Daddy Comes Home! from Joel Hildebrand on Vimeo.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Daddy Comes Home!
Remember this post? Well, after describing how excited Colson and Vienna are to see their Daddy when he gets home, I thought I would try to capture that excitement on video. And I'm so glad I did. This video is just too cute! Enjoy :)
Monday, May 24, 2010
Thoughts on Adoption
I’ve been thinking a lot about adoption lately. Although it’s something I am very passionate about, I don’t think that everyone is called to adopt nor that adoption is God’s Plan A for the orphaned children in the world. I believe that God created children to grow up in their birth families in their birth country, but things are not the way they should be because we live in a fallen world. God created man with a free will, he didn’t create us like robots that were forced to love and serve Him. No, he gave us a choice. What a risk God took in creating us! He created man knowing full well that man would have the choice to reject Him. But love always requires risk. And God took the ultimate risk in creating man. And what did man do? Man chose to sin and reject God and the result of that is death. And ever since Eden we have been sinning and rejecting God.
The world today is full of so much injustice, pain, suffering, loss, heartache and tragedy. Tens of thousands of children will die today because they don’t have food to eat and clean water to drink. Millions of children are growing up without a mom and dad to love them and take care of them. So how can I possibly say that adoption is such a beautiful thing and overlook all the pain and tragedy that are involved? Our child from Ethiopia will have experienced far more loss and pain in his short little life than I can ever imagine! For adoption even to exist, families must first be broken. And that is NOT God’s heart. I want to paint a real picture of adoption – the good and the bad. The truth about adoption is that it’s messy and complicated. I can’t just talk about how good adoption is and neglect to talk about the tragedy involved like a child’s birth parents dying or a family having no other option but to give up their child for adoption because of their poverty. That is heart-breaking! How can adoption possibly be God’s plan A? It's not! That is like saying it's God's will for families to be broken! I am SO (I can’t stress that enough) thankful that I can be part of God’s plan B for this child from Ethiopia that will become part of our family. But at the same time I wish there was no need for adoption at all.
It is our responsibility to care for orphans; the Bible clearly states that over and over! But that does not just mean adoption. That is just a tiny part of our responsibility to care for the orphan. Adoption is needed because the worst-case scenario has already happened. What we need to be doing is making every effort to KEEP families in tact, with the last resort being adoption. We need to be proactive! It is our responsibility to keep these families from ever being broken apart in the first place. It is our responsibility to give our time, money, resources . . . everything we can to help our brothers and sisters on the other side of the world that are dying in poverty and disease. Why? Because loving our neighbors as ourselves does not just mean people that we come in contact with in our day-to-day lives, it also means people that we have never met on the other side of the world.
I’m sure you’re familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37). An expert of the law asks Jesus this question: “Who is my neighbor?” And Jesus responds with the story of the Samaritan helping the man on the side of the road who had been robbed, beaten and left for dead. To the Jews, Samaritans were considered low-class people, basically heathens who did not keep the law. Jews would have had nothing to do with them. When the Samaritan saw the injured man on the side of the road he did not give any thought to the man’s race or religion. The Good Samaritan only saw a man in need of help and he went OUT OF HIS WAY to help him out. The Samaritan saw his neighbor as anyone who was in need. And then Jesus tells us to go and do likewise. We need to go and do likewise to everyone, regardless of race, religion or whether they are near or far!
We need to be caring for our brothers and sisters on the other side of the world. We need to be doing everything we can in helping these families so that adoption no longer needs to exist. We need to be doing everything we can so that parents won’t die from a sickness they could have prevented if they had access to medical care. We need to be doing everything we can so that parents don’t have to give up a child for adoption because of their poverty. There are lots of great organizations to do this through – many listed on the side of my blog! Whether it is sponsoring children, giving money to build a well, giving a loan to help someone start a business to break out of the cycle of poverty, these things all help to keep families in tact. Please, please, please get involved! I hope that someday there will never be a need for adoption, but as long as there is, I will support it, but at the same time we need to be giving our money, time and resources to help families stay together!
