There are hungry children in Africa. . .

Last night I went out to dinner with friends. We didn't eat until 9 pm which meant we were very ready for dinner! While waiting, one of my friends commented, "I'm starving". . .to which I almost always teasingly reply, "You're not starving. . .you're hungry. . .there are children in Africa who are starving. . ." This has been something that people say flippantly throughout the years. It is a common saying. I have used it to tease my friends often. However, this night, I couldn't. She said it. The other girls looked at me waiting for my response. I gave it half heartedly. In my heart / head it started. . ."You're not starving, not like the. . .wait. . .not like (I can't hardly finish this thought) not like my son right now." It's not a flippant thing anymore. It has flesh and blood. I don't know my son, I don't know his name, his story or what he looks like, but nonetheless, I have a son halfway across the world who is most likely hungry right now.

No, I don't think it's a sin to say "I'm starving" I don't even think it's thoughtless or anything. I just think. . .I can't say flippantly "there are starving children in Africa". . .it's too personal now. I never realized when I started this process how much that would affect me. I can't believe it never affected me before, truthfully.

We just finished our homestudy and are hoping to be referral ready by the end of July, which got me to thinking. . .if we get a referral in 4-5 months, where is our little boy right now? Most likely, still with his birth family or relatives. Either way, with the food situation the way it is in Liberia and the fact that most children who are put up for adoption are relinquished b/c the family doesn't think they can feed them. I know that family must be hurting right now, trying to feed a little boy and knowing they can't right now. Please join me in praying for that family and the pain they must be going through as they make this difficult decision. Please pray also that they will come to know Jesus as their Savior so that they may spend eternity with "our" son. Thanks for listening. . .

Last night

Title

I'm thinking of changing the title to my blog. Should the actual title be Home, Hope and Future, b/c the title is what come's up in someone's bookmarks page? Welcome to Our Journey is just boring. . .what do you think?

Brayden's Birthday

Happy Birthday, Brayden!! Yesterday was Brayden's third birthday! He was so cute. Grandma called first thing in the morning to sing to him. As soon as he answered the phone, however, he says "Hi, wish me a happy birthday b/c it's my birthday!" Talk about not giving someone a chance! He was very proud about being "big" now. He even tried to convince me that he could sit in the front seat b/c of how big he was now!

I had planned early this summer to do a big, beach party. However, his birthday fell on a Friday which just happens to be my small group day. So, instead we stopped by the grocery store on the way to small group (he knows it as "play group" because he gets to play with friends!) and he picked out cookies and milk to share. He was thrilled with getting to eat so many cookies (and the other treats that the church office staff kept giving him!) at 9:30 in the morning! Then, we went to Mickey D's for lunch. After that it was home to an early nap. The kids woke up at 3 and we were off to Sea World. Sea World is Brayden's favorite places! (and for you non-floridians. . .you can get a season pass for the price of one day!) So, we decided on a night at Sea World and told Brayden he could invite one friend. Of course, he invited Abbie. He's still trying to win her heart for their marriage plans later in life! The rest of the gang consisted of us, the Clines, Grandad and Nana, Grandma and Grandpa and the rest of the Galbraith Clan.

The husband of one of my dear friends works at Sea World. He treated us so special! Really, we got the works! Thanks Jay and Carrie! As soon as we got there, he took us straight back to the penguin encounter where, as you can see, we got to pet a REAL, LIVE penguin. This is Skippy, he's a rock hopper penguin! So, cool! Brayden loves penguins. Especially after many trips to Sea World, Diego's Pepito episode, Happy Feet and Surf's Up!!

Next, Jay took us back to the rehabilitation area of Sea World. Sea World takes in many injured animals and works with them to heal and then release them back into the wild.
The first tank was a dolphin tank. Jay carefully warned us repeatedly not to touch the dolphins. (at first I thought he was over-stressing this. I mean, come on, it's not like the dolphins will let us touch them!) Well, he was right on because those dolphins were begging to be pet and played with!This pic is not zoomed at all, in fact I had to lean back. The one dolphin wanted to play so bad, I had to lean back so as not to kiss him on the nose. Ok, as you can tell, I thought this was just as cool as Brayden did!

