Why is it
that MESSY
is so much
more fun
than CLEAN???
???
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Our Ethiopian Kitchen
I experimented with a couple of Ethiopian recipes for the first time last night. We had injera, a moist, crepe-like bread
and alecha, a vegetable stew with cabbage, green peppers, tomatoes, etc., and seasoned with ginger.
I think it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself! Madeline enjoyed the injera. I was thrilled that she was eating at all. She has had a bad ear infection this week, and she hasn't had much of an appetite.
and alecha, a vegetable stew with cabbage, green peppers, tomatoes, etc., and seasoned with ginger.
I think it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself! Madeline enjoyed the injera. I was thrilled that she was eating at all. She has had a bad ear infection this week, and she hasn't had much of an appetite.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Adoption Yard Sale
Announcing the next event on our fundraising agenda....... A Yard Sale! Yep, we are jumping on the bandwagon and doing what every other adoptive family is doing to raise money - having a huge yard sale.The sale will be on Saturday May 30th, the weekend AFTER Memorial Day, in the parking lot of Pegram Church of Christ.
If you have been spring cleaning and have any items that you would like to donate for the sale, just email us at family @ duboisadoption . com (remove spaces). We have a pickup truck, and we will be happy to arrange a time to come and pick up your donations. The church is graciously allowing us to store things there. Donations of any size would make us very excited! We have already had several families to donate items, and we feel very hopeful that the yard sale could provide a big boost in our adoption account.
Please pray for us that God will continue to generously provide all the funds that we need to bring our son home from Ethiopia. He has been so good to us! Thank you and God bless you!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Two More Days of Free Shipping!
We are still offering free shipping on all orders from our website through this Friday, May 1st. Remember to place your T-shirt and note card orders before then to take advantage of this offer! Thank you, everyone, for your support of our son and the orphans of Ethiopia. We just lack about $900 now to be able to send in our dossier. We are getting ever closer to bringing our son home!
www.duboisadoption.com
Monday, April 27, 2009
It's Not About Me
I was so humbled last week by a precious friend of mine. She sent an email to many of her family members and friends in the city where she lives to tell them about our adoption and the resulting financial need. She wrote:
I was blown away! I thanked the Lord, and immediately wrote her back expressing our gratitude for her friendship, support, and generosity. Later that night, she responded by kindly reminding me:
Oh yeah. It’s not about ME. Her generosity is not about me. This adoption is not about me. The money that we need to raise is not about me. None of it is about me! I had become so fixated on dollars and cents that I had lost sight of the bigger perspective.
So what is the bigger perspective? Why are we adopting?
• There are 147 million orphans in the world.
• We are so wealthy in this country, and God doesn’t intend for us to hoard our wealth.
• It is God’s will that Christians care for orphans.
• God said to “Go unto all the world” and share the gospel with the people he loves.
• Jesus told us that when we feed the hungry and love the lonely, we are doing it to him.
This weekend, I found this passage in II Corinthians 9 about being generous with our money that spoke to my heart:
This reminded me:
• Money is seed!
• It is God who supplies seed to the sower. Our job is simply to scatter it.
• We are made rich SO THAT we can be generous
• He wants us to be generous SO THAT it will result in thanksgiving to God!
Wow! The whole point of our adoption, of generosity, and of any “good” works that we do is so that God will be glorified! This is SO not about me. Thank you, my dear friend. I needed that reminder.
Please don't feel any pressure to give, but if you do feel led to donate, 100% of the proceeds go toward the adoption costs. **** and I are willing to double your contributions by matching your donations up to $25 per person/per couple. Of course, any amount helps- even just $5 if you have it.
We are so blessed in this country- what a great way to reach out to other nations in the name of Jesus!
I was blown away! I thanked the Lord, and immediately wrote her back expressing our gratitude for her friendship, support, and generosity. Later that night, she responded by kindly reminding me:
Well, I feel strongly about this cause, and, frankly, it's not about YOU, so there! :) It's about helping children, and spreading the gospel, and changing the world's view of rich, greedy Americans...
Oh yeah. It’s not about ME. Her generosity is not about me. This adoption is not about me. The money that we need to raise is not about me. None of it is about me! I had become so fixated on dollars and cents that I had lost sight of the bigger perspective.
