Many of you know that my husband and I adopted our 8 year old daughter from Ethiopia. We have a good friend (also named Heidi) who is a film maker and photographer. Heidi has a deep love for the people of Ethiopia, and if you read her blog, I think you’ll understand why.
She is in the process of making a film about a boy from Southern Ethiopia. I want to post her film for you to see.
I shouldn’t need a reason to have a heart for the orphans… God is clear in His word about how He wants us to care for orphans and widows in their distress. But why isn’t it easy in our modern culture to remember what life is like for millions of orphans and widows in the world? When I’m angry because I have to wait in line at the bank, someone else’s mother or child is dying. Sobering.
When I traveled to bring our daughter home, I was shocked at the intense poverty in the city of Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. I’ve traveled to other countries before, but this poverty was beyond my ability to comprehend. I spent much of my trip in tears, my heart breaking, especially for the children I saw begging in the streets, or the very small children I saw playing naked in the median of the busy roadways… and at the same time falling in love with this beautiful culture and wonderful people.
My daughter comes from a small town, Wolaytta, which is located in Southern Ethiopia in the Sodo area. I didn’t get to travel to her town, but I’ve seen footage of her home and life before she came to live with us. She has amazingly adapted well over the past 18 months, and is well on her way to becoming completely “Americanized.” That is sad at times, but she will not forget her homeland, and she talks about getting an education here that will help her to go back to Ethiopia and help her friends and family.
Heidi has also put together some pictures from Children’s Heaven organization. The founder is a personal friend of hers. I’ll leave you with how this one person is making a difference. You can learn more about her here.
I want to actively live my faith. I want to actively live my LIFE! I don’t want my life to be lived from a safe location. A joke in our house when things are going badly is that we’ll go hide under a pile of coats and wait for it to get better. And that is funny, but it is not the way to deal with life.
Radical faith. Radical obedience. These are what I want. I want to feel as though I’ve run the race with everything I’ve got.
Lately I’ve been feeling like something is missing, or I’m playing it safe (call it a mid-life crisis), but I know that taking the years that my children are small isn’t ‘hiding out’… it is some of my best stuff, ya know? But in this long season of diapers, bottles, school, homework, and the seemingly impossible job of potty training, it is easy to lose track of the fact that I’m doing something important.
One of our biggest challenges of late was our adoption our little girl from Ethiopia. She wasn’t so little. She was 7, and she came knowing no English, no western manners and from an entirely different culture. What a struggle she had adjusting to us (and us to her). Yet we learned so much about God throughout the process! It was a HUGE risk for us. I traveled to another country alone to pick up our daughter, and my husband stayed with the 3 little ones we had at home. That is a story for another day.
You’d be amazed at the needs in Ethiopia. No, really… unless you’ve traveled to Africa, you would seriously be amazed. And yet, they are such a wonderful, warm, and really neat people! It was a blessing to be there among them. When we left the protected walls of the hotel complex, we were surrounded by an entirely different world. The extreme poverty, children begging in the streets, small children playing naked in the mud on the median strip of the road. The AIDS epidemic has orphaned so many children. If you’ve never been to Africa, you should go at least once and get a glimpse of what other places in the world live with.
There are lots of ministries that are helping. Many people are adopting from Ethiopia. One of my favorite ministries combines orphan care, adoption, help for widows, and hospice care for dying women. It is called AWOP (African Widows and Orphan Project). But I want to be there. I want to help. I want to be living a radical life for Jesus!
But He hasn’t placed me there, He has placed me here. And I will strive to find the balance between being radical, and being content. I can support ministries that are working there, and I can visit and do my best to meet needs in this far away country that my heart is forever connected to through my beautiful daughter. But, for now, my mission field is right here in front of me. In the guise of my family, and my town.
This blog is just a way to express thoughts and feelings about life, faith, and what it is like to be a fool for Jesus. To learn more about the name of my blog, please refer to my previous post about it by clicking here.
