Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

Christmas, New Years, and 2013.

Hi everyone..

I missed the Christmas Post this year.  But I found this.  Even if a week late I think its perfect:

There was another little video that I manged to catch last year that goes with the first:

Very cute.  And beautiful.  I hope you all had a very good Christmas.


I might also miss my yearly New Years Eve post, I don't know yet.  But I will try.  If I do?  Have a Good New Year all year!  :) 

So ...2013?

This has been a quieter year for blogging for me.  But even though Looking at the big picture, I didn't really get alot done this year.  But looking back at all of it bit by bit -- its been a busy year.  I did more with it than I can see all at once.  I learned more about myself in this past year than I have in the 16 years leading up to this.  And it wasn't a big lesson either.  Just something I wasn't expecting that came as a surprise and helped me realise a few things.  This year was a year of changes. And it seems that no matter how old you get there is always hope and there is always always room to learn and there is always surpise.

Also this past year  I have managed to start and get 3/4ths the way through book I am writing and it seems I even might actually finish it this time.  Even if the new story isn't published by my birthday this coming April, I suspect a rough draft will at least be written and I will be working through revisions. So, its been a good year.  I hope you all had a good year too.  Happy New Year Everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving...

..to everyone.  I missed posting this on thanksgiving day by about 49 minutes.  ^_^ But hope that you had a good one anyway.  Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Birthday

Number 15.

Hope you had a good one.  Love, us.

Unborn Baby Girl with HLHS

Just this evening we got an e-mail from an adoption agency about a baby girl, still in the womb, who has a serious heart condition and who desperately needs our help. She is due to be born in February, and she has been diagnosed with HLHS. Her situation is critical right now, as she will likely be aborted in a matter of days if there the hope of finding an adoptive family doesn't materialize. I don't say this to pressure anyone to step forward as a potential adoptive family. The simple truth is that this is what this little girl is facing, and we do not want to see her suffer death at the hands of another because of her special need. Here is an excerpt of the e-mail that came to us tonight:

[The agency] has been contacted by a Caucasian married couple who is pregnant and carrying a female baby with HLHS due in February.
 

They have only a few days left to decide on an abortion. They feel if we can show them we have a good number of prospective adoptive families to choose from, they would make an adoption plan.

 

If you are interested in adopting this little girl, please write to hlhs_girl@theshepherdscrook.org. Again, please feel free to share this post with others and join us in praying for this precious little girl.

 

-Reposted from myreallifebyyvonne.blogspot.com

Brenton, and now NOAH..

Okay guys.. you all saw it.. the miracle that happened with Brenton in the post below.  He had untill the 7'th of October to have a family commit to him; and one did.  :)  Amazing, right?

 Want to see it happen again for a boy called Noah?  He wrote a letter talking about how he wants a family.  Click here to read it and to learn about him?  Lets get Noah a family!  Pass this on?  Shout about him.  Let people know he's out there.  Thanks everyone.

He Has A Family!

Yes!  He does!

The boy in the post below this one!  I saw Brenton Has a Family HERE just now!  You will have to scroll dowm a little but he is there.

Also a shout out to Julia Nalle who is a big advocate for him and special needs orphans. 

Miracles do happen.  Gotta believe first to see.  Thank you God.

Is This Your Son?

 http://reecesrainbow.org/64325/brenton

 He is about to turn 16.  Yes, the boy in the picture above.  The picture may be older.  There are others too where he looks pretty much the same.  But he's just a little boy.  He lives in an orphanage over-seas.  If he doesn't get a family by his 16 birthday -- he never will.  He will become unavailible for adoption and be sent to an institution.  Likely, he will stay the rest of his life tied to a wheelchair.  Did you read that -- the rest of his life.  He will likely have two diapers a day and be fed a runny broth three times a day if he is lucky.

Look up eastern european mental isntitute on youtube.... see where he will go and how he will live.  Yes, some of them are better than others. Not all are horrible. And even at the ones where things are tough more often than not, the staff does care.  But there just isn't enough to go around.  I am not trying to make people feel guilty, this is just what happens to most orphans over there.  I know everyone cant adopt. I can't. But maybe someone out there can get him or knows someone who can?  So I will keep asking --- Is he your son?  Is there a place at your table for him?  Can you pass word on?

He has only until the 7'th of October, 2013.  Then, he can't be adopted.

I've asked on here several times.   But I've been a rather quiet blogger this year and I don't believe I've posted a single orphan, which is the purpose of this blog.  So, today, I am shouting for Brenton.  Click the link under his picture for more info.

Thank you.

In the Name of Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByuyP1PNqKQ

Faith...

This Year I...

God Loves a Cheerful Giver - Part 4

"Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to."