So what is the bigger perspective? Why are we adopting?
• There are 147 million orphans in the world.
• We are so wealthy in this country, and God doesn’t intend for us to hoard our wealth.
• It is God’s will that Christians care for orphans.
• God said to “Go unto all the world” and share the gospel with the people he loves.
• Jesus told us that when we feed the hungry and love the lonely, we are doing it to him.
This weekend, I found this passage in II Corinthians 9 about being generous with our money that spoke to my heart:
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously…And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.…He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.
This reminded me:
• Money is seed!
• It is God who supplies seed to the sower. Our job is simply to scatter it.
• We are made rich SO THAT we can be generous
• He wants us to be generous SO THAT it will result in thanksgiving to God!
Wow! The whole point of our adoption, of generosity, and of any “good” works that we do is so that God will be glorified! This is SO not about me. Thank you, my dear friend. I needed that reminder.
Friday, April 24, 2009
A New Era
I am feeling sentimental today. For six years I have volunteered as a counselor at the Hope Clinic for Women. Today was my last day.
The Hope Clinic began as a Crisis Pregnancy Center, and over the years the ministry has grown to include post-abortion ministry, abstinence training in schools and churches, medical services like ultrasounds and STD testing, counseling for guys and parents, and now even a maternity home for girls who have nowhere else to go during their pregnancies. I have seen such changes and growth in the ministry during the years that I have volunteered there. The Hope Clinic has touched the lives of thousands of women and their unborn children.
This is a photo that the Hope Clinic uses on their website and brochure of ME when I was pregnant with M
The first time I walked into the counseling room, I was scared to death. I got to sit-in with experienced counselors for months until I had witnessed lots of counseling sessions. But still, I was scared stiff the first time that I walked in there by myself. I was terrified that I would say or do the wrong thing. But over time, I learned that success in the counseling room was not about what I said. It was dependent on how I loved. Did I listen with empathy and truly love the client with the love of the Lord? Did I offer her forgiveness, compassion, and an opportunity to learn about Jesus if she didn’t know him already? Did I offer her reassurance and resources that would help her to make it through a difficult time in her life?
Oh, the things that I have seen as a counselor… I quickly learned to expect the unexpected in the counseling room. There is no such thing as a “typical” client. I have talked to girls who come from Christian families and private Christian schools and girls who moved out to live with their boyfriend and depend on welfare when they turned eighteen. I have had a client as young as thirteen and as old as forty. I have spoken with a young woman from Ireland and a lady from Iraq. One girl was on cocaine and another had been raped by her father.
I have been stretched in so many ways: to not judge, to offer unconditional love, and to remember that each girl that I met is loved tremendously by our Savior. Through volunteering at the Hope Clinic, I have learned how to speak my faith more boldly and accurately. I have seen lots of tears and had the opportunity to pray with many young women at an extremely vulnerable time in their lives. I have had the opportunity to love Jesus by loving these broken girls that he loves.
The Hope Clinic administration has made the decision to begin using master’s level interns as the counselors instead of lay volunteers like me. I understand and support the change, and I believe that overall it will help to offer a more professional level of ministry to the girls who come to us for help. Other volunteer opportunities are open to me, of course; however, since Madeline was born it has become difficult for me to be a regular volunteer. As she grows and we continue to enlarge our family, I want to focus my ministry efforts on things that I can involve my children in. I want them to see me serving and loving the needy, and I want them to be personally engaged as much as possible. I’ve been praying about this for a while, and I feel like it’s clear that the time is right to make the transition. But still I am sad.
Volunteering at the Hope Clinic has given me the gift of pouring myself out in love and receiving the joy and peace that result. I have stretched myself to do things I was afraid to do, and I have been incredibly blessed. I thank God for my time at the Hope Clinic.
So what’s next?.... Daniel and I are drawn to people who come from other cultures. We love to spend time with people who have backgrounds and experiences different from ours and to learn from them. Ever since our term studying overseas in college, we also have had an appreciation for how difficult and lonely it can be to live in a culture that is not your own. Our hearts have desired for a while now to become involved with a ministry to refugees. We know that God calls us to love the orphan, the widow, and the ALIEN – basically all of the most needy and vulnerable groups among us. Over and over in the Old Testament he told the Israelites to welcome the stranger in their midst and treat them with kindness. We have made a contact with World Relief, a ministry that reaches out to refugees, and we have a meeting with someone there next week!
