Radical Change

This Sunday January 22 is Sanctity of Life Sunday. Cottonwood Creek will have empty baby bottles and fliers with additional details for you about Real Options on tables in the atrium. Please take an empty baby bottle or two home with you this Sunday. Over the next 4 weeks you and your family fill the bottles with change or as God leads you to give as well as pray for the unborn and sanctity of all life. Bring back the bottles to Cottonwood Creek on or before February 19th.

Little Things to Help Bring Change

Sanctity of Life Sunday is coming up in a few weeks. This is a time to specifically remember the millions of unborn children and to pray for post abortive healing as well as legislative change. Sanctity of Life is a time when you can join with your family and fight on your knees as well as act on behalf of those that have no voice. Consider organizing a baby bottles or Radical $hange event.

This is an easy church wide, whole family activity. Real Options, makes it easy for you to lead your family to act on behalf of the unborn. Focus on the Family also has great resources and information for you. Discussing social issues from a Biblical perspective is a family activity. It is also a way to affirm your family's commitment to pray for and defend life. Don't let feeling uncomfortable keep you from disusing truth and biblical perspective on life. We struggled as parents to young children how to discus unborn children and what Sanctity of Life is about. We asked God for wisdom, and in His faithfulness He answered.

Will you join with us at Cottonwood Creek and participate in the baby bottles or Radical $hange event on Sanctity of Life Sunday? All you do is take a baby bottle or two that Real Options will have for you at Cottonwood Creek and over the following 3 weeks you and your family fill the bottles with spare change as well as pray for the unborn and sanctity of all life. Bring back the filled bottles to Cottonwood Creek. Your donation can be of any amount, this is a little thing that your family can do to help bring BIG change. This is modeling a faith at home:)


Additional Ideas:

• donate baby diapers and wipes to a local maternity home or outreach to unwed/underprivileged mothers

• eat sandwiches at home and donate the money you planned to spend dining out to Real Options

• in lieu of birthday gifts, ask friends to purchase toys for children in foster care or donate directly to organizations like Embrace 

• watch The Dignity of Human Life short video from Focus on the Family

• vote pro-life in upcoming elections, research candidates and be sure you know where he/she stands on Sanctity of Life

• consider sponsoring a child in need (we know of many needs both local and abroad)

• consider fostering or adopting  (we know of many needs both local and abroad

Possible ways to communicate with young children about Sanctity of Life Sunday:

"We're praying for safety for children in their birthmothers' tummies."

"We're filling the baby bottles to help people that help mommies."

"We care about life, because God cares about life."

"We are moving beyond our car's bumper sticker for life."

Empowered to Connect

Feeling connected  to God, self and others is important. To thrive we must be connected to God and allow Him to grow us daily. Once our hearts are connected to Him then we are in a place of being able to healthily connect to others. Maintaining a healthy and thriving connection to God is hard and takes being intentional...so do connections with others.

It's hard sometimes to make effort to be connected, it means being compassionate, tender, vulnerable and open. I've struggled with being vulnerable and open with others and sadly being tender and compassionate towards myself and others.

Joyfully, God is at work in my life and promises to stay at work until he is done and he has completed His work...as His adopted child I sometimes struggle with memories of pain, loss and abandonment. I remember what my heart was like before I was adopted and sometimes I find myself going back to my old ways and unhealthy habits of detachment and withdrawal, especially when life circumstances are challenging. In my flesh, sometimes I think it is easier to disconnect and stop allowing God to work in my heart and in the hearts of my family. Thankfully, I come from a long line of strong women that do not take the words "no" or "can't" very well. I have seen generations of determination, and I am very grateful. Even better, through adoption, my Heavenly Father is the inventor of determination, hope and healthy connection. He is the life-long joy giver and specializes in the impossible...and the seemingly-impossible connections!!

If you are looking for a way to improve the connections within your family, start with the source, your Heavenly Father. He is the one that created connections and deeply desires to establish a close and healthy connection to you and for you to have the same with those closest to you. Empowered to Connect Conference is coming here to Dallas in February. Even better, if you register before January 15th it is $35 a person and $50 for a couple.

Visit and explore the site Empowered to Connect, to learn more about healthy connections and how connection to God can allow you to be empowered to connect with others!

If you need more information or well formulated thoughts for presenting to your church leadership check out:
Letter to Church Ministry Leaders 
(be sure to notice the dates and locations)

December Abba Meeting

All they need for Christmas is a family!

Our next meeting will take place on December 11 at 11:30 am, located in room A205 at Cottonwood Creek Baptist Church. This will be a time of fellowship and introduction to us and other adoptive, foster,waiting parents, or parents interested in adoption, foster or orphan care.

