Rattins living Coram Deo

Please read this post as a means of introduction to this series . What is an orphan? In the west, an orphan is generally viewed as a child who has neither mother nor father.  In fact, dictionaries define an orphan as a child without parents or a child deprived of parental care.  Therefore, sponsors, prospective adoptive families, philanthropists, churches, short term volunteers, even many mission boards are convinced that when they are supporting or adopting "an orphan" the child must surely be a true orphan.  It has been shown that the majority of the world's orphans have families and the majority of children in orphanages have families. The word orphan has morphed in much of Africa to include a much broader category of child. When a child is "an orphan" here, his mother might be bringing him to the office as an orphan to see about getting assistance with his school fees. An "orphan" might be brought to an orphanage by an "uncle" (w...

"Abby gets a little excited when talking about orphans." My dear friend spoke with a twinkle in her eye and a smile on her lips.  Her words struck me.  "Isn't everyone passionate about orphans and vulnerable children?" I thought. I am immersed in the "African orphan crisis." I live it, breathe it, sweat it, feel it, speak it, hug it. The "crisis" is inextricably woven into my family. I have kept silent for long, as we have sat back as observers and learners.  But as our two year anniversary in Uganda approaches, I have decided to put down some thoughts for others to read, hopefully to help our supporters and friends get a better sense for what it means to be a vulnerable child in Africa. As a means of introduction, we adopted one special needs child from Liberia 7 years ago and are adopting one abandoned total orphan from Uganda where we live (we've already been a family for a year and a half).  We have three biologically birthe...

When November rolls around each year, we find ourselves reminiscing about our family's beginnings - this Thanksgiving marks 6 years as a family.  Six years of snuggling our beautiful Liberian princess.  Six years of wheelchairs, AFOs, thickened liquids, AAC, Diastat, and therapies.  Six years of praying every night, "Lord, wake me up and take me to her if she needs me." Six years of treasuring every day as a family. I suspect that Gracie will never be able to fully share her story herself.  So, as will be my role for her entire life, I will speak for her.  We sense the joy of the Lord in her and we pray that she does truly understand God - she speaks loud and clear with her overflowing, body-shaking joy that there is a joy in her that exceeds our understanding! We are so grateful that God prompted us to adopt Gracie as our first-born child.  For much of our life as a family, we have lived in countries where birth order is valued greatly.  For in...

I've been convicted by a book - a book on adoption. "But you've already adopted! How can you be convicted to do something you've already committed to?" I quote the passage from Romans 8 a lot: Romans 8:14-17 English Standard Version (ESV) 14  For all who are  led by the Spirit of God are  sons [ a ]  of God.   15  For  you did not receive  the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of  adoption as sons, by whom we cry,  “Abba! Father!”   16  The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,   17  and if children, then  heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,  provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. In the book "A guide to Adoption and Orphan Care" edited by Russell Moore, Timothy Paul Jones writes, "The Holy Spirit co-testifies with our spirit that we are co-heirs.  We co-suffer....

Looking for a tangible way to impact orphans? How about in Northern Uganda? :) We are desperately underfunded at Home of Love (and all of our ministries here) - consider if God would have you donate to Home of Love.  We support 64 children - 36 on site at Home of Love, the rest are at special schools or placed with relatives now in the villages. Click here to donate online to Home of Love - ACTION Gulu Where Needed Most.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.  James 1:27 (ESV) Orphan care is not optional for Christians.  So what is God calling you to do for orphans? What does the Bible say about orphans? Here are a few resources: http://orphansunday.org/resources/bible-studies-and-small-group-guides/ This sermon is amazing by Voddie Baucham  http://thegospelcoalition.org/resources/a/orphans_and_adoption_-_voddie_baucham_and_russell_moore . Russell Moore is, of course, a great guy to read or listen to on orphans and adoption.   http://www.russellmoore.com/2012/07/27/adopted-for-life-ten-years-later-what-ive-learned-since/  (and many more resources there) Here are two of John Piper's sermons on adoption:  http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/conference-messages/adoption-the-heart-of-the-gospel  and  http:...