Okay, that was a lot and I hope this post hasn't come off sounding like I'm against adoption, I'm totally for it, totally passionate about it and totally believe it lines up with God's heart. I just think that we need to be doing more to support families and communities and be working towards ending the need for adoption.
The world today is full of so much injustice, pain, suffering, loss, heartache and tragedy. Tens of thousands of children will die today because they don’t have food to eat and clean water to drink. Millions of children are growing up without a mom and dad to love them and take care of them. So how can I possibly say that adoption is such a beautiful thing and overlook all the pain and tragedy that are involved? Our child from Ethiopia will have experienced far more loss and pain in his short little life than I can ever imagine! For adoption even to exist, families must first be broken. And that is NOT God’s heart. I want to paint a real picture of adoption – the good and the bad. The truth about adoption is that it’s messy and complicated. I can’t just talk about how good adoption is and neglect to talk about the tragedy involved like a child’s birth parents dying or a family having no other option but to give up their child for adoption because of their poverty. That is heart-breaking! How can adoption possibly be God’s plan A? It's not! That is like saying it's God's will for families to be broken! I am SO (I can’t stress that enough) thankful that I can be part of God’s plan B for this child from Ethiopia that will become part of our family. But at the same time I wish there was no need for adoption at all.
It is our responsibility to care for orphans; the Bible clearly states that over and over! But that does not just mean adoption. That is just a tiny part of our responsibility to care for the orphan. Adoption is needed because the worst-case scenario has already happened. What we need to be doing is making every effort to KEEP families in tact, with the last resort being adoption. We need to be proactive! It is our responsibility to keep these families from ever being broken apart in the first place. It is our responsibility to give our time, money, resources . . . everything we can to help our brothers and sisters on the other side of the world that are dying in poverty and disease. Why? Because loving our neighbors as ourselves does not just mean people that we come in contact with in our day-to-day lives, it also means people that we have never met on the other side of the world.
I’m sure you’re familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37). An expert of the law asks Jesus this question: “Who is my neighbor?” And Jesus responds with the story of the Samaritan helping the man on the side of the road who had been robbed, beaten and left for dead. To the Jews, Samaritans were considered low-class people, basically heathens who did not keep the law. Jews would have had nothing to do with them. When the Samaritan saw the injured man on the side of the road he did not give any thought to the man’s race or religion. The Good Samaritan only saw a man in need of help and he went OUT OF HIS WAY to help him out. The Samaritan saw his neighbor as anyone who was in need. And then Jesus tells us to go and do likewise. We need to go and do likewise to everyone, regardless of race, religion or whether they are near or far!
We need to be caring for our brothers and sisters on the other side of the world. We need to be doing everything we can in helping these families so that adoption no longer needs to exist. We need to be doing everything we can so that parents won’t die from a sickness they could have prevented if they had access to medical care. We need to be doing everything we can so that parents don’t have to give up a child for adoption because of their poverty. There are lots of great organizations to do this through – many listed on the side of my blog! Whether it is sponsoring children, giving money to build a well, giving a loan to help someone start a business to break out of the cycle of poverty, these things all help to keep families in tact. Please, please, please get involved! I hope that someday there will never be a need for adoption, but as long as there is, I will support it, but at the same time we need to be giving our money, time and resources to help families stay together!
Okay, that was a lot and I hope this post hasn't come off sounding like I'm against adoption, I'm totally for it, totally passionate about it and totally believe it lines up with God's heart. I just think that we need to be doing more to support families and communities and be working towards ending the need for adoption.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Home Again!
We're home again!! It feels good to be back. We were only gone for 5 days, but that was long enough. We're not really all that into taking vacations, but it was fun to get out of the city for a little and have some time at the beach. The weather was actually pretty chilly for this time of year so we didn't do too much swimming. But there was a nice park at the hotel that the kids had fun playing at and, of course, Colson had fun throwing rocks in the water at the beach. These were some of my favorite pictures from our trip . . .
Thursday, May 13, 2010
See ya next week!
