a forever home for Christmas

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. -James 1:27

I have been smitten with the beauty of adoption for years. I knew some people adopting babies from China when I had just had my second son. My heart was enlarged that year, and I have never really been the same since. 

Someday I hope we are able to adopt a child ourselves, but as we wait for doors to open, I look for opportunities to help others who are adopting now.

I look for those opportunities because I can't fathom a world where the gospel can't meet our spiritual need for adoption. I once was lost, but now am found. I was a child of sin, but Christ's redemptive power made me a daughter of the King of kings. 

God did not rest until He sent His Son to bring me home to Him.

Until the estimated 147 million orphans in the world have a forever home, I don't think God will rest, and neither should we, His church. 

And so, as I thought of what I wanted for Christmas, my heart kept arriving at the doorstep of my best friend Melissa's home. Melissa and her husband, Brett, are in the process of adopting two children from Ethiopia. It will cost almost $50,000 for them to bring those two sweet children home. Since Brett and Melissa don't have an extra $50,000 lying around, they are raising the funds themselves.

Brett, Melissa, me, and Mr. Fantastic with our littlest ones last year.

Brett and Melissa are two of the best parents I have ever known. I have watched their hearts grow to love two more children, and they haven't even seen photos of their babies yet. Those two sweet babies need to come get their fill of that love from their parents!

So, all I want for Christmas is for my friends to bring their children home.

Someday, when I gaze into the faces of those precious two, who will at last belong to a family of their own, my heart will fill with exuberant joy at the thought that I helped them to get here.

Honestly, I have all I really need, and most of what I really want already. My life is practically polluted with material blessings, and certainly my soul needs more true religion, more joy, more love, more of God's heart.

If you feel like I do, you can go check out Brett and Melissa's blog, anothertoasterstrudel.com, where you can donate to their fund or buy coffee and other super cute apparel and jewelry to help them. Or you can search the web for one of the other adoption organizations that would love to help you feed and care for orphans or help other families adopt. There are lots of people out there doing amazing things for orphans.

When Christmas feels overdone, when you can't really remember all that you got last year, when the thought of "more" makes your heart lose a little of the joy you want to feel at this special time of year, look to give to someone or some cause that makes your heart sing.

You won't regret it. In fact, you will probably treasure the joy of it all year long. And what sparkly thing, or new gadget can compare to that?