A Beautiful Puzzle

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction" James 1:27

"Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause." Isaiah 1:17

These are just a a couple of verses in the bible that instruct us to care for the orphan and the widow. THIS Saturday is our Both Hands Project! It’s finally here! Lance and I, along with a team of about 22 of our friends and family, will live out these words and spend our day serving Ms. Bernice, the widow of a veteran in our local community. We will be working on her home doing cleaning, painting, organizing, landscaping and other tasks. None of this would be possible without the help of our local House of Heroes who is providing much of our supplies! This is one “hand” serving the widow!

With the other “hand” we are serving the orphans... our orphans and soon to be daughters! We are are raising sponsorship for our team's day of work (much like people raise sponsorship for running a marathon or playing in a golf tournament), and 100% of all the funds raised go directly to bringing K, K and R home from !ndia. Right now we owe our adoption agency $20,000 and we also need about $10,000-12,000 for travel expenses. This project is one of our biggest opportunities to knock out a large portion of these funds. We have sent out hundreds of letters and made dozens of posts online. We are trusting God to faithfully provide all we need. He’s got this!

I have been brought to tears more than once just this morning as I have considered how much God has already done for our family and how blessed we have been by those who have supported us in this adoption journey. What I love about this Both Hands Project is the fact that the focus isn’t just on our family, but a large part of the focus is on serving Ms. Bernice. I am humbled to be able to serve alongside so many wonderful people and to make a small difference in her life. I am praying that she is blessed by our efforts and that she senses God’s love and provision for her.

I’ve been putting together a puzzle I had picked out when we began fundraising. It is a beautiful HDR image of the Taj Mahal. We are putting names of people and families who have supported us on the back of the puzzle pieces.When I ordered that puzzle I read that it was 2,000 pieces, but it wasn’t until I started to put the edges together that I realized just how BIG this puzzle is. It’s so big I didn’t really have a surface to put it on except for our massive, square coffee table. Once I got all the edges pieced together I had a better idea of how big this sucker was, but I still didn’t know how beautiful it really was until I started filling in more of the middle... the hard parts. 

As we have walked this road of adoption over the last year, I have realized there are way bigger things going on with this than just our family growing or helping orphans. These are just small pieces of the puzzle, and just like this puzzle, when we began this adoption we knew it would be life changing but until we started seeing the pieces come together we had no idea how big and how beautiful this process was. I’m finding odd little pieces of this puzzle that I never expected to be there, but they fit so perfectly! God can see the completed puzzle. He knows every piece and he knows who is involved with every piece.

So, as I sit here with tears in my eyes at the beautiful providence of God all around me, let me ask you this: Are YOU a piece of our puzzle? Are YOU a piece of a different puzzle? Has God  been gently or maybe not so gently tugging at your heart about something? Maybe you know deep down that it’s more than just a thought or a hope or a dream... it’s Him and you know it like you know your own name. What’s holding you back from saying “Yes” to following Jesus? Is it selfishness? Pride? Fear? Doubt? Let me encourage you, Christian... saying “Yes” to following Jesus (whatever that may look like in your life) will NEVER be something you regret. It may bring you pain and hardship, but it will also bring you JOY and PEACE and HOPE and LOVE! His puzzle for His bride is always beautiful... maybe not in the way that the world sees beauty, but let me assure you, it is the most beautiful thing you will witness this side of eternity. Say yes! Do that something that you can do in the name of the One who will empower you to do it!

If you happen feel that God is leading you to be a part of our puzzle by supporting us through prayer or giving, then please visit our Both Hands Project Page. Soon we will have a video of our project day to share. Everyone who sponsors our team (in a big way or small way) will get their name on the back of one of our puzzle pieces. I can't wait to have it all put together so I can stare at the back. Ha!

Please feel free to share this blog post or our BH page! (((Hugs)))

Until next time! -K