Thanks for asking me if I was going to have time to blog this afternoon, you know who you are! You have my my tremendous thanks because there’s a lot that I’ve wanted to say and I’ve needed reassurance that I’m worth hearing.

This is a special day in the world beyond my world with the homestudy for Ian’s family beginning who I haven’t taken the time to write about in a long while. My heart and prayers are with them every day all day as Anita, Keegan (Ian when he is home)’s mama does a wonderful job posting little updates on her Facebook page as well as keeping up their blog beautifully. A homestudy is the piece of an adoption that is vital to whether or not you get to bring home a child at all. This piece involves a social worker coming into the home, meeting the family and seeing the house and makes that decision of whether or not this is a place that is safe and in the child’s best interest to be. Although this post is not full of details on Keegan (Ian) I have to stick in a recent photo that his family is so overjoyed to have just received. Their son outdoors with a smile on his face looking so handsome. What a delightful future he has ahead which he is now completely oblivious to. Doesn’t that just bring to mind how little we know of our own futures in the long term.

Writing is one of my very favorite things to do so it’s very special to me that my being here is noticed. Recently a conversation motivated me to step beyond my words and become active in bringing kids home more than I have before. I’ll get to that in a couple paragraphs here.

For a long while I have been wanting to write a post called Side Effected about how a recent med has changed me but have such a fear over how that might be received with my already judged outlook and priorities. In short, I was expecting to be keener in my responses and quicker in, less tired and freer to act in situations. That sounds like a lot to ask of a medication for seizures. But the side effects that I deal with on the meds that I’ve been on for years I imaged to combat with another medication and that hasn’t happened as I thought it would so I am praying about going back to where I was.

Nothing like remembering to be content with blessings! There’s so much good that I have in life, so many talented people young and old that God has gifted into my life that to ask more or for something different ends up on the end of ridiculous. There’s a reason that there are negative connotations to the term “miracle drug” because everyone knows that there isn’t one. Always in life, there’s something to want more of, something to want to vanish and chains that look heavier than they are.

From someone that matters very much to me I got the comment that if there weren’t the internet I wouldn’t have the overwhelming press of the orphans crisis on my heart. When we were kids I remember my mom breaking down in audible tears when there would be news on the radio or articles in National Geographic about children suffering in the world–she was an incredible hard working dedicated mother with an unquenchable love for children the world around. Her ethic as a housewife and mother is a wonderful model for anyone who would desire to take on the role of stay-at-home parent.

The Internet was not around. This person who is very important in my life does have a point though. I would be spending this hour doing something else, probably napping or folding that 4th load of laundry. Instead I pressed as much work as possible into the morning so that I could have some quiet time to write since I do have and faces or names for a very few orphaned children across Eastern Europe and into Asia and beyond those borders that, yes, if it were not for the Internet I would have no awareness over.

What’s up with the horse tied to a plastic chair? It’s my mental obstacles, of course and yours if you’re human. Don’t laugh too often, but now is OK so long as you get back to working with what you have got which I try to remind myself of now and again.

Work comes before play? Finish up your house work then write or whatever you feel drawn to. Do your homework before you go out shopping with your friends. Don’t have money? Get a job first, then go out shopping with your friends after your paycheck comes. Tired of washing cloth diapers? Potty train your child before you sell all the diapers! YES. We are working on potty training at the Harr house.

I tell my kids that all the time that we need to work before play. They protest more than I remember ever doing, but in the end I know they appreciate and have pride in their cleaned up space.

The child I want to feature today is Aura Lee, and I’m just mentioning her briefly because I have to get on to telling you about my TUPPERWARE PARTY. I have no idea how her name was selected, because that name is in no name book that I know of. But here’s a darling girl who is someone’s daughter potentially, that only through the gift of adoption. Her natural parents are either dead or have given her over legally to her country’s custody and signed that she may be adopted internationally.

 

Speaking of biological parents I want to revere of their courage to believe that they are choosing a better life for their child rather than tagging on words like abandonment or unwanted where there isn’t proof of that. Reportedly, parents are sometimes given misleading empty promises of a better life “than ever you could ever give at home.” information by who they believe to be trust worthy doctors or other authority. When the reality very well could be that, were they educated about their child’s condition, family would be able to supply the child’s needs and give them that immeasurable essential piece of survival called love. If this situation fits, it’s far from abandonment, the parents are actually making what they believe to be the best most loving choice. Unfortunately, so many more kids are given up than are kept as parents. Some parents visit their child in orphanage, but too, this is not common in many areas in Aura Lee’s country as parents struggle to meet their own basic needs if they are of poverty level or if among the high class they may be ashamed to have a child who is by worldly standards imperfect.

When I’m asked, “So how are the orphans doing?” Which I often take as sarcasm, I’ve taken to responding with, “Hungry, sick and dying.” Some of the stories are incredibly sad and can put the coldest heart to tears, just look at the In Loving Memory page to feel a bit of the loss of children who have gone on before a family reached them. This little girl however does sound to be more of the exception.

Three months older than my second son, Aura Lee is doing quite nicely and other than being a bit of a baby it’s easy to wonder why she was left behind.

