Helen Keller and the Holy Spirit

While I have just now begun this blog (and done it so badly and sporadically) and many are just learning of our adoption plans, we have actually been on this path for years now.  Officially for two and half, but in our hearts and minds - ever since we got married.  And so, if for no one else's sake other than my own, I wanted to write some about the God moments we have had along the way and the care He has taken with our family to show us this is His plan.  Some days are very, very hard to keep going - and it is on those days that these memories sustain my spirit.

In April of 2010, I was getting ready to go to a women's conference in Pigeon Forge with ladies from my church.  A couple of weeks earlier I had been "reprimanded" by a friend that I never took risks or went on an adventure - that I just lived a safe little life in my minivan.  I, of course, was offended - but I also wondered what could that mean for me?  I was reading (or at least supposed to be reading) a book called Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson - and the Celtic Christians had used a word for "the wild goose" as a name for the Holy Spirit.  The first chapter of the book asked the question about what "cages" we find ourselves in that prevent us from chasing the Holy Spirit.  And one of those cages was responsibility.  Could it be that my perceived responsibilities - to my children, my husband, my home, my life - were my excuses for not pursuing what God wanted me to do?  Maybe.  But I also knew He had given me those responsibilities for a reason - and chucking them for some "adventure" was not the plan.  But it was the quote he started that chapter with that resonated with me...

      "Life is either a daring adventure, or it is nothing at all."
                                        --Helen Keller

And so I started thinking.  Could my adventure encompass and mesh with my responsibilities?  Could my family BE my adventure?  Hmmm - it was a possibility.

I had read that chapter and quote (and friends, I am sad to say that is where I stopped in the book.  I should one day finish it.) while we were in line to park at the conference in Pigeon Forge.  The opening speaker that night started off with a quote - by Helen Keller - and said "Life is an adventure, or it is nothing at all."  Well, well, well God - you have my attention.  Her story was a sad and depressing one, so I just stuck with the quote running through my mind and what it could possibly mean for me.  

The next evening we were treated to a concert from Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman.  I had already told my friends that I knew he would talk about his adopted daughter who had tragically died the previous year and that I would be updating the contacts on my phone during this time - not because I was rude, but because I knew I could not deal with hearing that story and seeing those pictures - I am not strong enough and I am a big enough wimp to admit it.  It was the first public performance he had done since her death - and do you know what his opening song was?  The Great Adventure.  Are we noticing a trend here?  This is how God has to work with me -slowly and deliberately - as if he were teaching a 3 year old how to write her name.  During a break in the concert, he spoke about their decision to adopt and their experiences with their daughters from China.  I did wind up looking at some of the pictures of his youngest daughter on the screen, though they were blurred from the mass of tears in my eyes.  

The last speaker of the weekend was Karen Kingsbury who spoke about her books and her older children and a poem (or was it a song?) about how mothers always remember the first time their child does something, but never consider the last time.  We never know when we will give the last piggyback ride, the last carrying them upstairs after they fall asleep in the car, the last time they hold our hand on the way into the grocery store - because we want to believe their childhood will go on forever - but there comes a day when they are too heavy to carry and can drive themselves to the store - and we have failed to hold on to that last time.  It was a great message for me to hear and entirely enough to take up her speaking time.  But then, out of the blue, she tells about the three boys from Haiti she and her husband adopted.  

By now, I am floored.  Only one other time in my life have I felt God was speaking so clearly and specifically to me.  He was using the Holy Spirit throughout that weekend to nudge open this door to adoption that had been standing in front of me for years and years.  He was using the words of Helen Keller to encourage me toward an adventure - not diving with great white sharks or climbing Mount Everest - but an adventure for and with my family.  He was letting me respect my responsibilities and send me on an adventure to take on one more. 

Adventure, adventure, adventure...  All weekend long that word popped up around me.  And it didn't stop there.  But that is for another day.

You might want a picture...

So here is a picture of the scarves my daughter and I are making.  We have made several in good ole University of Tennessee colors and even a couple of Crimson Tide!  But we can make any color combination you want.  You can also choose a couple of colors for your links and then a separate color for the ties that keep the links together - that is a great way to add just a pop of a certain color.   

