One Year Celebration!

Dear Friends,

Please remember to join us this Friday, November 6th, as we celebrate our one year anniversary with a night of Praise and Prayer. We have the pleasure of joining the worship team of New Song Christian Church in this service from 7-8:30 p.m. Childcare is not provided. Friends are welcome to attend.

Update

A big thank you to all of you who have been praying for our children. We were so grateful to have been able to move 9 of the children to HOPE's orphanage where they will be well cared for by trained nannies and a full time staff nurse. Several of them still need to gain some weight and recover from their first months with little nourishment. Hiwot, the 7 month old, was admitted to the Korean hospital where she remains with a private nanny that we secured. I am still fighting images of her tiny frame and wide eyes that could see nothing but told everything. The doctor said that she was severely dehydrated and had very low levels of calcium and potassium. They have not been able to assess her further but I am very concerned about her lack of muscle control and eye sight. She was like a broken doll who captured my heart. It seems all I can do is take her to my Father and beg Him to fix her as only He can.

Our week in Ethiopia...A Picture Says a Thousand Words...

my time in ethiopia

So much to tell and on borrowed time with the internet... Arrived on Saturday night after a day delay with our flight...left thursday! Went to a wonderful service at an international church Sunday morning...great way to start our week. After, we went to the new orphanage to visit 11 children who were darling and tiny. We also visited the transition house and had some successful meetings.

Yesterday was maybe one of the hardest and most rewarding days of my life. We arrived at an orphanage to find one child close to death and 3 others very fragile. I have never experienced such desperate prayer in my life as I held a child of 8 months, weighing 7 lbs, her mouth hung open, stiff body and sagging skin. My wonderful team joined me in a car, each of us holding children that should have been in the intensive care unit of some wonderful hospital, as we struggled to hang onto them bouncing violently through giant pot holes choking fumes of black smoke. 4 babies needing hope and help.

The hospital doctor said that the one I held was 2 hours from death and critical...fever 103, sepsis, pink eye, upper gi infection, respiratory infection, roda virus and a severe case of dehydration...please pray for her. Her name is Hirwot...meaning LIFE.

Today, we visited the children in our home who are matched to families and waiting court. They were healthy, vibrant and loving...what a difference a little support makes! I was able to see little Melat...lovely; Bereket....Adorable; Dawit....Precious (gaining weight) Many of the children were in school but we will return on thursday.

Tomorrow we head to Nazret! Please keep us in your prayers! We are visiting a very needy area. Continue to pray also that God will arise in strength and power to have victory in Ethiopia.

Much Love,
Susan

How Will We Answer Them?

15 million children, orphaned by AIDS worldwide.
That number is equivalent to the populations of New York, Paris, and Bangkok, combined.

"I believe that this could very well be looked back on as the sin of our generation. I look at my parents and ask, where were they during the civil rights movement? I look at my grandparents and ask, what were they doing when the holocaust in Europe was occurring with regard to the Jews, and why didn't they speak up? And when we think of our great, great, great-grandparents, we think how could they have sat by and allowed slavery to exist? And I believe that our children and their children, 40 or 50 years from now, are going to ask me, what did you do while 40 million children became orphans in Africa?"

--Rich Stearns, President of World Vision

Bitter Sweet

Yesterday I had the tough assignment of telling an adoptive family that their referred children were no longer available. While we rejoice that a birth mother returned to care for her daughters, we also grieve for the expectant family. It served as a reminder that the Lord is in control and that His ways are not always our ways...yet perfect. We stand confident that He is gracious and just and will provide for both of these families. It is a bitter sweet reality that two families accross the world from one another can have common love and willing hearts for these little ones, even if only for a while.

Good News

Good News...All 3 families had a smooth process in court yesterday! Heading home Friday...pray for safe travel!