While back there, we also saw Sea Turtles and Manatees that we being rehabilitated. The Manatee was super close too! Next, it was off to the Dolphin show then dinner at Shark's. The dinner was so cool b/c the restaurant is located under ground right next to the Shark tank so one HUGE wall is the shark tank itself. What a cool evening. From there, the grandparents and the Galbraiths (have I said thank you enough?) left. The Clines stayed with us and we adults headed to Kraken to ride the roller coaster (Greg had never ridden it!) We loved it but the natives were getting restless, so off to Shamu Rocks, a killer whale show set to rock music with lights and everything. It was a great night that completely exhausted us. Our kids are not used to staying up until 10!

What a fun way to celebrate our little man turning 3. He is getting so big. He talks like crazy and is so intelligent in what he says. He also has a sweet, soft heart. He loves his friends and especially his daddy. He also absolutely adores his little sister. He wakes Gracie up every morning with "good morning, princess!". My other favorite thing is to hear him pray, "I thank you for this food, for your Wove (love) and for everybody that. . .(fill in whatever we did that day!) and do his verses (he knows 25+ bible verses!). Love you Brayden James!

A failed Test

Apparently, all you have to do to get blog comments is say that no one's reading. . .maybe this comment offended my stalkers so they came out of the closet! Ok, so most of you aren't real stalkers since I gave you my blog (yes, I emailed it out to everyone I know) Is that a desparate cry for my friends to read it? I'm not sure what that says about me?? hmmmm

Well, 2 more things down. I went to the police station and got our local police clearance (they even let me get Greg's!!) Thanks to Jess for watching Brayden so I could go with just Gracie! Yes, I thought that would be the hard part of the day. . .you know, gov't agencies can take forever. But, no the longest wait was later. Monday afternoon, our whole family had doctor's appointments. Greg and I needed to get our physicals done, Gracie needed shots and Brayden had to go for a check up. So, our appointment was at 2:15 pm. . .I knew we'd be there a while (our doctor is always running behind and we did have a LOT to do!) However, I was NOT expecting to be there for 3 hours. Yes, you read that right. We didn't pull out until 5:15! I was fuming! 3 hours! WITH an appointment!!! It meant I was 45 min late to bring our friends dinner (they decided to adopt domestically and got matched with a baby before their homestudy was even completed!!. . but that's a great story for another time!) and 30 min. late to our staff meeting. I was so mad I was just shaking. I could stop my leg from kicking /twitching. The whole time I'm thinking "he just doesn't care about OUR schedules" "How dare they" "I have better things to do than sit in a waiting room with 2 small children"

Needless to say, I failed that test! God has been teaching me about trusting Him, Getting all I need from Him so I can give and give to others, not complaining. . .all of that and more and now God gives me a wonderful opportunity to live it out. . .and I miss the boat completely! I pray that the next time I get frustrated, I will get control of my emotions, bring them in line with God's truth and choose to offer grace to those around me!

Oh yeah, one more thing (man, my blogs always turn out to be really long!) our dinner Monday night was a staff dinner for our church. It was so nice to spend time together. Pastor Jon talked for a while and then went around the table and asked each person (there are 12 of us, I think?!) what they were learning. I love that! I love hearing where other people are in their journeys. Maybe that's why I love blogging to so much! One of the things that stuck out to me that Pastor Jon said was from Joshua 3. He was talking about Joshua preparing the people for God to move. Joshua told the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you." He created anticipation among the people which prepared them for the parting of the river the next day. The people were on the edge of their seats, primed and ready for God to do something amazing. They were ready to walk into a roaring river and see Him part it. SO, the question is. . .do you create and live in a spirit of anticipation? Do I, as a leader, create an expectancy for God to show up "tomorrow and do amazing things among you"? What a challenge. This goes hand in hand with no complaining. No negative attitudes. No questioning God and his sovereignty. Just a trust in Him that is unshakable and a attitude of sitting on the edge of my seat and urging others to do the same as we watch for God to do amazing things among us.

Love ya,
Bran

You alone are GOOD!

