SAVE A LIFE Saturday!!!

Help Save her LIFE!!!

This precious little girl needs a life saving heart surgery but her family still needs $8,000 in 10 days to be able to bring her home. They need your help!! Please give. Every dollar counts!!  They now have a matching grant. Your gift will be doubled!

There are several ways to donate

Directly to their PayPal:

PayPal address: reedjw@comcast.net (Just Mark your Donation as "Gift" or "Family") :) so there is no fee

or for tax deductions

Donate on their Reece Rainbow

http://reecesrainbow.org/51264/sponsorreed-4

Help Needed!!

Dear Family and Friends,      

        

I am so thankful for all of you who walked with us on our journey to bring Cargan home. The Lord has burdened my heart so deeply for the Reed family and I wanted to share a wonderful opportunity to be a part of a miracle helping two precious lives.  The Reed family is in the process of bringing home their two precious children. The have exhausted all avenues to fund their adoption and were $14,000 in need to be able to travel to get their children. It is pertinent that they leave on schedule on February 14^th. Their precious little girl needs a life saving heart surgery.  God has been moving the mountain and a matching grant for $4,000 just came in. People have already begun giving towards the matching grant and if 800 people just give $10 they would be able to have the full amount to travel and bring home their children. Would you please prayerfully seek what you could give and be a part of this miracle?  You can follow their journey here: http://www.immeasurablymorethanwecanimagine.com/web/do/site?ID=33539

There are several ways to donate

Directly to their PayPal:

PayPal address: reedjw@comcast.net (Just Mark your Donation as "Gift" or "Family") :)

Donate on their Reece Rainbow

http://reecesrainbow.org/51264/sponsorreed-4

Help bring them home!!

Sarah would like to share a special opportunity with you.
Need a Valentine’s Day gift? I've got the answer! I am selling homemade heart shaped bath bombs to help Joel and Sophia get to their forever family and to help pay for Sophia’s heart surgery. I am selling three 2 inch hearts for five dollars. (Shipping is extra) You can choose vanilla or plumeria scent. They come in assorted colors. Please help Joel and Sophia come home!!! All profits will be donated to the family to help get them home. Please email me lang4@hometownu.com if you would like to place an order with Sarah. Thank you! 

Each One Matters

Today we cross the 8 month mark of Cargan coming into our family. My heart is so full of so many emotions. There are times I still can not believe he is really here and days when it feels like he has always been here. God has used his coming to forever change us.

 God has stretched me and taught me so much about myself these past months. Things I really didn't want to know about myself. I have had to once again surrender all expectations of what I thought would be and daily surrender myself to Christ. Seeking each moment what he wants me to do to further His kingdom.  With homeschooling, daily life as a mother and wife and 3-5 physical and occupational therapy appointments each week I am learning to be still and savor each moment we have together. I have enjoyed looking out the window watching my two boys play together in the snow. I have seen the joy of creating something together between sister and brother. I have heard tears, wailing and sorrow. I have heard laughter of three precious children in my home. But the greatest thing I have ever experienced is watching the love of our heavenly father pour out like a beam of light washing over our child.

    How God chose Cargan, plucked him out of darkness so that he could hear, see and feel the love of Christ just amazes me. Today when we were talking and I was snuggling with Cargan, Peter asked him if he ever got hugs in China. He immediately answered “never”.  It almost shattered my heart. To think this child had not ever been hugged in his seven years was to much for me to fathom.  As I write this am so thankful that God chose me to be Cargan’s mother so I can hold him and hug him every day. It has also amazed me how God has been revealing himself and his love to him.  Cargan was having a deep conversation with Peter about God on Thursday and then came and shared with me how in China he was taught about other gods that are not real and loved them a little but how now he knows about Jesus the one true God and He is changing his heart to love him much. What great joy to watch God slowly transforming one life right before our eyes.  One, yes one. So many would say in the overwhelming numbers of orphans, does it really matter. YES!!!  I can tell you with all my heart it matters for this one and it may be for eternity. Many more are waiting to hear and feel the love of Christ. Is God calling you surrender all for one????

This is one of the most powerful and direct sermons I have heard on how we are orphans and have been adopted into God’s family and what it really is like to adopt a child into an earthly family. It is long but so worth it. I challenge you to watch it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTpS8ij06M8&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DkTpS8ij06M8&app=desktop   

Christmas

Christmas:

It is a time to remember and celebrate the gift of life that we have been given through the birth of our Savior.  Christmas is one of my favorite times of year but it is also a bittersweet time for me. I love the lights and how they remind me that the light of the world came down into this dark world and how we must shine that light of hope to others. 

The lights also remind my of the Christians in prison camps in China making those lights and of so many who are suffering around the world.

It can be a time of joy and hope but also full of past memories of loved ones that are no longer with us. A time to savor the precious new memories of new lives that are here this year discovering the amazing gift God sent out of love. Yet there are still memories of those precious little lives still waiting to discover Christmas.

