Dear Family and Friends,
Merry Christmas! We are excited to be in the USA to celebrate the Christmas holiday with my family but we are also missing all the fun we had in Romania last year delivering gifts to our foster children and praying over the babies in the hospital. Our Arms of Mercy worker in Oradea, Alina, sent me some awesome photos this week that she took of the babies she is caring for in the hospital. I couldn’t decide which ones to send because they were all so precious so I made them small and sent them all! Hope you don’t mind. I want to thank the many of you that financially support our ministry. Because of you, these precious babies are loved, properly clothed, and well fed this year. We couldn’t continue this without you! (I just want to fly back over there and kiss them all right now!)
Alina doing what she does best…..
I was recently contacted by a family that has a daughter who they adopted from Romania when she was two years old. She is now 17 years old and decided to do something this year to help the needy children in Romania. She did an outreach to gather toys and clothing and the photo below shows all the goods she collected. I was so touched by this young woman’s act of kindness and the essay she shared with me about the pride she has in being a free-spirited gypsy. She is a beautiful young woman with an obviously equally beautiful heart. Her family has paid to mail all of these items to our ministry where we will be distributing them once we return in February. What a praise to The Lord!
We would like to let you know that you can give a gift to someone by donating to our ministry. If you would like to donate in honor or memory of someone, please send a contribution along with the contact information of the person you are remembering and we will send a card letting them know of your contribution. If you do this on-line via PayPal, please email me to let me know you would like the card sent to or put it in the notes section of the PayPal donation. I can send out cards next week in time for Christmas. Just an idea for those of you who don’t know what to give but want to do something special.
We have a special prayer request for some very special people in our lives. Our dear friends, Scott and Meghan Kinney in Charleston, SC, just had a baby girl, Coleman Michelle Kinney. (Yes, they named her after me!) Shortly after birth, she was diagnosed with Downs Syndrome but they were told it didn’t appear that she had any heart problems typically related to the diagnosis. After seeing a specialist yesterday, they found out she does have a heart condition known as an AV canal defect. The heart can be repaired through open heart surgery when Coleman is six months old. They were very upset by this news and have asked for our prayers. I asked for permission to share their prayer request with you. Scott and Meghan are such wonderful Christian examples to so many. I ask to you please remember them in your prayers during this difficult time in their lives. God is able to do great things through this situation and we pray for His glory to be magnificently revealed.
I expect to gain at least five pounds over the holiday season in an attempt to eat every kind of pie, cookie, and candy put before me. It really is the only right thing to do since I have been gone all year. J I wouldn’t want to hurt ANYONE’S feeling but not partaking of their baked goods. You’ll see me in the food line at grandma’s house sitting at the smaller table with all the other grandchildren because the big table is reserved for only aunts and uncles. I was slow in accepting that I will never get to sit at the big table but, after Thanksgiving, I am over it. J Us grandchildren clearly have easier access to the dessert table!
May The Lord bless all of you during this holiday season. I know this can be a lonely, depressing time for some and if you fall into that category, please call us so we can pray with you. We love being able to pray for others. I love the fact that in Romania, there are no presents or Santa Claus on Christmas Day. It is strictly a time of worship and focus on the birth of our Lord. I hope we can all be so focused this Christmas. May His peace fill your hearts for eternity.
Basking in the Son,
Michelle
Posted on December 15th, 2006 by Michelle
Filed under: Michelle's Journal