What is the Unity Fund, you ask? It is Love Without Boundaries new medical fund for impoverished families in China who cannot afford the life-saving medical procedures that their children need, in the hopes of keeping their families UNITED (hence the name) and actually preventing orphaned children. Yes, it is a big dream, but if we help even one more child stay with their family, that is beyond happiness for us. We are often approached by rural families who are desperate to help their children but who believe their only chance of healing them is to leave their child at an orphanage. We want to have a separate fund that we can use to bring HOPE to their lives, so that we can tell them immediately, “We know you love her, and yes we can help.”
To celebrate the kick-off of this fund, LWB is having a contest and offering some really nice prizes:) Check out http://lwbchinablog.blogspot.com/ and the post dated July 28 for details. The contest runs through Aug 15, so enter today and consider donating to this worthy cause! Help families in China stay together by giving lifesaving, life changing medical care to these precious children when parents can't afford it.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
EARTHQUAKE in China :*(
All we can do is pray. God knows about each one, whether hurt or already perished
:*(
Something I heard on a Christian tv show once has really stuck with me..."God must love the Chinese people an awful lot since he made more of them than anyone else on earth." Makes me want to return there someday and really minister to the people in that dark part of the world. I am SURE that I WILL do this one day...perhaps with Luke by my side. My soul was at such peace when we were there for Luke...like I had returned to a place I was meant to be, and part of my heart will ALWAYS remain there, in the land of my oldest son's birth.
Luke is from Nanning, in the Province of Guangxi. It is a bit south and east of Sichuan and Chongqing, the earthquake zone. This is in the southwest part of China.
If you are looking for a way to help the people located in the earthquake area, I can highly recommend the very reputable organization called Half The Sky. Here is a paste of a message that went out to Friends of Half the Sky (and I borrowed from another adoptvive mom's blog, hollysdaze.blogspot.com, THANKS Holly!)
-------------------------
Hello again,
During the past several hours Half the Sky has been working hard to get more information about the children impacted by the Sichuan and Chongqing earthquake. We know that it is not only children in welfare institutions who are in trouble. We know that hundreds of children have been separated from their families, have lost their parents, are hurt, traumatized and in pain. We know we must help; we have been working to figure how best to do so.
We have just a little bit of news. There have been hundreds of aftershocks, one reported to be as strong as 6.0. Children have again been evacuated from the Chengdu institution. Relief workers have arrived in the epicenter, Wenchuan. The Ministry of Civil Affairs (this is the ministry that HTS works with and also the agency responsible for disaster
relief) has been unable to reach orphanages in the most affected areas:
Mianyang, Zitong, Deyang and Aba. There are other welfare institutions in the affected areas but no others that house children. Each of the four institutions above houses about 100 children. We believe they will need help. We will continue to watch and wait.
Many of you have asked us to set up an emergency relief fund, like we did during the winter storms. Given the nature of this disaster and the fact that help for children may well be needed outside welfare institutions (where we have a direct line) we have waited to set up such a fund until we had absolute assurance that we could put a system in place to deliver the aid where it is most desperately needed.
Half the Sky takes the designation of a donor-restricted gift seriously – that’s our promise to you. We understand that when you make an emergency donation, you put your trust in us. We have spoken very carefully about this with our colleagues at the Ministry of Civil Affairs. We now have their promise as well.
In cooperation with the ministry, we have now set up the Half the Sky Children’s Earthquake Fund. Your donations to the fund will be used to provide emergency and long-term relief to children affected by the disaster. Relief will include emergency shelter, food, and medical care for children orphaned or separated from their families. It will include temporary or long-term foster care or, when necessary, temporary institutional care.
We have a commitment from the ministry that we will receive regular updates on the use of funds and, most important, the well-being of the children.
Within a few hours we will have available a dedicated donation site. In the meantime, if you wish to make a gift to aid children in Sichuan and Chongqing affected by the quake, you may donate through our website, http://www.blogger.com/www.halfthesky.org. Please note that your gift is for earthquake relief.
I will give you more information as I receive it. Please don’t write to ask about the situation in specific locations. I will tell you everything I know.
Thank you for caring so much about the children.
with love,
Jenny
Jenny Bowen
Executive Director
Half the Sky Foundation
http://www.blogger.com/www.halfthesky.org
Half the Sky was created in order to enrich the lives and enhance the prospects for orphaned children in China. We establish and operate infant nurture and preschool programs, provide personalized learning for older children and establish loving permanent family care and guidance for children with disabilities. It is our goal to ensure that every orphaned child has a caring adult in her life and a chance at a bright future.
