those on the adoption journey, and one that is near and dear to my heart is the Sparrow Fund, founded by my precious friend Kelly Raudenbush. They work to provide financial aid and encouragement to families looking to adopt. For the month of May I am working to help the Sparrow Fund build their nest so they can continue to help adoptive families. 

You can find a list of amazing businesses donating proceeds to help the Sparrow Fund continue to provide their services to families HERE. 

There will also be exciting giveaways all month which I will sharing through my Facebook page, so if you haven't already, head HERE  nd like my blog page!! 

I would now like share a guest post from Kelly to help you better understand their heart for adoption!

Blessings!

________________________________________________

Have you ever considered adopting? Simply looking at the stats, about a third of you have. About 30% of Americans have seriously considered adopting. Yet, only 2% have actually adopted. That means that of those who say they have seriously considered adopting, 14 out of 15 don’t ever do it.

Why not? Well, it’s daunting—the financial cost, the impact this child will have on your family, the unknowns…so many unknowns. It’s no easy thing. We get that, because it was daunting for us.

As we walked that road ourselves and alongside other families like ours, we saw a need. That 2% of families who were taking that leap of faith to bring a child into their family through adoption—they needed more support. So, we took the leap of faith ourselves to do whatever we could to do just that.

Two years ago, The Sparrow Fund was started to give grants to families specifically for the purpose of family support through programs around the country that provide preadoption support and counsel, on-call support for families while they travel across the world to meet their children and bring them home, and support once they are home to help both the parents, new son or daughter, and family as a whole become a family.

Recognizing more need, we added programs to encourage and support families from those waiting to meet their children to those who have been home for years. We’ve helped families learn about the unique needs of children who have been adopted in the classroom and how to use correction as a vehicle of connection with their children in a way that is sensitive to them and their histories. And, we offered a weekend retreat for couples to be reminded of their calling as parents and refreshed to continue serving their children.

We’re not interested in growing the number of families adopting; that’s not our focus. Rather, our focus is on pouring into that 2% who are adopting; we want to love and serve them and do whatever we can to make the daunting a little less daunting. And, maybe, just maybe, as the daunting becomes less daunting and the support available becomes more readily available, we’ll see more of those families who have seriously considered adopting say, “maybe we can do this afterall.”

There’s something special happening this month. A whole bunch of folks are now coming alongside of us, saying, “Yes, we support adoptive families and the work of The Sparrow Fund to pour into them. And, we want to help.” This May, in our third annual fundraiser, about 50 businesses have made a commitment to help us build the nest so that we can help others as they build their nests. In addition to event sponsors, these business partners have made the commitment to give 10% of their total sales during the month of May to The Sparrow Fund so that we can do what we do.

That’s where you come in. We need you to click HERE to see all the businesses and then we need you to shop purposefully. There’s really no better way to shop. Share the link with your friends. Let people know about this easy and fun way to help! Together, we can make that 10% something crazy big.

 ___________________________

Forever changed by our experience of being adopted and adopting, Kelly Raudenbush is a stay-at-home mom/manager to 4 children and a professional juggler, juggling her calling as wife and mother with her secondary callings (editing and serving adoptive families through The Sparrow Fund). You can learn more about their adoption story, how they've been changed, and what life for them looks like on their personal blog, My Overthinking (where she's going to have some super sweet giveaways this month, by the way).

Weekly Wednesday Word - Provision

God has been encouraging me this week with reminders of His love and provision for us so I wanted to take a moment and share with you how He has encouraged me. I also want to hear how He is encouraging you!

One of the biggest and most obvious ways God has provided for us is through adoption (both our own spiritual adoption and our earthly adoptions). When you step out in faith to follow God's calling, He will move mountains if what you are doing is within His will. He provided every dime we needed for two adoptions. Adoptions are NOT cheap!! Every time I think about how He used so many different people to bless us through our adoptions, I am left speechless. It is truly a miracle. I am excited to see how God will continue to bless and provide for us through adoption!

But God doesn't just provide things on a large monetary scale.

He blesses us with the truths and promises in His word.

"His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires." (I Peter 1:3-4, NIV)

He blesses us through our spouses with little acts of kindness and love.

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, 

hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." 

(I Cor. 13:4-7, ESV)

He blesses us through our precious children who are a gift from Him.

"Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him." 

(Ps. 127:3, NIV)

He blesses us through our friends who follow the prompting of the Spirit to encourage you when you need it.

"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work; If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!" 

(Eccl. 4:9-10)

He brings along family and friends who help with all sorts of little needs along the way.

When we delight in, trust in and follow the Lord with our every day lives, He provides. 

"Take delight in the Lord, and he will you the desire of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this. He will your righteous reward shine like the dawn, 

your vindication like the noonday sun." 

(Ps. 37:4-6, NIV)

As we seek Him and His will, our desires will become His desires and we will seek to live our lives to bring glory to His name alone. This is what I want most for my life!

"If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen." (I Peter 4:11, NIV)

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." (I Cor. 10:31, NIV)

Please share with us in the comments how God has provided for you so we can encourage and spur one another on to good works and bring glory to our Father in Heaven!!

Blessings,