Wednesday, June 2, 2010

"I Will Not Leave You As Orphans;

I will come to you."  John 14:18

If everyone who has prayed for Chrissie would donate just $1 in her memory, we could save atleast 5 international orphans.  (That figure is based upon 100,000 people who have prayed for Chrissie around the world with an average international cost of $20,000 per international adoption.)  If everyone who has prayed would donate $5 in Chrissie's memory, atleast 25 international orphans could be rescued.

Did you know that there are hundreds of families waiting to adopt a special needs orphan internationally?  All they're waiting on is funding.  It is expensive to adopt internationally, and it is hard for many families to come up with a large chunk of cash in one lump sum.  But there is never a price too high to pay to save the life of a child, one of God's precious treasures, the least of these.

Did you know that many special needs orphans in other countries will sit in their cribs for 23 hours/day, many tied to their cribs, sitting in their waste, with no clothing or food?  Some 12-year-old special needs orphans weigh a mere 20 pounds, as they waste away in their cribs in mental instutions around the world.  Most of them don't make it to the age of 12.  If they were to be adopted, they would be treasured members of a forever family where they would be given proper nutrition, nurturing, clothing, exercise, stimulation, affection, education, and above all else...unconditional love.

As my husband said in his address during Chrissie's celebration of life service, God may not call all of us to adopt orphans, but His Word tells us how important it is that we care for orphans.  (Just get a Bible and look up "orphan" in the concordance.)  One way you can easily care for orphans, without even sacrificing your own comfort, is to donate to families who are eagerly awaiting and anticipating saving the life of an orphan.

Finances should not stand in the way of families rescuing orphans, and you can so easily be a part of the solution.  All you have to do is donate and your generosity will bring hope, healing and restoration to an orphan who will be rescued, loved, cherished...adopted.

Several of you have emailed me to let me know that Chrissie's story has inspired you to adopt and/or foster children.  We are extremely grateful and humbled by your amazing response.  Losing Chrissie has been the hardest thing we have endured as a family, but knowing that her miracle legacy continues brings great comfort to our spirits.

Someone recently questioned the amount of money we spent on Chrissie's adoption, medical and funeral expenses, stating that perhaps that money could have been spent to help humanity in a mightier way.  I beg to differ (for MANY reasons), but my prayer is that God will boldly display His plan of coming to the orphan, rescuing them from their oppression, and that there is no price too great for such a gift as giving an orphan the love of a forever family.  Chrissie's life has already moved several people to adopt, and because of this amazing response, I am honored to say that our "investment" in Chrissie's life has already had a profound effect humanity, which is NOT at all why we adopted her.  We had NO idea that God planned to affect lives around the world through the life of our Serbian Sensation, but we are amazed and humbled to see how God continues to use Chrissie's life to affect humanity in mightier ways than we'll ever truly know.  Countless people have contacted me to let me know that Chrissie's story has either brought them to Christ or renewed their relationship with Christ.  Irredeemable hearts have been redeemed.  Souls have been saved eternally.  If Chrissie's life moves even more people to give financially in her memory to rescue orphans, we will never know the number of lives saved (eternally as well as on this earth).  Remember, Chrissie was an orphan who many felt was not worthy of adoption.  She changed our hearts and brought more joy to our lives in her short 7 months with our family than anyone will ever truly know.  No matter how short our time with Chrissie, her life was worth it.  Worth every penny spent, worth every tear shed.  Chrissie brought more laughter, love, hugs, and pure joy to our family than money could ever buy.  No amount of wealth or riches or trinkets or treasures could buy that type of joy.  None can compare.  There is no price too great for saving the life of an orphan.  They are precious in His sight.

