Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Our friends Betty and Brion Kallinen have adopted 3 beautiful girls from Haiti. This precious family is part of IHOP here in Kansas City. This has been a two year process and the family, with unexpected delays and expenses along the way. Finally the girls adoption has been completed, they have visas and are ready to travel. The only thing hindering now, is that they have spent every penny that they have and are $2000 short to purchase plane tickets to get home. If you would like to help please use the PAY PAL link in my side bar and clearly mark your donation as “Kallinen Adoption.”

I am fully confident that we can raise this money in a few days, so that the can purchase plan tickets and get these girls home. And I am shamelessly asking you to help. Let’s do James 1:27 today!

16238_1273165670563_1272544777_811117_8046270_n

16238_1273165790566_1272544777_811120_6041910_n

I’d like to write a really long post some time soon about our OJC family support staff, but for now I’d like to invite you to read a blog post by one of our awesome staff, Lauren Gribsby. (More on Lauren and the rest of our team later).

Adoption ministry is for everyone. I mean EVERYONE. You can be too young to adopt, too old to adopt, not married but longing to adopt and STILL get involved with adoption ministry NOW! Adopt an adoptive family and become part of the restoration of orphans!

Look at the impact it has had on LAUREN.

To be continued……

Today is Orphan Sunday. Churches all over the US are raising awareness of the many ways we can begin to walk out James 1:27 more effectively as the body of Christ. In addition November is National Adoption Month. Adoption is one of the primary ways that we can all answer the call to care for the orphan!

Today I look at three little ones who are no longer orphans. I marvel at the Love of the Father who reached down from on high, rescued them, and positioned them in a place for their destinies to be restored- all because He delights in them. (Psalm 18)

100_8324

Elia Jane dropped into our lives and melted our hearts at one glance- March 7, 2007. She opened our hearts and set us on a course to understanding the Father’s heart. Through her life we began to be captivated by the spirit of adoption.

100_9160

And remember this! Just 9 months ago we met these two little darlin’s. The Father went to great lengths to bring these two into our family. When we first set eyes on Aiden’s photograph in August of 2008, we had no idea all that the Lord had in store for our family. These precious beauties have captured our hearts and taken us even deeper into the knowledge of the Fathers unconditional relentless love for His children. Oh that we could fully understand the height, the width and the depth of His love!

If you’re interested in participating in Orphan Sunday, please tune in today at 4PM. LIVE FROM NASHVILLE to participate!

CLICK HERE FOR WEBSITE!!!!

SCC Invities You to Join in on Orphan Sunday from Show Hope on Vimeo.

John Piper and Adoption

You know I’ve never been one to make adoption look EASY. At the end of the day though, after wiping up snotty noses, cleaning up stinky hineys, picking up one more mess, and feeling utterly exhausted, I know that every bit of it counts. Every bit of the love and service I pour out on my wee ones matters, not just to their little lives but because I’m giving a gift to the Father. I’m raising up an inheritance for His Son, Jesus.

Take 5 minutes and listen as John Piper shares his thoughts on the gospel and adoption.

Yesterday Aiden and Emma had their first parent/teacher conferences. Both of their teachers, along with a student teacher, came to the house to do an in home conference, an option we thought was a great idea! Aiden and Emma were so excited all morning. Good thing the visit was at 9AM. Not sure we could have contained the excitement much longer than that, or kept the house somewhat clean and disaster free!

100_1726

100_1728

100_1720

Emma and her teacher Ms. Robyn working on some fine motor skills.

100_1721

Ms. Emily pretty much is head over heals in love with Aiden.

100_1729

Aiden and Elia working together to clean up after our fun filled conference. Both teachers are just amazed at the progress of the children just since school has started. We were blessed to have a minute to show them a 4 min DVD of our trip to Ukraine. There were some pretty leaky eyes in the house!

 

100% of the suggested donation goes to The Zoe Foundation! Click on the calendar below to order and check out that “cover girl!”

Screen shot 2009-10-26 at 1.01.17 PM

Beautiful Fall Day

This morning was a  dreamy fall morning. We took the kids for a walk and the played outside til lunch time. They had a blast in the leaves. Glad we got out early in the day because it’s raining now.

100_1705

100_1703

100_1700

100_1684

100_1687

100_1693

Happy Fall to you!

Tonight Taylor and Isabelle, along with their amazing cousins Sophia, Michaela and Sona, and super cool friend Breanne Dinsmore put on an INCREDIBLE adoption fundraiser. All of the kids are from adoptive families and have the true “spirit of adoption” burning on their hearts. Their goal is simply to raise funds so they can give to adoptions and buy things that adopted children need: clothes, toys, etc. These are pre-teens that are already living out James 1:27 in their daily live as they love and care for younger their younger siblings.
Completely on their own, the organized an incredible evening! After a few brainstorming sessions, they got to work. Taylor wrote scripts for two short plays, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and “France in the Backyard.” The girls got busy gathering props and costumes, as well as gathering items to sell at their auction. Taylor created an “Evite,” sent out invitations and made flyers and tickets for the event.

The night went off without a hitch. They did an amazing job. We are so proud of these kids. They really are amazing.

100_1661

France in the Backyard curtain call: Sona, Breanne, Isabelle, Sophia and Michaela

100_1659

France in the Backyard- Isabelle and Sophia (A man and a woman) Michaela (waitress)

100_1656

Breanne and Sona- two guests at the restaurant

100_1665

Isabelle as The Tin Man in “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”

100_1664

Darcy and the Tin Man

100_1663

The Scarecrow and the Lion (Sona and Michaela)

100_1654

The audience waiting for the show to start!

