28-Hour Challenge!!!

I know, I know, I'm supposed to be harassing everyone about MY fundraisers, MY needs.  But when someone who is so close to the end of this journey is given a wonderful gift that would get them financially TO the end, I can't push my giveaway.  I have to push for them instead.

Mandy, with sweet Joseph

Everyone knows and loves Mandy.  A faithful daughter of God, a wonderful wife, mother, and friend.  An advocate for her children waiting in Eastern Europe, an advocate for other adoptive families, and other waiting children.  What I love most about Mandy is that she is a "Yes" woman.  When God says to go, she goes.

Just a short while ago, she was being shown that she needed to give up the idea that she was David, fighting her Goliath (a.k.a. adoption funds), and gave that giant over to God to defeat instead.  At the time, she had an $8,000 giant, so giving it up wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do.

Within days, she started receiving money.  God was melting that mountain, and we laughed that He was showing off.  She just had to recalculate her expenses, since airfare has gone up so much, and she is now $1,280 from being fully funded.

Fully funded.  Two of the sweetest words adoptive families could ever hear.  And two more sweet words are "matching challenge."  And that is exactly what Mandy heard yesterday.  She was offered a $500 match, with only ONE DAY to pull it off.  From 8:00 EST today to MIDNIGHT EST TOMORROW.

That's 10 people giving $50, 20 people giving $25, or 50 people giving $10.  What can you give?  For one day, you can double your money, and make a real difference in the lives of two little boys who are on their way home within WEEKS.  That $500 will become $1,000, and put Mandy just $280 away from the Fully Funded status.

And if you don't know what happens when she hits that, some lovely women in PA have donated a massage to Mandy, so she can take care of herself after taking care of so many others.  Let's get her there!  Click HERE to donate to the Rhodes family's FSP for them to get the match.  And let's go past $500, all the way to $780, so they'll be FULLY FUNDED.

The Real Hunger Games

I have to be honest, I haven't read the books, I have no desire to see the movie.   As a mom, something about watching children kill each other just doesn't appeal to me.  But this morning, I heard that "The Hunger Games" is expected to bring in $130,000,000, just this weekend.

People are paying $10 a ticket, plus the price of popcorn and a drink, to watch children fight to their deaths.  And yet, when people blog about REAL children who are fighting for their LIVES, others turn a blind eye, refuse to acknowledge the truth.

They refuse to see the children who weigh 10 lbs. at 9 years old, or even 14 lbs. at 14 years old.  Children who have been so poorly treated for so many years that their hopes of ever developing mentally beyond a young child are small. 

That there are 5 year olds who are swallowed up by 18 month clothes.

People think their $10 gifts don't matter, that it's not enough.  They apologize for giving such a "small" gift.  But if every person heading to the theater this weekend would drop another $10 in just one adoption fund, over 5,000 children could leave the life of the orphanage behind, come home to their forever families.

FIVE. THOUSAND.  Please, go choose a child.  Just $10.  And if you'd like to help the children in the most need, there's another blog raising money for the orphans in Pleven, Bulgaria, where 240 children are suffering just like those pictured above.  A doctor in Bulgaria has agreed to treat the children at no charge, but there are still supplies needed.  Please visit www.only1mom.com to learn more.  And you can see how gifts add up, as the fund has already raised $29,000.  But it's not enough.  There are already 30 children hospitalized, some needing multiple surgeries.  That's less than $1,000 per child, people.

So, when you head out to watch a movie about children fighting to their deaths, remember that there are REAL children fighting for their LIVES. 

Sophia's Heaven

There are some children who, for whatever reason, weigh so heavily on my heart and mind.  Sophia, who has the brightest blue eyes I could ever get lost in, is one of those children.

Ayden recently asked me to tell her about heaven.  My first thought went to Sophia.  A mother who did not care and tend to her unborn daughter, and sent her daughter to live in an orphanage because of HER mistakes.

Sophia shows the physical characteristics of a child born to drug and alcohol abuse - Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, almost total vision and hearing loss, missing and deformed limbs, hydrocephaly, cleft lip and palate.

My heart aches for her, and I imagine what heaven will mean to her.  It will mean no orphanage, no physical or mental disabilities, no loneliness, and best of all, spending each and every moment with the one who said "Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven."

Oh, Sophia, my heart aches for you, and my prayer is that your family finds you and gives you a glimpse of what heaven looks like from here.  Maybe someone who reads this will call Sophia their daughter, is it you?