Oh, isn’t she lovely?

Aura Lee is doing very well.  She knows her nannies, smiles at familiar adults.  She can sit down and stand up with help.  She does not have mental delays.

Aura has developing speech — she can make separate sounds, and will repeat after an adult.

That is all that is said about her. Other than the diagnosis that her country has given her, “Microcephaly, spastic tetraparesis” She will not have a full physical exam until you are in country to meet her a few months after you have begun the adoption to bring her home which is hard because it is at that point that sometimes families decide that a child is indeed too much for them to manage in their life here in which case they come home and leave the orphan an orphan. It’s important for me to say here that this is a situation not always the case with all countries. Quite often a full medical report is available before commitment. All countries are different, all children are unique and there are no guarantees.

My tantrum is that you say you’re not ready to adopt? Never was there a child who said they were ready to be an orphan. I damper that tantrum by saying that not all are called to see and act on the need to bring home orphans, even be they children who sound to have minimal needs compared with others.

On to TUPPERWARE. I went to a Tupperware party last Saturday and ended up scheduling one for the Cianciolo family at my house which I 100% did not intend to do when I left my house only an hour earlier.

This is good though. By next Thursday  I hopefully will have women in my house ordering Tupperware to honor the adoption of beautiful twin boys to a family in Vermont.

This is an awesome family who I wish all the best to as they start out their first adoption journey. They are already familiar with the world of developmental uncertainty as they have a camp for individuals with such challenges and do feel strong guidance from the Lord to step out on this journey to grow their family through international adoption.

Scott and Theresa gave me a list of thirty families who they knew that would be interested in ordering Tupperware in honor of bringing the beautiful twin boys home from Eastern Europe. Those families will receive catologs and 40% proceeds off all items pamphlets right to their homes for ordering convenience with reduced shipping costs as thanks for participating in this special event. It’s been two years since I had an event that involved having a consultant come and speak with about their product.

The reason it has been so long is that no one came to the event that I put weeks entirely devoted to. It was heartbreaking, embarrassing and so discouraging to have no profit whatsoever and people to know about it. The statement that I wrote about above someone giving me that if I had no internet my passion over the orphan crisis would die has motivated for me to  try again. We have our own home, what reason is there to not open it in hospitality and good will to others? This is good. I’m excited for the Cianciolo family, for the Vantrease family and of course for this little Aura Lee who by some weird coincidence has the same name as my root blog’s pronunciation, oraeley.com

Little Aura Lee has $0.00 as many kids do who were listed just yesterday. Hopefully it’ll fill up quickly, with a fully funded figure being $22,000 for her country. The thing about kids like Aura Lee is they are the exception to sick and dying. We all die someday, I realize but what I am saying is that children who have comparatively minimal health challenges are more likely to be adopted domestically than children who have Down Syndrome like the Cianciolo’s twin boys who are in the same country. In that country anyone can adopt the child that you are pursuing while you are in the process–they are not yours until you have passed court in that Eastern European country before a judge there, by their standards proving yourselves worthy. This is a unique to that particular country situation but what a heart break for families who live this disappointment.

they had not met their child yet but had purchased toys and clothing and fully prepared believing in their hearts that this was a future that God had for them with this one particularly. For my story, excitement, anticipation so quickly turned into unstoppable loss.

There are millions of children needing home and if adoption is on your heart, there is a child for you and God does know who that one is to be revealed in His time. As with all of God’s business, the thrill is to work in the path that he has shown moving forward in faith with openness to see his workings. That’s a whole lot harder than it sounds! All things through Christ, which is awesome.

Tupperware party. It’s a beginning. I’m shy about having people over, I’ll let you know that right now. I want you here more than I have anxiety about you being over so please come.

If you get a Facebook invite from me to join the Cianciolo Tupperware party that’s the one happening at my house next Thursday. Please come as you are, the consultant is awesome! She’s someone from back in the homeschool days. Yes, I’ve told my husband that people are potentially coming over!

Please visit the Vantrease family blog: Adopt, Miles of the Heart, One Less to grab the last bits of their bracelets and art work sale. There are seven bracelets and some art pieces left which I would love to see sold by tomorrow night! There are some expenses coming up in Ian’s adoption so it’d be wonderful to have a one of a kind bracelet made by his family on your arm and maybe a piece of their artwork on your wall as soon as possible. Thank you so much.

Peace! And thanks for wanting to see writing from me. My writing is divided between two countries here, I know, I know. There are more kids, and more stories. More writings everywhere, fundraisers and talented people doing everything they can to get children home. Remind me and remind me again to stay on task with what I have to do here in my own house.

The Jenks family who I’ve written about? They’re on day two with their two daughters abroad staying in an apartment together–language barrier perhaps, but family to be all the same. Teenage girls meeting their forever parents for the first time. Imagine that! The blog is set to invite only currently for privacy even that with the girls faces not shown as are the rules for that countries privacy until post adoption.

Time to move along in my day. Please click on the image below for a direct link to my Tupperware party online which is open now thru next Thursday.