In Her Name........

Well...I've gone back and forth about whether or not I should post this...You see...I think good deeds are done to NOT get praise and thanks for...I think when you really give from the heart then you AREN'T looking for a HUGE "pat on the back" and you can quietly "give" and feel good and walk away!! BUT...I then think..."What if I'd never blogged about our adoption? What if I'd adopted quietly and never told the world about Lucy lane?" Well...HOW MANY families would have missed out on this amazing journey of "adoption" if I'd KEPT QUIET?? So, in the end..I decided that having a BIG MOUTH is good at times and I decided to share a project we completed back at the beginning of the summer....I'm sharing in hopes that it brings some attention to an amazing group making a HUGE difference in MY DAUGHTER'S COUNTRY.....So...here goes:

So...My days of summer USED to look like this:

That is UNTIL I read this:
And, so AFTER reading that LIFE CHANGING Book...Our summer now looks like this:

So..this is HOW it happened and WHAT WE DID: My hubby and I read The Hole In Our Gospel together!! ( i encourage ALL couples to read that book together...amazing) Anyways, during and after reading the book...my hubby and I BOTH felt that WE COULDN'T JUST END WITH ADOPTION!! I knew that 2010 WOULDN'T be a year we would ADD to our family..so I read the book and prayed that the Lord would guide US to WHAT he had planned NEXT!! I prayed that the Lord would CONTINUE to BREAK my heart for what breaks HIS!! AND...most importantly..I WANTED to continue to help my daughter's country!!! So...WE BOUGHT A WELL!!! Yes...INSTEAD of giant blow up slides, a summer vacation, a membership to ANY local pool...we GAVE water INSTEAD of USING so much water!!!

Now don't get me wrong....We had LOTS of fun with our 5 dollar pool:

BUT....my heart continues to ACHE for those we left behind...and I knew "a well" in Ethiopia was our next project...so I started researching...AND...let me tell ya...there are AMAZING well digging organizations out there!! I googled, asked friends for their input....and through all the info I gathered...I FOUND http://www.lifesongfororphans.org/ !! And, it was a perfect MATCH!! THEY were looking for someone to purchase a well for their Ziway, Ethiopia school they were building....AND....THEY WOULD LET ME DEDICATE IT!!! I knew without a doubt that I would dedicate any well we purchased in LUCY LANE'S BIRTH MOTHER'S NAME!! Not only does she still reside in Ethiopia...but she gave me the most precious gift in this world...HER DAUGHTER!!! So...we purchased the well...worked on the wording...AND someday (when it is completed) there will be a well in Ziway, Ethiopia with a plaque on it "Honoring and Thanking" the ONE woman in this world that loves my Lucy Lane just as much as I do!!

So....

....we continued to get WET all summer....We didn't even MISS that OLD BLOW UP SLIDE AFTER ALL....AND...NOT ONE child asked WHY we didn't go to the beach....cause instead we were busy playing in the Nashville Flood of 2010:

We played LOTS in sprinklers:

We loved going down to the local creek:

And...our little 5 dollar pool even made its debut at the AGCI picnic...AND..all the kids loved it there too:

And...our neighborhood has a FREE pool anyways..so the kids didn't even notice or care that we weren't members of the local YMCA:

And, I'm kind of sad to report that I went down to PULL out the Little 5 dollar pool this weekend while the Wright Family was here...AND...well...Daddy said he "thought" we were done with it for the summer...and...well...he kind of threw it away!!! :( He's KNOWN around these parts for THROWING EVERYTHING AWAY....SO....the kids made the best of it...and:And, they created their VERY OWN WATER FUN:
So, they didn't even miss our 5 dollar pool either!! The truth is...we buy those HUGE blow up things and vacation and such MORE for OURSELVES rather than the KIDS!! The lesson is that the KIDS really don't CARE...They are just glad to be together and WET!! BUT imagine HOW MANY children WON'T have to become ORPHANS FROM ONE WATER WELL???? The majority of people in the world are traveling 8 or more hours a day to just bring one bucket of contaminated water back to their families to drink. When the parent is walking ALL DAY to retrieve water that will most likely KILL or SICKEN their family anyways..there is NO TIME or energy left in the day to work...children are left at home all day to be hungry and thirsty by themselves...It is a HORRIBLE reality for SO MANY HUMAN BEINGS!! Yes, these are human beings JUST AS IMPORTANT in the Lord's eyes as YOU AND ME!!! So...we cut back, bought a well...and..I pray children in Ziway, Ethiopia will some day DRINK FRESH water and play at their school and RETURN to their families INSTEAD of being orphaned because of sickness!! NOT everyone that reads this blog WILL ADOPT...but there are SO many other things that can be done to help the LEAST OF THESE...and a Water Well is just ONE OF THEM!!!

If you'd like to learn more about LifeSong For Orphans...Or YOU FEEL called to help with the Ziway, Ethiopia school project...watch the videos below and READ the paragraph I pasted directly from them below:

Beauty out of Ashes from Lifesong for Orphans on Vimeo.

Lifesong Ethiopia 2010 from Lifesong for Orphans on Vimeo.

To Learn More about the ON GOING projects in Ziway, Ethiopia...Please Read Below...This is a message straight from LifeSong:

Laughter & Smiles

We all go out of our ways to give our kiddos the very best we possibly can. In Ethiopia, this looks much different than it does for you and me in the US!

Lifesong for Orphans is supporting 3 schools in the Ziway, Ethiopia area. We are currently repairing one of the schools and are in the process of building another, but are hopeful to use all three this fall.

Let’s turn this bare piece of land at the Ziway Lifesong School …

Into a place of laughter and smiles!

View all current projects. View all Lifesong Ethiopia videos.

Happy Wednesday to you all, kj