I am so excited about this new opportunity to reach out to refugees in our city. I am also thankful that through it we will be exposing our children to people from many different cultures and backgrounds, all of whom are dear to the heart of God.
The Hope Clinic began as a Crisis Pregnancy Center, and over the years the ministry has grown to include post-abortion ministry, abstinence training in schools and churches, medical services like ultrasounds and STD testing, counseling for guys and parents, and now even a maternity home for girls who have nowhere else to go during their pregnancies. I have seen such changes and growth in the ministry during the years that I have volunteered there. The Hope Clinic has touched the lives of thousands of women and their unborn children.
This is a photo that the Hope Clinic uses on their website and brochure of ME when I was pregnant with M The first time I walked into the counseling room, I was scared to death. I got to sit-in with experienced counselors for months until I had witnessed lots of counseling sessions. But still, I was scared stiff the first time that I walked in there by myself. I was terrified that I would say or do the wrong thing. But over time, I learned that success in the counseling room was not about what I said. It was dependent on how I loved. Did I listen with empathy and truly love the client with the love of the Lord? Did I offer her forgiveness, compassion, and an opportunity to learn about Jesus if she didn’t know him already? Did I offer her reassurance and resources that would help her to make it through a difficult time in her life?
Oh, the things that I have seen as a counselor… I quickly learned to expect the unexpected in the counseling room. There is no such thing as a “typical” client. I have talked to girls who come from Christian families and private Christian schools and girls who moved out to live with their boyfriend and depend on welfare when they turned eighteen. I have had a client as young as thirteen and as old as forty. I have spoken with a young woman from Ireland and a lady from Iraq. One girl was on cocaine and another had been raped by her father.
I have been stretched in so many ways: to not judge, to offer unconditional love, and to remember that each girl that I met is loved tremendously by our Savior. Through volunteering at the Hope Clinic, I have learned how to speak my faith more boldly and accurately. I have seen lots of tears and had the opportunity to pray with many young women at an extremely vulnerable time in their lives. I have had the opportunity to love Jesus by loving these broken girls that he loves.
The Hope Clinic administration has made the decision to begin using master’s level interns as the counselors instead of lay volunteers like me. I understand and support the change, and I believe that overall it will help to offer a more professional level of ministry to the girls who come to us for help. Other volunteer opportunities are open to me, of course; however, since Madeline was born it has become difficult for me to be a regular volunteer. As she grows and we continue to enlarge our family, I want to focus my ministry efforts on things that I can involve my children in. I want them to see me serving and loving the needy, and I want them to be personally engaged as much as possible. I’ve been praying about this for a while, and I feel like it’s clear that the time is right to make the transition. But still I am sad.
Volunteering at the Hope Clinic has given me the gift of pouring myself out in love and receiving the joy and peace that result. I have stretched myself to do things I was afraid to do, and I have been incredibly blessed. I thank God for my time at the Hope Clinic.
So what’s next?.... Daniel and I are drawn to people who come from other cultures. We love to spend time with people who have backgrounds and experiences different from ours and to learn from them. Ever since our term studying overseas in college, we also have had an appreciation for how difficult and lonely it can be to live in a culture that is not your own. Our hearts have desired for a while now to become involved with a ministry to refugees. We know that God calls us to love the orphan, the widow, and the ALIEN – basically all of the most needy and vulnerable groups among us. Over and over in the Old Testament he told the Israelites to welcome the stranger in their midst and treat them with kindness. We have made a contact with World Relief, a ministry that reaches out to refugees, and we have a meeting with someone there next week!
I am so excited about this new opportunity to reach out to refugees in our city. I am also thankful that through it we will be exposing our children to people from many different cultures and backgrounds, all of whom are dear to the heart of God.
Monday, April 20, 2009
A Golden Weekend
God blessed us in so many ways this weekend! First of all, he has restored the peace in my heart. All last week, I felt such stress and unrest. I was afraid of many things: that no one would come to our fundraising party on Saturday; that we wouldn’t have the money that we need to submit our dossier because my workload has lightened up and I’m not making as much; that we might make unwise decisions regarding the changes we need to make as we welcome an African child into our family and community… Oh, but the Lord is good. He is greater than all my fears, and he has reminded me of his kindness to me. “Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.” (Psalm 116:7) I meditated on this verse throughout the weekend, day and night. Even in my sleep I recited it. And once more my soul remembers: indeed, he has been good to me.
