Then She Shows Up

 

 

 

 

She was one of the first people I told the night we lost my brother.

As The Hero drove to my parents house , I texted my out of state soul sister

begging for scripture and prayers.

 

She was working on both within minutes.

 

She was adamant about flying in for the funeral.

I begged her to stay; I knew we would be unable to just be with everything else going on.

 

She checked on me constantly.

Lifted me up so deeply and fervently I could feel it.

And then came the day she just showed up.

 

In real life.

 

On my doorstep.

 

Four states away from Colorado to Oklahoma.

 

 

 

 

 

With her amazing little family.

All five of them.

Four full days of friendship. 

Friendship that has gone beyond Amy and I and has infected our children and husbands. 

A true blending of hearts and lives.

 

  We played with our kids,

laughed and cried together

and spent an entire afternoon engaging one another while moving two tons of

dirt and mulch in our backyard garden.

 

Our kids were actually begging us to go out again and play in the dirt some more!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She offered to take me out to dinner or shopping

just the two of us on more than one occasion.

 

And while we did get some great "mommy time",

what I needed most in those four days was just the presence

 of my friend and her little family.

To embrace our kids and giggle at kid antics and

sibling quarrels and to be reminded that friendship

is never completely what we bring to a relationship.

It is not only the sum of what we can offer someone else.

 

It is the ebb and flow of what we give to and what we take away

 from one another that makes it deep and pure and yes, even holy.

 

She gave all of herself and I hope she took away a new appreciation for how amazing she is at meeting somebody in their suffering.

 

I gave her a glimpse into my hurt and the hole in my heart and took

from that the knowledge that we are not meant to suffer alone.  

 

An example of Earth as it is in Heaven.

Perfection in my recent darkness.

 

My little family was devastated to see them pull out of our driveway.

We were renewed and revived just by spending time together.

 

Then my amazing friend drove four states home and wrote a blog post about what a gift it was to serve me and mine during our suffering and the meaning 

of just showing up in the midst of someone's hurt.

 

And show up she did.

 

In so many ways, with very little words

and yet in the middle of grieving,

it was everything myself and my little family needed it to be.

 

 

Old & New Again Friends

I've been blogging for almost 4 years now. 

The kids have been home for over 3. 

Out of all the people in the adoption community we've "met" online and in person, there are still those couples who we think "would love to meet them. Would love to see our kids play togther.", etc.

One of those families is the Briggs family from Colorado Springs.

Through our adoption journey we learned we had a lot in common.

Early 30s. 

No biological children at the time of our first adoption.

And adopted two children at the same time, of almost exactly similar ages.

Our kids were even born in the same region of Ethiopia and

were together at their foster care in Ethiopia for a time.

So imagine our excitement when Juli emailed me and said they would be driving through Oklahoma on vacation and wanted to know if we could meet up for lunch.

We were thrilled.

The Angel has been asking for a sister for years and having her former buddy back for even a short while did nothing to diminish her desire.

What a beautiful short time with old friends who were made new again today.

You Guys Did It Again

LoPa Art was a project started by three adoption-orphan care-justice crazed women who were looking for a way to serve the least, the last and the lost of Ethiopia. The three of us were broken at different times, but all in the same way-we desired to use our talents to see restoration and grace permeate the people and the hearts of people we had grown to call family.




The basis for our business was simple. Buy fair-trade, handcrafted art work and leather goods, sell them to you beautiful people and fund a non-profit education and feeding center on a trash dump in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The three of us receive no salary, no percentage of the profits. We wanted transparency to be a clear as our passion.
Three years ago, we had over 100 kids in our program. We partnered with Children's HopeChest to find individual sponsors for our kids so that LoPa could focus more on funding projects to make this community sustainable.




This year we had over 210 kids accepted into our program and LoPa was able to re-focus on not sustaining the kids daily needs, but praying and funding their futures. Together with HopeChest we derived an amazing plan and a really lofty goal: Raise $60,000 to put our older aging-out boys to work in the construction business. We called it the Korah Brick Making projects.
HopeChest did the logistics of a website and we three LoPa girls hit the streets. And the boutiques. And the craft fair venues. And then we hit our knees.




We blogged, facebooked, tweeted, and held shows all over the country. We networked our social circles and brought you all beautiful jewelry and art work from our favorite artists and artisans.




And YOU all responded. By leaps and bounds you all have helped us spread our mission of love and justice for yet another year. We couldn't be more grateful. And today we are humbled and honored to announce that the LoPa Brick Project is 100% fully funded! We are over the moon and over joyed that God has used three women's lives to bring His glory and His justice. We simply cannot thank you enough.




We are in full swing preparing our 2013 calendar and praying over our next project. Please join us in praying His will over our mission and asking how you can further be involved. If you are interested in hosting a home show, please hurry and email us so that we can make arrangements. Our calendar is almost full. You can reach us at lopa3moms at gmail dot com





- Hugs n Love,

Lindsey

 

I'm sure that you've passed a scene like this in your city.
Perhaps you even passed by one today.

A person holding a sign,

stating they have a need.

