Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Happy Birthday......

Sweet Brother........
The Ravine on Kenny's Birthday....

Today you would have been 45 years old.......and I still try to play it all through my head ~ never fully understanding.

I drove by the resovior this morning and the sun rising over it was spectacular, making me miss you even more ~ the clouds floating in a pink sky, with grays and whites reflecting the sunshine, like you were smiling down from Heaven saying "It is all right"

I miss you dearly Kenny..........Rest in Peace Sweet Brother.

Old picture of Uncle Kenny, RIP

Lyrics to How To Save A Life :
Step one you say we need to talk
He walks you say sit down it's just a talk
He smiles politely back at you
You stare politely right on through
Some sort of window to your right
As he goes left and you stay right
Between the lines of fear and blame
You begin to wonder why you came

CHORUS:
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

Let him know that you know best
Cause after all you do know best
Try to slip past his defense
Without granting innocence
Lay down a list of what is wrong
The things you've told him all along
And pray to God he hears you
And pray to God he hears you

CHORUS:
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

As he begins to raise his voice
You lower yours and grant him one last choice
Drive until you lose the road
Or break with the ones you've followed
He will do one of two things
He will admit to everything
Or he'll say he's just not the same
And you'll begin to wonder why you came

CHORUS:
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

Sunday, December 27, 2009

DSC06321-1


The greatest gift is a passion for reading.”

- Elizabeth Hardwick

Saturday, December 26, 2009

A Christmas Prayer

Silent night! Holy night!
All's asleep, one sole light,
Just the faithful and holy pair,
Lovely boy-child with curly hair
Sleep in heavenly peace!
Sleep in heavenly peace
As I was surrounded yesterday by family and friends, celebrating the Gifts of Christmas, I kept finding myself singing my most favorite Christmas Carol ~ Silent Night
As I returned from a day away from the computer ~ I first journeyed to Reece's Rainbow, as my heart and soul have such a calling to help these children who are awaiting their forever families.....the only reason they are orphans is because they are deemed less than perfect by the society they live in.
My joyous heart was quickly saddened to read of the passing of a beautiful soul - a man who has been called to the same journey of welcoming these precious children into his own heart and home and to raising awareness and opportunities for other families to find the way to adopt.
As you move through the next few days, I ask this one last Christmas Wish of you......to say a prayer for Derek Loux's family and friends, as they lay to rest their beloved husband, father, son, brother and friend................and to read this message of Redemption by Derek Loux posted on The Sumbo Family Story Blog.


Redemption by Derek Leux
Friday, December 12,
2008

Renee' and I are sitting in the office of a telephone company in
Novograd Valenski, Ukraine, using wireless internet. We are in the middle of
adopting three special needs boys from an orphanage here. Two of the boys have
Down Syndrome. Roman is high functioning, energetic and happy. Dimitri has
serious mental retardation, failure to thrive, and though he is five years old,
he is the size of a 1 year old. He has sores on his face, a distinct smell of
death on him, and yells out if we try to do anything with him other than hold
him. Because he has less ability to respond and learn, he naturally gets less
attention and care from the orphanage workers in this world of limited
resources. The harsh reality of the "survival of the fittest" principle is a
life and death struggle that this little boy is losing fast. Our third boy
Sasha, is a brilliant six year old who has Spina Bifida (the condition our son
Josiah died from in 1996). He is like a learning sponge that can't get enough!
He is happy and alert and thirsty for knowledge and experience. So with two of
our boys, we get an immediate return on any investment we make. With Dimitri,
there's not much immediate gratification. In fact, it's unknown when and if
there will be a return at all. This is the kind of situation that makes the
carnal, fallen, human reasoning think, "Why try? What's the point? What will
this produce? What good will this do? Why not select a boy who has more
potential? This looks like a lost cause.

