Julie here… Ten years ago I took my first overseas mission trip to Russia to work at a two week camp for orphans. I sometimes wonder what my life would be like now if I had never taken that trip. That trip changed me to my core. I don’t know who’d I’d be today without my nine overseas trips to work with orphans. I remember times of pure joy on those trips. I also remember hundreds of faces that have been seared into my soul. I tear up when I think of crying children and teens as their buses pulled away to take them back to their parent-less institutions. It wasn’t fair that their parents were bums or alcoholics or dead. It wasn’t fair that they had to grow up without feeling loved or wanted. It wasn’t right for me to go over there for two weeks and give hugs and love and then return home to my happy life and feel good about what I had done for them… and then leave it at that. It’s cliche to say that the kids gave me so much more than what I gave them… but it’s true.
It almost makes me sad to think of letters I received seven years after one of my first trips. A seventeen year old boy named Dima wrote to me saying I was still his big sister and he missed and loved me terribly… he still thinks of our times together… I met Dima once for two weeks when he was twelve and saw him one more time for an hour when he was thirteen. Am I really one of his happiest life memories? As flattering as that may seem it makes me sad more than anything else… so… the plight of the orphan has become mine.
I do not consider it a charitable act that Alan and I are adopting two kids. I consider it an honor. Why some children (like myself and Alan) have wonderful parents and other don’t I’ll never fully understand. What I do understand is that we cannot sit aside and well-wish these children. EVERY CHILD deserves love and acceptance. It doesn’t matter where they come from or what their situation may be. It also shouldn’t matter if they are a “good” kid or not. I used to be so mad at the parents of these orphan children I met in Russia. Their kids where in institutions because they couldn’t get their act together… then God helped me realized that those parents were these kids 20 years earlier… any many of those kids I’d grown to love so much were going to become those parents. When we look at people who do bad things or have bad attitudes are we thinking about the root? Who didn’t love them well? It’s not to excuse their behaviors… but to make us think.
I have a friend who has been in prison for the last eleven years for killing his mother when he was sixteen. He’s 27 now and serving life. I ache for him. Should he have killed his mother? No, of course not. But should he have been abuse from birth and beat down to believe he was nothing? I’ve written, talked on the phone, and visited this man for the past nine years. I don’t say this to brag, but to make a point. We all know someone who is an orphan of sorts… and we can all do something about it. I think one of our biggest problems in the Christian world is that we care… but only for a little while. If I had taken an interest in this guy in prison for a few months… or even maybe a few years… then I would be like everyone else in his life… who eventually moves on because they are too busy. I don’t say this to make people feel guilty, but to encourage people to find those who need love and then give them stability. Be the one who sticks around for the long haul…
I’ve been ranting so I’ll stop now. Alan asked me to write something on the blog today… so their you have it… my plight…
Yes, this is a saw blade. “Danger & Wonder” 6×18 Medium: Metal & Wood. Suggested donation of $90 (blade is lifted up 2 inches from surface)
“Love Scars” 9×16 Medium: Metal & Wood. Suggested donation of $80
“Open the door” Medium: Metal knob on Wood 16×24. Suggested donation of $150
“A framed land” 14.5×14.5 Medium: Wood. Suggested donation of $130
“Africhaos”16×20 Medium: Double canvas, acrylic on newsprint, & wire. Suggested donation of $160
“Truth of Love” Two 11×14 canvases. Suggested donation of $120
Men’s Large, Suggested Donation $20
Men’s Medium, Suggested Donation $20
“Divided/United” 16×20 SOLD
“Shades of Heart” 16×20 SOLD
“Faces of Love” 11×14 Suggested Donation: $75
Google and my friends tell me this is an amazing continent filled with beauty & filth, brokenness & wonder. 