Yes, I know I've posted every day this weekend. . .but, sometimes I feel like I have to post to remember, ya know? Today during worship, something hit me. We were singing, "You alone are worthy, you alone are Good, you alone are Father, you alone are God." Here's what hit me. . .YOU ALONE ARE GOOD. This shouldn't hit me. . .it's one of my favorite things to remind people of. You know, when they say, "He's such a good person" my answer? "There is no that are good, no not one." (I'd quote the address, but can't remember right now!) I even taught the kids in Sunday School one year that "we deserve death". . .it got some comments from parents, I won't lie =). . .and yet, that age old truth hit me again today. REMEMBER, BRANDI, I ALONE AM GOOD. WHY DO YOU EXPECT THAT FROM OTHERS. THEY ARE NOT GOOD, JUST I AM! Oh yes, Lord. I so often place my expectations on others. Especially Christians, because they should know better! What a wonderful reminder. One of the things I am working on now, is to go to HIM for all that I need b/c others just won't cut it. Why? B/c only He is Good!

just thought I'd share. . .you know, to the three of you who read this! let's see. . .Jess, Rae, Jen B.????

Paperwork Update

We just got in the mail our fingerprinting appointments!! Yeah! I also went and got our passport size photos (needed for our dossier) and printed the pics of our house. . .by the way, did you know CVS charges 7.99 for passport photos? What a rip-off when it is on the same paper and is smaller than a $.25 4x6!!! Anyways, we're just about to the point where I've done all I can do!

Still left. . .
filling out the 864 (I'm doing this in the car tonight!)
Health Insurance (still waiting for info on what to do)
Med. appointment (on monday)
homestudy appointment (next monday)
our local police clearance (monday morning)

Waiting. . .
on the gov't to send us . . .clearance on our local and national background checks
on Cathy's report for our homestudy. . .(obviously, after our appointment with her!)
on my friends to write reference letters
on VitaChek to send my birth certificates

That's it!! We're hoping to be completely done by Next Monday (the 25th) and just start the waiting! This will be the hardest part. Once everything is sent in to Acres of Hope, we wait 1-4 months for a referral and then 6-9 months to travel. We'll be so happy to have a Picture of our child (hopefully by Thanksgiving. . .at least by Christmas!) My parents even framed a map of Liberia on their "grandkids" wall!

Trusting God

Have I told you guys that I love my small group? I have the sweetest group of girls that meets every Friday. There are 20 girls total, but only about 12 on any given week. Right now we're going through "Trusting God" by Jerry Bridges. First of all, it's an incredible book. What a challenge to allow God to search our hearts and our beliefs about Him so that we truly understand just how big and sovereign He is. Today's chapter was "God's Sovereignty and Our Responsibility" which gave big questions about how our (or other's) choices effect God's will. It is so fun to really search our hearts together. We ask questions, bring up ideas or problems and mostly challenge each other to understand who He is in the midst of who we are! Today, Carrie made this statement. . ."Yesterday I screwed up. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. Today I woke up. Thank you Jesus for your mercy." We decided we needed to say that every day before getting out of bed. It is so easy to remember to rely on Him when He puts us in the position of conscience dependence. However, when things are normal (we wake up, we eat, we are safe, we pay our bills) we DO NOT attribute that to a Divine Work of God!!

So, as much as I am struggling with my trusting God in the starving nation of Liberia. Struggling to understand His sovereignty over children who are hungry and what is my personal responsibility to feed. . .I am reminded that even in my own life, when I breathe, eat, sleep and live it is because of His Amazing Sovereignty. If He chooses to use me to feed His hungry children or just to bless His children here, I stand in AWE!

Thanks Carrie for the reminder. I might make a sticker to post somewhere to remind me!

The Darfur

If you have questions about what's going on in Darfur, scroll down to the bottom of the page to see a video and sign a petition.

A fun story

So, as you know, a bunch of us are looking for things to give up and ways for God to provide money that we can set aside to bring to Liberia. Well, my mom called with this story and I just HAD to share. . .

This morning as she was getting ready, she was praying for God to reveal to her a way to set aside money this week for the children of Liberia. As soon as she got out of the shower, she realized that she had missed a call. Well, upon checking her voicemail she heard a message from our Doctor, Dr. Hoffman: "Terri, please don't go fill your prescription. A pharmacy rep dropped off some samples and I have a 3 month supply sitting here with your name on it". So, my mom rejoices and promptly calls the pharmacy to see just how much she saved. The pharmacist tells her that medicine was $154 per month!! That's over $500 in the fund!!! What a great God we serve. As a side note. . .I can not tell you how much it touches my heart that my family is doing this little challenge with us. I know they can (and will) give out of their abundance at the end of the year, but the fact that they are choosing to look for things to give up and to remember the children of Liberia touches my heart like I can't describe.