On Saturday arrived the long-awaited day of our Green Gold fundraising party. Here’s how it works: A gold buying agent came to our party location with all of her equipment to analyze the value of gold brought to her. People brought old, broken, or unwanted gold jewelry, and she was able to appraise it on the spot and make a offer to them based on the day’s London Gold Fix Price. Our friends had the opportunity to unload unwanted jewelry and take home cash with them. What a great way to make some extra money in a difficult economy! Then we were given 10% of the agent’s total profits for the day to put in our adoption fund. Including a couple of donations that were given to us on Saturday, we made almost $700! Praise God! There were only a few people who were able to make it to the party, but amazingly God seemed to multiply the money that we received anyway. Every dollar brings us closer to being able to send in our dossier and start the clock ticking. Once it (our dossier) arrives in Ethiopia, we expect to wait about nine months to receive our referral (the assignment of our child).
Sunday afternoon, we were FINALLY able to attend a meeting of the Nashville area Ethiopia Adoption Fellowship Group. We have been dying to make some connections with people who are like-minded: to hear their stories, to see their children, and to be encouraged. How affirming and inspiring it was to be in a home filled with families who have adopted or are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia! And how delightful to see their children playing and running and having the time of their lives together. We were so blessed by the conversations we had and connections that we made with families like the Seversons who adopted a five year old little girl a couple of months ago. And like the Weimers who are adopting THREE more Ethiopian children to add to the SIX that they already have (three from Ethiopia and three biological). And like the Johnsons who will travel within a month or two to pick up their five month old baby girl. And the Puttys who adopted a four year old little boy last fall to add to their five biological kids. And so many others. Thank you, Fellowship Group, for your warm welcome!
Yes, God has been good to us. I thank him that he has provided for us, given us new friends and encouragement, and restored the peace in my heart.
One of the two gold ladies hard at work
My dear friend Chrissy came to support us on Saturday
Emily came to help out and encourage us, too
Daniel enjoyed the snacks at the Gold Party :)
On Saturday arrived the long-awaited day of our Green Gold fundraising party. Here’s how it works: A gold buying agent came to our party location with all of her equipment to analyze the value of gold brought to her. People brought old, broken, or unwanted gold jewelry, and she was able to appraise it on the spot and make a offer to them based on the day’s London Gold Fix Price. Our friends had the opportunity to unload unwanted jewelry and take home cash with them. What a great way to make some extra money in a difficult economy! Then we were given 10% of the agent’s total profits for the day to put in our adoption fund. Including a couple of donations that were given to us on Saturday, we made almost $700! Praise God! There were only a few people who were able to make it to the party, but amazingly God seemed to multiply the money that we received anyway. Every dollar brings us closer to being able to send in our dossier and start the clock ticking. Once it (our dossier) arrives in Ethiopia, we expect to wait about nine months to receive our referral (the assignment of our child).
Sunday afternoon, we were FINALLY able to attend a meeting of the Nashville area Ethiopia Adoption Fellowship Group. We have been dying to make some connections with people who are like-minded: to hear their stories, to see their children, and to be encouraged. How affirming and inspiring it was to be in a home filled with families who have adopted or are in the process of adopting from Ethiopia! And how delightful to see their children playing and running and having the time of their lives together. We were so blessed by the conversations we had and connections that we made with families like the Seversons who adopted a five year old little girl a couple of months ago. And like the Weimers who are adopting THREE more Ethiopian children to add to the SIX that they already have (three from Ethiopia and three biological). And like the Johnsons who will travel within a month or two to pick up their five month old baby girl. And the Puttys who adopted a four year old little boy last fall to add to their five biological kids. And so many others. Thank you, Fellowship Group, for your warm welcome!
Yes, God has been good to us. I thank him that he has provided for us, given us new friends and encouragement, and restored the peace in my heart.
One of the two gold ladies hard at work
My dear friend Chrissy came to support us on Saturday
Emily came to help out and encourage us, too
Daniel enjoyed the snacks at the Gold Party :)
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