Want to receive our free Half the Sky newsletter, full of stories and photos, via regular mail? Just go to our website http://www.blogger.com/www.halfthesky.org and click on "Join our Mailing List."
:*(
Something I heard on a Christian tv show once has really stuck with me..."God must love the Chinese people an awful lot since he made more of them than anyone else on earth." Makes me want to return there someday and really minister to the people in that dark part of the world. I am SURE that I WILL do this one day...perhaps with Luke by my side. My soul was at such peace when we were there for Luke...like I had returned to a place I was meant to be, and part of my heart will ALWAYS remain there, in the land of my oldest son's birth.
Luke is from Nanning, in the Province of Guangxi. It is a bit south and east of Sichuan and Chongqing, the earthquake zone. This is in the southwest part of China.
If you are looking for a way to help the people located in the earthquake area, I can highly recommend the very reputable organization called Half The Sky. Here is a paste of a message that went out to Friends of Half the Sky (and I borrowed from another adoptvive mom's blog, hollysdaze.blogspot.com, THANKS Holly!)
-------------------------
Hello again,
During the past several hours Half the Sky has been working hard to get more information about the children impacted by the Sichuan and Chongqing earthquake. We know that it is not only children in welfare institutions who are in trouble. We know that hundreds of children have been separated from their families, have lost their parents, are hurt, traumatized and in pain. We know we must help; we have been working to figure how best to do so.
We have just a little bit of news. There have been hundreds of aftershocks, one reported to be as strong as 6.0. Children have again been evacuated from the Chengdu institution. Relief workers have arrived in the epicenter, Wenchuan. The Ministry of Civil Affairs (this is the ministry that HTS works with and also the agency responsible for disaster
relief) has been unable to reach orphanages in the most affected areas:
Mianyang, Zitong, Deyang and Aba. There are other welfare institutions in the affected areas but no others that house children. Each of the four institutions above houses about 100 children. We believe they will need help. We will continue to watch and wait.
Many of you have asked us to set up an emergency relief fund, like we did during the winter storms. Given the nature of this disaster and the fact that help for children may well be needed outside welfare institutions (where we have a direct line) we have waited to set up such a fund until we had absolute assurance that we could put a system in place to deliver the aid where it is most desperately needed.
Half the Sky takes the designation of a donor-restricted gift seriously – that’s our promise to you. We understand that when you make an emergency donation, you put your trust in us. We have spoken very carefully about this with our colleagues at the Ministry of Civil Affairs. We now have their promise as well.
In cooperation with the ministry, we have now set up the Half the Sky Children’s Earthquake Fund. Your donations to the fund will be used to provide emergency and long-term relief to children affected by the disaster. Relief will include emergency shelter, food, and medical care for children orphaned or separated from their families. It will include temporary or long-term foster care or, when necessary, temporary institutional care.
We have a commitment from the ministry that we will receive regular updates on the use of funds and, most important, the well-being of the children.
Within a few hours we will have available a dedicated donation site. In the meantime, if you wish to make a gift to aid children in Sichuan and Chongqing affected by the quake, you may donate through our website, http://www.blogger.com/www.halfthesky.org. Please note that your gift is for earthquake relief.
I will give you more information as I receive it. Please don’t write to ask about the situation in specific locations. I will tell you everything I know.
Thank you for caring so much about the children.
with love,
Jenny
Jenny Bowen
Executive Director
Half the Sky Foundation
http://www.blogger.com/www.halfthesky.org
Half the Sky was created in order to enrich the lives and enhance the prospects for orphaned children in China. We establish and operate infant nurture and preschool programs, provide personalized learning for older children and establish loving permanent family care and guidance for children with disabilities. It is our goal to ensure that every orphaned child has a caring adult in her life and a chance at a bright future.
Want to receive our free Half the Sky newsletter, full of stories and photos, via regular mail? Just go to our website http://www.blogger.com/www.halfthesky.org and click on "Join our Mailing List."
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Saved from harm by a tree :)
Earlier this week, my mother-in-law related a hair-raising story to her children. She had been at her cabin in Estes Park, in our beautiful, close enough to visit often, THANK YOU LORD, Rocky Mountains. She was with a friend and offered to drive home when he said he was too tired. Long story short, as often happens in the springtime here, it was snowing when they started home. She encountered a slick patch at a bend in the road and felt the car sliding out of her control. I'll let you all know that they are FINE before I say the car began spinning and wound up precariously off the road, saved from rolling down a ravine by a TREE! Mum and her family has said many prayers of THANKS over the past few days for God's wonderful care in placing that tree in just the right spot to stop a car. She said just a few inches to the left or right and the trees were too small to do the job.
