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FREE Foster Care Conference – June 8th {encouragement for families considering or already fostering)

04.24.2013

The Living 127 team here in Roswell, GA is getting excited! The conference is just a little over a month away!!! If you are a foster family or praying about fostering…OR if you know someone who is–please share this with them!

Saturday June 8th Foster Love Conference – Fellowship Bible Church, Roswell GA : 8:30am to 4:00pm

Here’s a little word for Living 127:

In just over a month Living 1:27 will be hosting our very first conference for those involved in, or interested in foster care. We believe that God is calling us to create a forum which can both inspire those who have been feeling the call to becoming foster parents, as well as inform and encourage those already stepping into the need.

Registration is open and numbers are rising. We have a limited amount of space, especially for childcare, so please don’t miss the opportunity! You can sign up right now by visiting the http://hoperoswell.org/ website, and following the instructions for registration. You too can be part of this event, please register now – please register each attendee, as we can then better plan for lunch.

The day is totally free to all participants, and includes lunch provided. The schedule will begin with our keynote speaker, Christie Erwin, a long time foster parent, foster care advocate in Arkansas, and author of ‘The Middle Mom’. We will be hosting several breakout sessions throughout the day : for this who are considering fostering we will be covering an initial DFCS Impact orientation, and discussing the Foster Parents Bill of Rights; for those already involved in fostering we’ll be talking about how to avoid foster burn-out, and considering the challenges of teen trauma. In addition we’ll have a panel discussion, in which we’ll share highs and lows from those with experience of parenting and living in foster care.

And for those who are currently fostering, the day will receive a full 7 hours of training credit accepted by DFCS!

PLEASE let me know if you are coming! Would LOVE to see if you come! I’m secretly hoping to be HOME from China with our little guy on my hip! As long as we aren’t in China…we will be at this day conference! And if we are currently home–then Zeke and I will be holding the door welcoming guests:)

Blessings!

Andrea

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Worth Fighting For…

04.22.2013

This morning I started my day sitting out on the front porch. Richard had taken the big kids to their hybrid school they attend on Mondays and Wednesdays…my mornings to rest (–or rather…home catchup…laundry, meal planning, cleaning and reading). I sat on the porch drinking by coffee–with Blankie (aka Jazz…the cat whom I am terribly allergic to–but oddly love). Watching Isaac and Frank ride bikes together. Two boys…two precious ones we longed for. Tried for. Fought for. They are so worth it.

Again we wait. For another love. We have longed for. Tried for. And fought for. I can’t wait for our Zeke to come home.

Much has happened in this year of waiting. And much will happen in the year ahead. I can feel big change on the horizon…and we just wait on the Lord’s timing. When He says go we’ll go. When He says stay, we’ll stay. One thing I love though–is how in sync the desires and calls are in both my heart and my husband’s heart. Both feeling a big step of faith on the horizon.

I read a blog post by Jen Hatmaker today titled “When Is It Time to Walk Away”. You can read it HERE.

Such truth in this post and in her words…”Locked in a toxic relationship or career or ambition or community, the levels of unhealth and spiritual pollution can murder everything tender and Christlike in us, and a watching world is not always privy to those private kill shots. It can destroy our hope, optimism, gentleness. We can lose our heart and lose our way. And here is the key: we can pour an endless amount of energy into the chasm, and it will never matter.”

This post goes so beautifully honestly with where we are. I am learning right now what He is calling us to continue to fight for–and other things He is saying, “Your time here is done. You ran well. But now, I want to use you some where else.”

We have felt this beautiful release–this welcome to something new…yet new is always so scary to me…a step of faith is…well, SUCH A STEP OF FAITH for me.

Yet the call of our family–to continue to grow right now through adoption remains. Several things have been in the news/online lately about international adoption/Christians adopting–being very critical of motives, ethics, etc. I think it’s imperative for those called to grow through adoption to do their agency homework and to make sure every aspect is ethical of their adoption. International adoption is at an all time low and fewer families are adopting now more than ever–and despite the rise in critical articles on adoption–I will not give up advocating for precious children in our foster care system, in orphanages, with special needs, kids aging out who need families to love, adore, pray with and invest in them. This–to me–is worth fighting for.

