Orphan Sunday

Today is Orphan Sunday and I've been reading and watching tons of "Gotcha Day" stories and videos that are completely tugging on my heart strings.

Just before watching those videos Tyler and I were talking about how Lincoln was getting his "snotty nose" on everything before we could get it wiped, which led to us talking about how we shouldn't ever own "cloth fabric furniture" and leather is so much easier to clean up.  Our couches are a fake leather and we have a leather recliner (which I always complain about because it's so cold).  Again, today I was complaining about how I don't like to sit in it because it's so cold and Tyler told me to just put a blanket over it and I was (yet again) complaining about how inconvenient that was and just how we should get rid of it.  And my ever so loving husband, put things in perspective for me pretty quickly.  Wow, Marie, how can you complain about something so insignificant when there are millions of children with absolutely nothing.  Let's just say I put myself back in check.

I don't know what God had planned for our family but I do know adoption will play a part.  I don't know the timing but I do know it'll be His perfect timing.  I don't know how God will choose to complete our family but I know our hearts are wide open.  I don't know what our future holds but I do know who holds our future.  I don't know the names of those children who are alone and hurting but I know my heart breaks for them.

I read this family's story today and watched their video here.

Here are some verses that "Ordinary Hero" compiled about how God's heart bleeds for the orphan.

JAMES 1:22-27 (NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION)

 ²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
 ²⁶ Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. ²⁷ Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.


Deuteronomy 10:18
He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.


Deuteronomy 24:17
Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice


Deuteronomy 10:18
He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.

JOB 29:11-13 (NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION)

¹¹ Whoever heard me spoke well of me,
   and those who saw me commended me, ¹² because I rescued the poor who cried for help,
   and the fatherless who had none to assist them. ¹³ The one who was dying blessed me;
   I made the widow’s heart sing.


Psalm 10:14
But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand. The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.

PSALM 68:5-6 (NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION)

⁵ A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
   is God in his holy dwelling. ⁶ God sets the lonely in families

PSALM 82:3-4 (NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION)

³ Defend the weak and the fatherless;
   uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. ⁴ Rescue the weak and the needy;
   deliver them from the hand of the wicked.


Psalm 146:9
The LORD watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow


Isaiah 1:17
Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.


John 14:18
I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.