Relating this story makes me think of another one from my childhood when I was also saved by a TREE! It was fall and we had gone to the mountains to see the aspens changing color in all their golden glory. My dad had a jeep and we had gone "off roading" to get a better view. My folks left me alone in the vehicle (I wasn't a baby, I was old enough to listen to and obey their orders to "sit still, don't touch a thing")just long enough for me to get into trouble. They were always in view and assured me they'd be right back. They were close by, but not close enough to prevent the thing that almost gave them heart failure. I figured out how to release the emergency brake and the jeep began rolling forward They saw this out of the corner of their eye and Mom says she's never seen Dad move that fast before or since! He wasn't able to stop the jeep, but he didn't need to. Before he got there, a tree in just the right spot had done it for him!
All this got me to thinking this morning about how as Christians believing in the saving power of Jesus Christ, we have all been SAVED BY A TREE...a tree that was formed into the cross on which God's only Son died for our sins, so that we can LIVE a life with Him on earth and for eternity in heaven. Pretty profound when you think about it, don't you agree?
Relating this story makes me think of another one from my childhood when I was also saved by a TREE! It was fall and we had gone to the mountains to see the aspens changing color in all their golden glory. My dad had a jeep and we had gone "off roading" to get a better view. My folks left me alone in the vehicle (I wasn't a baby, I was old enough to listen to and obey their orders to "sit still, don't touch a thing")just long enough for me to get into trouble. They were always in view and assured me they'd be right back. They were close by, but not close enough to prevent the thing that almost gave them heart failure. I figured out how to release the emergency brake and the jeep began rolling forward They saw this out of the corner of their eye and Mom says she's never seen Dad move that fast before or since! He wasn't able to stop the jeep, but he didn't need to. Before he got there, a tree in just the right spot had done it for him!
All this got me to thinking this morning about how as Christians believing in the saving power of Jesus Christ, we have all been SAVED BY A TREE...a tree that was formed into the cross on which God's only Son died for our sins, so that we can LIVE a life with Him on earth and for eternity in heaven. Pretty profound when you think about it, don't you agree?
Monday, March 10, 2008
Recipe Swap...
There was a recipe swap at Lysa Terkeurst's blog a few days ago. Go here http://lysaterkeurst.blogspot.com/2008/03/hi-ho-hi-ho-its-off-to-cook-we-go.html if you're interested in finding some more GREAT recipes. Here's my contribution. It is YUMMY :)
Hammed Up Potato Cheese Soup
1 stick butter
1 medium onion, chopped
3-4 stalks celery, chopped
baby carrots, roasted, and sliced (I used one small bag)
(place on cookie sheet with a small amount of cooking oil and salt, cook at 350 about 10 minutes. Cool before slicing. Roasting brings out the natural sweetness and boy are they GOOD)
5-6 Yukon Gold potatoes, boiled with skins on, then cooled, skinned and chopped up
4 cans chicken broth
1/2 a large package velveeta cheese, diced (don't know measurement)
3 (5oz) cans hormel ham, can be drained or not, flaked
1 C. half and half
Cook potatoes about 25 minutes until almost tender. Cool, then remove skins and chop up into bite sized pieces.
Roast carrots, cool and slice.
Place butter in LARGE pot, saute onions and celery until slightly soft.
Add chicken broth, cheese, chopped potatoes, carrots, ham, and half and half.
Heat at medium to low temp to avoid sticking until hot through. This makes a HUGE pot. I don't have a "soup" pot and had to move some to a smaller pan when all ingredients were combined.
ENJOY :)
Hammed Up Potato Cheese Soup
1 stick butter
1 medium onion, chopped
3-4 stalks celery, chopped
baby carrots, roasted, and sliced (I used one small bag)
(place on cookie sheet with a small amount of cooking oil and salt, cook at 350 about 10 minutes. Cool before slicing. Roasting brings out the natural sweetness and boy are they GOOD)
5-6 Yukon Gold potatoes, boiled with skins on, then cooled, skinned and chopped up
4 cans chicken broth
1/2 a large package velveeta cheese, diced (don't know measurement)
3 (5oz) cans hormel ham, can be drained or not, flaked
1 C. half and half
Cook potatoes about 25 minutes until almost tender. Cool, then remove skins and chop up into bite sized pieces.
Roast carrots, cool and slice.
