Just over four years ago, I moved home to Utah while Brian deployed. I got involved with some old high school friends planning our 15 year reunion. One friend, Mitch Weight, had been a childhood friend of mine as we had grown up in the same congregation, and then graduated from high school the same year. I got to be really good friends with him and his wife over the course of the year that I was there.
His wife, Beth, called me one night and told me that she had been having a really strong feeling that they needed to look into adopting from the AFAA house in Liberia where Diamond and Florence had been. She came across the pictures of Thomas and Surprise who were two of only a handful of children that had not been referred to an adopting family. Mitch told me that he knew when he saw their faces, they were meant to be in their family. Their story very much resembled my own as far as having strong feelings that this is what God wanted and this is the course our lives should take. I did not for a second question that this is what they needed to do.
Their adoption, however, turned out to be far more complicated and grueling than mine (and I thought mine was bad!). In fact, it took them four years of a roller coaster ride of emotions and uncertainty to finally be able to bring their boys home. They brought their boys home this past January--three years after they first started the adoption process. In that time, Beth had two more babies, putting her total at five biological and two adopted--which makes me love her even more knowing that there is someone out there equally as crazy as I am!
In that time period, Mitch started a new business of finding education leads for colleges and universities. He became very successful. After going to Liberia to get his kids, he couldn't forget the faces and the lives of those in Liberia and he decided to use his business to create change in Liberia.
Mitch returned and restructured his business so that for every education lead his company receives, he will donate $100 (which is a full year's tuition) for a child in Liberia to go to school. Education is the key to development. Education is power for all of us--especially to children living in extreme poverty.
Mitch is working in conjunction with a friend and fellow adoptive mother, Karen Mathot. Karen was the woman that salvaged my adoption when the DNA tests came back negative showing that the woman who had put Diamond and Florence up for adoption was not their mother at all. Karen went on our behalf and spoke to the American consular and also arranged for the real mothers to be found and brought into the consulate. Within two weeks I was able to go to Liberia to get Diamond and Florence. Karen has now started her own organization to build schools and help educate the children of Liberia. Karen is an incredible woman and has now adopted four Liberian children.
Just this past couple weeks, Mitch and Karen have been over in Liberia trying to help as many children as they can and build their programs. I think we often look at people who do these things and we are impressed and we may donate a notebook or two if we can--but the thing that Mitch's trip has reminded me is that our bad days and our "financial struggles" cannot even be compared to the suffering that the children of Liberia face. I have always had a motto that I have used as a guideon for my life (you can see it at the bottom of the blog): "Where much is given, much is required."
Karen and Mitch have reminded me that every so often we really need to ask ourselves, "What have I done to make a difference? What have I done to share all the remarkable blessings I have with someone in need?" I needed this wake up call to remind me of what once led to me to adopt in the first place, we have an obligation to care for the widows and the orphans and lift the hands that hang down.
The more the word gets out about Sahbu, the more scholarships can be donated. That is very easy to spread the word--that just takes an email, a few clicks to like and post on facebook, and share things with friends. If you would like to do that like Sahbu and Lifting Liberia on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/#!/sahbusearch?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Lifting-Liberia/188402757866176?fref=ts
You can also go to both sites and make donations and/or sponsor a child. Remember, what is pocket change for us can give a future to a child in Liberia. Visit:
Lifting Liberia
Sahbu
Liberia is the third poorest country in the world. There is an 85% unemployment rate and the buildings are riddled with bullet holes and relics of a devestatingly brutal civil war. It is not a place that you can visit and then leave unaffected by what you have seen. It pulls at your heart. I have never forgotten the emotions I experienced while I was there. Because of that, I have been thinking about ways that I can reinforce their work with my education in therapy and I have some ideas that I will share when they are a little more formulated. But, I am very excited about how God has a way of guiding our paths and weaving lives together to help all people reach their potential.
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