Shoes for Orphans in Africa

Thank you to all of you who supplied items and those of you who were able to give 2 hours of your Sunday evening to make shoes for orphans in Africa.

We learned of the plight of the jigger, a sand flea, that lays it's eggs under the toes and in the sole of the feet for those who don't have clean environments nor shoes to protect them.
The jiggers grow, multiply, and burrow their way deep into the feet making it difficult and painful to walk to school. Sole Hope is the organization we partnered with to help provide protection,
while they take the shoes we prepared, get local Africans to sew them together for a fair wage, provide education on how to prevent/treat jiggers, and why Jesus cares for them.

We had 14 people help cut 240 pieces of fabric or plastics to make 20 pairs of shoes last night in just 2 hours! And we have many more supplies to have another Shoe-cutting party in 2013.


Here are some photos from last night's gathering – our kids helped too!

 

 

The Disney reveal and adventure

So one of the exciting things about being a parent is sharing in the joy of the newness with your child. Whether your child is biological, a foster child, or you're an adoptive family, there's new experiences together and sometimes new feats for the very first time for your child – no matter what age they come to you as. Though our foster son is seven years old, we have enjoyed many of his firsts with him like roller skating, learning how to swim, carving pumpkins, being active in a church, hay rides, roller coasters, visiting local attractions like corn mazes, Stone Mountain, and now the greatest fun – Disney World!

With all the fun and exciting newness also comes the many firsts that sadden your heart along this journey. Your child passing the year mark of a trauma-versary or being in foster care for a year. The first year of celebrating holidays with the only family your child had known before coming into care and five families in the foster system before you. New seasons are always a reminder of your adoptive or foster child's past and pain, but many new great memories can be made too.

We wanted to reveal our trip to Disney to the boys in a special way. We had decided to purchase punched-out letters at the Dollar Store that spell out the word. Each day they had good behavior we would reward them with a letter which they would use to unscramble the surprise. We quickly realized that this month wasn't the best time to reward good behavior with earning of letters, because good behavior wasn't going to show it's face too often from our foster son. After all, past anniversaries and future adoption realizations are all coming into play – all of which can trigger emotional breakdowns. So we simply began handing them letters, earned or not, to keep a positive focus on the surprise for a moment or so. Nine days before we were to leave for our trip, the boys had all 15 letters to spell out Walt Disney World. It took a few clues from us to get the 45 min. unscramble process moving along so we could still make bedtime at a decent hour. Once they got it, they got it, and with much excitement. Then, like typical children, they thought we were leaving right then. They weren't too thrilled about having to wait nine whole days! I wish I could post the video of the reveal.

A family trip to Disney with young ones can be just as exciting as it is exhausting because of the full day of energy expected from everyone. So we had some expected issues, but nothing we couldn't handle in public and nothing like the five difficult days prior to our leaving.

Lots of wonderful memories were made together and our foster son believes it was all SO magical! From the princesses (who I caught him checking out because they are pretty) to Mickey, he was enthralled. Our bio son is 15 months older and very literal so he was quick to tell our other son the truth about magic not being a reality. But we asked him to let his brother believe in it, enjoy it, if only for a short while. He hasn't had many opportunities to dream big and believe big like a child should, and so, we agree, it's magical.

To watch him act like an innocent child just melted my heart. To see him get excited that Mickey Mouse himself left us a voice mail on our hotel room phone, acknowledge that Mickey must have felt special that we visited him in person twice, get autographs/pictures with the pretty princesses (his favorite being Snow White), pretend to be a Star Wars character while dressed in costume and sword fighting while running through the parks, and sob uncontrollably when he believed Mickey was getting hurt when he was fighting the evil guys were all tender moments. We treasure these tender moments because it's in these times we can smile along with him or hold him when he was deeply sad. There were moments where we heard sweet giggles coming from the back seat. There were moments like the time I saw our foster son put his arm around our bio son just because they're brothers and buddies, and they love one another.

Thank you Disney, for a great trip for a family who is loving one another through the difficult and better days to teach there is such things like magic and simple joys of childhood. 

Overwhelming response for first Orphan Care gathering

So thrilled our fellow SHC families showed up on a recent Sunday evening. Not only did 40+ people and their children they mark their spot in a chair with a warm body, but we got to hear their hearts and passion that God has already been stirring in their lives for His vulnerable children.
We had younger couples, couples who had been married for longer seasons, single people, and staff all come together to begin a great community for this movement to make a difference. They heard testimonies from us, the Smiths, and a church staff person on how God brought us on this adoption journey.

One of the Smith's girls playing with the colorful prayer reminder clothespin dolls 20+ SHC families painted.

There are 14.7 million orphans worldwide. That means each clothespin doll Andy and Lea Smith, and us, Kelly and Steve Hopkins, are holding here represents 14,700 children who don't have parents who can care for them.

Steve setting up the technological side of things for our meeting. Yes, we even found him high on a ladder pulling wires to get the connections just right. I love my I.T. nerd.

Our dear friend Lea and her daughter detailing out the ministry's purpose and plans to put feet to it. 

We hope they left feeling encouraged, excited, and with eyes wide open for how God will continue to orchestrate things perfectly to bring them along His plans for living out James 1:27 in their lives.
And the food ... yes, Southern Baptists pride themselves on the incredible food we share when we get together.

We worked together to put a list of already generating ideas we can do in order to make a difference under one of our three focal areas.

Sugar Hill's Orphan Care ministry is about three small things for the one big thing – the orphan.
1 • We are having gatherings each month to emphasize Community in our church where families can get together and play at the park together, or lean on each other for support and encouragement while we each care for the orphan in our own ways.
2 • We will also help families by giving them Tools & Resources for those who may be on the journey to adopt or already parenting children from hard places
3 • And we will get our hands dirty by serving the needs of these children through various Missions projects 

God calls us all to care for the orphan and the widow. Does that mean it looks the same for everyone? No. What it does mean is we can all do something. You may be a single person, a high school student, an older couple who finally has that empty nest, or a family whose house is already full – but we can all make a difference for those children who need safe, loving families together.