"Let us not love with words or speech, but with actions and deeds." ~ 1 John 3:18

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

I Dreamed A Dream

I had the great opportunity to speak at a Women's Retreat over the weekend, the theme was I Dreamed A Dream. The Lord put a dream in my heart back in 1998 when I went on my first international mission trip to Honduras. It was there that I saw poverty like never before, and also where a woman asked me to take her baby. It wasn't because she didn't want her, but because she knew she couldn't provide for her needs. It was in that moment that I felt the Lord telling me," Kristy, this is what I want you to do with your life". I continued to go on missions trips, graduated college, got married, & had 2 beautiful boys.
In 2007, I once again felt the Lord leading me & our family to adopt a child from Ethiopia. We went thru the process & our adoption of our sweet daughter Layla, was final in July 2008. My husband & I thought we would just go to Ethiopia, get our daughter, love on kids, & bring her home. Little did we know that the Lord was about to turn our world upside down. We got there & saw poverty like we never had before. Young children living on the streets, begging for food, digging thru the trash for their next meal, raising their baby siblings, being abused, & dying with no one to hold them. I cried out to the Lord & said "where are you in all this?!" I felt Him saying to me, " I'm here & I want you to do something".
It is no accident that poverty is mentioned in scripture 2,100 times. It is our job as Christians to do something about it. There are 118 million people that go to church and 147 million orphans. If every church goer would do something to make a difference in the life of an orphan, what a huge difference that would make! In the past hour, 1,625 children were forced to live on the streets, 1,667 children under the age of 5 died of malnutrition and vaccine preventable diseases, 115 children became prostitutes, 257 children were orphaned by HIV. The statistics are staggering, and yet each one of these statistics are real people just like you and me, just like our sons and daughters; and they dream just like us.
In our case, our dreams inspired action. People supported our dreams, our families, friends, teachers, and communities. And we continue to dream, and if we are honest, many of these dreams may be of what we could have been, opportunities missed, time wasted, but we feel like it is too late and we must come to terms with what our life has become. I can tell you that it is not too late to dream! It is not too late to make a difference in the life of a child!
There are many people from all over the world, from all walks of life who have made it their dream to make other's dreams come true. Tenagne, an orphanage director who has given up her way of life to live with street kids that have HIV. She has sold everything, went without sleep and food, so she can help make children's dreams come true. A man who goes to the market dump every night and dig thru the trash so the children in his orphanage can eat, so they can dream. A 24 year old girl who gave up her comfortable, material life here in the states, to move to Uganda where she has now adopted 14 orphans, cares for the sick, and risks her life daily so these children can dream. A mother who risks her life every night on the most dangerous streets of Atlanta to save children forced into child sex trafficking from being raped 15-20 times a day so they can dream. Countless families who have taken in abused and neglected foster children knowing the behavioral issues, mental ilnesses, and hard times there family will face, so these children can dream.
It takes one person to make a difference in the life of a child. A year ago, I would have told you that everyone should adopt a child. Now my opinion on that has changed. While I do think that every family that is able and feels called should adopt (with realistic expectations & attachment training), I don't think that is the only answer. I've realized from talking with other families that not all are equipped to take on some of the challenges a third of adoptive families face, such as attachment and trauma issues. However, I do feel that we are all called to care for orphans and widows, and there are many ways to do that. Thru sponsorship, supporting a family that is adopting, supporting missionaries, providing support for a family that does have a child with attachment or trauma issues, volunteering at a children's home, and the list goes on and on. Each and every person can and should do something to make a difference in the life of a child. This too can be your dream, that no child will live on the streets, die alone, go without medical care or a family to love them. I pray that every child has a dream and that one day all their dreams will come true and that more people will step up to the plate and make it their dream as well.

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