Today I've been busy packing our bags because we leave bright and early tomorrow morning to meet up with some friends in another part of Turkey! We will be staying at a nice hotel by the beach and Colson is just oh so excited! My favorite part about this whole trip is no cooking for five. whole. days. (the hotel has breakfast, lunch and dinner). I mean, I like to cook, but meal planning, prep and clean up sure does take up a lot of time. It will be nice not to have to worry about that for a few days.
I am looking forward to our "vacation," but am I the only one who thinks that taking a vacation with young children is actually more work than relaxation? Anyone else with me? It's so hard getting our kids to sleep in a strange place and we usually go home more tired than rested and I feel like I need a vacation from my vacation.
Colson has been asking me ALL DAY when we are going to leave. Since we don't have our van anymore, we are borrowing a friend's car and Colson just cannot wait to ride in it. Yes, Colson is excited to ride in a car. Whoever thought that riding in a car would be such a novelty? Colson also can't wait to go to the beach and throw rocks in the "puddle" (how he refers to any body of water). I am looking forward to our trip, it will be a fun time together as a family and hopefully it will be somewhat relaxing.
Here are some family pictures from last year's trip. The kids have grown sooo much!
This picture always cracks me up - could their facial expressions be any more opposite?!
Have a great weekend. See ya next week :)
Monday, May 10, 2010
Rubbernecking
One of my favorite things about our apartment is our balcony. I like to watch people. And the best thing about a balcony on the 4th floor is that I can watch people who have no idea I'm even there. I love me some good 'ol rubbernecking! Is that strange? I don't mean it in a weird stalkerish kind of way. There is just something entertaining about watching people pass through the park that is in front of our building. I wonder about where they are coming from, where they are going, where life has taken them - those sort of things.
Colson and Vienna also like to wait on the balcony for Daddy to come home. We can see him coming from a long way off and the kids just go crazy when they spot him! When he gets closer to our building, it's a mad rush into the house, through the living room, into the foyer and to the front door. Then they wait with great anticipation while Daddy rides up in the elevator to our floor. They know he's just about there when they see the little elevator light in the hallway go off. I'm sure their screams of glee can be heard on every floor of our buildling as Joel flings open the elevator door and runs down the hallway to our door and grabs them both in his arms. This seriously might be one of the cutest things you have ever seen! Maybe I'll get it on camera someday.
Anyway, I got a little off topic. I meant to tell you about our fun rubbernecking experience the other night. There is a tradition in Turkey around this time of year where small fires are made in parks or on basketball courts and then kids jump through the fire and are supposed to make a wish. It's a pretty big deal and a lot of people come out to watch. This year the fire in our basketball court got a little out of hand and the police showed up and blocked off the court so no one would throw any more tires on the fire. Then the fire truck came to put the fire out! Lots of excitement - made for a good evening of rubbernecking! Thought I would share. You're welcome :)
Colson and Vienna also like to wait on the balcony for Daddy to come home. We can see him coming from a long way off and the kids just go crazy when they spot him! When he gets closer to our building, it's a mad rush into the house, through the living room, into the foyer and to the front door. Then they wait with great anticipation while Daddy rides up in the elevator to our floor. They know he's just about there when they see the little elevator light in the hallway go off. I'm sure their screams of glee can be heard on every floor of our buildling as Joel flings open the elevator door and runs down the hallway to our door and grabs them both in his arms. This seriously might be one of the cutest things you have ever seen! Maybe I'll get it on camera someday.
Anyway, I got a little off topic. I meant to tell you about our fun rubbernecking experience the other night. There is a tradition in Turkey around this time of year where small fires are made in parks or on basketball courts and then kids jump through the fire and are supposed to make a wish. It's a pretty big deal and a lot of people come out to watch. This year the fire in our basketball court got a little out of hand and the police showed up and blocked off the court so no one would throw any more tires on the fire. Then the fire truck came to put the fire out! Lots of excitement - made for a good evening of rubbernecking! Thought I would share. You're welcome :)
The Great Fire from Joel Hildebrand on Vimeo.
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