$3.42

Yesterday was our '15 for 150 Million Fundraiser Run for our Adoption.'  On a beautiful Fall day, I ran 15 laps (roughly 5 1/2 miles) around a lake in Baker Park in Frederick, Maryland to bring awareness and prayers to the plight of the orphan.  Each person who sponsored a lap was prayed for during their assigned lap and a portion of the orphan population was also prayed for during that lap (i.e. Lap 3 was dedicated to Nana and Papaw and Uncle Lance Simpson and I prayed for the orphans of North and Central America during that lap).  It was a really powerful experience to remember and pray for these children who are too often forgotten, but whose worth is infinite.  I pushed Isaac and Emma in the stroller for the first and last miles and Ricky joined us for a special Lap 15 in honor of our son in China.  We had his picture taped to the front of Isaac and Emma's stroller and at one point when I was running, the wind blew the picture up in such a way as his eyes were looking right at me and I kept telling him we were coming for him, that we were running towards him.  Our theme verses were Psalm 68:5-6, 'A father to the fatherless...God places the lonely in families...' and this was often my prayer for these precious children as I ran in their honor.

As we were gathering sponsors, our 5 year old niece Sophia gave us an envelope filled with all the change from her piggy bank, $3.42.  She gave us all she had to help bring her cousin home from China.  Remind anyone of the widow who gave all she had to the temple offering with two small copper coins in Mark 12:41-44?  On the back of the shirts we wore for the race, I wrote 'Team Josiah, 3.42' as a reminder for us to give all, to lay down all of ourselves for our son and for the orphans of the world.  I will write more at another time about why we chose the name 'Josiah' as our son's English name, but one of the main reasons is because Josiah was a good king in Judah's (the southern kingdom of Israel) history (see II Kings 22-23) and since the song 'Kings and Queens' by Audio Adrenaline has been so instrumental in our journey, we want a constant reminder to our son that the words of the song, 'boys become kings...wrapped in Your majesty' are true.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to each of you who sponsored a lap and/or prayed for our day!  We ended up with about 20 sponsors (instead of adding laps to the race, any extra sponsors were part of a super Lap 15!  Didn't think I could add 5 laps to the run!).  We are so grateful for each of you who have truly played such an important part in helping bring Josiah into our family and for our God who is the 'God who sees' and is sitting with him today.