My Heart

I started this blog as a place to write about the things that were on/in my heart, thus the title of Mommy Friday's Heart. Well, lately I've had a couple of things on my heart and in the next few posts I'm going to share them with you, but today I want to write about the first thing that has been on my heart lately: orphans.

James 1:27 says that, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Jesus says in Matthew 25: 40, "The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’"

If orphans aren't the least of these, then I don't know who is. I don't think all of us are called to the adoption of orphans, but it is clear that God wants us to love orphans and help them in any way that we can.

I do not feel the call of adoption and I don't have a ton of money laying around to donate to orphans so what can I do? Well, I have this little blog here that has about 200 readers (an astonishing amount to me but not that many compared to other blogs) that can read what I write about orphans. I can show my readers ways they can help.

We have several friends who either recently adopted or are currently in the adoption process and it can be tedious and frustrating and at times, very heartbreaking. I do not want to diminish anyone's adoption process and we certainly have tried to help out as we could, but right now, we have very dear friends who have recently been called by God to adopt a little girl out of Ethiopia and her name will be Josie.

The costs of adoption, especially international adoption, are astronomical and our friends cannot even begin to really get started until they've raised about $6000.

I am not asking you to donate, but I am asking you to go to their blog and follow along with them on their journey. If nothing else, maybe you can see what it like to go through this process. They have a Facebook page that you can "like" and get updates that way too.

Right now, they have two things going on. They are selling tshirts, which are incredibly adorable, and the only reason why I haven't purchased one yet is because I can't decide which one I want more. They also have a giveaway going on.

The basics of this giveaway is that you donate money and based on the amount you donate, you get a certain number of entries, and these entries give you chance to win an American Girl doll of YOUR CHOICE!!!! That's right, you get to choose. Even a donation of a mere $10 can get you entered. You don't have a little girl to give a doll to? Donate it to some needy child. Your little girl isn't old enough for one? Put it up for later when she is old enough. I promise you that you can find someone to give this doll to, all while helping bring Josie home to the family God has called her to.

To read their story from the beginning, go to: http://findingourjosie.blogspot.com/

To check out the awesome shirts, go to: http://www.adoptionbug.com/findingourjosie/

To get in on the American Girl doll action, go to: http://findingourjosie.blogspot.com/2012/10/fundraiser-announcement-american-girl.html