Sunday, November 08, 2009

Orphan Sunday

Today is Orphan Sunday. I'm not sure what that means for me; every Sunday is Orphan Sunday ...and tomorrow will be Orphan Monday, then Orphan Tuesday. The desire to help orphans doesn't wan. The burden doesn't get lighter.

That's not to say that there aren't days that get so heavy I throw my hands up in the air and say "I want out!". I want to forget what I saw, I want to forget that there is an orphan epidemic and go on living my life in ignorance. But that's when my Father steps in and wraps His arm around my shoulder reminds me that they're His children, not mine. And I remember how much of a privilege it is to be a small part of His mighty work, and how much I have learned about Him and about myself through the eyes of these little ones, and I feel thankful that I'm walking in obedience, even though it hurts my heart.



Orphan Sunday from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

Of course I am thinking of Biruk today, he has taken up permanent residence in my heart. During church this morning, I begin to miss him (sort of an odd feeling because I have only met him once - but I think most adoptive parents can relate to loving a child whom they have not met. The heart is powerful). I don't really know what to do with these feelings, so I look over at Dirt and tell him that I'm sad that Biruk doesn't live here with us. He already knows this, and he knows that he can't do anything about my sadness; it's in the hands of the Lord.

Today I'm working on putting the final touches on a package that I'll be sending to Biruk, via my friends Sam & Wendi Henry, who are going to Ethiopia next month. I so wish I could go with them. Some days it takes every ounce of willpower I have to not impulsively purchase a ticket. (Christmas gift idea alert, hint, nudge: RT plane ticket to Ethiopia) ;-)


I am kind of stumped about what to pack in an envelope to send to a son who is so far away. The envelope seems so small, and I want to send him everything. Of course the mother instinct keeps prodding me to toss in a pair of clean underwear and socks, but that might be awkward. So I revert back to things I think he'll like. Though the envelope is filled to capacity, what I've put inside it hardly feels sufficient.


Here Wendy shows Biruk photos of our family. On this day, neither of us knew that he would become part of it - perhaps not physically - but definitely in my heart.

There are millions of orphans in the world, will you do something this week to help one of them?

Thursday, November 05, 2009

I'm Restless

...probably words that Dirt fears; but it's true. I'm ready for a change ...or even a leap. I don't know what that all means - stepping up, stepping down, left, right...I don't know. I just have this nagging feeling that what I'm currently doing isn't working and something has to give.

So I'm restless as I wait on the Lord. I'm asking Him for direction, guidance & wisdom and I'm looking forward with anticipation regarding what He has in store for me.
Hopefully it's not just a new hairdo, although I may be heading in that direction as well. (hold your applause please).

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Are You Ready for Some Football!?!

Today we had a little father/son (daughter) flag football game in the backyard.




The weather was pure perfection, and a flag football game was the ideal activity to get everyone outside.



What a blast! I just went through all 400 photos that I took and every shot depicted people smiling and enjoying themselves.



Good times!



I don't know who actually won. It sort of feels like everyone did.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Birthday Fun

Today we celebrated Maya's 4th birthday.


I know, we're a week early...but who's complaining?

At work, I have this teambuilding activity that I facilitate, where teams of professionals try to build the tallest freestanding structure using obscure materials. We usually give them PlayDoh, post-it notes, paperclips, clothespins, and some other random items.
As I was thinking about activities for Maya's party, I thought I'd do a similar activity, though since I was dealing with four year olds, I'd simplify it by just using PlayDoh.



Um...yeah. NOT recommended. A little awkward. It turns out that the other materials are actually CRITICAL.

The kids were wondering why the adults were laughing so hard. Needless to say, this child won the contest.



Though it was rainy, Maya got an opportunity to take her new ATV for a test drive. She's officially unstoppable.



..then she spent a good deal of the afternoon doing this. ...and amazingly, she did not get injured.

It was a good day.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Harvest Fest 2009

Yesterday the Caseys had an awesome Harvest Party. It was such a great time! Good food, good friends, good fun, good times!



Here, the calm before the party...


Sack races! Woot!


Football!


Donuts on a string!

...and so, so much more! Including deserts that were delivered straight from heaven...YUM!

I already can't wait for next year's party!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Last Weekend

It's not easy to capture last weekend in four pictures, which is why I posted five.

The weather was perfection, which was really good news for Brandi, who was coming up for our Africa Party on Saturday night. Brandi lives in Florida and had never been to Maine before; she was excited to see the foliage - which we had plenty of...literally right in our own backyard.

Saturday morning the girls enjoyed dancing in the living room. With the furniture moved off to the side, it was really a perfect ballet studio...and of course, the girls took full advantage of this.



Saturday night the house was full of people enjoying the sights and tastes of Africa....and the beads. It was such an enjoyable evening and we raised enough money to fund a Ugandan teacher's salary for an entire year! It amazes me that two hours of shopping and sipping wine with girlfriends could have such an impact!

On Sunday, we did the two quintessential Maine tourist activities: 1) visited Nubble, and..

2) ate lobster.

It was such a great weekend - all around. Oh, and Amelle has her own take on the weekend as well, her blog is linked to the right.

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Poverty Cards

Wendy and I have been working on something fun that we're going to unleash at our 10/10 party, but if you're one of the four people who still faithfully follow this blog, you get to see it an advance.

We'll be selling super-cute baby and toddler t-shirts to benefit orphans. Each shirt is just $10, and 100% of the proceeds go to feeding orphans. They come with a tag that informs the recipient that through the purchase of each shirt, an orphan living in extreme poverty is fed for an entire month. Here are the initial shirt designs:
We'll also be selling cards and gift tags as well. Again, these feed orphans. Here are some of the design samples (they look better in person because these are on the design template, which is larger than the actual print area).

Here's a sample gift tag design. Don't you want these for your Christmas presents? These feed an orphan a meal. Yup, smart little suckers, aren't they? I am personally not accepting any gifts this year that do not have a Poverty Gift Tag on them. That's just how I roll.We had to laugh at ourselves yesterday because our whole vernacular has changed over the last few days. We say things like, "I'll send you the designs to proof", and "What do you think of this graphic?". We feel very artsy and cool. Of course, next week we'll be back to our regular dialog, "did you hear the croup is going around at daycare?", and "your daughter told me she had a spider crawling up her butt crack".

If you can't make it to our 10/10 party, but still want to get in on the t-shirts, gift tags, or cards, visit our Lobsters blog.