Sponsorship Campaign Week 1: Naomi

As many of you know, I am a volunteer staff member at Sarah's Covenant Homes. I pay for my own rent, food, water, travel, etc. I do this because SCH runs completely off donations. We currently have about 140 special needs orphans in our care. Can you imagine that?? It costs a lot of money to keep this place running.

This is why we have a sponsorship program. When you commit to sponsoring a child at SCH, you are committing to provide them with a home, food, clean water, transportation, education, and quality care. Their sponsorship money goes towards paying the rent for their home, the cost of their food and water, the cost of their hygiene products, the salaries of their physical therapists, nurses, and ayahs. It also covers the cost of their education (mainstream or special ed schooling/private tutors).

Right now, Abby and I live in Ongole with our twelve girls. We honestly love Ongole and would live here forever if we could. But it is not the best place for our girls. There aren't any special education resources in Ongole, nor are there resources for speech therapy. Nearly all of our girls need some sort of special education ranging from programs for the blind to individualized education plans. Over half of our girls desperately need speech therapy. The good news is that SCH is in the process of moving all our kids to Hyderabad where these resources are readily available! 

The plan was for our girls to move sometime in mid-2015. Abby and I really feel that our girls need to move sooner than that. So we came up with a plan and proposed it to Sarah, our director. Sarah loved the idea and is in full support and agreement with it!

If we can get all twelve of our girls sponsored at $200 a month and $50 a month for education, than we can move to Hyderabad at the beginning of the new year! This will provide AMAZING opportunities for our girls that they really need. Abby and I are in Hyderabad right now for a few meetings and have been touring schools with special education programs in our down time. We are overcome with joy as we envision the futures our girls have here. 

So here goes! Our sponsorship campaign is kicking off with our Naomi babe! 

Naomi is officially documented as being nine years old, but we think she is probably around a year younger. She has Down's syndrome. Naomi is mostly non-verbal, but she communicates her wants and needs pretty clearly. Right now she is enrolled in mainstream school, but it isn't fitting her needs. Abby and I are probably going to pull her from school soon and begin homeschooling her until we move to Hyderabad. 

Naomi LOVES the beach. Swimming in the ocean is one of her absolute favorite things to do. This girl is a fish! She dives headfirst into the waves without any fear. The tides pull her under for a brief second as I hold her waist, praying she knows how to hold her breath. As her head pops out out of water, I am greeted with a cheesy grin and rolling laughter. 

At home Naomi is a fashionista. She loves dressing herself, picking out her shoes, and decorating her hair with every colorful clip or bow she can find! Naomi loves tucking her shirts in and wearing high-waisted pants. She is our little Indian hipster through and through. 

This girl brings us so much joy. Her smile is dazzling and her laugh is contagious. 

Naomi deserves the education and therapy resources she needs. Can you help her get there? Pray about becoming one of Naomi's monthly sponsors. She needs $150 a month in regular sponsorship. You can support her by giving either the full amount, $100 a month, $50 a month, or $40 a month. You can become one of her sponsors by clicking this link! 

Abby and I will continue to post blogs, videos, pictures, and updates about Naomi all this week. We are hoping and praying that by the end of this week Naomi will be fully sponsored!! If you commit to sponsoring her (or any of our kids) we want you to meet her! We will set up a Skype date for you to meet our Naomi babe as you begin this wonderful journey investing in her life. 

James 1:27 says "Religion that God the Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." 

God calls us to look after orphans. I know everyone isn't called to come and actually care for them day to day like I am. But He does call us all to care for these children in some way or another. Maybe He is calling you to come alongside these girls and support them financially. I encourage you to pray about sponsorship and where your role is in our girls' lives. Pray about sponsoring Naomi (or any of our 12)! These girls have so much love to give and so much potential. They need your help to really flourish and succeed!! 

The Lord makes beautiful things out of dust. He makes beautiful things out of our twelve girls. He makes beautiful things out of Naomi. 

