The Sparrow Fund: Have You Heard?

First things first, happy Mother's Day to all of you mom's out there. Today while I am celebrating and loving on my girls, my heart is heavy for all of those mom's who have lost children and all of the children who have lost moms.  There are so many orphans out there today....children who deserve moms. 

And in honor of this Mother's Day, I'd like to introduce you to my friend Kelly. Kelly is one cool mom who is doing some great things for the orphans of this world, and I asked her to share a guest post with you today. Read and enjoy. And then follow her blog and check out her nonprofit. You can thank me later. 

Forever changed by their experience of adoption, Kelly is a stay-at-home mom/manager to 4 children as well as a professional juggler, juggling her calling as wife and mother with editing professionally, administrating a website for encouraging adoptive families, and serving adoptive families through a nonprofit The Sparrow Fund. You can learn more about their adoption story, how they've been changed, and what life looks like at My Overthinking.

I remember the day we decided to adopt. We had talked about it for over a nearly 2 years. When I first brought it up to my dear husband, he thought I was crazy. We had 2 babies at the time--a 2 1/2 year old (who was more like a 1 year old) and a 9 month old (who was more like a 1 year old). Our hands were full. But, 2 years later, and a third baby later, Mark came home from work, came in the back door as I was cooking dinner, and looked right at me and said, "I think we need to do it. If we don't do it, I think we'd be disobedient." Woah. And, so the paperwork began and the doctors' appointments made and the background checks ordered and the checks from our bank account written. And, only a couple months later, the hardest part started--the wait.

And, wait we did. One day short of 3 years after that day my husband walked in our back door and told me we were going to be the parents of 4, we met our daughter Lydia in a smoky, dirty office that God miraculously made into holy ground. And, a funny thing happened. We were changed. We knew her life would change--totally change. She was an orphan living in an orphanage in a room with 40 cribs cared for by a staff of rotating ayis or nannies. She was leaving her home country, the language she knew, the babies who were as close to a family as she knew, everything familiar. Yes, her world changed. But, ours did too. And, nothing has looked the same since. 6 months after Lydia became our daughter, my husband told me he had an idea. He proceeded to tell me he felt called to do something big, way big, like start-a-nonprofit-from-nothing big, an organization to serve adoptive families. He told me how he believed adoptive families needed more support, that he wanted to make sure as many families as possible got the help they needed both before and after they adopted. I smiled, thought it sounded awesome, and thought there was no way we could do it. About 6 months after that, The Sparrow Fund officially launched. Since April of 2011, it's been quite a challenge figuring this non-profit thing out. But, all the late nights, computer time, and paperwork somehow becomes not that big of deal when we see pictures like this.

That’s Mazie. And, we got to play a small part of her coming on home to her family. She’s one of 11 children whose families we helped through a grant in 2011. 11 children whose lives have been changed. 11 families who have been changed. Now, that’s something to celebrate right there. Her mom emailed me a few weeks ago with this--

We wouldn't have adopted this sweet amazing beloved child without the medical review that Sparrow's Fund assisted with. There were just too many unknowns in her medical reports for us to feel comfortable proceeding with her adoption without a professional interpreting them for us. The medical evaluation that Sparrow's Fund paid for couldn't answer all our questions, but it did help us understand the reports that we were given, consider things that we hadn't even thought about before, and helped give us peace about proceeding with her adoption and the unknowns that remained. Thank you so very much Sparrow's Fund for being the Lord's hands here on Earth! Thank you for lifting the financial burden of the medical review and helping make the adoption of our Mazie Jade possible!

It’s now May, 5 months into 2012, and we’ve awarded 10 grants already, 10 grants for 10 families bringing home 15 children. Woah. This past month, we've seen something else amazing happen--59 small businesses learned about what we were doing and decided they wanted to be a part of it, and they have chosen to do that in a significant way this month, giving 10% (or in some cases more) of their total sales to The Sparrow Fund so that we can give grants to adoptive families so that they can get the help and support they need and provide quality training to help families in every season of their adoption journey. Would you please check these places out—find some new fave shops. Schedule a portrait session. Buy your mom a gift. Buy yourself a gift. Share your favorite items on your online spaces, and get the word out that these places support adoption. And, thank them for stepping out to do that in such a significant way. It’s a pretty big deal. I’m a bit wowed by it all—it's hard not to be. We aren't anyone extraordinary. We're just normal people, trying to join God in the work He's doing. And, I can’t wait to see how God multiplies that 10%, ‘cause I know He will.

Thank you, Kelly, for all you are doing to help assure that children all over the world are connected with their forever families. And thank you to the two little girls who have changed my heart for forever by making me a mom.