We want to use this meeting as an opportunity to get to know each other and find out how we can better support families throughout the adoption, foster care or orphan care process and beyond! We are looking at making some changes to the calendar as well as topic ideas and guest speakers. We want to have your input:)

We will also have some books and materials as well as ready reference sheets for area resources and ways for you to educate yourself to take action as God directs. Child sponsorships and opportunities for your family to support gifts of outreach or compassion. Come and help us plan how we can best minister to your needs in 2012! Light snacks will be provided, and child care is available.

* Please RSVP to Bree so we can make sure to have enough materials and snacks for you!

Eric Ludy - Depraved Indifference

Dalits and Bricks

One of the blessings of semi-homeschooling our Fab Four is the gift of time. There are many days that are a challenge for them and for me too, still God is here.

Our son in kindergarten has the assignment to draw a picture of a place that he'd like to travel to. He started to tell me about Zambia because it started with a Z-like his name also starts with a Z. We are not like other people-usually it was just being well strange, but now we are actively trying to live our faith with our children. That shouldn't be strange, but sadly for our children and many other Church families it is. Not a guilt trip, but fessing up to our sin and how God's grace has allowed us to act and think differently about the way we gift :) We also have some friends that we support and pray for that are doing incredible things through God in Zambia (shameless plug for McB's) Then he surprised me when he mentioned about the boy walking with the stack of bricks on his head...then I knew he wasn't talking about precious Zambia, but another part of the world that is equally as precious to God's heart.

We had recently watched DVDs from Lifesong and Gospel for Asia...as well as our favorite DVD about our soon to be son Hudson that we re in process to adopt:)

There was a part of the DVD where we saw a young boy with a stack of bricks on his head. He was a Dalit and one of the hundreds that GfA is actively reaching out to with the transformative Hope of Christ. My son remembered what he saw on the DVD and he was moved to care. As a child of God and his mommy how could I do any less?  I grabbed 2 bricks from the pile in the garage ( long story but let's just say the city frowns upon my definition of recyclable materials and I don't want to just haul them to the dump) Anyway, we took the bricks and went outside.

I had them put one brick on their heads and then I held another-too heavy for them to have both without supervision and didn't want to risk an emergency room visit as we were not wearing shoes.They were shocked at how heavy the bricks were and how scratchy they felt against their skin. It was really powerful for all of us to attempt to break the bricks into powder or ever smaller pieces. Again, with my help as they clapped the bricks together and broke of little pieces. My son told me" I didn't like it. Holding the bricks, got a scratch. We pray for him (the boy)."

Two bricks, four fab kiddos, and one incredible DVD make for a powerful lesson about God's heart for the Dalits.  Thank you GfA, we can't unsee and now we will never forget our Father's heart for these precious ones.

CCBC has the incredible opportunity to sponsor 5 of the hundreds of precious little ones through GfA's Bridge of Hope. All that is needed is for CCBC families to act and commit to sponsor these children. They have an incredible letter writing opportunity for you to learn about the child you commit to sponsor as well as a precious pic of the child for you to put a fce to the name as a very real prayer card reminder of what you are doing wth your monthly commitment. We will have these sponsorships available this weekend-part of orphan care-but these children are not orphans, but they are in need of the support of the Church as GfA reaches out to them with the Hope of Christ.

Please see us at the table in the atrium with the Gift tables. We will have representatives there all morning. We'll be there at 9 and after 11 when we finish mix a meal with our family. Get a free copy of the book No Longer a Slumdog...it will change the way you pray and think about global orphan/least of these care.

I recently heard about this ministry, and I am overwhelmed by what God has done through them in the past 30 years...and what He is going to do for the future. AMAZING!

Also, will add that they have a Christmas catalog that has many ways to give that are very affordable, meaningful to children as well as the gift recipients and oportunities to partner with others in your life to give as a group. The water buffalo- not everyone's got one, as the Veggie Tale song implies, but a few more families could get them:) Wonder what "Jesus brought us a water buffalo?!"  sounds like in um, Hindi?

Can you imagine if your child put a waterbuffalo on his/her list for Christmas this year...for someone else?! What about the gift of rabbits and a pig, sponsoring a national missionary or buying a ricksaw...what about purchasing a live camel for someone else as the addition to your family's Christmas nativity?!

Seriously, you must tell me if you do buy a water buffalo-how amazing would it be to create a CCBC "living nativity" GfA style?! Oh yes, there is a generator and LCD Projector kit available to gift as well...God certainly is creative:)

Orphan Sunday Simulcast Event

Orphan Sunday is tomorrow and we are SUPER EXCITED!!!
 Not just for the day, but how God has and will continue to move the Church to act on behalf of orphans now, in 2012 and beyond. Beautiful, truly beautiful!

Our friends at First Baptist of McKinney are hosting a simulcast event that we are attending. Love having friends that let you "crash at their house"  Check out their link The Journey