It sneaks up on us every year... Suddenly, it's November, and it's Orphan Sunday... and we're not prepared. Never fear, Orphan Sunday site is near!  http://orphansunday.org/resources/  - hymns and songs, bulletin inserts, children and youth ideas... It's all there! :) Right now, immersed as I am in orphan care, I'm reading Russell Moore's "A guide to Adoption and Orphan Care." Just my speed - short little chapters from different authors. I'm currently thinking through HOW to care for orphans - because, an orphan is not an orphan is not an orphan.  There are "true" orphans, no relatives, no options, no hope.  There are partial orphans - maybe they have one parent who is not equipped to care for them, or extended family who is not equipped to care for them.  And there are all kinds of flavors of orphans in between. Our children's home is home to children who, for the most part, have some relatives somewhere.  Our goal is to plac...

If you're in the USA, you've probably run into the "interesting" comments that Pat Robertson made on behalf of Christians on TV. Honestly, I've never seen the 700 Club, so I don't know a thing about it. But, I do know that lots of people watch it and might interpret his comments as something that resonates with Christ. The snapshot that I have of his comments on adoption do NOT resonate with Christ. His comment particularly struck me: "You don't have to take on somebody else's problems." Reality is that as Christians we ARE to take on other people's problems because we are nothing but wretched sinners ourselves! We should be willing to make sacrifices for others, as our Savior made the ultimate sacrifice for us. We are not above God and exempt from giving of ourselves. Will my life be more complicated because I have adopted? Maybe. Will my life be more complicated because I have biologically-related-to-me kids? Maybe. Will my life b...

(Cooking with my extremely messy boy!) If we were doing an international adoption in the USA, we'd have the "luxury" of hibernating as we get Moses settled... at least for some time. Although our friends are interested in learning about our different child-rearing (i.e. discipleship and sheparding) concepts, it's still a foreign concept to make sacrifices in our day in order to train our children. And, as many of you know, any adoption takes lots of intense training and time. I got the chance to take Moses out on a date today - just me and him at the coffee shop. We ran into a friend there who asked if Moses is a "quality time" kind of kid... I had to think hard about that... No, I think he's a quality-quantity kind of kid... i.e. very intense at this time! I have intentionally spent good snuggle time and reading time with Moses, hoping to see him demonstrating less insecurity... no immediate results! (yes, I know over time it'll pay off, but as ...

It's an eternal goal to get a photo of my kids, or, in my even WILDER imagination, a new family photo... ;-P Well, here's one! Too bad I had to sit them in front of a movie to get them to sit still enough to get them all in the same shot! ;-P They watched The Amy Carmichael Story - a 30 minute animation by Christian History Institute about that amazing missionary woman - if you don't know her story, you should read about her! Amazing and inspiring!

http://www.christianalliancefororphans.org/cafo-white-paper/

Noah and Fortunate having fun I have spent the last five weeks in the home mostly. Making sure that I'm home every time that Moses is home. We've had some very interesting times of adjustment and as this amazing kid takes everything in stride, he also has been trying on different things. Now he's on to crying about little things like Ana does. Makes a mama struggle since I'm 90% sure he's crying because he forgot to take his shoes off before his pants and now his pant leg is stuck, but maybe, just maybe, he's crying about something greater than that and I'm just not understanding... His (and our) language is coming along well - although, we're still struggling with basic communication, let alone more complex topics! Josh playing football with the guys (Moses in the "smart" orange polo). We finally ventured to Home of Love as a whole family yesterday. We (I?) were a little worried about how he would react and whether that would cause even m...

After months of waiting for the “next step” and weeks of chasing paperwork and juggling schedules of the very busy local child-welfare official and our social worker (who is the administrator for ACTION Gulu AND the head social worker at Home of Love AND just finishing his last term of a degree program!)… it looks like tomorrow might be bring-Moses-home day! Praise God! Our kids have been pretty good about “when Moses joins our family.” I was worried that the constant waiting and unknown might be difficult. But they’re missionary kids. All the younger two have ever known is the uncertainty of being missionaries – when will we go to Uganda? When will we go to the USA? When will we see Mimi again? Our concern also extends to the other children at Home of Love. Moses is the first adoption at Home of Love. The children have seen other children reunited with extended family members when the home situation became stable enough. But they have never seen one of their own be taken i...