- Deuteronomy 15:10

God Loves a Cheerful Giver - Part 3

Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.
-- Proverbs 3:27

God Loves a Cheerful Giver (part 2):

 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

- 2 Corinthians 9:7

God Loves a Cheerful Giver (part 1):

"Every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loves a cheerful giver."

--American King James Version

Happy Birthday!

The R Word Again

So a few minutes ago I read a news article about some parents whom found a picture of their son with Down Syndrome had been used by media in an 'offensive' way.  Apparently, their son had drawn a picture and was holding it up for the camera.  But apparently the image of what he had originally drawn had been altered to say the words "Retarded News".

How sad.  How low can someone get??

And the media station apparently went on to say that the segment "Retarded News" is designed to highlight odd stories and is not about disabled individuals.

At least all of that is what I understand.

Well, dear media station -- in my book, and probably the books of lots of people, you just added injury to insult.

From the News Article:

"Last summer, the group "Spread the Word to End the Word," which campaigns to end the use of the word "retard" to describe people with mental disabilities, contacted the radio station about the photo."

I thought it wasn't so much about stopping the use of the "R-Word" as a medical term as it was stopping the use of it as a derogatory insult instead?

Then we have the people who try and justify it, like it seems this media station did.  Or we have the people who try and justify it by saying things like, "I don't use it to describe disabled people - only (insert profession here)." 

That is not okay.

There is no justification for being rude, mean, and disrespectful.  And then we have people who say, "Oh come on, it's just a word."  And that is their justification for it.

But maybe these people know they are wrong and so they form excuses?  I don't know.  But I do know that more and more people each day understand this hurts.  This is not okay.  More and more people are stopping using this word as an insult.

To all of those, thank you.

Had to get this out here tonight everyone.  Talk to you soon.

Nine Years...

...I keep track.  My brain and my heart still cannot help it.  Nine years since my world changed forever.  Nine years since caught in a collapse that I had seen coming at the time, but denied, and with all my heart and body tried to hold back.

It was a moment that would change my life forever -- and these are not just words I type.  If what happened today nine years ago did not happen: my life would be drastically different now.

I did it wrong.  I know that now.

What you say -- does matter.

And I wonder even if I did it different if it would have made a difference somehow.  Or if, by the time this day came to pass nine years ago, it was far too late to stop it.

I was younger.  I was naive. But I still believe in the things I believed in back then.  The things I believed in were not the problem.  And I have difficulty feeling those things now.  But I am stronger now too. And will not give up on me.  I will not.  I will not give up on being happy. 

It is vague for you all and I am sorry. But this is a marker for me.  Getting it in physical lasting form that says I am still here.  I survived.  Its been nine years.

I read somewhere recently, actually on the blog of Angie Smith, something she wrote in a blog post:

The roots go deeper than you think
You only see part of the page
You are still a young tree

Effectively, that is what the words she wrote said.

They stunned me in that moment.  I needed to hear them.  To see them and read them.  They go up there to me with the 'No Truer Words' Catagory.  And this year... this year I needed to hear them.  And already I've been reflecting on them alot.

Would I change what happened then if I could?

I don't know.

I have learned so much through it.  Became a different person through it.  Met many other people because of it.  But I just don't know if I would change it.  Because I sometimes miss parts of the person I was then.

I survived.  I look back on it now and read the notebooks I kept back then, now.. and my heart just breaks for the girl whom I was when I wrote that at the time.  I remember her so vividly.  And all her pain.  It is raw and real there in those pages.

But she survived.  She didn't think she would.  Never doubt the power of prayer, family, and friends.

I don't really think everyone leaves an age behind them as the next birthday hits them.

Somewhere inside me, there is still a 15 year old that hurts and feels with 15 year old feelings.  There is still a 22 year old.  There is still a 27 year old... and so on.

And each of them make us who and what we are now.  That's what I think anyway. Who would have imagined then that I would come this far?

God bless, everyone.  Goodnight.

--Debrah
04.17.2018

Happy Easter

....Happy Easter everyone. 

As a kid, I knew what Easter was about.  My parents made sure to let us know the true meaning behind Holidays like this and at the same time made it possible for us to enjoy the fun things about being a kid ...the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and so on.  We knew.  And it made it that much better.  Though I admit going to church on Easter Sunday was the last thing I wanted to do back then.  I wanted my Easter egg hunt and candy - though I did love getting to wear a really pretty dress.

But these days, this Holiday is so much more.  Means so much more.  I am truly amazed by the sacrifice that was made on a hill for me, for me and everyone ever on Earth since, before and after.  It amazes me to think that maybe while it was being made, Jesus thought of me.  He knew how much I would sin in my life and how much I would be unable to master it on my own. And he loved me enough to die for me.  Just like he did for all of you.

