A different kind of graduation.

Only by the grace of God is this not what Masha would be facing today:

Today is August 31st in Eastern Europe which means that it's "Graduation Day" when the 16-18 year olds graduate from the orphanages. Every year on August 31st, an entire graduating class of orphans is sent out of the orphanages all across Eastern Europe. Most of these children are without adequate life skills, without much more than the clothes on their backs, and well wishes to find a place at trade schools. No family, no mentors, no chance for adoption... no hope. Within a few years, over 80% of these graduated orphans will find themselves trapped in lives of poverty, crime, prostitution, addiction, incarceration, or dead (many at their own hands). Will you please join me in praying for these beautiful children (and those called to help them) on this day? As well as the children in foster care here, and all the kids around the world that will wake up hungry and without parents today.”

 The bedrooms have been built and the  beds are made.  Chairs are at the table, food is ready to prepare, hugs and love abound.  Friends have blessed us with bags and bags of clothes in various sizes that await the eager hands of children to sort through and claim.
 We have sold things, held give-aways, been advocated for by many loving friends who raised the bulk of the $16,000 that we have so far.  We still need about $10,000.  We need to pay for airfare and in-country stay.  We are working and scraping, and I KNOW that God will provide it.  If you have any ideas for me about how to raise this last bit (yep, BIT), please don't hesitate to share them with me.  

Please pray for the children who are facing this reality today, and thank you all for staving off this fate for my four precious children.

A little documentary for your viewing pleasure

do you think this would be of interest?

in our former lives, when we only had the million dollar family (one boy & one girl), as opposed to the incredibly blessed, God designed family we have now, we were exceptionally loose with our money. Well, Scott was incredibly indulgent of me and bought me lovely useless things.

So very many things.

Well, now we would rather have more people in our home than more things in our home, so perhaps we could put these things to use in helping with that shift.

I have the above figurine. Just lovely. At the time it was reflective of our family make up. Now we have 6 kids and counting from 3 different countries. Not so reflective anymore. It has been in a box in my attic for over 4 years. It is in mint condition with all packaging and paperwork. It's original value was $830. (Yes, he was very indulgent.)

Do you think people would be interested in a give-away for $10 a donation?

I haven't set it up yet, but I was hoping to gauge interest. I think God is planning something big for our family and He will provide. However, we can also clear out unused things to help pay for all the paperwork.

What do you think?

If you don't like this one, I have more.