Three Bundles of Joy

There has been so much going on since our six new girls moved in! Abby and I have been co-fostering for about two weeks now, but it feels like we've been doing this forever!

Abby and I designed family t-shirts and had them shipped to her in America before she left. Look how cute we all are! The shirts say "You are beautiful for you are fearfully and wonderfully made!"

Looking at this picture still puts me in shock. Do we really have twelve kids? Our family looks so huge and overwhelming in this picture, but that's not really how I feel in day to day life.

Yes, our day to day is absolutely crazy and beyond chaotic. But I don't feel overwhelmed. Honestly I don't even feel like twelve is too big a number. Abby and I like to joke about how insane we must be to have twelve children with special needs who don't fluently speak our language. But that's all it is, a joke.

Life with these twelve beautiful girls is wonderful. Never have I experienced so much joy in one place. These silly girls bring so much JOY and LIFE into our home. We've been up to a lot lately and each of our twelve have been absolutely thriving since we all moved in!

Heidi said her first word! The other night I was carrying her downstairs when she reached out and touched my face. As I turned to see her, she looked me right in the eyes and said "mama". I cried. I have been praying for my baby to start talking for over a year and she's finally there! I had a meeting with a speech therapist a couple weeks ago and now have a solid plan for her speech development. I can't wait to see my little girl become more verbal! Heidi is just the cutest now that she has one word down! She grabs Abby or I, making sure she has our full attention, before saying "mama" and pointing to whatever she wants or needs. We are so proud! I've honestly never loved someone as much as I love Heidi. I love all my girls equally, but Heidi just has this extra special place in my heart. I don't know if it is just because she is the first child at SCH that I fell in love with or what. But man do I love this bundle of joy. Heidi brings a smile to my face every single day. Even when she pees her pants for what seems to be the millionth time, I can't help but look at her and smile. She is radiant. Heidi really means the world to me. I can't imagine going a single day without her in my life.

Jackie makes me laugh on a daily basis. She is usually one of our first children to wake up in the morning and loves to get me out of bed! Most mornings I wake up to her gently kissing my cheek. I roll over and she giggles and says "I love you Carrie Mummy! Morning time!" Jackie amazes me with everything she can do at five years old despite her physical disability. Jackie only has one finger on the end of each of her hands and one toe on the outside of each of her feet. Despite not having fingers to grab or hold things, Jackie can do just about anything. She still eats with a spoon, colors and writes with crayons, opens doors and cabinets, and gets in to trouble when she unlocks the latch on our gate! It's impossible not to love Jackie because she charms everyone the second she meets them. Recently a volunteer named Kevin served at SCH. When he introduced himself to Jackie she misunderstood his name. She immediately screamed "SEVEN YOU ARE MY FRIEND!" to which she received lots of laughter. Over the course of the month he was here Jackie made sure that everyone called him Seven instead of his real name. Jackie is such a goof.

Rebekah is a hot mess. There is no better way to put it. And I love it because I am the biggest hot mess there ever was. The only word Rebekah can say completely clearly is "yeah" and she says it all the time! "Hey Rebekah how was school?" "Yeah." "Rebekah have you done your tuition?" "Yeah." "Rebekah it's dinner time!" "Yeah." "Rebekah are you ready for bed?" Silence. Bedtime has proved itself  to be the only time I don't hear her "yeah". She gets really frustrated when she can't communicate through speech. Soon Abby and I will start working with her on ways of nonverbal communication so Rebekah can better express herself. Rebekah makes me laugh daily as well. She loves to blabber on as if telling a story in gibberish. The other night I read Rebekah a bedtime story. I read the book "David Goes to School". The little boy in the book is very animated and was probably intended to look a little silly. But that's not what Rebekah saw. She saw a character in a book who looked like her. She was SO excited to see his picture. Bouncing up and down in bed, she pointed to the picture of the boy then back to herself as if to say "He looks like me! He looks like me!" She pointed to his teeth then grabbed her own. She pointed to his eyes then covered hers laughing. I fought back tears as I saw the joy on my little girl's face. She finally found something that made her feel normal. Rebekah has Apert's Syndrome which causes her to look quite a bit different than other kids. I never realized that Rebekah might be self conscious about the way she looks. Seeing the joy on her face when a character from a book made her feel normal was breathtaking. Rebekah is beautiful.

