Keep Changing the World!

TWO DROPLETS SAVED...DIVINE MERCY PREVAILS...

It has been an incredible month. First we took our kids to Chicago to spend time with the Twietmeyers and the Batemans. This was a month with a focus on special needs adoption. To be more specific with a concentration on all of the HIV+ orphans that need homes, down syndrome babies languishing in places like the UKRAINE and the many older orphans who are 'aged out' of the foster care system in the US at 18. In chatting with the many parents involved in adoption this month, I have been inspired to commit to a bolder approach with MOTHER THE WORLD in encouraging others to adopt one of the 147 million orphans....So we returned from our Chicago trip on Monday last week. I drove with all of the kids. Then three days after the Chicago trip I drove to New Jersey to the Divine Mercy conference in NJ. Pretty amazing trip. I went up there on Friday. Friday night, Deacon Vincent Ricciardi treated us to the most incredibly catered NJ

Italian style get together. ON Saturday, the morning of the conference I was a little cranky. I couldn't quite put my finger on why. Yes, I was a little tired but there was something deeper. I think the weight and enormity of three special needs orphans in Eastern Europe was just getting to me. I was feeling desperate. First there was MONROE..the cute little boy who if not adopted by October would have been placed in an orphanage unadoptable left to languish in a crib the rest of his life...

There was Marat the 12 year old boy who is HIV+ also in Eastern Europe who if not adopted will be placed out onto the streets also to eventually die due to lack of care...

And then there is Baxter the gorgeous little boy who is also HIV+ in Eastern Europe who needs a family and who reminds me of one of my kids and has the same last name as my stepfather. I dream about bringing him to our family but instead commit to finding a family for him unless finances and circumstances would allow for our family to adopt him.

So, on Saturday I was consumed with pain and heartache for them. My mothers heart was grieved. I arrived at the Divine Mercy Conference and was privileged to listen to the stories of Mercy and encouragement of Christ's mercy. When it came my time to sing and speak near the end of the day I gave my testimony and a plea for the group to remember the orphaned children and consider adoption and advocacy for them. Still when I left the conference I was worried about Monroe and as I usually feel....overwhelmed with the enormity of the orphans suffering.

It was an amazing conference but still I worried about Monroe, Marat, Baxter. I kept seeing a vision of drowning orphans in a sea as Christians stand on the shore drinking expensive coffee with their ears plugged to the cries in the water. I also prayed in the car on the 10 hour drive home and said "God why oh why does it feel like we are spitting in the wind and that our desperation for the least of these falls on deaf ears?" This was not a response to the Divine Mercy attendees because this group was committed to extending mercy. It instead was a general feeling of angst and frustration ...

I prayed and prayed and praised in the car. I imagined that the Lord Jesus was trying to pour out His Mercy on to us to extend to others but we were holding a fan out and the Holy water was not hitting us..I called out for us to be consumed in His mercy and prayed for us to understand HIS heart...I was frustrated....I said "Dear God, let your heart be our heart. Dear God let your call and desire be so thick on us that it becomes a part of our DNA. Let your heart be transplanted into ours..." Then something incredible happened..I saw two miracles within hours of my arrival home from the DIVINE MERCY conference. One was that MONROE had found a family and will not die in a crib in the Ukraine but instead will have a family, love, physical therapy, an education...( I told my kids that we can take his picture down from the refrigerator and we can choose another child to pray for while continuing to pray for a smooth adoption process for his family)..

Then Carol called. Carol is the pregnant woman who has been living with us for 3 months. I met Carol when she was 12 weeks pregnant and considering abortion. We committed to helping her keep the baby. At 1 am as I was still driving home...Carol called from the hospital to tell me she was in labor and that they would be inducing her to speed up the labor...I told her I would sleep for a few hours and then come to the hospital. I made it home, slept for 4 hours and then got up, showered, went to the wrong hospital first and then went to Carol's hospital at about 7:30..At 8:30 they discovered she was 8 cm...at 9 she was 9 cm...well at 10:14 with me holding her hand she delivered a gorgeous baby girl named Demetria Juliana ....Today i have been diapering a newborn that had a scheduled abortion months prior and I tended to a single mother..and on Tuesday we will have the baby in our guest room to stay with us until God moves them to another place..

Yesterday, I was frustrated about the coffee drinking deaf Christian's standing on the shore as 147 million orphans drown. Today I watched as two babies were pulled out from the undercurrent of near death experiences....I am reminded that I may not always see God's mercy acted out. But His droplets, message and Holiness is sticking and penetrating into the hearts of a few of those otherwise preoccupied children of God pouring water into coffee pots on the shore....And I know that MERCY is contagious...Monroe's story will inspire others to adopt children like Marat and Baxter, Carol's story hopefully will save one of the 4000 children drowning in the wake of abortion every day....And as painful as it is for those of us that are determined to activate the mercy message even when we perceive or sense that we are spitting in the wind...we have to believe that the waters of truth are somehow making it to the shores to interrupt and wake up those content to read their papers and sit on couches while the suffering drown...some of them do put their papers down and run into the ocean to save the one that they can reach....MAY GOD'S MERCY AND TRUTH CONVICT AND WARM THE SOULS OF HIS CHILDREN TO DIVE INTO THE WATERS AND MAY THE HOLY SPIRIT FIRE BURN THEM TO THE POINT WHERE A CUP OF COFFEE won't be what they live for anymore....

Do It Yourself Laundry Detergent

Okay i am so excited. I am going to share this recipe for home made laundry detergent which I believe originally came from the Duggars but I got it from my really good friend Carolyn Twietmeyer the wonderful mother of many amazing kids from birth and adoption....I have been noticing that detergent has been priced around 12-15 for a large bottle and because we go through so much I have
been opting for the extremely cheap laundry detergent but this is saving me tons of money. I think for the recipe below I probably spent 2-3 dollars......it will fill up 8 bottles ....



Ingredients:
4 cups hot tap water
1 Fels-Naptha soap bar ... See More
1 cup washing soda
½ cup Borax
Grate bar of soap and add to saucepan with water. Stir continually over medium-low heat until soap dissolves and is melted.
Fill a five-gallon bucket half full of hot tap water. Add melted soap, washing soda and Borax. Stir well until all powder is dissolved. Fill bucket to top with more hot water. Stir, cover and let sit overnight to thicken.
Stir and fill a used, clean, laundry soap dispenser half full with soap and then fill rest of way with water. Shake before each use. (It will gel.)
Optional: You can add 10-15 drops of essential oil per two gallons. Add once soap has cooled. Ideas: lavender, rosemary, tea tree oil.
Yield: Liquid soap recipe makes 10 gallons. Top-load machine: 5/8 cup per load (approximately 180 loads). Front-load machine: ¼ cup per load (approx. 640 loads).

Kids first trip to Cemetery!

I know this is sort of creepy...but the kids were so funny with their first visit to the cemetery. I love how kids can be so real even in otherwise somber places...