I Won! and other stuff...

I entered a raffle that my dear on-line friend Andrea offered on her blog to raise money for their home study and I won a coffee maker!

They are beginning the process to adopt their third child from Ethiopia and this time it's going to be a daughter. They are an amazing adoptive family. God willing, I hope to meet Andrea in person some day. I have been following her blog for a long time now and she is a huge inspiration to me.

God has been doing some really cool things in our lives recently. In fact, Andrea's raffle confirmed something for me in a very unique way. I wish I could tell more but I need to wait a little bit longer before I can share on-line.

In other news, our family was asked to staff the Compassion International (CI) table last night at a Peder Eide concert in town. Peder led the worship at the Summit I attended last spring and I love his music. Peder is a spokesperson for CI and an adoptive parent. This is his adoption story. We share a lot of things in common with Peder, so we had a fun conversation sharing our hearts and life experiences with each other.

Then, remember when I posted a while back about a little girl in Haiti that could use some prayers? I have a friend there who was trying to rescue her from a life of slavery. I had not heard from him for a while, so I was starting to worry.

Yesterday, I finally received an email from him with the day by day account of his life this past week. He was able to successfully rescue her. Praise God!!

However, as soon as she was legally in his custody, he became homeless and struggled for 2 nights until he found a place for them to settle. This was the first of many mountains he needs to climb in the near future. He has very limited resource and he has had a lot of friends turn their backs on him. The conditions are so devastating in Haiti, no one wants to help or get involved because they have enough problems of their own.

Please continue to pray for him and this sweet little girl who now has a better future a head of her but still much to overcome. Pray that God will continue to provide. Pray that God will bring a "mother" into her life very soon - she is approaching puberty. My friend needs to return to the US to take care of some business, so pray that God will provide a safe place for his daughter to stay until he can return. Please pray that God will bring people along side my friend to help out and not judge his decision to save this sweet girl's life.

He travelled to Haiti with plans to help orphanages. But God had other plans for him. The enemy told him, this is just one little girl, why pour all your time and resources into saving just one? But to my friend, she was not just another little girl and he wasn't going to sit and watch her get sold into slavery. To him, this girl was a child of God, here for a purpose, a life different than forced slavery. She now has a better chance at living out what God's purpose is for her life.

The statistics of child slavery are staggering, especially since the earthquake. There have been at least 2000 children sold into slavery in Haiti since the earthquake. Sweet "B" was rescued from becoming a statistic. She may be only one child but she is one less child that will be a victim of this horrible crime. And to my friend, her life was worth fighting for. Praise God for her life!

Please pray for the 1.2 million children around the world who are forced into human trafficking EACH year. I have a lot more to say about human trafficking and ways you can help coming in a blog post very soon.