One more story. . .my friend Jen is having fun with this too. Last week I told you how she went to CVS without buying anything (harder than it sounds!), this week she excitedly told me Sunday morning how she went to the mall and didn't spend a dollar! She even went in all the stores. Thrilled, she commented, "that's gotta be at least $25!" What a fun journey this is to watch how God teaches us to say No to ourselves to say Yes to Him. Not only that, but the exercise of saying no is helping my budget in other ways and my waistline at home!!

Living in FL. . .oh wait, and 100 other things!

Somedays, I love living in FL. Today we spent the day with Carrie, Shannon, Nicole, Brooke and their kids at Sea World. This is Brayden's favorite spot in the world. He loves Orcas, dolphins, penguins and every other animal in every show! I realize that it is a blessing to live in Orlando and be able to go to SeaWorld anytime we want! (season passes to seaworld are the price of a one day admission and you can go all year!) Thanks to Carrie, whose husband Jay works at SeaWorld and got Nicole in.

That's my update for today. . .I feel like I should be writing something profound, but it seems like other people just blog their day so I'm trying it!

Oh wait, I do have other things to say. . .who knew. . .

Adoption Update: We finished most of our paperwork. . .yeah. . .you can pray for our 1600a to be processed quickly and for our DCF and FDLE checks to be processed quickly as well. We have our homestudy appointment with Cathy on May 25th. We're hoping to have EVERYTHING done by then so we can submit our dossier to Acres of Hope sometime in June.

Reading Update: I just finished Acres of Hope, the autobiography of the woman who started our agency. SO SWEET! It is their story of adopting 8 special needs kids from the states. They fostered for a while, then adopted. This was a wonderful story, but stopped in 1999 (when it was published) I am desparate to hear the rest of the story and how they formed the adoption agency and all of the relief work in Liberia. I highly recommend this book. If you are near me, you're welcome to borrow it! Jess is reading it first and since she's adopting through the state, she definitely got first pick!

Challenge Update: Suzanne, the woman who works out with Sunday and I, is joining our challenge!!! Yeah, she even said that she's going to try to get some girlfriends from work to do it too! Also, at small group on Thursday, Jezenia and Carrie agreed to do the challenge. A couple of other girls are still praying about. Please join them in praying for whether or not this is something God is calling them too. Also, please pray for Me, Jen M, Jen B, Nancy, Suzanne, Sunday, Jezenia, Carrie and my Mom as we prayerfully look for things to say no to.


Love to you all. . ..comment me if you're reading this. . .I'd like to know who reads my mind!

Thanks for joining!

Thank you to the girls who are joining me on our challenge. Sunday, Jen M, Jennifer B, Nancy and my Mom. I think some of my Thursday girls will be joining us too!

Personally, I am so overwhelmed when you guys get excited for the process and especially when you join me in this "fasting" of sorts. I love when God lays things on people's hearts at the same time. Every time someone emails me or tells me how Liberia has been on their heart, it brings tears to my eyes. Just this morning I got an email from Jennifer and she was talking about how she couldn't stop thinking about it and even made the choice not to buy "extras" at CVS (which b/c they sell everything is super hard!). Reading that actually made me cry. I know, what am I pregnant or something? I'm not super emotional but I am completely touched. It's like when you have friends who just love your kids. . that's a way into a special part of a mom's heart.

I swear now, everything I see I figure out how many kids that would feed. Not that I'm never going to eat fast food or buy clothes, I'm just aware of it now. I'm very excited. . .personally, I went to buy Brayden a toy at Walmart and chose not to (I was just trying to pacify him b/c he was sick and whiney!) so I saved $20. Then, at dinner last night, my parents decided instead of ordering in, we would just cook and saved $80. Then, my mom called me late last night and decided to ride with my dad instead of take a cab on Friday which will add $50!!! I was also able to turn in my aircard for my computer which saved $720 for the year. So far, our fund has $870!!! That will feed lots of children! More than that though, He's using this process, along with my study of Daniel to open my eyes to indulgence and how I can say "no" to stuff and say "yes" to Him instead!!! I'll keep you updated. . .now I'm just looking for things in my house to sell. . .and loving it. . .who knew?!

