Big Ern's Playhouse

When my husband was stationed at Tyndall AFB in Panama City he worked on top-secret projects inside a highly secure vault alongside my father.  My husband did so much work the place got named in his honor!  Who would have figured when they named the place Big Ern's playhouse that he would eventually have TEN kids?  His home has now become the playhouse!

Adoption Update

People keep asking us about our adoption, when we get to bring the kids home.  Sadly our social worker took forever to get the home study completed.  Thus we are still awaiting our USCIS approval so that we can send off our dossier to China.  We should have that approval very soon, maybe this week.  Hopefully the rest of the process will move much quicker.  Our new son and daughter shouldn't have to spend another Christmas without us because of a a slow social worker!

I always try to find the positive in everything, so at least this means we have longer to come up with the many tens of thousands of dollars necessary to bring the kids home.  However, adoption is never about us, it's about the kids waiting to come home.  Two kids are waiting for us, and both are old enough to understand they have a family coming for them, yet they can't possibly understand waiting so many months for us to get to them.

Our son's 4th birthday was the very beginning of February.  He was told then about us, shown pictures of us, and while this is always a special moment it was even more special with him because of the bond between him and our daughter Hannah.  He looked at the picture of our family and said, "That's my mommy.  That's my daddy.  She's Anna."  (Hannah's name in China was An Na.)  This sweet boy is ready to come home to his family!  And at 10 years old, Grace has spent way too many years already waiting for a family, watching other kids get adopted while she was left behind!

Jacob being shown a picture of Hannah on his birthday.  His birthday was celebrated with the good news that he not only had a family coming for him, it was the same family that adopted his best friend!

Please pray the rest of the process moves quickly and smoothly, and pray too for success with our fundraising efforts.  We will NOT be able to go get Jacob and Grace without the necessary funds!

I will be updating the blog soon with details of our current fundraisers, but as always if you would like to help 2 precious children come home to their family you can make a tax-deductible donation to our Reece's Rainbow account here:  http://reecesrainbow.org/88887/sponsormurray-2

The Face of Being Pro-Life

The pro-life movement often bothers me, not because I am not pro-life but because I see so many people claiming to be against abortion without ever actually DOING anything to support LIFE!  Many (not all) of these people are Christians, and the Bible says, "Be ye DOERS of the word, and not hears only." (James 1:22)  Interesting enough, it's only a few verses later that we are told caring for orphans is part of a "pure and faultless" religion.  (James 1:27)

So yes, we need to be pro-life, but it's not enough to merely say we are pro-life, we need to DO something about it!

We need to be there to offer support and encouragement to those who feel abortion is their only way.  We need to not only offer our emotional support, we need to meet their other needs as well!

Do they feel they can't have a baby because they have no one to take care of the baby while they are at work or school?  Then we need to offer child care to them, FREE of charge!

Do they feel they can't have a baby because they can't afford it? Then we need to offer help to them in the form of groceries, clothing, housing assistance, etc.

Do they feel they can't have a baby because the child they are carrying has special needs?  Then we need to help them see the joy that can come with a child who has special needs and offer to help them care for that child as necessary be it help with child care, medical expenses, respite, etc.  If they truly feel unable to care for the child we need to show them adoption is a way to not only allow that child to have life but also to bless another family, and then we need to step forward to make sure that child gets adopted.  Then when a family adopts that child we need to offer support to that family as well, because it is really about helping that child!

If we don't want a child to be aborted, then we need to make sure we are truly doing ALL we can to save that child and give it the opportunity for a life full of happiness and love.

Being pro-life shouldn't just be an opinion, it should be an action.  And it doesn't just apply within our borders.  God doesn't see borders.  He doesn't care about nationalities, and neither should we.  ALL LIFE MATTERS!  From the unborn children of our own neighborhoods to the orphans suffering all around the world, no child is either too young (i.e. those still in the womb) or too old to deserve the opportunity to live LIFE, to have a hope and a FUTURE, to be LOVED!

Children don't start mattering once they are born as the pro-choice people would have us believe, but neither do they stop mattering when they are born as many pro-life people seem to believe (at least in their actions despite what their words say, and no, I do not believe adoption is for everybody but caring for these children is - you do not have to adopt to help care for orphans).

Children matter before they are born, from the very beginning, and we need to do our part to protect them no matter how small.  They also matter once they are born, and we need to do our part to protect them, no batter how big.  From the unborn child about to be murdered through abortion to the teenager living in an orphanage, they all need our care and our love. 

It is not enough to SAY we are pro-life, maybe even post a few articles about it on our Facebook page. We need to BE pro-life - in actions, not just in words.

The faces of pro-life - A precious little boy with Down syndrome, abandoned by his birth parents and left for nearly 4 years in terrible conditions in a poor orphanage in China before being lovingly adopted by our family.  An incredible little girl, born here in the United States to parents who loved her dearly, enough to give her life and place her for adoption when they felt unable to adequately care for her special needs.  We are the ones blessed to call her our beloved daughter.  These are just 2 of the 7 children we have adopted, with another on the way.  We don't just say we are pro-life, we live it.  If you are pro-life, what are you DOING to live your beliefs out in action?  I guarantee, you will be blessed by your actions!

"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."  Mark 9:37