Resources

I wanted to throw out some resources about adoption and orphans.

Here is a great post by a pretty amazing lady who is adopting three children from Africa. They know how to hear and obey God's voice clearly. She gives many ways for anyone to get involved with adoption and orphans.

Here is a blog about a mother of 13 and she is about the same age as me! Her story is AMAZING. It is so incredibly encouraging and real. Check it out!

As God has been teaching me about orphans I have come to be more aware and thankful for many things.

• Jesus
• An opportunity to give a voice to those who can't speak for themselves
  
• 2 wonderful parents who taught me so much
  
• a loving brother and sister-in-law who offer great guidance
  
• the cutest niece in the world
  
• 3 of the best roomies ever!!
• wonderful friends and sisters in Christ that surround me
  
• Cornerstone Church and all that goes with this absolutely wonderful church
• a job that i LOVE!!
• 3 meals a day (with many snacks in-between)
• Closet full of too many clothes
• Apartment with heat
  
• ISU (even if it does stress me out)
  

This is not an exhaustive list and I'm sure I'm missing some, but it's a start.

Happy Thanksgiving! :D

~With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the LORD: “He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever.” And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. ~
Ezra 3:11

Pure Religion

So I decided to start a blog. I always feel encouraged after reading my friends blogs and feel like God is doing something in my heart, so I hope that God uses this blog to encourage others. If nothing else is helps me to organize my thoughts as I blog.

Since about a year ago God has started directing my path towards orphans. He has used James 1:27 to share His heart with me. "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." Through a series of events I believe God's purpose for me involves orphans.

Last Christmas a very good friend went to Romania to help in orphanages. This is when I first realized the reality of about 150 million orphans around the world. I have a wonderful family with two loving parents and great brother and sister-in-law. I also have a beautiful niece who is 2 1/2 weeks old. But orphans don't have a family. They don't have a last name. They don't even know what day the were born into this world.

Next on my adventure, I was going to go to Iowa City and major in social work. Through a friend I found out that social workers can help place orphans in safe and loving homes. Although I didn't end up moving to Iowa City, God pointed me in the direction of social work. This past summer I went and visited with an adoption agency and I knew that I wanted that job!

Along with these events God has randomly (at least random from my point of view, strategically planned from His point of view) put an unbelievable amount people in my life who have pointed me in the direction of adoption as well. I have seen God write amazing adoption stories. One after another I have seen His faithfulness. Adoption truly is God's heart.

Adoption is the Gospel. God is a loving father, who when we deserved death, He died to bring us into His family. More than anything He wants a personal relationship with us, His children.

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure."

1 John 3:1-3

God has beautiful plans for His children. So this blog is about what God is doing in the life of one of His children.