Over the next few days I will be posting updates like this about each of our twelve! SCH is run completely off donations, and we have a sponsorship program to fund our children's living expenses and school fees. Abby and I really want to see all 12 of our girls become fully sponsored before the end of the year. The good news is that we are already a fourth of the way there! Heidi, Jackie, and Rebekah (along with Angel) are all fully sponsored.

An SCH child sponsorship is $200 a month in full. It covers the rent and utilities for the child's apartment, all their food and water, medicine, routine medical checkups, and transportation. It also helps cover the salary of employees who work with them directly (nurses, ayahs, physical therapists, etc).

Our girls also have separate school sponsorships to cover the cost of their tuition. Eleven of our girls attend mainstream private schools (free education isn't really a thing here). Paula is currently homeschooled, but still has an education sponsorship to cover the cost of her school materials and private tutor. School sponsorships are $50 a month.

I know that it A LOT of money. I could never afford to pay a full sponsorship each month! Luckily you can sponsor our kids in partial sponsorships. Abby and I both sponsor a couple of our girls at $40 a month. You can see our kids' sponsorship pages by clicking their picture on the right side of my blog or you can click here to see a list of all the children in need of sponsorship.

Here we stand, our hearts are Yours. Not our will but Yours be done. Join me in praying this for our 12 girls!

Adoption: Part 1

Meet Heidi. This little 4 1/2 year old has an unbreakable hold on my heart. She is the sassiest, most joyful, moodiest, cutest, giggly cuddle bug on the face of the earth. This girl has more attitude than all of our SCH teenagers put together. She is a pro at the stank face, and her favorite activity is wagging her finger in her sister's face. Heidi giggles nearly every time I pick her up, and she loves one on one time. Heidi tries to braid my hair every afternoon after her bath time. She laughs every time as she ends up laying in my lap after a failed hairstyle. My love for Heidi is so much greater than any love I have ever had for another person. The love I have for all my girls is like that, but Heidi holds a special place in my heart.

I remember the first moment I met Heidi. Last summer, my team and I were gearing up for our first day of preschool English camp when the SCH car arrived full of kids. Hannah, one of our older school girls, helped the little ones out on to the sidewalk. Then she turned and placed Heidi in my arms. Heidi was SO tiny. I remember her wrapping her arms around my neck and resting her head on my shoulder. I was immediately overwhelmed with a huge love for this girl.

Last summer, she was like a tiny little noodle who folded into my arms. It took me two days to get her to sit facing away from me and participate with the other kids. At first I thought she might be shy or afraid of others. I was shocked to find at the end of our second day when I put her into the SCH car to go home, Heidi climbed into her seat, wagging her finger at the other kids and ordered them to move over. This little girl had some attitude!

The more I got to know her last summer, the more I fell in love. Heidi was perfect. She has Down Syndrome and she didn't talk, but that didn't make her any less of a person. I knew that God made her fearfully and wonderfully. And I knew that God made me knowing that I would one day enter into this girl's life.

After I left India last summer, I missed Heidi every single day. For months I would stalk SCH foster moms and volunteers on Facebook looking for new pictures of Heidi and updates on my baby girl.

When I felt God calling me back to foster, it was obvious that I was supposed to go to her home. My heart longed to be back in India loving her and my other girls. God placed this bond on my heart, linking me to Heidi. There wasn't a day that went by where my thoughts weren't consumed with the memories I had of this sweet little girl.