Two days ago we drove for hours
into the Ukrainian countryside to the village where Dimitri was born. We met
with officials there and signed papers and answered their questions. We also
went and saw Dimitri's house. The day had been long, we were still recovering
from jet lag, I was beginning to really miss my six daughters at home and all
the familiar things our fragile human hearts entangle themselves with in feeble
attempts to feel secure. Sitting in the dark on our very long drive back to
Novograd that night, the Holy Spirit began to whisper to my heart, and new
understanding about redemption began to take shape.

I was thinking,
"Man, adopting this little boy has been so much work. This is exhausting,
expensive, uncomfortable… and it doesn't feel very rewarding right now." What am
I doing in some little Soviet car in the dark, in the middle of rural Ukraine in
frozen December, as the driver dodges cats and potholes? What if Dimitri doesn't
improve at all? What if we get "nothing" out of this? Ahhh, there it was; that
dark, fallen, unreedemed, selfish human love, rooted in the tree of the
knowledge of "good and evil". The love the Greeks called "erao" love. The love
where we treat someone as precious and treasured for what we can get out of it.
This is unlike "agapeo" love, the God kind of love that treats someone as
treasured and precious for their good, not for my good. It's when I love a
person in order to meet their needs, having no expectation of them meeting any
of my needs. At a whole new level, God is working His kind of love into my weak
heart, and He's using little Dimitri to do it.

On the drive home that
night, the Lord whispered in my ear, "This is Redemption. Derek, do you know how
far I travelled to get you and bring you back? I had to be separated from my
Son, in order to get you, just like you are separated from your children in
order to get these boys. Do you know how expensive it was for Me to purchase
you? It cost me everything. Do you know how broken, sick, damaged, twisted,
dirty, smelly, and hopeless you were? And at the end of it all, you had nothing
to give me or add to me. I did it for you. I emptied myself and became nothing
so that you could have it all. This is redemption.

My friends, adoption
is redemption. It's costly, exhausting, expensive, and outrageous. Buying back
lives costs so much. When God set out to redeem us, it killed Him. And when He
redeems us, we can't even really appreciate or comprehend it, just like Dimitri
will never comprehend or fully appreciate what is about to happen to him… but…
he will live in the fruit of it. As his Daddy, I will never expect him to
understand all of this or even to thank me. I just want to watch him live in the
benefits of my love and experience the joys of being an heir in my family. This
is how our heavenly "Papa" feels towards us.

Today, settle your busy
heart down and rest in the benefits of redemption. Enjoy the fruits of His
goodness, and stop trying to "pay Him back". You'll never get close you goofy
little kid.


You can visit their family blog Here

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

~Remembering~

Annette and I

Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow.

Don't walk behind me, I may not lead.

Just walk beside me and be my friend.-- Albert Camus

Rest in Peace my dear friend......Rest in Peace

Saturday, December 12, 2009

A Wish Come True

As you all know ~ from my post below~ my Christmas Wish this year is for family and friends to donate to Reece's Rainbow Angel Christmas Tree fund that helps with the grant funds for precious children with Down syndrome who are waiting to find their forever homes.

A dear friend and her beautiful family have been called to not only donate to the Angel Tree fund, but to open their hearts and home and adopt one of the waiting Angels.

Please visit this blog and follow the magical journey that is just beginning ~ Loving Alina

and a very special aspect of this adoption is that Alina is in the same orphanage as my sweet girl, Nadine ~ which means Full of Hope/Hopeful.

If you can make a donation to Alina or Nadine's grant funds, you would make this Momma's heart quiet a bit ~ knowing that two little Angels ~ who are together many thousands of miles away from here, have a chance at life.

What a glorious Christmas Gift that is ~ Life!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

My Christmas Wish

This
This precious Angel is my Christmas Wish.........I so want to adopt this little girl, My heart has already adopted her, but sadly the best thing I can do is raise awareness to the Reece's Rainbow Christmas Angel Tree Project and ask for donations to her fund to help her future Forever Family gain the ability to travel and adopt her. Her name is Nadine and she is truly a precious Angel.
Click here to visit Nadine's page or the pages of all the other precious little ones waiting for their forever families to find them and welcome them into their hearts and homes.