Tuesday, December 22, 2009

God Will Use YOU!!!

Do you remember this pic from a couple of weeks ago?? Well, I posted that night about us "Aunts" taking out my nieces for their annual birthday dinner at one of the local Italian restaurants...Well....we were the only family in the room we were seated in UNTIL another large family got seated RIGHT BEHIND US....There were a couple of older grandmothers in the group that smiled and watched Lucy Lane "learning" to walk up and down the restaurant. Ok, so I didn't think much of it UNTIL I got the email below:





"Kristi,
I just wanted to tell you how God used your family to bless my family this week. On Monday night my aunt and uncle took my grandmother to B Restaurant for my cousin's birthday party. My grandmother has not been in full support of our adoption - partly it's a generational prejudice about adoption and partly it's a racial thing. After the evening, my grandmother told my mom that they had seen a beautiful family with two precious girls dressed in Christmas dresses along with another little girl who was black. She was really interested in the family and watched them through the evening. She told my mom that it was a great family and that maybe it isn't so "weird" or uncommon to adopt transracially. That is huge! When my mom told me about this, I knew exactly who it was because I had read your blog from Monday. I just wanted you to know that your family makes a difference just by being who you are out in the community. Thank you!



S"


www.goseeklove.com



****Isn't God just the COOLEST!!!! It is such a reminder to me that GOD intended for me to do so much more than to just adopt ONE child...He intended for me to come home and keep the RIPPLE EFFECT going...because adoption can/and does have a RIPPLE EFFECT!! Every time someone says "YES" to God's calling on their life to give an orphan a family...SOMEONE else is guaranteed to do it too!! I was determined upon my return from Africa to NOT forget what I saw...to help those we left behind...AND as I had the opportunity to speak at my church AGAIN this past Sunday, I saw the impact, once again, it has to SHARE your story!! I saw tears flowing and God touching people's hearts for adoption!! It is an amazing miracle to witness, no matter HOW many times you see it!! I saw a scripture today on a friend's blog that said it perfectly:





Deuteronomy 4:9 says, "Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them."



So..that's WHY I'm still blogging today...to bring light to the orphans of the world STILL WAITING...AND to fulfill God's calling on my life: TO NOT FORGET....AND TO SPREAD THE WORD!!! Oh, and I'm good at spreading the word :) I LIKE TO TALK!!! Ask my poor sister who traveled with me to Ethiopia to get LL...She was stuck with me in close quarters traveling for over 30 hours...BOTH WAYS :) Poor thing...I thought she might resort to hitting me like she used to do when we were kids to GET ME TO BE QUIET :) LOL





**SPEAKING OF SPREADING THE WORD....Check out http://www.thestoryoflily.blogspot.com/ OR http://www.thechristmasmiracleproject.blogspot.com/ to see how an ordinary mom is doing extraordinary things to bring in the money to help OTHERS adopt!! She has already adopted ONCE, but is now determined to help others raise the money to adopt...She has a GREAT idea..check it out!!!

***Gotta run...more presents to wrap...My hubby is a "wrapping maniac"...Phewww...there's LOTS to wrap with 5 kiddos this year :) (ok, so we seriously wrap up pairs of socks so the kids have LOTS to keep them busy opening presents...we could seriously wrap up a rock and they wouldn't care..they're at a great age :)




Happy Tuesday to you all, kj

15 comments:

  1. Merry Christmas to your beautiful family!
    Blessings,
    Amy

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  2. AMEN!!!! Talking about your dinner with the girls. My parents are of the same mind as the grandmother and it's such a struggle to talk about and be so excited about something when the people you love and expect support from the most are against you. Thank you for 'being you' Kristi! God Bless and I hope your family has the most wonderful Christmas ever!!!! ♥

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  3. wow...what a story! What a great God we have! That is so awesome how you being there with Lucy helped her grandmother realize its ok!

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  4. Love those ripple effects. Anf for every one that you hear about there are probably dozens more you'll never know of this side of Heaven. Keep up the good work.

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  5. love the email! keep being that shining light for the orphans in this world! hug your family for me. kiss baby martha for jersey and jerusa!

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  6. Such a cool story! I am praying that will happen to some of our family members. :) Merry Christmas!

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  7. What a wonderful tribute to your family. I'm so glad you're back in blogland. We're in the trenches of our home study and enjoying the anticipation of what is to come. Thanks for all you do on this site. Your inspiration is reaching my neck of the woods in PA and I'm thankful for this "restlessness" I feel to do and share more on behalf of God's children. Let me know if you're ever in the area and want a speaking engagement in the Philly area!

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  8. That is AWESOME!!! My cousin and her husband would have not even thought about transracial adoption until after they saw us with our Abigail when she was just a year and a half.....then they totally understood it was not "weird"- love it- HOW AWESOME IS GOD??? :)

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  9. Welcome back!

    God is GOOD and he is using your adoption in some mighty ways. He works all for good.

    On another note, would you mind sharing how to "protect" your images. I'm trying to figure this out for my own blog. Thanks.

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  10. Hi Kristy,
    I love how you posted about that lady seeing Lucy Lane and making a difference.I live in a VERY small village/town. I too printed off pictures and parts of your blog when we first decided to adopt from Ethiopia. You see, my elderly parents(75 & 80) and I would talk about adoption and they would not say a word..it was always me doing the talking. It just seemed like they where not interested in us adopting. They said they where not so much for it because of the color. It is a generation thing, BIG TIME!!! This also made me go home and be sad. These are suppose to be my supportive parents!!! So,each week I would drop off new pics and posts you had at my parents house and because I have done that...THEY are now fine with it and realized we are ALL the SAME!!!Now, my mom is asking where are my pictures of Lucy. It is sooo cute. I want to thank you also because your posts and pics have helped my parents to come around. My mom is also SOOO happy that you are back and blogging. She also missed Lucy....so thank you from the bottom of my heart. I strongly think us adopting and bring 2 kiddos into our little village will open many eyes....for the better!!!God does everything for a reason:)You sure have helped me.....God Bless You Kristy!!!

    Karen
    WI

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  11. God is the coolest!!! God is using your family in amazing ways!!!!

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  12. YES...indeed God is the COOLEST...and the ripple effect blows me away!!! To think that 7 months ago I was sitting behind my computer boo-hooing at LL's video...and now...I'm about to POP for a new number on THE LIST! I'm so excited about our baby...and how God will use us to raise awareness...and see the ripple effect too!

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  13. SO COOL! Think I might wrap up a rock just to see!

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Thank you for your kind words!!