Watch for the signs.....

You have all heard me talk about Ordinary Hero before.  They are an amaaazing organization that has definitly impacted where I am today.  They inspire me!  I want to share a little back log of my life, who I was-where I thought I wanted to be and what i thought I needed in my life.

Growing up, I came from a family of 6-a mom and dad 2 brothers and a sister, I am the baby in the family, the youngest of 4. I remember being 6-7 when the cabbage patch dolls came out, I begged for one, my mom took me to the store to get one, well the white ones were all sold out....Hmmm, so what did I do? I cried first of all, but after that my mom picked me out the brown cabbage patch doll. Her name was Gina-Edy.  I loved her.  When I was in high school, I always "said" I wanted a black baby. WHY? I have no idea why at 13, 14 or 15 I would have said that but i remember it. I remember thinking how stinkin' cute.  Well, I went thought high school, dated people from my small lil' town of about 1,000 people-ALL white people. We had one stop light in our town. ONE. There was ONE "major" intersection if we can call it "major" but it had a stop light, so it was major to us-then.  I had 52 people in my graduating class. I was a cheerleader.  I didn't really care if people liked me or not, i just had my group of friends and that was that.

I graduated, went to a local community college in which I thought for child development.  I worked in a preschool for about 2 years, soon I realized "NOPE". Not for me. I decided hey, Cosmetology sounds fun, let's try that.  In that time I started dating Ryan (that back log story is for another time) : )

We got married at the ripe ol' age of 21 and 27, we expected to "have" kids by 23-24.  Well, after 3 ectopic (tubal) pregnancies, lots of crying, sadness and thinking we were being punished we gave IVF a shot.  I produce A LOT of eggs, which in turn produced LOTS of embryos.  Long story short, I had a miscarriage at 12 weeks (baby had passed at 9 weeks 3 days) . It was a baby boy.  But my feelings after hearing those words at my appt. was different than my other losses. At this point I was just MAD. But I also had this feeling come over me that said "stop fighing me"..... I got home, Ryan was there waiting for me and I said to him "we're adopting". He graciously says to me "Babe, whatever you want to do, I am on board, Let's do this".  It wasn't an hour later my girlfriends were here consoling me, supporting me, making me laugh and I was on the computer searching international adoption. It was a moment that I wanted to scream and praise the lord I had finally felt some sort of relief all at the same time.

Fast Forward through all of our process and BOOM-here we are. (If you would like to read our adoption stories, you can visit our family blog here ) Now, onto my point.

After thinking we were being punished by God with all of our failed pregnancies, it was not that at all. My goodness, he was telling us-YOU NEED AFRICA IN YOUR HEARTS!  Our adoptions have done SO mch MORE than giving us 2 beautiful children-as if that wasn't enough!  Some of our closest and most dearest friends are from our adoptions.  I know the word of Jesus Christ SO much more now, and not only do I know the words of Jesus Christ, I LOVE it and I "get it".  The person I used to be would want want want want and think that I needed more more more.   And I'm not gonna lie, most of those wants and "needs" were material things.  The bigger house, more money, the best hand bag, jeans, shoes, etc.  Don't get me wrong, I still love all of those things, and sometimes I do splurge on those items for myself and the children, but not without giving to others first, and doing more for others first.  And definitly not at the rate I used to, not only because i see things differently now but because our lifestyle has changed (at times I thought our world was going to end, turns out we will survive! WHEW! haha) and we just can't anymore.  I have a different passion. And the others i still do love, they just take a different position in my life now days. They're still there, just not quite like they used to be.

So, turns out God had my hand the whole time, from "Gina-Edy" , the failed pregnancies, until now.

This holds true.



Awake & Alive

As the holidays are fast approaching, everyone will begin to get into the madness of shopping, parties, families, etc I wanted to give everyone an opportunity that is so very close, near and dear to our hearts!
We have a very very good friend Jolene Shrock (http://www.awakeandalive.org/) and her friend Danielle, that have started a nonprofit, to help the children of Ethiopia. As a matter of fact they are going to be starting a school in Kechene, Ethiopia! Kechene, Ethiopia is in the slum of Addis.
Some of you might have the tradition of helping a family, organization, group, or something around the holidays-well, this year I am asking if you would donate money to the school of Kechene, ET.  The beautiful thing about this, is I am praying and hopeful that I will be able to go with Awake and Alive on their mission trip next year! I would love to know that I have taken a big chunk of money from all of our friends/family to give to Awake and Alive for this amazing opportunity! 

I am asking that this year, when thinking about what your children "NEED/WANT", to think about the true, NEEDS/WANTS of children that literally have NOTHING.  I am not saying that our children should not be a lil' bit "spoiled" at Christmas, I am just asking to think of what's going on with the children of our world that do not have a family, food, mommy's, daddy's, a home, shoes, clothes, etc, etc etc.  If maybe this year, your children get "one-less" gift and that money is maybe donated to Awake and Alive? Can you do that?  Are you up for the challenge? Can you be the one that can change just one? One child? Click on the link below to donate!

http://www.razoo.com/story/Meggan-Fundraising-For-Awake-And-Alive?referral_code=share

Trunk or Treat-Haven House, 2011

For our first lil' mission we did pretty good! We collected cotumes that people had donated (by the way we got about 20 costumes) in just 2 weeks before Halloween! It was last minute, it was kinda "thrown" together and we didn't know what we should expect.  However, we had about 7 cars that came within my group and then Haven House and it's directors and staff came as well, were dressed up and had their cars decorated as well!  Wouldn't you know I went to take pictures and the battery of my camera was DEAD! : ( Sooo, I was waiting on pics from the director at Haven House, and she hasn't sent them yet-so I didn't want to wait to post about our experience, so this one will be without photos....

The truth is, poverty is REAL. It's everywhere. It's in our back yards and it's thousands and thousands of miles across the world, and it's everywhere in between.  I was telling Ryan as I was getting ready for this, I said I am so fortunate for the people that have jumped on "my ship" and will listen to me on my soapbox, and I am very grateful for that-however, there are still those that I just wish "got it"...But, instead of me getting frustrated about it, I need to pray that in someway they will all be touched in a way that I have.  Instead of being frustrated, I almost feel sorry for them.  It's SUCH a powerful feeling, that it can't be explained...when you have been touched by an orphan (not necessarily saying my children) but to have those children looking at you for help and just the look in their eyes, their eyes screaming at you HELP-it's not one that can be forgotten, instead it makes me FIGHT for them!  God has touched me in a way, through Africa, that I didn't know was even out there....and for that I am thankful!!!

Stay tuned for our Christmas Outreach!!!