Miss Joanie

Joanie
Date of Birth:  July 2006
Gender:  Female
Eyes:  Blue
Hair:  Brown

Lookie at this little gal all dolled up in polka dots and glasses!  Miss Joanie is waiting for her forever family to find her.  She needs prayer warriors to faithfully pray for her.  Remember, she has no Mama and no Daddy and probably nobody at all praying for her.  This is where WE come in.  You, right there at your computer screen can lift this little girl up to Him in prayer.  Far from an inferior role, PRAYER is actually the big work.  It is not us who place the lonely in families...it is HIM (Psalm 68:6).

Just today we were reading about how Joshua stayed in the valley to lead the Israelites into battle, while Moses went up to the top of the mountain to pray.  Moses lifted his hands and prayed.  While his hands were raised, the Israelites were winning.  But when he dropped his hands, the Israelites began to lose the battle.  Moses couldn't keep his arms raised because they grew tired, so Aaron and Hur held up his arms until the battle was won.  


THAT is what we do in prayer.  We may not be the family who adopts little Joanie, but we can sure play a significant role in bringing her home.  Prayer is the big work.  It is the lifting up of our arms, just like Moses did.  Battles are won in prayer.  


If you stumble across this blog and find yourself reading this, please know that it's not by accident.  YOU are a wonderful part of Joanie's story (or any of the children featured on here who are awaiting a forever family).  YOU can pray as Moses did. You can print Joanie's picture and place it somewhere where you see if often...and commit to praying for God's perfect Will in her life.


You can advocate for Joanie by sharing my blog address with your friends and family and church prayer groups.  Joanie cannot speak up for herself, and we have the amazing responsibility of being her voice in our own circle of influence.  If we could only see the potential of  many of us across the globe coming together in prayer for these little ones!


A fun part of committing to praying for a child is watching as God moves in a family's heart to adopt them.  At this link, you can check to see if the child you are praying for has had a family step forward to commit to adopt them.  Keep praying for them!


If you'd like to donate to Joanie's adoption fund, you can do that here.

CALLING ALL PRAYER WARRIORS!!!!

Last year we helped advocate for this little munchkin.  We spoke to friends who prayed about adopting Kirill, but the door did not open.  Soon after, another family stepped forward to adopt him.  Their adoption process has been very long and rough.  Recently, the judge ruled that they could not adopt Kirill, simply because he has Down Syndrome.  They are appealing that ruling and are seeking prayer warriors to rally together for their cause.  It is GOD who sets the lonely in families...God and God alone.  So, please join me in lifting up in faith-filled prayer precious Kirill and this family who loves him so dearly.


I urge you to visit their blog to read their story and join them in urgent prayer.   On their blog, scroll down to their blog post titled "Kirill's Story."

 

Pray for Ellis

Here's another sweet pea who is HIV+ and in need of a forever family.  Pray along with us!

Ellis

Boy, Born April 7, 2006

TRANSFERRED TO OLDER CHILD BOARDING SCHOOL

From an adopting parent who visited his new orphanage in March 2011: "One of the days we went to visit our daughter, her groupa was getting ready to go outside. Ellis came up to me for help getting his coat on as the caretakers were helping other kids. He chatted with me and was very inquisitive. He did NOT hug or hang on me but behaved completely appropriately with me as I tied his hood and helped with his coat. He loved talking to me (even though I couldn't understand a lot of it) and his speech sounds very clear. I saw him several other times and he is a little ham! He made a lego house for me and tried to get my attention through a glass door by dancing for me. One of the days we were there, he was in trouble and was sitting in timeout. Although he was crying, he sat nicely and waited to be let out of timeout. After his timeout, he went to play. He seems to be a very sweet, smart little boy and I know he is ready for his family to come and take him home!"

He was observed wearing glasses sometimes and doesn't seem to mind wearing them.

The orphanage he is in seems to be a good one for children aged 3-7. The groupas are not separated by age. The kids do a variety of work. They color pictures and do sewing projects to work on fine motor skills. The children play outside a lot. The children appear to be well-fed and anyone who needs medication receives it. They also have a sensory therapy room, a physical therapy room, a music room and an art room. There are about 5 groupas in the orphanage, with about 9-10 children in each group. 

For more info and parent support on adopting and raising a child with HIV, please visithttp://www.projecthopeful.org/

Pray for Sarah

Did you know that children who are HIV+ are able to live long lives with the help of medication?  