After reading Hatmaker’s article this morning–I ran across this video of some pretty cool folks at Blueprint Church here Atlanta–a church our church helped start in it’s first days. Such a beautiful family–one that is quite different–but so beautiful. As this sweet dad read the verses from Ezekiel–I couldn’t help the tears from running down my cheeks…

Growing our family right now in the midst of change and crazy and homeschool and fatigue doesn’t really make perfect sense to me. It IS worth fighting for–this I do know. I do know that His strength is made perfect in my weakness. When I watch videos of my sweet son over and over…when I look at his MRIs and EKGs…I can some times sense fear creeping in—“Is this going to be harder than I can imagine? Will this sweet one be with us forever?” And the answers to both of these could quite possibly be yes. But this I know the Lord has called us to–THIS I know He is preparing us for–THIS I know no matter the challenges is worth fighting for.

And then I ask “Will I be enough for him?” Um–probably not. But Jesus will be. He will be enough for me. He will be enough for him. And we will be family. Together. Stepping out in faith as a family…with each other and with Him. We will all always have some watching…reading…talking–some being critical and analyzing what we do, what we write or how we live–those who just plant little toxic seeds every where they go. Sad wouldn’t it be to live like this? Some of you reading may read just to take me or others apart–and I would challenge you to be life givers…who are used to make things come alive as you live rather than cripple or suffocate. I want to live daily looking for ways to bless others…to make them smile, laugh and give blessings. Do you find yourself giving more blessings to those you interact with or being more critical? Do you find yourself surrounded by blessing givers or critical/curse givers?

I’m not even sure anyone ever reads this–and I think this may be one of my more random posts ever…JUST processing–and thinking–and writing out loud:).

Today I will be a blessing giver. I will continue to prepare to bring home our 5th sweet one…calling to check on Laney and Parker’s passports…finish some travel paperwork and put a few “Z” monogrammed initials on some shirts for our sweet boy. And then at 12:30…picking up the littles for a day full of pouring in to the littles that are so worth our investment and love. What a joy this calling is! Tiring yes…but so, so worth it!

Did this blog even make any sense?? Kinda fun for this writing mommy to write one that is all over the place:) I’m living on the edge people;) Y’all have a great day!

Andrea

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Cara - April 23, 2013 - 5:40 pm

Made a lot of sense to me! 🙂 Thanks for sharing…

Mimi - April 26, 2013 - 7:00 pm

I love reading your blog! M a few days behind but am catching up while my daughter naps. I need to catch up on posts for my blog as well…so much to do and often not enough hours.but God is good.

I can trust and worship in the wait…because He is on my side {whom shall i fear?}

04.17.2013

We had our conference call about travel with our agency’s travel coordinator yesterday. LOVE her. Didn’t love the news we got. It looks like May travel is impossible. His birthday month. Our hope. Our prayer. BUT–between the week of China’s national trade show AND their 4 day break for Labor Day–they are seeing May consulate dates already fill up. So, the chances of us being assigned a May date at this point are slim.

Mommy gulp.

I sat there. In his nursery. On the other end of the phone. Totally taking in the adjustment in my mommy heart. And I told her I totally understood this–but this mommy was going to (she needed to for now)…pray for a May miracle–even if it means getting a consulate date the first week of June just so we can start our journey and JUST MAYBE have him in our arms even the LAST day of May. Still praying.

My heart longs to hold him.

To start the process of bonding…and getting to know each other. This–itself…this longing…unbearable longing–is a miracle.

I sat there and rocked in his nursery after getting off the phone.

Reflecting on how far we have come…and no doubt how we have felt His hand and grace amongst the setbacks and roadblocks. The battle has been felt…as every family fighting for a child has felt…whether it’s been an illness or through foster care or adopting or even seeing your teenager come to Christ through an impossible situation. There is no doubt a battle when it comes to bringing children into the fold.

