Celebrate Life!

Isaiah 1:17 Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's case. I just added a new button to my blog page. It's the "November is National Adoption Month" button. I have a long list of blogs that I read each morning as I drink my coffee. All of the blogs I read, give me a little something to carry along with me during my day. All the women who write them are amazing authors. I feel as though we are friends in some way, even though we have never met in person. They invite me into their lives each day, and for that I am honored. A majority of the women are mother's of children they have adopted. Adoption hits home to me, because our family began many years ago, through the love of an amazing woman who adopted my great grandmother. My great-great grandmother died during my great grandmother's delivery. Tragically, she never even held her beautiful daughter in her arms. Back in those days, it was the first choice to have someone else in the family take the child in as their own and raise them. My great-grandmother's aunt stepped up and took the role as mother in her life. She went through the proceedings and adopted my great-grandmother as her own. She was to be an only child. From that selfless act of her adopted mother, my great grandmother was able to live a life filled with love and opportunity. My great-grandmother, who we ALWAYS called Hortense, because no one dare call her grandma, would go on to marry my grandfather. (A truly awesome love story for another blog on another day.) They had one daughter...Gwendola. Gwendola would go on to fall in love with Arthur Lawrence Miller. They married and had five children. Their first born was my mother, Charlotte. Our family grew in multitudes, and so did our love for Hortense. She was the queen of our family, literally. For her 80th birthday celebration...we crowned her queen of the family. She had a throne and everything. Hortense was a true symbol of love, hope and strength in our family...because of the love, hope and strength that her adopted mother showed her. Adoption does not hit home in my immediate family unit, with my own children, but it hits home close enough. It is where our family started... It is a treasure to be able to read and peek inside the lives of all these amazing bloggers and their journey down the road of adoption. Some are hard winding roads at times, but each road seems to take them to the same place...straight to their heart filled with the love of a child. The selfless act of adoption is one that can only come straight from the heart of God. I commend each and every family that has traveled through the adoption journey and encourage them to not give up, until their heart is full with the love of that one particular child that God has picked out just for them. I am currently reading Choosing to See by Mary Beth Chapman. http://marybethchapman.com/ If you haven't read this book yet...stop reading this blog, click on the link or go out and buy it! Amazing! Her and her husband, along with their three biological children, decided...with God's gently nudging, to adopt three beautiful little Chinese girls. (not at the same time) Their journey of hope and love makes me want to run out and fill out the necessary paperwork and begin my own journey. I am half way through the book and I have already cried (no shock there), laughed and celebrated with her as she experienced a love so undescribable. What a privelege to be able to share in her "love revelation". Thank You Mary Beth! With all of this said...I choose to celebrate November as National Adoption Month. I am "thankful" to all of the families that have chosen LIFE and LOVE through adoption. Go ahead and celebrate life...this is your month! If you have a story you would like to share about your own adoption journey...please email me. I would like you to be a guest author on my blog this month. If you are contemplating or praying about adoption...be blessed and let God lead the way. To all of you who have adopted and already shared your journey with me...Thank You! For more information on adoption go to this link: http://showhope.org/ To get button for your blog page, click on my adoption button. Psalm 127:3 Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. Psalm 92:4 For you make me glad by your deeds, O Lord. I sing for joy at the works of your hands.

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