what went wrong?

i saw something today that really made me think about our culture and our priorities. it's this:



it's not that i think this is horrible. i believe that helping animals is a good thing. but now I want you to look at this picture.

this little girl lives in Uganda. she doesn't have a family. she probably doesn't have enough food to eat most days. she's waiting for someone to come adopt her, to show her what it means to be loved or to be in a family. she's never known the love of a mom or dad, or a sister or brother. she's all alone.

and yet, i sure dont' see her picture circling around facebook like the one shown above. i don't hear near enough people willing to spread her cause, willing to make a difference.

there are 143 million orphans in this world. there are 11 million children who starve to death or die from preventable diseases. there are 8.5 million who serve as child slaves, prostitutes, or are under other horrific conditions. there are 2.3 million children who live with HIV. all these add up to 164.8 million needy children. that's 164,800,000 needy children.

please don't view these as just numbers.
each and every one of these numbers has a face, and a story. they are beautiful, needy children.

164,800,000 seems like a huge number. 164.8 million. but you know what?

2.1 billion people on this earth proclaim to be Christians.
the truth is that if only 8% of Christians would care for just one more child...

there would be no statistics left. each and every one of these children would be taken care of.

so why isn't this happening?

because we're too concerned about adopting needy animals who have never "experienced the love of a family."

you know what?

they're animals.

you know what we are?

children of the Most High God. His most precious creation. created in the image of Him.

so maybe we should concentrate on saving the humans before the animals.

just a thought.

isaac jerehmiah

as many of you probably already know, i went to Uganda in May of 2008 with my mom

to work on our adoption of my big brother David and to do some missions work.

while we were there, I visited an orphanage and saw this insanely cute little guy:

{please keep in mind that this was three years ago when you see how i look :)}

one thing that really stood out to me about the little boy is that he didn't run away from me

like some of the other kids did. some of them had never seen a younger kid like me with white skin and blond{ish} hair!

well, we thought that that friendly little visit to the orphanage would be the end of it, but, well, it wasn't. after much thought and prayer, we decided to see if God had any other children

in mind that we were supposed to adopt. he did.

see above picture.

we have now been in the process of adopting Atuhaire Isaac for two years.

mom is in Uganda right now, going to court to become his guardian and to bring him home!

his full name will become isaac jerehmiah atuhaire pittman. my brother.

mom got the incredible blessing to be able to have isaac with her while she works on the adoption, so naturally, she's been teaching him the important things about life in America.

the most important being, of course...

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!!!

lovely, isn't it? another child raised correctly.

in a family that loves him.

with a team that's worth loving.

-maddy