How Amazing is that. How loving is that?  That kind of love is just.... wow.

I want to love like that too.

Happy Easter Everyone.

Love,
Debrah.

This Year I...

February...

So, here I was, worried about not posting anything in January, right??? Annnnddd... as of 12 tonight, February 2013 is already gone.  ^_^

Guess its shows its been a different month.  A rather distracting month out here.

So a few things, in light of missing out on an entire February...

To Dianne - Absolutely!  I would love it if you followed here.  ^_^  Sorry I have not been able to get back until now but I am still very much here.

About Liebster.. well.... I guess I missed out on that one.  To the person who nominated me, thank you so so much. I had every intention of a follow through and had even picked a few blogs and had written my own questions to ask up.  But the month did get a bit overwhelming...  however, I shall still at least post the answers to the ones you have asked.

Some families to pray for this month?

The Clancy Family, their little girl suffered a near-drowning and is now at home in a light coma.  I love them so much!

The Salem Family - are going through a rainy season right now.  I love them so much too.  Please pray for them as well.

Also, can you please help Team Iris!  They are trying to find a sweet little girl with HIV a home.  And she does seem so very sweet!  This same family has just adopted two children one whom is an older child and omg their story is so touching.  This same family is also advocating for another little girl called Kate whom another friend of mine is advocating for as well.  Is Iris yours?  Is Kate yours?  If not, do you know where their family is?  Can you advocate and pray for them?  Kate is in Russia, I believe.  And there is a recent ban on American adoptions there.  I have heard that it isn't effective for another year - but keep in mind I COULD BE WRONG about that.  So anyone thinking about Kate needs to make sure of these things.  Either way -- she still needs us to find her a family!  Canadians are welcome to adopt her I believe (check this too, to be sure).

So, thats all for now everyone.  Sorry about missing February, and will try to do better in March.

Have a good one!
--Debrah.

Liebster

..I'm onto it!  Thank you!  ^_^

On Giving - Part 1

2 Corinthians 9:7 

Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Absolutely, I will!

 Hi everyone,

I have been quiet this month.  I am trying to figure out how to type why.  I am guessing its because I just don't know how to say the things I want to say, because there are several topics I want to blog about.  And yet, only one entry until this point for January 2013.  I've thought about it for the past few days, that come December or so I would look back on my blog for the past year and notice how empty the month of January was.  Empty, because I am not sure how yet to put nicely the topics I am thinking on.  Empty, because alot of what I have to say I might be purely ignorant on.  And so, I might have inadvertently been avoiding blogging simply because I didn't know what to say.

So, why is all this relevant to the absolutely beautiful video posted above?

Because...

Despite all that, today I felt absolutely driven to log into my blog, to try and find a way to post something - to try and find a way to word something good.  But I didn't, despite feeling driven.  I still put it off.  I wrote on a story, worked on my digital modeler, took a nap this afternoon, made a few phone calls, paid a bill, fixed dinner and was contemplating a shower when, unavoidably, the urge was still there -- Go check your blog, it said to me.

Again, and again, and again...

And so, I decided to just sit down and do it.  To sign in.  To blog something...

To check the comments.

And there it was.  On a post I had written two years ago, the following comment was left:

"Would you please share this video!!We are going through the process of adopting our son Aiden and need people to spread this video to the masses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXo7VMc5Ex4"

And suddenly I knew why I felt so driven.  A comment was left for me, just that same day, maybe hours earlier. There was indeed something very good to post up.  (It is just after midnight as I write this,yes, so the dates will not match up.  But it was left on Jan 24, the same day I felt I had to sign in.)

Dear Sweet Family -- absolutely, I would. I will stick it in the sidebar of my blog even if I can - soon as I figure out how.  I am thankful for you tonight for reminding me of the good.  My prayers are with you all and with your sweet little son.

Please everyone, support this family, with prayer if not financial help.  And with the video they have provided a whole list of links to make that possible.  Visit the video on You Tube, and then click where it says "Show More" just under it.

Thank you so much everyone. 

Always,
Debrah.

January 5

So.. a new year.

I've been trying to write this blog for ..five days.  But couldn't really think of anything New Years to say.  So, maybe I'd try uplifting?

Already, I know that the beginning of 2013 is going to be difficult.  But I am determined to have a good year this year.  I am determined to remember the good times during the upcoming trials. 

And honestly, right now, a positive entry is difficult to write.

I don't really do resolutions, as in setting a big one each year.  It's just not my thing really.  I just try and make it a good year.  I do have hopes for 2013.. but those are for another post.  I do have several coming.  Just not sure where to start.  So, I thought wishing you all a happy 2013 and actuallly writing my first post of the year was a good place for it.

Best wishes for a good year to all of you,
Debrah.