As a mom with 3 young kids, living in super-hot Houston Texas, swimming is a necessity. I spend a lot of time running around in my swim suit.

You know what? I don’t think people are surprised the day they see me in my swimsuit to find out I’m a bit chubby. My regular clothes aren’t exactly a size “small”…or “medium”…or even always a “large”.

All this to say, I’ve made it down from 183 lbs to 166… and I kinda got stuck @ 166.6.
So I was very glad today to see 166.2.

I was afraid I might have to get Shipley’s to escape the 666!

Everyday, Arabella would talk about Vanessa, and at each school party, they would beg to get together outside school.

When Arabella is with Vanessa, she doesn’t have special needs. She is a peer. Vanessa’s high expectations are better than any therapy. Arabella’s self-care skills improve leaps & bounds. It is a beautiful thing to watch.

Back in 2009, Vanessa asked me if Holden (my son without Down syndrome) was adopted….because he looked different from Arabella & Darin (Darin is adopted). We explained Down syndrome and she said she knew, her mom told her, but you could tell it didn’t matter to her.

Vanessa also told me that at Kindergarten Graduation, people thought she & Arabella were twins.

Four years have passed. Arabella and Vanessa go to different schools, and live 30 mins apart. Sometimes I worry Vanessa will outgrow her friendship with Arabella, while Arabella still adores her.

But that’s not my choice. So when Arabella asks (or when she asks everyday), I eventually initiate with Vanessa’s mom, to arrange a playdate. It’s up to Vanessa to determine if she’s outgrown Arabella.

This weekend, Vanessa came to spend the night…and the bond was as awesome as ever. Vanessa wrote “Arabella is my best friend” on a coloring page & read the things Arabella couldn’t understand to her. And they made Camp Rock reference & talked about Justin Beiber.

It brought joy to Arabella. It brought joy to me.

As the weekend ended, Vanessa said, “Arabella wouldn’t like to go to my school.”
I said, “Why?”
She said, “They have a separate room for them. And they are very mean to them. They yell at them.”

I knew who she meant. I knew she had encountered the “other” view of kids like Arabella.

So, I told her that most schools had those rooms. But that I didn’t let them put Arabella in there…
That I fought for her to be in a class with kids like Vanessa.

And I was filled with hope.
Because Vanessa will never be a mom, a teacher, an aunt, a friend who ignores the oppression of a person with Down syndrome.

She has truly known Arabella as a friend with Down syndrome.

Have you ever wondered, “How can (this problem) be solved?”?

Over & over, I am learning the answer: One simple step at a time!

——————
I was invited to be a part of HUGE but simple solution yesterday, and I am spinning with joy today!

Problem:
International adoption is expensive! In addition to travel cost, the government & social work costs are very high.

Solutions:

• For kids with Down syndrome, a partial solution has existed for several years called Reece’s Rainbow. It is a website that helps people work together to adopt kids with Down syndrome by creating an adoption account that people can donate or fundraise to before & while the child is waiting to be found by their forever family.
  This system helps families to enter the adoption process with a much lower personal cost.

If the adoption account has donations…

That’s why it is a partial solution.

Here’s the AMAZING idea that was started yesterday!

• A Facebook group called Ransoming Angels!
  This group will unite 2500 people to fully fund 1 Reece’s Rainbow child per month. By each person contributing $10/month, we can clear the financial barriers to international adoption for a specific child each month!

With the combined efforts of Reece’s Rainbow & Ransoming Angels, we can open doors!

Ransoming Angels has 461 members in 2 days… Consider joining us to get 2500 members & fully fund our first adoption!

We can change the world, one child at a time!

It brings fresh hope, that you can change a thing or two, that progress can be made, or lack of progress can be erased & pursued anew.

If you (like me) don’t have a specific resolve, I encourage you to add one simple task to form into a habit:

Count blessings.

For ideas, check A Holy Experience or read One Thousand Gifts.

It will bring you joy in the common-place, thankfulness in what you already experience: life.

It has transformed me.

Redeemed Ministries is a group of Christians trying to bring hope, rescue, & redemption to the lives of victims of commercial sex trafficking.

I first heard of them in 2009.
Honestly, I was so intimidated by the problem of human slavery (human trafficking), I was scared to go to Redeemed’s orientation meeting.
I was afraid I would be expected to have ideas, or a plan. So I didn’t go.

