Eden's Garden

I am not a decorator - I'm no good at it - therefore by the time my kids leave home perhaps I'll have their rooms finished!  My only motivator that actually gets me moving is having functions at my house.  This summer I'll be having a sip-n-see for little Miss Eden Huss and her mama, Lauren, and have already given Ryan his honey-do-list for the shower.  One thing on the list was flower beds. 

However, we clearly had a misunderstanding because what I said is "I'm hosting Lauren & Eden a shower with the girls here in July and I want you to put it some flowers." What he heard was, "Let's do some flower beds together." Clearly we have a problem here because I never mentioned wanting to help with said flower beds simply that I wanted them done and I gave him a deadline and ample notice to tackle the task by himself!

But alas on Sunday afternoon we skipped the family Sunday lunch and came home from church and got straight to work - tilling, raking, spreading, digging, planting, and lots of interruptions for popsicles, push-ups, bruised knees, hurt feelings, lost flip flops (you know, for the kids!).

Really I don't do hot and I don't do dirty and working in flower beds at noon in April is both hot and dirty and I was not in the best of spirits.  Then I got to thinking about the reason for the flowers, precious little Eden, and I tried to redirect my thoughts.  Instead of grumbling while I worked I prayed for Eden and her parents, Lauren & Ben, and for their wait for her to be short.  And then I began to sing my standard staple of old time hymns that I know by heart - Victory in Jesus, The Old Rugged Cross, Amazing Grace, I'll Fly Away, To God be the Glory, I Will Enter His Gates (with Thanksgiving in My Heart) - quietly at first but then a little louder because I'd really love my boys to have a memory of me sitting in a garden in 90 degree heat singing to God!

Gardening soon became a little easier (for me, Ryan says it became unbearable because I sing so badly) and dare I say, even enjoyable, when I began to worship the God who made the flowers, and the dirt, and the sun, and the wind, and the water, and me and my family and the Huss family!

However, this post isn't about me choosing to sing and pray instead of grumbling, it's really about the power of a little girl halfway around the world that is touching people she has never met, may never meet, and does not even know exists, all because her parents are taking a leap of faith and trusting in God and loving the orphan as we are all commanded to do.

Lauren sent out an email this week and talked about a church service she attended where the sermon was about the exact same song I was singing yesterday and she talked about the following (totally stealing her words without her permission):

If this has tugged at your heart even a tiny bit, please consider supporting adoption. Pray about it and truly be open to what God calls YOU to do about the orphan crisis. Don’t wait for someone else to step up—YOU step up! Don’t get overwhelmed by the number of orphans—just help ONE! (“Don’t fail to do something because you can’t do everything.”) I believe that, while God doesn’t call all of us to adopt, He does call all of us to do something to defend the cause of the orphan. What will YOUR response be?

My response for now is Brenda and Mey (click on links for sponsorship information) and prayer and maybe one day it will be more.

But hopefully all of us will do something however big or small to help!  Right now I have a visible reminder in my front yard of God's beauty and His love for me and His love for Eden and His love for you and now when I see it I can be reminded to pray for the orphan and to praise him when little Eden is an orphan no more and I can be reminded that in the worst of times he is still worthy of my praise for all the beauty that surrounds me . . . and that is what Eden's garden is all about!

When we finish completely I'll post some pictures!

Hurry home baby girl!