The enemy would want us to just see the obstacles and to be overwhelmed. Our obstacles no doubt have come this journey…

…this mommy getting bit by a tick and getting Lyme and having to put our China adoption on hold…

…the SAME month we found our sweet boy–and we picked up our adoption (after mommy being healed!)–our oldest child was diagnosed with Dyslexia (which now thankfully we know he doesn’t have this!) We had him evaluated by a reading specialist who told us he had dyslexia and there was ONE spot open in her program that had 100% success and there was ONE spot open–but we needed to pay the $5,000 up front. GULP. We’d have to pull that from our adoption fund and trust the Lord to replenish it for the sake of our oldest. There is nothing a mommy won’t do for her child. We were supposed to have 40 lessons. We only got 8–and then we found ourselves in an unexpected shocking place…where we had only gotten 8 lessons and communication was cut off. The specialist took our money–stopped answering emails…and wouldn’t allow us to finish the remaining 32 lessons OR refund our money for the remaining lessons. We were out the adoption savings AND lost all our lessons. Money we needed to either use to pay our dossier adoption fee with OR simply to be able to use it to pay another tutor. This is a crazy amount to lose any time–but an impossibly crazy one to lose during an adoption. I would have to do the tutoring instead–and continue to trust the Lord to restore what the locusts had taken. (Hoping and praying we can get this back in order to use this at the end of our adoption for travel or the orphanage fee! And for another tutor for our little guy!)

…as we began to plan for travel–our little Loo bear was bit by a venomous spider (just 4 weeks ago). MANY trips to the ER and doctor…and finally we are seeing healing. The SAME thing happened just 3 years ago to Laney (only it was MRSA) as we prepared to travel to pick up Isaac in Ethiopia!

The enemy was no doubt a part of each of these things. YET the Lord is BIGGER.

As His children–we have nothing to fear.

Of course the Lord didn’t want me to be bitten by a tick and contract Lyme.

Of course the Lord didn’t want someone to run with our money, to hurt our oldest in not being able to get help…of course the Lord would want believers to work things out in integrity, honesty and love. Of course this was not His way.

Of course the Lord didn’t want our Loo to be bitten by a spider.

But I tell you–someone else did.

The battle is real.

But HE IS BIGGER.

And today…as I drove the littles to carpool. I was reminded that.

Imagine this.

The enemy today–reminding me of these things that have brought disappointment on our journey.

Soaking in the truth we might not be able to travel until June. (This ONE…not an act of the enemy…but just rather how the cookie crumbles! China is doing everything they can as fast as they can…our agency is too!) Just taking in that it might be a bit longer. Holding back tears in my longing.

And then–Chris Tomlin’s song comes on.

So THIS.

THIS IS ON…

And I look in the rearview mirror…and see THIS.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

Look at this kid.

My precious son.

A son we fought for.

At age one–he could only hold up his head and smile. ISAAC…”he smiles”.

And he also sits, stands, walks, runs, talks…and declares His truth through scripture every day. Just yesterday when he asked to go to Sonic and I told him we were having lunch at home he told me, “Mommy, love is patient. Love is kind! Did you hear DAT mommy?? LOVE IS KIND!”

The Lord has this.

And He also has every obstacle that has come our way. I don’t have to carry it…or worry with it. He has it all. And I can totally trust Him!!! I can trust in His provision. I can trust in His timing. I can trust in His healing. I can trust…I can trust…I can trust…and—you can too!

When we are following Jesus–we can expect battles to come our way. And we can also expect Him to take them…His angels to fight for us…and one by one to see His faithfulness at the finish line.

Trusting in His faithfulness! Trusting in His promises! And in the mean time–as we wait…we will worship–we will trust–we will prepare for His goodness ahead!

Posted in Adoption Preparation,Day in the Life
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Jeanine - April 17, 2013 - 1:07 pm

Yes, sister! Yes! With all five of our adoptions the battle has raged and we rejoiced because we knew we were running God’s race, not our own! Keep up that good fight and your eyes fixed on Jesus! The victory has already been won and your boy will come home exactly when God planned all along!

Leese - April 17, 2013 - 6:25 pm

Thanks for the update (as much as I know it’s not the news you were praying for or wanting to be updating with) and for sharing your heart and where you’re at in processing and responding to it.

