Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Giving To Others.


Crazy week here in the Shubin house - lots of changes - new schedules - a new normal - grateful for the grace and peace of an everlasting King.

Lately I've been wrestling through several things. I'm fairly certain this is a season in life I'm just going to wrestle through. When I get to the other side I may share here but for now I'm wrestling with my Jesus by my side and clinging to His promises.

It seems that in those times of hard wrestling our greatest joys come from spending time at the feet of Jesus, serving others, loving on others, pouring out on my kids, and its in this "season" that I realize my struggles pale in comparison to the issues my brothers and sisters in Africa face on a daily basis.

My precious never-met-in-real-life friend Mandie Joy always blesses my heart. One day I will meet this sweet sister. She always posts blogs I need to hear. Recently her
gratitude posts have been good reminders for me. I decided a couple weeks ago to start a 1000 Gifts journal - I ordered a special journal just for my writings. Thank you Ann Voskamp for that inspiration.

In keeping with giving to others I want to highlight a few opportunities for you.


First an update on the shirt sales and helping with the drought in Africa. Through the shirts purchased by some of YOU we've been able to donate over $200 to Glimmer Of Hope to aid in helping ministries ALREADY on the ground in Ethiopia and Somalia! AMAZING!!! THANK YOU!!

Having been down the adoption fund raising road I can't tell you enough what an incredible gift it is to have people walking with you. Linking arms with you as you fight to bring your child/children home. Knowing that your child/children is/are so loved by not only you and your family but all kinds of people you've never even met. People who pray, encourage, and give to make paying the large sum of money to bring them home. There is incredible joy to be able to watch God work in such an incredible way.

The other day we were working on
Zahra's puzzle (yes I'm still working on finishing it up so we can frame it) and Silas asked me if people loved him so much to help bring him home like they did Zahra. This stopped me in my tracks. I've heard many people say "what will you tell this child whom others helped pay for"? Aside from that being an incredibly RUDE way to put it I saw it in a whole new light, through the eyes of my six year old son. I wasn't sure how to delicately share with him that God used other circumstances financially to help bring him home. I decided not to go into it too much and just told him that he was SO loved and SO prayed for. I think its a POSITIVE to allow others to be apart of a story that is SO much bigger then ourselves.

That said I've got several fund raising friends and I want to give you all an opportunity to BLESS them and be apart of some of these stories should you feel led. :)

Many of you purchased cookie cutters from us here and here. Many of you have written asking if I still have any and unfortunately I don't. BUT......guess what?! You can get your hands on them AGAIN over here AND help bring precious Caleb home forever! Hurry cause they are going quick!

Check out my friend Sarah's
Blog they are having an online auction to raise funds to bring their sweet one home from China! There is lots of great stuff to bid on!

Then there is this cute family. Also fund raising but quite possibly one of the most unique fund raisers I've seen. This
mama wrote an e-photography course to raise funds for their adoption! Check it out!!

1 comment:

Angela Braniff said...

Thank you so much for sharing our fundraiser on your blog!!!! How very sweet of you <3