Our kids are passionate about adoption. They have incredible hearts for the orphan. If you are in the midst of adopting or involved in adoption ministry, get your kids involved. Let them partner with you by putting their creativity to work with events like this one, car washes, garage sales, or whatever their BIG hearts dream up!

Very Special Visitors

We have had the honor of maintaining a relationship with Elia’s biological family over the past two years, but TODAY we were blessed with a special visit by Elia’s grandparents, Grandma NeNe and Grandpa Wyett.

100_1577

Elia connected immediately to them, as did the rest of the crew!

100_1578

100_1579

100_1646

100_1647

When we started our first adoption, we really were not open to having an “open adoption.” We had no grid for it, and it seemed scarey. Elia’s birthmom had requested to meet us and then did not want an ongoing relationship with us. Seemed fine to us. Then we met. We clicked. We felt like sisters. We had a long talk before we left the hospital and decided we weren’t going to force anything, but we would stay in touch via phone and email, and just see what God had for our relationship.

For the past 2 1/2 years we have corresponded. We have email back and forth tons of times, sent photos, and shared our hearts about Elia’s adoption. We have talked on the phone from time to time. She even called me last year to announce that she and her husband were expecting a child. I have also stayed in close contact with Elia’s grandmother, Grandma NeNe.

So when Grandma NeNe called last week and said they would be just a few hours away this weekend, and wondered if we would be open to a visit, we gave her a big, loud YES!  We had a great visit for 3 hours this afternoon. They have always embraced our whole family. We were able to share about Emma and Aiden’s adoption, and they were so supportive and so loving towards them too.

God has blessed us so much with Elia’s birth family. Wyatt was adopted at birth. When he married Renee, a single mom with two toddlers, he adopted her girls. The decision to place Elia for adoption was a family decision. One they did not take lightly, one that involved a lot of prayer. We believe that God brought us all together for Elia because of His great love for her! And we believe He did a very good thing.

Here’s  LETTER FROM HEATHER (Elia’s birthmom) from an older post that I thought some of you new readers might like to see.

It was a quiet evening at the Loux home last night. And if you buy that, you’re more gullible that I thought!

We had company for dinner. The kind of company that I had only met once for 5 minutes. The kind of company that has you thinking, “Oh my gosh, this could go really bad and they could quite possibly not like us when the evening is over.” There are a lot of us, and three of us are busy, little, and unpredictable.

We had a great dinner accompanied by violent outbursts from Aiden and high pitched shrill shreiking from Elia as she expressed her irritation with Aiden. Aiden was just not himself. He’s either really on or really off. And Aiden was in rare grumpy, mean form. Very sad considering our little man is normally a comedic charmer.

I don’t remember dinner but it was far from your “sit and chat leisurely at the dining room table” kind of dinner. Dinner ended, and John and I put the three grouchy toddlers in bed, while our NEW friends totally cleaned up the kitchen. These are the kind of people we plan to keep around for a very long time. Anyone who can step into our madness and go with the flow is a keeper.

After multiple trips up and down the stairs for binkies, sippy cups, and extra kisses, we finally all cozy up for some “getting to know you, getting to know all about you” kind of conversation. A few moments later,  Elia calls out rather loudly and dramatically for Daddy to come.  John heads up the stairs and response back rather loudly, “Oh NO, I DO NOT believe it.”

I dart up the stairs and Alice says, “We brought our ponchos!” This only after she had been warned on Facebook by our dear friend Marcus Smith, to be prepared for flying poop. You got it. Aiden was emptying his diaper. Good news though. Elia had tattled in time to prevent some serious damage.

Mess cleaned up. Messy boy cleaned up. Meaningful conversation could now officiall begin.

We spent the next few hours getting to know some amazing new friends Joshua and Alice Scott and their daughter, Emma (almost 2).  It was one of those beautiful, “God is really in this,” kind of evenings.

The toddlers now sound asleep, we gradually moved to the lower levels of the house. The family room for some drama “show and tell,” and then to the basement to look at Nick’s photography and some videos the kids had done.

At that point the smoke detector started blarring! Everyone did that freeze for a mili-second and then blolt maneuver so common in the midst of disaster. Isabelle, Taylor and I got to the top of the family room stairs and saw smoke. I screamed out for help, and darted around the corner into the kitchen only to see my entire dining room centerpiece in flames leaping about 2 feet up off the table. Apparently the candles that I had forgotten to blow out had burned down and caught the rest of the centerpiece on fire. We were minutes from having the table runner catch on fire which would have been bad news. Really bad new. I don’t know enough about fire to know how much time we would have had til it would have been too late for that corner of the house, but I don’t think it was much.

I grabbed a kitchen towel, threw it over the fire, and then wrapped the table runner around the whole thing. It was out in seconds.  The living room, kitchen, and dining room were FULL of smoke. John and Josh got the smoldering mess out of the house and got the doors and window open.

Nick said at one point, “We’re just making memories!’

But here’s the bottom line, I had just put a new battery in the smoke detector a few months back when we remodeled the family room. I remember doing it, but it is honestly something I have never been really good at. It just happened that it was down after painting the ceiling and I checked it.  That little $10 plastic smoke detector saved our home last night, and possibly our toddler’s lives. I don’t know how long it would have been until we smelled the smoke in the basement or until one of us went upstairs for something. But smoke rises. And at the top of our short flight of living room stairs are three precious toddlers.

November 1st is the time change for daylight savings time. That’s when they encourage us to all “Change our clocks, change our batteries.” In 20 years I have never paid much attention to that. Yesterday was my wake up call. I urge you change your batteries, and if you don’t have smoke detectors, GET THEM NOW!

230x152 CYCCYB

Older Posts »