In March we discovered Heidi's tonsils and adenoids were swollen and blocking more than 75% of her airway. She quickly had a surgery scheduled to remove her tonsils and adenoids. Her old foster mom sent me a message detailing everything, and my heart broke. I knew this wasn't a major surgery. Kids have their tonsils out all the time. But Heidi was in Hyderabad for the surgery and her old foster mom wasn't. She was back in Ongole with the other girls. The thought of Heidi going through this without a mom sickened me. I wanted so badly to hop on a plane the very next day and be there with her. I wanted to carry her into the hospital, and lay her down in the bed. I wanted to hold her hand as they gave her the anesthesia, and be by her side as she drifted off to sleep. I wanted my face to be the first thing she saw when she woke up from the surgery. I wanted her to know I loved her and be comforted that her mom wasn't putting her through this alone.

I also knew these weren't exactly realistic expectations. If I really had hopped on a plane and shown up the day before her surgery, I would have been a stranger. Even worse, I would have been a very white stranger who didn't fit in at all. Heidi probably wouldn't have recognized me and my presence wouldn't have helped things much. If Heidi needed a surgery like this now, things would be be different. I would be a huge comfort to her. But I'm still not everything she needs.

Heidi needs a real mom.

She needs a real mom and a real dad. Heidi needs a family. While our little family is great, living at SCH is not the best thing for her. She is still an orphan here. Over time, some of her foster sisters will probably be adopted. She might receive new foster sisters, and maybe new foster parents. A time will come when I have to leave SCH. As much as it breaks my heart to think about it, I know it is true. I love my girls and I love being their mom. But I am like a band-aid covering their wounds of abandonment. I stop the bleeding and help wipe away the tears, but I don't heal the wound. I am not Heidi's forever mommy. 

I love Heidi and I am dead serious when I say that if Heidi is still here in five years, I WILL adopt her. But I hope and pray every single day that is not the case. She doesn't need to spend five more years here waiting for me to become eligible to pursue her. She needs a family NOW. Heidi needs loving parents who choose to fight for her and walk alongside her forever. She needs parents who love her unconditionally and who choose to lay down their lives for their beautiful daughter. She needs a forever family.

 

Every night long after my girls fall asleep, I go and check on each one of them. As I watch all six sleep soundly, I pray that their forever families are out there. If I could adopt all six of my girls right now I would. I honestly really would adopt all six of them in a heartbeat. But that isn't possible. I know the Lord has great plans for my girls, and I dearly hope His plans involve six forever families. 

I hold Heidi and wonder how I will ever be able to let her go. With a smile, I imagine one day handing her over to her parents. I imagine completely letting go of my baby girl and giving her to something so much better. I hope and pray Heidi's family is out there fighting for her, pursuing her, and praying for her every day. She has so much love to give and so much love she needs to receive.

I can't think of a better way I could love her than surrendering her completely to the Lord and trusting that He has a family out there for her. If it is the Lord's plan for me to one day become her real mom, than I pray he keeps her safe until that day. But I really hope He has different plans. I hope she is long gone and home with her family by the time I turn 25. 

Join me in praying for Heidi and all my other girls. They need families. Pray that the adoption process speeds up, and that all our kids at SCH make it home soon. They need mommies and daddies who will be with them forever. 

I post this verse a lot, but God really lays it on my heart every time I think about adoption. Jesus says in John 14:18 "I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you." I know that wherever my girls end up, they are not orphans of God. He is their Heavenly Father and will never abandon them. They are His. 

To Be Loved Is To Be Known: Naomi

Life in India is good. Really, really crazy but good. I've been with my girls for over a week now. It has been one of the hardest weeks of my life, but also one of the greatest. Adjusting to the culture here is hard. I live in a small town (on India standards - it feels fairly large to me) in Southern India where the culture is very conservative and traditional. I've been learning a lot about how to live here and assimilate.

