A Birthday Letter for an ‘Invalid’ Orphan (for Baby Z)

A Birthday Letter for an ‘Invalid’ Orphan (for Baby Z)  by Deanna Jones

On the day you were born the Heavens celebrated and the angels danced. They all sang a song of gratitude to the One who created you perfectly in His image. When you were born the Lord Himself kissed you and promised you that He would never forget you.  On earth, the doctors called you flawed, imperfect, stained.  The very mother who bore you abandoned you…imperfect in her eyes because the broken world didn’t know what perfection looked like…an orphan now…you were alone.  

The Lord promised He would not forget you.  Each day He sent angels to watch over you.   Every year the Heaven’s continued to celebrate another year in your life even though you couldn’t hear them. Looking at you through the eyes of Jesus’ angels all they could see was the handiwork of a perfect God who makes no mistakes.  Still, the world you lived in labeled you, stamped your papers and proclaimed you INVALID.  God makes no mistakes.

We are all stained, we are all imperfect and many of us have been given that same label..’invalid’. But Jesus tells the world that we are valued, significant, cherished enough to move mountains for, to sacrifice for, to pay the ransom for, to be persecuted for…all of us are VALID….

Today you are five. And although there may be no songs that you can hear on earth singing a happy song or feeding you chocolate cake and ice cream…someone across the planet is praying, remembering you, interceding for you, all because Jesus has not forgotten you. He has planted the Spirit of Adoption into the heart of a family (a mother, a father, sisters and brothers) very far away but very near to you today.  The Angels are still singing about your perfection but now someone here is listening and moving by the power of the Holy Spirit to move mountains on your behalf and bring you into the life that God has designed for you. The Angels are celebrating the family too that is strong enough, brave enough, faithful enough to bring LIFE to you in the name of Jesus.  He wants you to know today that you are not forgotten, that you are chosen, that you are wanted, claimed and worth paying the ransom for.  Wait little orphan! Hang on …claim that you are valid and that a beautiful tomorrow is waiting and that next year’s birthday will be AWESOME!!!!

©DJO Productions, Inc by Deanna Jones 2/26/11 http://www.mothertheworld.org Any reprints on social media must include this copyright line. All other reprints in publications please contact djoprods@me.com

#prolife 40 Days for Life 2011 "Youth Speak Out" Chapel Hill

Video Testimony of Mother to HIV+ Child

This video is of my friend Traci. I had the pleasure of taping her during a recent Chicago meeting we had with Project Hopeful. She is the mother of 6 children (all adopted). Her youngest is Dasha from Ukraine. Dasha is HIV+. Traci is fast becoming one of my best friends. She is extremely bright, funny and easygoing. I love this woman. THere were two points that really drove home to me when listening to her.

One was when she mentions that being a mother is less about fulfilling our needs but loving because these children need us. It seems like a given, but truly if we consider how and why we love, it is often because we are trying to fulfill a need within ourselves. That need could be security,confidence, control or our own personal NEED to be a mother. If we really think about it LOVE is something that we should express toward out children in spite of getting nothing...even the possibility of a lack of love back from love. We love because they need us to love them and when we do it is a gift God has given us...Traci says about her kids "they don't have to love me. If they do it is a gift. But I love them..." Important point to remember when considering adoption. Do we adopt because we expect love back. Do we adopt because we expect appreciation from the child? Or do we love in spite of getting nothing back?

The other thing that I loved about what Traci said is regarding HOPE. And this could be applied to TRUTH, JOY, PEACE or anything feeling or promise that others need to survive. We oftentimes think of 'hope' as something elusive or out there somewhere in an intangible spot. The fact is that we are called to 'bring' hope to people by being the hands and feet of Jesus and 'bringing the hope' to them. When we advocate for them we are 'bringing the hope.' When we sit around thinking the hope will come from some other resource than ourselves than we are deciding not to participate in the Great Commission to bring Truth to others. .....We are blessed to be able to serve. We can choose to let someone else bring the hope...or have a person die without hope..or we can 'bring the hope'...to someone in need. Traci and her husband Scott have brought the hope to six children...one with HIV who could have died without her intervention. So we bring on the HOPE whenever we can everytime we say "Yes Lord..I am going..to be obedient and serve your children.." Traci's personal blog is LET IT BE TO ME...