Humbled

Thank you for your prayers.....everyone is slowly getting better at our house and we are very thankful this morning!! It always amazes me how AWESOME it feels to be healthy after even a minor illness has ravaged through our body or of those we love! I am so thankful for all of our blessings-- for adequate housing, food, water and medicine to treat illnesses, for access to health care during an emergency, for sweet friends and neighbors who help out during the rough days, for my friends and family who have PRAYED for us, for my husband who is a superhero to me! I am soooo thankful.

In fact, this little bout of illness has made me think more and more about our mission to adopt and care for the orphans of the world! These are the thoughts that have been swarming my brain the last few days......Can you imagine living in a country with no access to a doctor and no money for medicine when your babies are sick? (the current doctor to patient ratio in Ethiopia is 1 doctor:24,000 sick people)Wow. Can you imagine not having clean water to hydrate their sick little bodies?? Can you imagine not having enough food to make it through the day and provide your babies with enough nutrients to have a healthy immune system? Can you imagine watching your sick child lay in filth and rags on a small dirt floor underneath a tin shanty shelter with no food/ water/ medicine to help them? Can you imagine knowing that your children have intestinal parasites, lice, and scabies but there is nothing you can do to fix it??

These things are NORMAL for millions of families in Ethiopia.

Ok-- now think of this--- CAN YOU IMAGINE BEING THAT SICK CHILD, ALL ALONE IN THE WORLD-- WITH NO MOM OR DAD TO COMFORT AND LOVE YOU WHILE YOU ARE SICK?

wow. This is a very humbling thought. There are 4.5 Million of these orphans in the country of Ethiopia. There are 147 million orphans worldwide.

I feel soooooo blessed that God has called our family to be the hands and feet of Jesus and welcome these children into our home to share God's provisions and His goodness with these orphans. I am so thankful for our blessings and that God would be willing to use us this way. I am so thankful that we experienced a rough sick week at our house and that during this time, God has given me a greater COMPASSION for the sick and lonely. I am praying that God opens doors and shows us how we can do even MORE, share MORE, love MORE.

Here are some more humbling statistics for you to ponder:
34% of Christian families CONSIDER adopting-- only 1% of Christian families ACTUALLY adopt.

If 1 in 5 Christian families adopted an orphan into their families--- there would be no orphans in our world.

My heart breaks for the orphan. My heart breaks for the families living in such poverty stricken countries. I am so broken and still God has blessed me so much. Please pray that God would also use you to serve the orphaned children in our world in some way! Walking in obedience to His words has changed my heart and grown my spriritual walk so much. I am so thankful and blessed beyond measure! It is a very Thankful Thursday!

Psalms 111:1-2 "Praise the Lord! I will thank the Lord with all my heart as I meet with his godly people. How amazing are the deeds of the Lord! All who delight in Him should ponder them!"

Colossians 2:7 "Let your roots grow deep down in to him and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let you lives overflow with thanksgiving for all He has done."

Blessings-
Amy