For instance, I already knew women had to wear pants every day, but I learned a few days ago that if your pants have drawstrings that are hanging down or visible, it is extremely immodest. Who knew? The past week has been filled with learning and adjusting to this radically different culture. And I am sure that will continue the entire time I am here. :)

I've been learning a lot about my girls this week as well. I've really just been trying to spend time with them and get to know their personalities, wants, needs, what upsets them, what makes them giggle, anything and everything. I've also just spent a great deal of time cuddling with them, giving them lots and lots of kisses, and just loving on them.

And so in this blog post I wanted to introduce you to my biggest cuddle bug and the girl who has really stolen my heart this past week, Naomi.

Out of the six I met last summer, I knew Naomi the least. I just had a really hard time connecting with her last summer. But oh how I love her. Naomi brings so much silliness and laughter into my life. Every day as she gets home from school, she is the first one up the stairs and in our apartment. As she walks in I great her with a "Heyyy Naomi! School good, ah?" To which she responds with the biggest grin and an Indian head bobble (meaning yes). Then she runs into my open arms and gives me the biggest hug! We sit there cuddling for a minute as her younger sisters make it up the stairs and inside. 

Naomi doesn't speak any English, but she has her own way of communicating. She has a different face that she makes for several emotions. My favorite is when she thinks something is weird or funny. She'll point with her whole hand to whatever she finds unusual and make these big wide puppy dog eyes with her lips pursed. Sometimes if she thinks something is really funny, she'll add a couple eyebrow raises in there. That one never fails to get me laughing. 

Naomi is alert and very aware of her surroundings. She makes sure I don't miss out on anything that is going on. She'll run up to me, tap me on the arm, and motion to whatever is going on. If she thinks something is particularly interesting, she will continue to grab my attention and make sure I am just as intrigued as she is. 

This girl has become my shadow and honestly, I love it. Anytime I stand up to walk from one room to the next, Naomi hops up and accompanies me. She hugs on my arm and just giggles as I do whatever needs to be done. 

Naomi loves the last hour before bedtime more than anything else. During that time the girls and I just sit around the living room or on the porch and cuddle. I usually turn on some music as we just relax and unwind. Naomi is always in my lap or leaning on my side. She always has this huge smile on her face. Sometimes she is quiet and sometimes she is babbling away. I don't understand what she is saying as it is all in Telugu and I think a lot of it is unintelligible Telugu anyway. But in a way, I do know. She is happy. Naomi has someone here who loves her unconditionally and she loves me back. She is excited she has a mama to cuddle with and to talk to. Naomi loves being loved. 

There is a poem some of my friends used to love and recite. The main line in the poem says this:

"For to be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known."

Naomi just needed to be known. The deepest, most inward parts of her desire to be known. For to be known is to be loved. And if she is loved, then she is known. 

I love Naomi more than I can say. She is my cuddle bug and my silly girl. She is known by me. She is loved by me. But only because the Father first loved me. She is known by our Father and He loves her. He loves her so, so very much.

I know the Lord has great plans for Naomi. I know He will be with her, loving her and knowing her no matter where she goes. She needs a family. There isn't one pursuing her right now and she desperately needs a forever family who will love her unconditionally. Pray for my sweet Naomi. If you have ever considered adopting, consider pursuing her. Pass her story onto friends and family. Make this girl known. Let the world know of her and love her. 

I pray that her forever family is out there and that they see this post. Naomi has so much love to give. All she wants is to be loved in return. 

If you want to join in on knowing her and loving her right now, you (or you and a group) can sponsor her. Our kids are sponsored at $200 a month to cover the cost of their food, clothing, rent, water, utilities, everything. Since Naomi goes to school, she also has a $50 a month school sponsorship which covers all of her school fees, books, supplies, transportation, and uniform. 

You can sponsor Naomi by clicking this link and following the steps outlined for you. You can choose to complete her sponsorship in full, in half ($100), or partially ($40). You and your family, Sunday school class, coworkers, friends, or whoever could go in together to get my girl sponsored. 

To be known is to be loved, and to be loved is to be known. I love you sweet Naomi.