I finally made it in February 2011.

What I learned was heartbreaking. Houston is full of spas/brothels/massage parlors with enslaved women being forced to perform sexual acts!

There are more factors working to keep the spas in business, than assistance to escape.

But Redeemed is working to change that.
We are an army of volunteers trying to light the path of escape, then trying to be Christ’s arms around them as they make a new life.

Join us!
We meet to organize the 2nd Saturday of every month.

Over the past week, I’ve finished Hunger Games books 1 & 2 late at night, and found myself driven to prayer.

Because while post-apocalyptical stories can be crazy & exaggerated, Hunger Games has driven me back to The Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers. Mark of the Lion is historical fiction set in a Roman culture of sending people into the arena to feed appetites for extreme entertainment. That really happened.

Are we really so far from that?

I hope we are.

But I think it is helpful and smart to review the past, consider the possibilities in the future, and decide how we will live now.
——-

Hopefully not spoiling Hunger Games for anyone, I’m gonna tell you what my prayers have been.

Lord, what are the atrocities in my world that I’m overlooking?

Hunger Games is not the beginning of a story of oppression. It is an inspiring story of being fed up.

But prior to that…
In the 73 years that life went on while a small, palatable group of families had their lives ruined, there were tons of people thankful to not be touched by the oppression who did NOTHING.

So instead of just wondering about oppression in the world last night, I began to think about how smart the author of Hunger Games was in her design of this oppressive future.

The land is called Panem. It’s vaguely defined by regions, but each region is more defined by their contribution of resources (coal, food, etc). The name made me think of Pangea, the name given to the land mass of all our continents before they were separated by oceans. The entire world on 1 continent.

As oceans have become less of a barrier, we are functional one society. As the powerful democracy, we often define a country by their resources (oil, diamonds, etc).

Here are my questions:

When God reveals an atrocity to you/us, what is our response?

Do we hope it touches our life as little as possible, never hurting MY children?

Or do we admit that it is touching SOMEONE’s children, and that should end?

I think mine is $10. I’m a sucker for believing, hoping, that pitching in $10 will add up to $1,000′s.

So, A Perfect Lily is doing another giveaway to raise money for a child with Down Syndrome in need of adoption.

His name is Brent.

If you give $10 to help Brent be adopted, you are entered in the giveaway.

If $10 is within your budget, please help Brent.

You know I did! I’m excited for a chance to win that silver necklace!

Friday, during my sick timewasting, Joel told me about Facebook timeline. It’s kinda addictive. It combines photos & chronology which I love.

As I sorted through pictures on Facebook, correcting the dates on each album (so it appears in the right spot on my life’s Timeline!), I tagged this picture I uploaded 2 years ago:

This is the group that helped us get the BSM building ready for Basilica’s public launch in September 2006.

The comments from the “tagged” people warmed my heart, the 1st being my favorite:

It was nice to share these feelings as we prepared to see a large group of our former Basilica members today, as Joel preached at Covenant Community Church.
——

So I guess this was filling my mind as I slept, because I dreamt about today last night. Of course, the church location in my dream was different, and, as with all dreams, out of context people were there.

But the close of the dream was AWESOME.

I was introduced as being Joel’s wife, and the closing of our church was alluded to.
Then I witnessed my own internal dialogue in response:
“80% of churches fail within the first 2 years. Basilica made it 3 years, but we did not have a healthy, sustainable body.
So we closed. And were able to be Organ Donors, sending strong members, into other churches, like Covenant.”

The wonderful, mature families that came out of Basilica are a huge source of motherly pride for me! I am so proud of them. But I had never thought of it like organ donation before this dream.
Now I’m even more proud, that Basilica was, and that we were able to fail TO THE GLORY OF GOD.
—–

I was still contemplating my dream as we headed to Covenant Community Church Pearland this morning.

It was a surreal-ly peaceful worship service for me.
1. I got to see some of my favorite families:

• The Cowarts
• The Fosters
• The Fisks
• The LaCazes
• The Morkins
• The Parks
• The Von Kanels
• The Willis
• Marissa Stephens

2. I got to meet baby Matthew Foster & hold him during the sermon.

3. My husband preached an awesome sermon, pulling together several areas of the Bible in a glorious way.

It’s nice to get some clear hindsight.

The Glorious Beards of Basilica