There are many children who are HIV+ due to mother-to-child transmission during birth.  These children often await a forever family.  Many never receive families because people are unaware of the facts.  To learn more about the medical aspects of living with a child with HIV, go to THIS BLOG post.


To learn more about adopting and parenting a child with HIV, visit Project Hopeful's site.


And for all the prayer warriors out there, please pray for Sarah.  She is one of many children with HIV who are awaiting adoption.  Look at that face!  :)  Pray that her forever family will step up to adopt her and give her access to the medicine she needs to live.

Sarah 

Sarah 

Date of Birth: October 2005

Lively child, cheerful character, always in good spirits. Accurate, loves beautiful clothes and playing dress-up. She takes pride in her appearance. She likes to help her nannies set the table for dinner. She takes this job very seriously and she wears an apron and a cap and puts everything in it's correct place – fork on the left, knife on the right. She loves to draw and is very artistic. Her drawings often depict a house, a mom and a dad. She hopes that her dream will come true.

The only health information that we have about Sarah at this time is that she has a "serious incurable disease". She is listed on the HIV page and also on the Other Angels page in case it is Hepatitis C or something else. Please be open to health conditions if committing to adopt Sarah as we may not be able to get medical records before committment in this region. 

Sarah may be at risk of being transferred.

$0.00 is available towards the cost of my adoption!

Pains of Pruning

The pruning blade has been set on my life.  I prayed for Him to break me and rebuild me the way HE chooses.  That is not an easy prayer to pray, and it's even harder standing up under the blade.  It cuts into the innermost parts of myself, revealing things I'd rather keep hidden under the layers.  It takes out from under me any and all human "props" upon which I lean too heavily.  It exposes and wipes out any and all excuses.  It puts my feet on a path not often trod...bumpy, winding, steep.  It drains even the good things and leaves in its place gaping holes.  Holes. To empty me of ME so that He can fill me with HIM.

The pruning process hurts, but it should be our DESIRE...to be so emptied of self that we can overflow with Him.  Remember His conditions for being His disciple:

1) Deny yourself

2) Take up your cross

3) Follow Him

I'm in step #1.  Struggling daily with denying myself.  I find it quite simple to deny myself some things, but the pruning blade cuts deeper into things that aren't as easy.  What about denying myself the right to feel hurt, to be appreciated, to be understood, to be right?  What about denying myself all the well-laid plans I have, the desires I naturally aspire toward, the dreams that lure me, the comfort that beckons me?  Denying myself requires humility that I simply do not posses in the natural.

Though I'm not familiar with Catholic prayers and may have never run across this prayer in my daily life, the Lord graciously brought it to my attention.  My friend who was giving a speech about orphan ministry quoted this prayer.  It stuck with me.  I read it over and over.  I began to pray it.  I printed it out so that I could be reminded of it daily...  

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart,Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved...
From the desire of being extolled ...
From the desire of being honored ...
From the desire of being praised ...
From the desire of being preferred to others...
From the desire of being consulted ...
From the desire of being approved ...
From the fear of being humiliated ...
Fromthe fear of being despised...
From the fear of suffering rebukes ...
From the fear of being calumniated ...
From the fear of being forgotten ...
From the fear of being ridiculed ...
From the fear of being wronged ...
From the fear of being suspected ...
That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I ...
That, in the opinion of the world,
others may increase and I may decrease ...
That others may be chosen and I set aside ...
That others may be praised and I unnoticed ...
That others may be preferred to me in everything...
That others may become holier than I,provided that I may become as holy as I should…




And, in my friend's speech, she added:
And that I may love you, Jesus,
With all my heart
With all my soul
With all my mind
And that I may love my neighbor as myself.




The only way to make this reality in my life is to be placed ever so lovingly under the pruning blades of the Master.  Let everything in me be pruned.  "Empty me of me so that I can be filled with You."

Alexander's family has found him!

Remember when I asked you to pray for little Alexander's forever family to find him?  Alexander had already been transferred to a mental institution and was in desperate need of a family.  Well, his forever family has stepped up to adopt him!  THANK YOU for praying for him.  And please continue to pray because there about a zillion steps in between step #1 and actually traveling to bring him home.  I encourage you to follow Alexander's family's blog and pray along with them.  You can also find a place on their blog to donate to Alexander's adoption fund.  You can share in the precious work of bringing God's children into their forever families.  Pray this little guy home!

I Will Follow