The Village

Tonight I went to our church's support group for families that are adopting, fostering, or involved in caring for orphans. It's called "The Village". I love it. It reflects our value and philosophy that it will take a village to raise our 2 Ethiopian beauties. The purpose for the support group is clear and simple: "to unite, equip, and support those who are caring for children who are in foster care and orphans."

UNITE :: Though I say it's our church's support group, Newsong leaders purely host and arrange the group. Tonight there were probably 10 families and 5 churches represented. It wasn't through clever marketing that brought everyone together. It was the calling to care for orphans. AWESOME!

EQUIP :: We meet 1/month and are spending the next several months watching Dr. Karyn Purvis' video series on Empowering to Connect. Then, the plan is to read The Connected Child together and process as a group. Both resources by her rock!!!

SUPPORT :: Within 5 minutes of walking into this group of "strangers" it felt like home. Comfortable in all the right ways. Challenging to the point of discomfort. Safe. Purposeful. Emotionally intensive. Intellectually stimulating. It's the right environment for parents who are walking into the world of orphan care! It felt like a 12-step group without the steps, except maybe a shared addiction for loving kids who need a forever family.

I knew I'd found a new family when during the opening prayer I started sobbing and couldn't find a dry spot on my hands to wipe the tears. Something in my spirit opened up to these amazing men and women because of their heart for "the least of these". These are parents who are WALKING OUT THE GOSPEL in the truest form. I'm inspired by them!

If you are in Orange County and would like to join "The Village", let me know. "The Village" is an incredible environment!!!!!! If you are a Newsonger, please get ready for Orphan Sunday on November 7th. It's going to rock our worlds. My Only Prayer: that we'd be ready and say "YES!" to God's call.

So Far...

Our adoption agency asked if I could write our story for their blog. Of course, I said YES! The prompt was mildly overwhelming, "focus on what God has brought you through and taught you in the process". I should just point them to the previous 188 posts, but I will attempt to summarize our 3+ year journey. Here's what I submitted:

Our journey has been devastating. Our journey has been heart-wrenching. Our journey has been utterly transformational in our marriage, our finances, our mindset, our passion, our future. Our journey has been defined by waiting and loss and hope in God and disappointment and joy.

A thousand times we have said, "we would never wish this kind of pain on our worst enemy, but we'd do it all over again and we are beyond grateful." Our journey began with the dream of starting a family. It turned into the confusion of infertility and countless medical tests, procedures, and failures.

But long before we carried the title "infertility", God had also planted a dream in our heart for adoption. Throughout our infertility treatments, we knew that when we reached a certain point in our treatment, we would pursue adoption. When our last procedure failed, we immediately, whole-heartedly jumped into adopting a baby girl from Ethiopia.
We always knew Africa. We always knew a baby girl. But God shaped our dreams toward Ethiopia and for 2 little ones. Through the metaphor of a butterfly, God taught me about the transformation my soul needed from one form into another. I am a different wife than I was 3 years ago when we started trying to start a family. I'm a different pastor, friend, sister, and daughter. And I know I will be a different mother because of the challenge and transformation of this journey.

Today, we bite our fingernails (for so many reasons!) awaiting the arrival of the 2 beautiful little ones God's prepared since the beginning of time to be our children - and us their parents. In many ways the journey is only continuing, but we are different people now then we were when we began 3 years ago.

Grateful. Broken. Healed. Strong. Tender. Changed. We are...

What 1 Year in a Church Can Do...

This past year at my church, Newsong, we've been on mission to raise money, awareness, and relational partnership with our friends in Malawi. God's done a ridiculous amount in the hearts of our people toward the widows, orphan, poor, and lost of Malawi. This 4-minute video shows an inside look into what has happened in the past year. This is cause to CELEBRATE! The videos stories and facts challenges me, humbles me, inspires me, and definitely moved me to tears. Please check it and and share with a friend!

Newsong Church Unleash Campaign - Malawi Update [Newsong Irvine | 09.27.2010] from Newsong Church on Vimeo.

If you want to know more about the organizations we've partnered with or how Newsong has arranged ourselves toward this kind of transformation, I'd LOVE to share more. Email me or comment here and we'll talk!