This year as we prepare for Christmas we can see how God has been changing our hearts and lives over the past year. Last year we were praying and waiting for our gift to come home and this year we get to watch our gift discover the greatest gift.

We love decorating the Christmas tree with special memories. This year we had 3 little trees, one for each child to decorate anyway they liked.

Cargan was so excited to buy lights for his tree. He wasn't sure what all would happen but as decorating began he realized the others had ornaments for their tree. He was concerned what he would do. We assured him that we had special ornaments for him. His face lit up as he saw the Chinese ornaments and also his special dolphin.

 The most precious part of it all was what he wanted to put on top of his tree. He went off to make “Jesus” to put on top of his tree, not baby Jesus but “big Jesus because it is His party”.

Pierson was such a sweet big brother; he graciously shared ornaments with Cargan so he would have plenty on his tree.

Pierson was excited that he had his own tree this year and was determined to do it all by himself. He is the big brother now.

  

Sarah my creative one loves children and loves China and her tree spoke volumes to who she is. She decided she would make a prayer tree. 

She found pictures of children who still need families and made prayer cards and decorated her tree with people to pray for. She also made sure Cargan had all he needed for his tree.

As Christmas is quickly coming we keep looking for ways to point us to the meaning of Christmas. I just saw a great idea in a magazine to make a paper chain and put someone to pray for on each loop. I loved the idea but was having trouble deciding who to put on. There are so many we could be praying for but the Lord put on my heart all the families going to pick up their precious children this month. What an amazing Christmas gift to finally hold that child they have loved so long from afar. As you hold each of your children this Christmas remember how much God loved us and sent his greatest gift of love from afar so what we could know his abounding love so deeply now. May this Christmas find you celebrating and sharing God’s gift of love- Jesus.

Forever Family

This week we crossed the 6 month mark. So much as happened, we have traveled through so many developmental mile stones in such a short amount of time. It has been a hard but incredible journey. As we celebrated Thanksgiving we had so many new things to be thankful for, one being family. God has reshaped our family and blessed us so much with another gift of life. Cargan brings so much joy to our family. It has been a huge adjustment but things are beginning to settle and feel a little more normal. We have been taught so much through this journey. It has made us understand on such a greater level about how God has adopted us into His family. I still can not humanly understand how a perfect amazing God would choose me a very sinful selfish person to be a part of His forever family. I am so thankful He did and that He loves me and I pray that His love will be seen through my son’s eyes as we love him into our forever family. When Cargan was asked what he was thankful for he immediately said “God and Jesus Coming” I was really taken aback as I thought it would be food, family or something more concrete. God is so at work in him. What a precious gift I have been given to watch a child discover the greatest gift in the world- the love of a Savior. It brings me to tears to think of how much God loves each precious life, so much to being them across the world to learn of His everlasting love.  

Pray for those who still wait. Who wait to know what love is. Who wait to be a part of a forever family. 

5 Months!! Such a Special Journey

            Today 5 months ago we touched ground in the USA and our precious son became a US citizen. So much has happened in these past months. It is so amazing to watch a child grow and change so quickly in such a short amount of time. He spoke no English and is now speaking in sentences. He walked up on his toe and is now walking flat footed. He did not use his left hand and now he is moving all his fingers and using his hand. He had no concept of what a family is and now understands that he belongs to one. He never had heard of Jesus but now knows that He is someone who can help him and love him and is always with him. God is not only transforming his life but also ours.

            As I sit in many doctors offices and look at all the people God created, He has opened my eyes again breaking my heart for those our society so often forget about. Those who have physical or mental challenges that we label as special needs are often overlooked. God is helping me remember these precious ones. They are special! They are such precious people who God loves and blesses others through. This week God blessed us with opportunities to share His love. One was just in the grocery store where a man in a wheelchair was trying to get something out of the freezer section. I was able to help him. Later in the store we saw him again and I looked him in the eye and smiled and said have a great day. You could tell by the look in his face he was so encouraged that someone acknowledged him as a person. That look still breaks my heart. There are so many who are lonely and hurting.

             Another blessing was a little boy that is wheel chaired bound and can not speak. He has aqua therapy at the same time as Cargan. This precious little boy lives in a facility that cares for kids with needs. God broke my heart again that this little boy does not have a family loving on him everyday. As I shared with the kids all I had learned, Sarah went into action. She had made some Huggable Hearts before for a little girl battling cancer and had wanted to make more. So, she and Cargan who also loves crafts went off to make a Huggable Heart for this little boy. They made a card with the song Jesus loves me pinned to it. Cargan tries to understand everything around him and usually is not very quiet about things that are different about people. Today I saw such compassion and understanding. It was so amazing to watch him love on a stranger. He could not wait to get to the pool today to give this little boy the pillow. The joy in Cargan’s and this little boys faces were priceless. It was such a picture of the love of God being shared between these boys. God is so amazing he is transforming lives right before my eyes and what a sweet blessing to be called into this whole new special journey.

So blessed to be their Mama!