Mother's Day Fund

Mother’s Day is right around the corner. I don’t now about you but it seemed to have snuck up on me this year. 

I love this day. I love to celebrate my mom and my mother-in-law. I love to be honored and celebrated as a mother myself. But, every year I have to remember, for many, this day is full of pain and heartache.

There was a time, not too long ago, in the midst of my infertility, when I could have done without Mother’s Day. I remember feeling as though I was falling down a dark hole, flailing around, trying to grab ahold of anything I could to get a baby in my womb. But there was nothing to grab onto and so I feel until I hit the bottom where I found myself broken and bruised, in a pile of mud. 

During this season for me, Mother’s Day was a sharp reminder of my deepest, unreachable, desire…to be a mom.

But as I sat in that mud, knees to my chest, sobbing, I began to look around. I saw, pushing their way through the mud, tiny, bright green shoots of life. Green shoots of hope.

When I took the time to sit in the difficulty of my infertile, I began to see some of the most beautiful and worthy things in life can only sprout from the mud.

 

Today, as a mother of three spectacular children, I can hardly remember the pain of that season of infertility. However, as Mother’s Day approaches, I am keenly aware of the pain this day means for so many women. I think of friends of mine who have buried their babies or their mothers or both. I think about my children’s birth moms who have had to let go of the child they will forever love. I think about moms who spend every breath and ounce of energy simply keeping their babies safe and feed, who feel desperate for some help. I think of people like me, who are desperate for a baby but cannot get pregnant, or who cannot afford the adoption fees needed to fly to another part of the world and make an orphan their own.

Yes, Mother’s Day can be a painful reminder of what was, or what could have been. 

For me, as I celebrate my mom and I’m celebrated as a mother, it’s important to remember those who are hurting. I think in life we need to learn how to let celebration and heartache mingle with one another. We need to learn we can feel the joy of a day like Mother’s Day as well as join those we love who only feel the pain, and the other way around. 

 

This Mother’s Day, I’m excited to be joining forces with some incredible people who believe in the power and purpose of Motherhood by being apart of the Mother’s Day Fund.

This is an easy and practical way to actually give the gift of motherhood. 

The Mother’s Day Fund has one clear objective: connect those with resources to mothers in need in order to preserve the integrity of every family. For existing families, the MDF will allocate funds to women who lack the ability to provide basic resources for their children, such as food, shelter, clothing and education. For adoptive mothers, the MDF will help cover the overwhelming costs involved with adoption by partnering with families fundraising through AdoptTogether.

No matter where you find yourself this Mother’s Day, we can all celebrate motherhood by being people who help create it. So cool.

(Check out more about the Mother’s Day Fund by clicking here)

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All of us are on a journey (Read this one first)

All of us are on a journey. We wake up with ideas of where our journey is taking us, of how we want our days, weeks, lives, to go but so often we find that what we planned for our lives is not the reality we are living in. Each decision we make is a lifting up of our foot with a plan and hope of where it should fall when we place it down. But what if you allow God to determine where to place your feet? What if you allow God to ordain your steps? And what if, when you place your foot down He catapults you into the unnerving hight of His will or allows you to fall into the mysterious depths of His plans? What happens to your plans when God calls you higher and deeper than you planed to go? Ten years ago the journey I had planned for my life went from smooth straight path to crooked jagged mountains and steep terrifying valleys. 

I am one blessed lady and feel pretty honored to be living the life I live.

I hope your time on this blog leaves you feeling encouraged and excited about all that life has to offer.

Thanks for checking us out!

Five Years Later

Psalm 66:1-5
"Shout with Joy to God all the earth! Sing the glory of His name; make his praise glorious!  Say to God, 'How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you.  All the earth bows down to you; they sing praise to you, they sing praise to your name.' Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in man's behalf!"

Q&A: Why we adopt

Lots of folks want to know why we adopted in the first place and why children with Down syndrome.

Adoption was something Josh and I talked about and could see in our future, but let's be honest here, I am not as saintly as some of you think (or at all for that matter).  The long and the short of it is we adopted the first time around because we found out that I could not get pregnant. It's as tragic and simple as that (I blogged about it here awhile ago).  No saintliness here.

You might be thinking: "But you adopted a child with Down syndrome...see you are a saint!"
Well friends, adopting a child with Down syndrome was never our intention (not a saint).  We wanted a healthy infant, so much so that we paid the big bucks to adopt through a domestic private agency where the chances of a health infant are greater than other avenues of adoption. A very very long story short, we found out about Macyn and it was with heavy hearts and hesitancy that we began to pursue adopting her. Throughout the process our hearts changed drastically but that is by the grace of God and His grace alone. We began to long for a child with Down syndrome and were thrilled when Macyn was placed in our home.

 

This was placement day for Macyn 10/28/08

This was placement day for Macyn 10/28/08

Growing our family through adoption changed us something fierce, and changed us for the better. After we saw how "normal" our family can be even if created through adoption, when we were ready to grow our family again we didn't hesitate to pursue adoption.  Enter Truly (whew, what a gift!).

This was placement day for Truly 9/24/11

This was placement day for Truly 9/24/11

Then a couple years pass and we can't believe our luck that our girls are our girls.  In the years of parenting Macyn, we grow to see just how rare a gift a child with Down syndrome is.  We also learn how the majority of the human race sees Down syndrome as less than desirable.  Knowing that the Lord has shaped and molded our hearts to love people rocking that extra chromosome, we decided that we'd be fools not to adopt another child with Down syndrome.  Enter August (can someone please pinch me!?!)

In the hospital the day he was born, 12/12/13

In the hospital the day he was born, 12/12/13

So there you have it friends. 

Adoption may seem like this huge decision, maybe too big and terrifying for you. 

Don't get me wrong, it is a huge and terrifying decision, and I left out a lot of the messy details. But isn't deciding to start a family a huge and rightfully terrifying decision? You may be sitting there thinkig; "maybe I could adopt, but parenting a child with Down syndrome...too difficult!" And again, isn't parenting in general difficult.  Yes children with Down syndrome come with their own special bag of tricks making it extra tricky at times (I'll post my thoughts about that later), but when the sun sets on your extra tricky day, your kid is simply your kids.

When all is said and done, my kids are my kids, same as your kids are your kids.

Adoption is no joke. It can be very very messy, and every one is different. I'm not ignoring these facts. But I also know that family is family and love is love and if God is the God of your family and your life and you've got love in your heart to share, then by golly, adopt!