Praying, believing, and trusting with you still!

lakasha - April 19, 2013 - 3:24 pm

How can our heart lay in the same place? It amazes me. Of course we are praying for a flight out end of May as well. OUR miracle on top of that, God provides us the rest of our plane ticket money and orphanage donation to have when we leave. I TRUST IN HIM!!! He has perfect timing. But my mommy heart cries at night for her to be in my arms too.
We volenteered at Thrid Day concert last night for world vision. a sweet friend of my Ashley (that happens to be an adoption social worker)AND follows your blog too!! Told me last about the set backs and holidays. It made my heart slow down. She was sharing about you getting ready to travel and I say ” your not talk about Andrea Young are you” She screamed yes! Such a small and supported adoption world.
Know as you comfort me knowing that I am not facing this alone neither are you. God is so much bigger than countries, and laws and holidays and theives, and illness and bugs. As big as 100 million fatherless children to as small as Andrea and LaKasha ‘s hearts. Hold steady mamma…. He is sending us!! LOVE YOU

A family for Sebastian…

04.16.2013

Please go here to read more about this pretty awesome kid about to age out…in just 6 days: http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/

From Rainbow Kids:

Sebastian

Boy, born April 26 1997

Speech issues

Sebastian will turn 16 THIS MONTH (April 2013). A family must have paperwork filed for him with USCIS PRIOR to his birthday — so, it must be filed on 4/25/2013.

We’ve been told Sebastian is available for adoption, but his paperwork will not be cleared in country until fall 2013. However, the process *MUST* be started with USCIS (US Immigration) prior to his 16th birthday, for an American family to adopt him.
Sebastian so badly longs for a family and to belong. He is shy, and has a very calm demeanor, slow to think and respond and soft spoken. He is not the ”in your face” kind of young man. He has ran away from the school on several occasions because he is sad living at the school and just does not fit in. With him being shy he is often picked on and accused of things he does not do and becomes a target because he does not fight back. Anything he was asked to do or help with the mission team he did not hesitate to help. When activities came up and he was asked to participate he had no problem engaging and playing. He has a slight stutter that comes out at times but nothing that will enable him or his future to achieve any goals. He is a precious young man. He says at times he has a hard time remembering things . He stated that he believes in God.

He loves to read the encyclopedia and to learn. He loves animals and like to look them up and read about them. He loves all animals and would love to be in a family with any kind of animal. He loves mashed potatoes and chicken and he does not care much for fish soup! He enjoys sports like Futbul (soccer), basketball, running and swimming. He enjoys drawing cars.

Although Sebastian is shy he can be funny and talkative at times. If he had a choice to be in a calm and quiet place, alone or with friends he would rather be with friends and not alone. He would prefer to be one to follow a good leader verse being the one to lead others. If he had some free time he would love to wind down by reading a book. He wants to build houses and that is the one trade he would love to learn. If he had three wishes he said to come to have a family in America, live in America and live near his other friend named Sasha or be able to talk to him. If he could be like anyone in the world he said he likes himself the way God made him. If he could visit anywhere in the world it would be America. He said he has visited a camp in Greece and he liked it there. When he went he thought he was going to be adopted and it did not happen it was just a camp so he was heart broken. He would love to visit an athletic gym in America and look at houses (architecture). He loves to look at church buildings and study how they are built and what they look like and enjoyed seeing them in Greece. He said he does not smoke or drink like many in his school and his favorite color is yellow. His favorite school subjects are Math, drawing and PE and his least favorite is Chemistry. He states he is an average student. When asked if he could visit a family in America would he like to be the oldest or youngest he said he did not care he just wanted to be part of a family. This young man is running out of time and it was so clear he just wants a family. He wrote a letter to a member of the team, asking for her help to find a family and thanking her for being willing to find him one.

You can visit Rainbow kids and see pictures posted of Sebastian HERE.

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Please pray for Shadrack…

04.16.2013

One of our Wiphan students recently had a tumor on his neck removed. Please pray for him. How thankful we are to have Stacey in Zambia to help care for these children on Wiphan’s behalf! (Please pray that the Lord will raise up families or singles to go in the months ahead as we really need committed families or singles to serve as she is serving now. Stacey will return to the U.S. in June. Please pray that the Lord would raise up singles or families to go and serve at Wiphan in Zambia.)

Here is the update from Stacy this morning. I felt it was too important not to share and ask you to pray with us:

Prayer Request

Wiphan Family:

I come and ask that you all join us in prayer for Wiphan student Shadrack Mulenga, grade 10. His biopsy has come back and the tumor in his neck is in-fact cancerous. We will be taking him to Mary Begg this afternoon to get it checked and then to receive a referral form for him to be taken to Lusaka for treatment or surgery.

