My Heart Is With . . .

First, thank you all (bloggy readers and Facebook buddies) for you sweet birthday wishes. I have survived the first few days of being 40 (and thus far haven't needed medical attention). It has actually been a fabulous start of a new decade and I can't wait to see what God has in store for our family in the coming years.

I've often said my heart is with the people of Guatemala. When we adopted Daniel last year, I left a piece of it there. It felt like I left all of it there. There are children in that country (mentioned here) that I will always love as my own, ministries that we will continue to support monetarily and with mission trips, and a country that I will always feel loyalty to because it gave us our sweet son.

But over the past several months, I've realized that I didn't leave my heart in Guatemala. I gave it to all 147 million orphans in the world. It's not just the beautiful faces of Guatemala that I ache for, it's the children in China, Kazakhstan, Uganda, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, the United States, and any country that has a child longing for a family.

In our search for seeking God's will for our role in caring for orphans, I came upon a wonderful ministry called An Orphan's Wish. (Click the bloggy button below to visit their site.)



They care for orphans in China who have medical needs that can't be met in a regular orphanage. The children range from infants who need surgery to older children with cerebral palsy. I've been helping write this and that for their new newsletter and we are sponsoring the cutest little guy named Cooper. People can help by sponsoring children and soon there will be a listing of needs that people can give to for one-time donations. And if you sponsor a new arrival to AOW, you get to pick his or her English name. How cool is that?!

In just the last several months of watching the work at An Orphan's Wish, I have been blown away by what I have seen. The quality of care, the amount of love, well, I'd trust my own children to their care. Because it is a smaller ministry, it has been fun to see firsthand how my donations are used. I get amazing updates on the little guy we sponsor--monthly reports via e-mail with lots of photos that make my kids do their "awwwws."

I don't plug a lot of things on my blog, but this cause I felt was worthy of it. Right now Stefanie from Ni Hao Y'all, also the director of AOW (also one of the gals behind Wild Olive Tees--see the bloggy button on my sidebar), is celebrating her 1000th post by matching dollars for every comment. (That is one brave lady.)

Well, I'm not celebrating a 1000th post, but I am celebrating. My birthday gift from my husband was his official blessing for us to start another adoption. We are in the process of updating our homestudy and will share in the coming months as God leads us to the child who has been waiting for our family.

For every comment you leave below, I'll also donate a dollar to An Orphan's Wish. (That means I want all you loyal lurkers to come out of the shadows and say hi!)

Thanks for the blessing you all have been to me!

So Grateful,
Kathie