Tag Archives: organization

I want to introduce you to someone special…

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I love all the bloggers who travel to different Compassion International locations and blog. In fact November 2-7 you will be able to read updates from Dominican. According to Challis: Challis and possibly his 8 year old son will be going, Melanie from TheBigMamaBlog.com, Mary from OwlHaven.net, Marlboro Man (and his two daughters) from ThePioneerWoman.com, Jennifer from 5MinutesForMom.com. Shaun Groves and Brian Seay will co-lead the trip. I am looking forward to reading about their experience.

Me on the other hand would love to support a child and really not tell you about it. That is just the way I roll. I love to give, in fact I think God gave me my husband to monitor me so I would not give all my worldly possession to anyone who asked for them. God has convicted me; if me keeping this a secret prevents another child from being adopted, well….that is something I could not live with. So know I share this with you humbly. In fact my parents are reading this for the first time also. Sharing about my giving is something that is difficult for me. Well here I go..

For awhile I have been praying about adopting a Compassion International girl. I already had my heart strings tied into it, but I needed my husband’s blessing. I fear he would say “not at this time.” You see we are not rolling in money here, we live by what is in the bank and we worked hard to become debt free. So taking on a long term commitment, means we need to seriously make sure we can make the commitment financially. I prayed about this for over a month! Finally God gave me the green light to approach my husband (people don’t think I feared approaching him, I just really really wanted him to say yes go-for-it). Well of course I got his blessing, he said “I know you have been wanting to do this for awhile, so yes.” I was so excited! I wanted to involved my kids also.

So one afternoon my two older boys and I poured over Compassion International’s web site…how can you possibly chose one???

My oldest son picked the location: Kenya. He said “Mom I know a girl in Kenya needs us.” So we started there.

And as soon as we laid our eyes on Mary all three of us at one time said, “that the one.” It is amazing how God tenders your heart to the right one. You will understand why she stood out to this Floridian Family =)

So let me introduce you to Mary, born December 23, 2002; and she lives in Kenya. When we got our introduction packet my family was so excited. Mary’s picture now sits right beside the picture of my boys. We look forward to being part of Mary’s life and watching from a distance her grow up and be able to have the every day items like clothes, food, school supplies and Christian training, she may not have had otherwise.

Mary

Pray and ask God if this is an adventure for you. But I strongly recommending praying for God to open the right door and let him lead you to right place. It is overwhelming at first but I am here to tell you God leads in very specific ways.

Currently Compassion International is growing, moving into new countries (children will soon be sponsored in Togo) and expanding the reach of its ministry to children in many others. Every child Compassion ministers to needs a sponsor and at the moment there are thousands who do not have one. Many of these have been waiting for a sponsor for over six months. These children need words of encouragement and Compassion needs the cost of their care sponsored so that the ministry can continue to expand.

-Special link to children who have been waiting the longest for sponsorship:
http://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/default.htm?referer=9713

-More information about Compassion International’s Child Development Sponsorship Program:
http://www.compassion.com/about/programs/learningforlife.htm

-Send your readers here if they’d like to blog for Compassion like you do, and for banners and widgets:
http://compassionbloggers.com/get-involved

Compassion’s blog for an inside look at our ministry and our people around the world:
http://blog.compassion.com/

Proverbs 31 woman with a crooked halo.

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maxine This is sure how I feel lately. Some days my brain feels like it is going to explode. Having three kids in three different schools, means three times the paperwork, three different schedules, and three times the clutter in my house. Then we have football schedule (x3), what day am I suppose to bring the snack and juice again? And sometimes if I am real lucky two different sporting events overlap. At the beginning of this month, my two older boys were finishing up basketball while football had already begun. Then add to the mix two boys in braces, one boy in tutoring, tons of homework due, laundry, dirty house, etc…

Calgon take me away.

I had one mother look at me and ask, “Laurel how do you do it all with these three boys?” First of all I feel guilty because I only have three, I have a girlfriend who has 10 kids and Mothering seems to be her spiritual gift. I really wanted to respond, well we all pitch in at home so every thing is completed and I cook healthy meals for my family despite our schedule.
Entering Magic Kingdom

In reality I looked at her and said, “I really don’t know, all I know is my house is a mess and I fed my kids healthy mac and cheese as we ran out the door. By the way I love visitors, but when you come to sit down just move the piles of laundry on the couch to your side.” I have given up trying to have the “perfect home,” my friend of 10 kids taught me that. But I still feel like I fail the Proverbs 31 woman terribly.

Now don’t preach to me about organization, because I have read tons of books about it and I have improved, but I have not arrived. I love my google calendar that emails me appointment reminders. And I do try to plan meals every two weeks, but our family is famous for throwing dinner plans out because plans change.

Somewhere in the mix I read tons of books — travel to far away places— for review; I write — my creative outlet — for hire on the side, and at least once a week I try to catch up on laundry and house cleaning. Why do people never show up on those days? Oh yeah, and I blog.

So how do I do it?

* I gave up perfection.

* I plan ahead to the best of my ability but know plans change.

* Someone may appear to do things better than me (motherhood, housekeeping, etc..) but I know I am doing the best I can.

* I do something I enjoy at least once a week (like blog, read, or work on my writing).

* But most of all I place God first and give up the guilt of not being the perfect Proverbs 31 woman.

I know I will miss these crazy days, but for right now I am relying heavily on God’s guidance and peace.

I think Zephaniah 3:17 is my favorite life verse because God reminds me he will save me, when I go spinning off track, he will quiet me when craziness seems to swirl around me, but most of all (and despite all of my failures) he will rejoice over me.

“The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”~ Zephaniah 3:17

So what about you? How do you survive being a mother, a grandmother, a primary care giver?

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Announcement:

Have I mentioned there a giveaway beginning September 1st? Stay tuned for more details. Tons of free stuff.