I am the one who is always digging for cash.

Or bottles of water if I have planned ahead.

Or the kids' snacks if I can find them.

But whether it's out of convenience or a lack of planning,

I always feel like I am just giving money.

Offering a "God bless you"

and sometimes with a smile.
If I can remember it.
But I always try to give something.

I just cannot ignore the thought of passing by some one
who may have a need and I perhaps have the ability to provide even a small part.
It aches my heart to see some one, especially in my home town,
who isn't being properly provided for.
Whether it be by their own choices or
my lack of civic involvement,
but I cannot just push through the light and drive on.

When The Hero and I first started dating,

he use to roll his eyes when I would dig through his wallet,

force him to change 3 lanes of traffic,

and he would tutor me on how giving money wasn't really going to change some one's situation.

He use to say that the result would only result in perpetuating a cycle,

support substance abuse,

or dissuade some one from getting a real job.

But honestly, even if everything he said was true, I can still resonate with this:

If my life had been relegated to
having no home,

having no one I felt I could turn to,
sleeping in alley ways,

wondering where my next meal would come from

or being disconnected from my thoughts

and forgetting that I am fearfully and wonderfully made

by a Creator who loves me more than anything else on earth,

I can understand that my choices may not always be the best.

 

 

The Hero has stopped hounding me about my stop light activities.
He now just hands me his wallet without ever being asked.
 I love that about him.

We gave a man a few dollars a few weeks back and
I told The Hero that I wanted a homeless friend.
He just stared blankly back at me.
I tried to explain that I didn't just want to pass by people on the street.
I wanted to engage them.
Enough to where I would know one of them by name.

He asked if any if any of the people we knew were homeless
would they still consider us friends.
I told him I didn't know.
But Jesus had several friends on this earth and he was still homeless.

I told him I just wanted to begin to put myself in situations where
I wasn't offering a piece of my wallet,
I was finally offering a piece of myself.
Maybe that's all Jesus really wants from any of us after all.
Offer yourself to some one else fully,
not to change their situation but to simply be their friend.

 

Women Wednesday: A Breakup Can Be Inevitable

I always feel as though long time spans from each Women Wednesday post.

Perhaps it is because they take so much out of me to write.

I've been writing and re-writing this one in my head on paper.

Almost a year now, back and forth, typing and backspacing,

scratching out on paper,

only to scratch it out completely.

Why?

It involves the theory of a sometimes inevitable in our female relationships...

A breakup sometimes happens.

Twice in the last two years I've experienced such a loss,

a monumental breakup with at least one female friend;

if not participating the dissolution of a group of female friends,

and each time I respond with the same question to myself:

"Why do you continue to engage if a break up is inevitable?"

While each scenario was different, the result was the same: A loss occurred.

And let's face it.

With making dinner, working, laundry, soccer practice and solving our children's (if they are school age) social snafus, who really wants to deal with their own girl drama?

Especially, when we are supposed to be grownups.

I'm probably the worst at dealing with it.

I cannot "pick" sides during a fight between my friends.

I refuse to perpetuate gossip.

And I cannot hold your hand, rub your back and lie when you're being a complete moron.

And I don't expect my friends to do the same for me.

That's why we're friends.

Call me to the carpet.

Lay out your garbage and I'll bring my truck full.

Let's do this life together, in it for the long haul kind of relationship.

I really know no other way.

I have time for garbage.

I have no time for crap.

I have a hard time biting my tongue and the Lord help you if you ask for my opinion.

Only one thing will happen,

I will give it to you.

Straight.

I'm sorry in advance.

This inherently explains some of my "girl" issues.

I truly believe that God has placed amazing, lasting women in my life to do life with me.

I believe that many of them are still to come and I must seek out their arrival.

Some of them will stay until we are old and gray.

I'm still holding out that Gayla & I's children marry.

But some paths will cross for a moment, a season even.

And ladies,

here's the deal:

THAT IS OKAY.

I guess we've watched too many girl movies and think that all breakups

are worth a box of tissues and require an Oscar winning performance like

a scene from "Steel Magnolias".

More often than not, every adult, girl "break up", you've experienced was

too much exaggeration,

not enough forgiveness

definitely lacking in communication

and you have no idea why that person is no longer in your life,

 there is just a scar they made when they left

 or resentment you conjure up when thinking of them.

Perhaps those "breakups" should be more like a really amazing Hallmark card.

Not all they hype and duration of a Hollywood production, but a

small span of time to remember what was and celebrate the moment.

You read it, you sigh and hold it close to your chest and

then you put it in a drawer and go on with your life.

Or you realize that the words were never right, tear that card up

and laugh you wasted so much time on her.

But here's what we can't do: Stop engaging one another.

Let's face it girls, God did not make us social vacuums.

We are made to connect, engage and grow.

Our men are just never going to understand all our "girlness".

Yes, breakups will happen.

They should happen in some circumstances.

But for those women who come and go too soon,

or who didn't leave soon enough,

hold their memory close.

For good or bad, her presence made part of your story.

And stories are good, only when they are retold.

So don't be afraid to tell your story to someone new.