I'm listening

My kids ran into my room at 6 something this morning yelling, "Jackson is throwing up !" I had the stomach bug earlier this week and Jonathan had it Sunday. So it was with more than a little reluctance that I peeled my nice warm covers off and headed down the hall to Jack's room. A disaster of epic proportions awaited me there. I'll spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say I didn't slip back into my warm bed until 40 minutes and a huge garbage bag filled with soaked sheets etc later.

I checked my phone to see if I had any important emails from the night before...noticed one from a friend and clicked on it. I skimmed sleepily through a few paragraphs and then read the end of her email with a lump in my throat. She asked me about the Angel Tree project on Reece's Rainbow...I had requested Kacey at the start of the season, but happily she found a family before the Angel Tree started. I asked Andrea Roberts to suggest a child who was heavy on her heart -it was too hard for me to pick just one. She suggested a little sweetie whom I already had on my heart, and I was assigned Darla. Last week Michelle Z emailed to tell me Darla's family is working to bring her back home now. I told Michelle that morning sickness has overwhelmed me; and after all we just helped raise ten thousand dollars for little Celine last month...I thought I would just take a break from raising money and awareness for one particular child this Christmas season and just concentrate on things here at home.


But God....


At the end of my friend Elissa's email was a little paragraph that seemed to jump out at me. Her Angel Tree child is Nanette, a beautiful little girl with Down syndrome who has always stood out to me. Elissa is trying her best to raise $1,000 for Nanette, but it's been slow going without any big prize incentives.

I felt a tug on my heart...


I clicked back on my inbox and saw a message that had come in - I kid you not - five minutes before Elissa's email. It was from my dear friend Kelly Dirkes, and she asked me to share a post she had written. Want to guess who it was about ??

Dear God: I'm listening.

I can take a hint.




Here's an excerpt from Kelly's blog... (and you can go HERE to read the rest.)

Nanette wasn’t in Charlotte’s groupa at the baby house.  She was in the smaller groupa for children who needed more one on one support.  The director and therapists told us (and other families who came after us) that she had a “hard” form of Down Syndrome.  She was developing at a slower rate than the other children with the same diagnosis.  To them, though, it did not matter.  Nanette was who she was.  She was loved and valued—weak heart, cognition challenges, and all.


Nanette was transferred at the end of September, and sent nearly 50 miles across the region to an institution.  Everything and everyone that she knows is gone.

Friends, I don't have any big prizes right now. But I am totally open to whatever God wants to do through Lily's blog to help save Nanette. My friends Elissa and Kelly have been shouting for people to hear- Nanette needs a family. Like yesterday. That beautiful little girl pictured above is in a place no child should go, and she needs our help.


If you have a nice big prize- or even some small ones - that you'd like to donate for a giveaway for Nanette, please contact me via email. If you would like to donate to Nanette's grant fund, you can click on the donation box on my sidebar here, which will link you directly to her grant fund on Reece's Rainbow. I'm setting a small goal of $1,000, but it sure would be nice to see Lily's readers set a record for giving to an orphan this Christmas.


Because you know what?

We're all overwhelmed. We all have responsibilities and needs and things that could pull us in a million different directions (hello, stomach flu, pregnancy, holidays, etc?!) but Nanette doesn't have anything. She has no one to care for her, and she has no future.

But we can change that together. Let's pray and share and donate and spread the word that Nanette needs a family.

*Special thanks to Elissa and Kelly and God for the nudge ;)