Place butter in LARGE pot, saute onions and celery until slightly soft.
Add chicken broth, cheese, chopped potatoes, carrots, ham, and half and half.
Heat at medium to low temp to avoid sticking until hot through. This makes a HUGE pot. I don't have a "soup" pot and had to move some to a smaller pan when all ingredients were combined.
ENJOY :)
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Sponsor a Child...Change their Life...and Yours!
I decided to join the other bloggers sharing their "Compassion" stories. Hopefully it will encourage someone out there to change a child's life...and their own...by the gift of sponsorship with just $32 a month. This gift may seem "small" in our well-off world where we often spend more on things most people in other parts of the world would consider pure luxuries. This "small" gift sent to a child's homeland through Compassion helps provide schooling, opportunities to learn about Jesus, food and medical care. It lets a child know there is hope for a better life, that someone outside their world CARES about them. It teaches them that GOD CARES about them. Visit http://www.shaungroves.com/shlog/comments/stories_of_compassion_international_its_your_turn
to read Compassion stories other bloggers have shared and SHARE YOUR OWN. If you haven't already, let them INSPIRE you to share some of your blessings with a child that has so little!
We sponsor a girl in Colombia named Daniela, have since she was 3. She'll be 11 in June. We were given the chance to sponsor her after the young man that Rob had sponsored for a long time aged out of the program. It's wonderful to get her letters and pictures...she loves to draw. It's especially nice now that she can write them herself. For a long time someone in the project wrote them for her.
Go to http://www.compassion.com/ today and change a child's life...and yours! You'll be glad you did, and you won't miss that $1 a day, but it will mean SO much to the child you sponsor!
WOW! Visit this post on Shaun Groves blog to SEE how Compassion changed the life of a young woman named Prossy. Her future children won't need their services. http://www.shaungroves.com/shlog/comments/compassion_international_uganda_christines_answer_meet_prossy/
Sponsorship really DOES change the life of a child :) Now AND for future generations!
to read Compassion stories other bloggers have shared and SHARE YOUR OWN. If you haven't already, let them INSPIRE you to share some of your blessings with a child that has so little!
We sponsor a girl in Colombia named Daniela, have since she was 3. She'll be 11 in June. We were given the chance to sponsor her after the young man that Rob had sponsored for a long time aged out of the program. It's wonderful to get her letters and pictures...she loves to draw. It's especially nice now that she can write them herself. For a long time someone in the project wrote them for her.
Go to http://www.compassion.com/ today and change a child's life...and yours! You'll be glad you did, and you won't miss that $1 a day, but it will mean SO much to the child you sponsor!
WOW! Visit this post on Shaun Groves blog to SEE how Compassion changed the life of a young woman named Prossy. Her future children won't need their services. http://www.shaungroves.com/shlog/comments/compassion_international_uganda_christines_answer_meet_prossy/
Sponsorship really DOES change the life of a child :) Now AND for future generations!
Sunday, February 10, 2008
A House is a House is a House...
A house is a house is a house - - until love comes through the door, that is.
And love intuitively goes around sprinkling that special brand of angel dust that transforms a house into a very special home for very special people: our families.
Money, of course, can build a charming house, but only love can furnish it with a feeling of home.
Duty can pack an adequate sack lunch, but love may decide to tuck a little love note inside.
Money can provide a television set, but love controls it and cares enough to say no and take the
guff that comes with it.
Obligation sends the children to bed on time, but love tucks the covers in around their necks and passes out kisses and hugs (even to teenagers!).
Obligation can cook a meal, but love embellishes the table with a potted ivy trailing around slender candles.
Duty writes many letters, but love tucks a joke or a picture or a fresh stick of gum inside.
Compulsion keeps a sparkling house.
But love and prayer stand a better chance of producing a happy family.
Duty gets offended quickly if it isn't appreciated. But love learns to laugh a lot and to work for the sheer joy of doing it.
Obligation can pour a glass of milk, but quite often love will add a little chocolate.
James S. HewettIllustrations Unlimited
(And THANKS to bob@seriousgeeks.com of Longmont CO for the encouraging messages he sends daily. This great post about "love at home" was included included in the one he sent on Feb 9, 2008. Contact him if you'd like to be added to his mailing list.)
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Songs 'n' Stuff...
One of the joys of having kids is seeing them learn and love songs that I sung as a kid. One of Luke's favorite these days is "The Wise Man and the Foolish Man". You remember the one from vacation Bible School days with the hand motions about the rain coming down and the floods coming up. It's so cute to see him and Josiah doing those along with the song!
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