Please continue to pray for Margret Daka as she was released from the hospital last week after having surgery on her leg. She was reviewed yesterday and the doctor said that she is healing well. Margret’s stitches will be removed on Friday and we will continue to monitor her healing.

Finally, please continue to pray for Hendersons. They left Livingstone this morning to travel to Botswana. They will be returning to the US on Thursday. We pray for rest, a good debriefing, and safe travel as they go.

After reading this…starting my day with this…I took a deep breath.

A sweet boy in grade 10–in Zambia, Africa–just diagnosed with cancer.

Of course–he doesn’t understand what cancer is.

But we do.

Here–the Lord has given us so much knowledge. So much understand. So much blessing.

Here–we are surrounded also by so much hurt and evil…thinking about what happened yesterday in Boston. So many hurt for no reason. And in this I hold in one hand…sad and thinking…

In the other hand I hold this information about Shadrack. An orphan just diagnosed with cancer.

It all seems so overwhelming.

I hear my heart whisper, “When Jesus? When will you come back?”

But–He is not done being glorified.

He waits simply because there is more.

There is more restoring to happen.

There is more hope to be unveiled…resting quietly around the corner waiting to shine.

There is more light to shine through the darkness.

The enemy would want us to be overwhelmed…for us to hide…for us to huddle in and just try to protect ourselves.

But I believe the Lord would want us to rise up.

And run faster.

Run stronger.

Run more bravely–for His sake.

Because He has a plan. And He has a plan to use us…together…for His glory.

We can’t skip over the middle of that prayer request and forget. Looking and seeing what He has already done. I think of Margret. She TOO had large tumors. Her sponsor in America saw the pictures–and her sweet young teenage sponsor raised money to go toward her first surgery. It seemed impossible. The community had tagged her as cursed–but the Lord is wiping that away…and the community will see her as blessed. She will be able to walk and to run and to be a kid again.

And we pray this same thing for Shadrack.

Will you join us in praying?

If you know someone or have had a child fight cancer in the U.S.–you know the difficulty…the pain…the incredible fight it requires. You can guess that fighting cancer for a child in Africa…well, that might look a little different. Not only incredible…but maybe a little impossible.

We serve a God that makes the impossible possible.

And I really believe the Lord can heal Shadrack.

We do not know specifics yet of his treatment. He will be taken to the capital of Zambia for treatment. We do not know the time, the costs or must other than Stacey and our Zambian staff will just take one day at a time with him…and the other 450 most precious orphans there. If you would like to help or be a part of this specific need or just find out more about Wiphan or how you can be used to help please contact Nancy at http://www.wiphan.org/contact. You can learn more about Wiphan at www.wiphan.org.

As the days and months and years go by…I know the awful–sinful–hurtful–evil events of others seeking to hurt will continue. We are called to so much more. We are called to the mending…the fighting for justice…the making wrongs right. The enemy will try to use these things to not only hurt and bring fear–but to also distract us from serving those like Shadrack…making the impossible seem more impossible. Galations 6:9 says, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” This is not just life. This is a war…a battle–and we have to put on our gear…and fight. In the words of Winston Churchill: Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

Let us run with perseverance…let us not give up…let us keep our eyes on Jesus–trusting Him to shine out of the darkness and do something in our days that we can’t even imagine…even if we were told.

Please pray for Shadrack, Margret and for a couple returning to the US from Zambia. Please pray for Stacey and her last few months serving with us in Zambia. Please pray the Lord will raise up others to go–both short term and long term. Please pray He will raise up supporters to be a part of this ministry. Thank you for praying! And thank you for sharing these prayers with others!

In His Grace,

Andrea

Posted in Orphan & Widow Care,Wiphan Care Ministry
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Natalie Cooper - April 16, 2013 - 8:52 am

I was fifteen (a month before my sixteenth birthday) when I was diagnosed with cancer. I cannot imagine receiving that diagnosis in Africa. I know my care would have been different. I don’t know if I would have survived.
Please keep me updated on Shadrack–we’ll be praying for him everyday and will help some on his medical costs.