THE CHALLENGE

Thanks for all the great response (via phone. . . no one wants to actually comment!) Now, here's the question: If you feel like God is moving in you and you would like to respond to the challenge, please let me know. Just add your comment that you're in. We're going to start an email list to help keep each other accountable and learn together while we're doing this. Don't worry, if you don't feel like God is calling you to the weekly challenge; remember, you're still free to donate money! (I still have to figure out how to do that. . .start a separate checking account, utilize a paypal account online or what?!) I'm just talking to those who feel like they are called to a weekly act of sacrifice so that God can work in them to say "no" to their own indulgences so as to say "yes" to His command to feed the hungry. I've already gotten a yes from Sunday and Jen Mirabile, but not sure about anyone else.

THE CHALLENGE IS THIS: Ask God to show you one thing each week to give up. This may be as small as a cup of coffee or as large as a family dinner out. Then, you choose to say "no" to that thing and put the money you would have saved away. Then, at the end of the year, we'll add that to the donations for feeding children in Liberia. This is a physical act of denial so that God may work in our lives. This isn't to add to our budget (although God may be calling you to do that in some areas), this is to substitute out something you were already going to spend money on and give the money away instead. Then, we'll do a weekly email to each other recounting what we gave up and what we learned in the process.

Hint: even if you aren't on the list, I'll probably post my stuff here! I think God is really going to teach me though this. He already IS!!! Love you! Can't wait to see who will join me!

Struggling through the issues. . .

Brayden is sick and was up most of the night, but to tell you the truth, even when he was sleeping I was tossing, turning thinking and dreaming about Africa. I am just struggling with the concept of children starving and us doing nothing about it. I've always had a tender heart towards it, but now it's personal. Very likely, my child is going hungry right now. If not mine, than one of my new AoH friends. How can we let that happen. I would NEVER stand by and let Abbie, Andon, Jakob, Trent, Ryan, the Largaespada kids, the dunwell boys or any other kids I know starve to death. . .yet I have done nothing to help the starving children of Africa up to this point. It breaks my heart. I will have to answer to my child and to my God. My child may say to me one day, "thanks for saving me from starvation, but what about my parents and family".

Now, I tend to believe I don't have the money. However, I have the money to eat fastfood 3-4 times a week and buy a cute new shirt for Gracie when I see it, or have cable or a hundred other things. All of that money relates into money that could be feeding someone's child. For less that $1 I can feed, clothe, provide medical care and schooling for a child for one day. That means the $15 I spend at Mickey D's could translate into 15 children eating / no make that surviving another day. So, I'm not saying I'll never eat fastfood again, but could I / could you, take one meal a week and CHOOSE to eat pb&j and set that money aside. If we did this once a week, that would save $780 which would save one child for over 2 years.

Here's my struggle. I know I'm called to this place, this nation, this people. I don't know how to be here and not struggle with the indulgence of our nation. I don't know how to look at my own life and deem which things are unneccessary and should be given up to provide more funds for others to eat. I know Pastor Jon talks about living life in tension. This is going to be that area for me. I also know that I tend to be judgemental. I need the Lord to do this in my thoroughly, even to help me encourage others, but then not to judge their use of money. That is hard!!

I also know that poverty isn't the key issue. Jesus is. He clearly stated that "the poor you will always have with you" so the eradication of poverty ~ probably not going to happen. However, he also stated "if someone is hungry, feed him". So it seems to me, that we must feed. Hopefully, that feeding that meeting of their basic physical needs will lead into an opportunity to share about the real bread that can save them.

Please pray with me as I struggle through this. I am in tears most days considering it. I know that even reading this, many of you are thinking through these issues for the first time. So, please, if the Lord is challenging your heart. . .take the challenge. Consider joining me in looking for things that I was going to spend money on and saying no instead. This may be a shirt I want or a fast food meal, but I will choose to say no to my flesh so I can say Yes to His command to feed the hungry. Then, I will take that amount of money and set it aside.

Here's what I'd like to do. Acres of Hope has many great relief arms. They feed 8,000 a day, have 2 orphanage homes, a medical clinic and the training and supplying of schools. I am going to talk to Acres about some of their needs. What I'd love is for anyone who God is challenging, to join me in raising money. For some it may be that $5-$10 per week (what a great lesson to include your kids in) and some may be able to do much larger amounts. My goal is to raise money over the next year and be able to present it to Acres when we go pick up our child. Please pray with me that God will move the hearts of His people to respond to Him. I'd love to see $10,000 - $50,000 raised. Imagine what money like that could do in a country so needy.

Thanks for listening to me. . .