Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Great Day!

We celebrated thier birthdays that we missed the year we were paper pregnant!



I had one of those exceptionally incredible days yesterday! Nothing out of the ordinary, just started out perfectly with me having a little time with the girls before they boarded the bus for school.

I should have taken a picture but i was so wrapped up in the fun i neglected to include you all visually. What we did was play Soccer in the drive way with snowballs! I would kick it out there and Tessa would kick it, then Krista chased after it with Brooke and Chloe on her heels. Krista would kick it back and Chloe would stomp it to smithereens! They laughed histerically the entire time. It is times like that that make me realize how absolutely blessed i am!

I left for work right after the bus. But all day i spent in wonder of how great it is to have these girls in our family. Because we are older and past the survival mode kind of parenting, i am really enjoying this time of my life and everything our Daughters have brought to it. Yes, they are a hand full at times and oh boy can they misbehave, but they are a blessing that is immeasureable!

I have been working to fight and raise awareness to Human Trafficking for a few years now. And during my idle time i started to think about the future that awaited our girls before Jesus gave them to us.

Here are the statistics:

-143,000,0002 Orphans in the world today spend an average of 10 years in an orphanage or foster home.

-Approximately 250,000 children are adopted annually, but…

-Every YEAR 14,050,000 children still grow up as orphans and AGE OUT of the system

-Every DAY 38,493 children AGE OUT

-Every 2.2 SECONDS, another orphan child AGES OUT with no family to belong to and no place to call home

-In Ukraine and Russia 10% -15% of children who age out of an orphanage commit suicide before age 18.

-60% of the girls are lured into prostitution. 70% of the boys become hardened criminals.

-Many of these children accept job offers that ultimately result in their being sold as slaves.

-Millions of girls are sex slaves today, simply because they were unfortunate enough to grow up as orphans.

Now, look at the picture at the top and think of this: Statistically, 3 of our girls would have been trafficked or worse!

I know, it started out super and ended with a harsh reality. But it is the icing on the cake for me. Not only do it get the be the Papa of four little Ukrainian Princesses, but we also are making a change in the Human Trafficking world by fighting the way Christians should...through adoption!






3 comments:

  1. Hello,
    I've been watching this site for a bit, but I was not able to comment since I did not have an ID... well, I decided to look into getting one, and now I can make comments... so the first question I wanted to ask, how did you manage to get all four of them for only $30K? Most agencies I've found have a price in that range *per* child...
    Regards,
    -A.

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  2. Aleksandr, The total cost was much more than that but very reasonable considering. Our agency is ABOUT A CHILD and Amanda is their Eastern Europe coordinator. They could fill you in better on the costs.

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  3. It's so wonderful to see pictures of your girls as time goes on! Thanks for keeping all of us updated, Shane!

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