Colors are as follows:  Sky, Robin's Egg, Turquoise, Royal and Navy blue / Butter and Sunshine yellow/ Kelly, Lime, Hunter and Celery green / Plum and Lavender purple / Tiger and Volunteer orange / White / Light and Dark grey / Black / Apple red / Cotton Candy, Bubblegum and Raspberry pink.

This is a fantastic gift for Mother's Day since it is going to help one more child have a mother of their own.  And it is a green gift as well since I use all donated or upcycled t-shirts for the scarves - and I always buy them local from stores who serve our community.  So everyone wins!  These t-shirts are being given a second chance to be beautiful and we pray that we are giving a second chance for a child to have a family.  We will not be linked to our daughter through DNA, but we most certainly will be linked by love - a love that stems from the deepest part of our being and a love that will know no limits.

Scarves are $10 each, can be made in lengths for an adult or child, and can be shipped and even gift-wrapped!  Shipping is $2 per scarf and gift wrapping is $1 per scarf.  If you would like an order shipped for Mother's Day giving, please order no later Tuesday, April 30.

And lastly, we ask that when you have the occasion to wear your scarf or someone asks about it, would you send up a silent and quick little prayer for our family and our daughter - that we would all be safe and healthy and the adjustment we will all have to make will be smooth and seamless.  We know this is God's plan for our family, and we are honored you have become part of it.

One link at a time...

We have been in the process of our adoption since December 2010 - a long time!  We never anticipated that it would be the spring of 2013 and we wouldn't have someone new pitter pattering around the house yet.  Well, we did get a new dog last summer, but you know what I mean!  But we all know that God's plans are more often than not quite a bit different than ours.

Throughout this time, we have tossed around the idea of fundraising for our adoption.  We have learned that in order to adopt a baby you really need to have a large wad of $1000 bills hidden out under the ceramic gnome in your flowerbed.  If you don't, it's time to start living on noodles and toast or figure out a way to raise money.  We feel like God has specifically asked us to do this and because of that, the money problem is ours - not everyone else's.  But I have had several wiser-than-me friends point out that when people come alongside us and contribute to our adventure, they are able to be a part in something bigger than themselves, something that will hopefully make the world for one person a little brighter and something that will most definitely bring glory to God.  And I pray they will be blessed for their giving. 

So, we are starting out with the inspiration for the title of this slow-to-post blog -- Linked by Love.  My daughter Ella and I are making tshirt scarves from upcycled shirts we purchase at thrift stores or have donated to us.  The scarves are made from "links" of shirts.  And although this new child will not be ours by blood, it will be linked beautifully to us by love.  Love will be the connection that makes us a family, that makes us Momma and Daddy to one more little heart, that gives Will the chance to be the big brother and Ella the dream of a having a little sister. Love will be the way we are linked together forever.

So, scarves for sale!  Pick 2, 3 or 4 colors.  They are lightweight and super soft, perfect for spring, for Mother's Day, for a friend's birthday, or for helping one family bring a little girl home forever.  Feel free to share our link and pass along our efforts to move toward our baby - one link at a time.

And so it begins...

Wow - so here I am in the Land of Blogs.  It is definitely somewhere I really didn't think I would ever be.  But something bigger than my disdain for most of this social networking stuff has led me here...a child.

And ironically, it is a child I don't even know yet.  I have no idea how old they are or what they look like or if they have even been born.  I don't really know if it will be a boy or a girl, if it will like to eat bananas, if it will like to play in the dirt, if it will go to sleep peacefully or fight it every step of the way.  What I do know is that they are meant to be part of our family and come live in our life and in our hearts.  This child will need us, but we will need them, too.  This child will be an amazing testimony to the faithfulness of our God and an example of how His will is perfect - in His own time.  This child will be a reminder that God never leaves us or forsakes us or forgets about His promises to us.  I don't know where they will come from - maybe Ethiopia, maybe Knoxville.  But they will come home with us to stay and they will make our family of four into a family of five.  They will keep us up at night and usher us once again into the land of diapers and sippy cups and naptimes.

We are adopting.  We are adopting!  We are adopting...