Taking a stab at it

I think I'm going to go in to screenplay writing. My first movie is going to be a horror film about a family with three kids ages 4 and under living out a day without baby wipes. I know. Scary stuff.

My second film will be a mothers journey to try and convince her baby to tell her where she hid her grocery money. We'll laugh, we'll cry... ultimately, we may end up killing ourselves. That's good cinema.

A Lifesong Update!

Lives Are Being Transformed!

“I remember the first time I saw Vanya because there was something different about him. Yes, he was the only black kid in the orphanage, but more than that, there was something about his eyes that intrigued me.

“Vanya is a smart kid.” Denis, our director, told us. “He was abandoned as a newborn. His parents were students at the university and he is very smart.”

I smiled at him and he smiled back. His outgoing personality was evident as he tried his hand at English. I met a lot of kids at that summer camp in 2004, but Vanya is the one I remember."

-Marla Ringger, Orphan Advocate

Vanya, then 13, was just learning the power of Christ’s love in his life. Recently Lifesong for Orphans had started a program at his home in Sachnovsheena Orphanage. And though Vanya resisted the Gospel at first, through the examples of volunteers and staff members, Biblical mentorship, and educational support he began to see Christ’s love in action, and knew this was something he wanted for himself.

Now at 19, Vanya continues to rise above standards and expectations. He lives in one of Lifesong’s Transition Homes in Kharkov, a home designed to support those aging out of the orphanage system, studies English at the local college, translates for Americans who come to visit, and mentors younger boys at the orphanage in the same way the Lifesong staff once mentored him!

We praise God for success stories like Vanya’s and are thankful for our partners who continue to support those like him both financially and in prayer!

 

Vanya from Lifesong for Orphans on Vimeo.

O_O THAT mom

About a month ago, I got to go to Old Navy and get some new clothes. All the shirts I had were either from highschool (Football champs of WHAT year?!) or they fit a body I didn't have anymore. I got some really cute stuff off of the clearance racks and pretty much got a whole new wardrobe. I was pumped. Keep that in mind. Pumped.

You know how sometimes you'll be out and you see someone -usually an older lady- who looks like she used some children's dress up make up to get ready that morning? Her BRIGHT blue eyeshadow is CAKED on in all the wrong places. Her BRIGHT pink blush is in perfect circles in the wrong spot on her cheeks.

You know the type.

Well, I was at Hobby Lobby with my 3 small children. We're a travelling circus just for that fact, but hang with me here...

As we're walking in, I notice an older lady. She's not elderly by any means, but older than me. She's probably in her 60s and she's taken care of herself. She looks at me with her perfectly styled white hair and we lock eyes just long enough to realize... we're wearing the same shirt. ::sigh:: While I wanted to get out of my high school and college t shirts, grandmother really wasn't the look I was going for.

I'm stewing about it while I'm getting the stuff I need - not that she had the shirt, but at the fact that I obviously don't know how to pick clothes for myself, but the rest of my family is dressed to the nines. We're int he store for maybe 30 minutes. In that brief time, we struck up conversations with about 6 different people. Some were accosted by my children wanting to show them every item on the shelves. Some were just in line to check out and commented on the baby.

I get out to the car - exhausted. Just being in a huge store with THOUSANDS of breakable things while kids are in tow drains me of all available energy stores. I'm trying to pull out of the parking lot and I happen to glance up in the mirror. THIS is the part where that make up scenario comes in to play. Yes. I was THAT lady. I looked like I had put my clown make up on in the dark. I'm HORRIFIED. I tried wiping it off in the car, but by that time we were on our way home! The damage was done! I'm not sure who I feel worse for - me or the kids who call me Mom.