"For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help.  He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death.  He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight."   Psalm 72:12-14

The day Chrissie died, numerous blog readers contacted me to let me know they were planning to attend her funeral.  Many of you were going to attend at great expense, flying in from a variety of states, not wanting to miss Chrissie's celebration of life.  This is when God laid it on my heart to make the service available for viewing online so that those of you who planned to travel would be able to save those travel expenses and donate that money toward rescuing orphans.  Many of you have already donated that money, but if you have not yet donated in memory of Chrissie and God is impressing it upon your heart to donate in order to save the life of an orphan, please take a moment to donate in honor of Christyn Joy Patterson.  I know it would give Chrissie great joy to know that other children around the world will get to experience the love of a forever family, which was so important to Chrissie.  A mommy and a daddy was all Chrissie ever wanted in life, and I know she would want to pass that gift along to every orphan out there if she could.  Chrissie would LOVE to let the orphans know of God's promise to not leave them as orphans; He promises to come to them. 

If you get our blog updates via email or RSS feeds, you will need to go click on our blog at http://www.allarepreciousinhissight.blogspot.com/ so that you can easily donate.  There are 3 buttons at the top of our blog where you can simply click to donate.  (1)  Reece's Rainbow donations are tax-deductible and you will find a link on their homepage to donate in memory of Chrissie.  We adopted Chrissie through Reece's Rainbow, and it is an amazing orphan advocacy for special needs orphans.  (2)  Abby's Wish  (the red Chip-In button) is a way to directly donate to a special family:  The Riggs Family, whose daughter, Abby, was once an orphan from Guatemala.  Abby has Leukemia, but it is her greatest wish to beat cancer and adopt a sibling or two.  All funds donated here will go directly toward adoption expenses for The Riggs Family.  (3)  Many of you have inquired about giving directly to our family, which is why I created the green Chip-In button.  Donations here will go directly to The Patterson Family.

Thank you so much for prayerfully considering donating in memory of Chrissie and playing a role in God's promise to not leave us as orphans.  Praise Him for promising to come to us, and thank you for partnering with Him in His promise.  The least of these are worth it.  He says so.

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"   Matthew 25:40

21 comments:

Tay said...

I am 15 yrs old and I feel as if I personally need to save an orphans life however I can not do so yet so in honour of your precious princess I am hosting an "princess ball" were all procedes will go to reeces rainbow in honor of Chrissie. I will have a cke an sing Chrissie happy birthday because i no she will love it. Thanks so much for inspiring me to take to the path of God, Thankyou for being Chrissies forever mommy.
I continue to pray for you xoxo

Sweet Joni said...

Good Morning Lorraine =)
What a wonderful way to help another child of God!!! I've committed for this month already however... I'm wondering, are you & Matt going to adopt again & this is why you've started Patterson family donate box???

Are you serious that special needs orphans are treated like that in their cribs??? =(

Julia said...

Thank you for your entry today. We fell in love with Chrissy and journeyed with you - cried buckets for days when she died and still weep at your loss. God will get all the glory though despite our human sorrow. Heaven gained a great treasure! We are hoping to leave within 4-8 weeks to bring our little boy home. We are adopting him through Reece's Rainbow! We too have seen God move and work in our adoption process in a way that has brought us to our knees over and over. Our prayer when we committed was for this to stretch our faith and for Aaron to be a light to the world of what God can do.... We are anticipating with joy, terror and excitement what God is going to do in his little life and ours!

Big Mamma Maggie Taylor said...

Will you post some links to some organizations for mote info or for donations. It would be very helpful for everybody who love the nature

The Fab 5 said...

Wow really someone said that the money could have been better spent somewhere else other than Chrissie. Well I am so sorry you had to read those words. You gave Chrissie the world in her 7 months she was with you. There is nothing better than the love of a family and no value can be put on that. I will pray for others that think that. Your family is showing Gods love for all children. I think it is extra special that you chose to take the path God led you on to Chrissie knowing there were risks but you followed Gods plan and now Chrissie knew unconditional love and learned of our Heavenly Father. WELL DONE GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Envyshope said...

I have been thinking of your family often Lorraine. Especially of you as a fellow mother. I cannot seem to get you off my mind or out of my prayers. This must be a trying time for you since a lot of the activity has calmed down. Chrissie meant so much to our family. A day does not go by that I do not speak of her or think of her. She is part of the inspiration behind our first adoption of a Ukrainian orphan! Please know that we are praying for your family and feel blessed to know you through Chrissie's story! Love - Kelli Stever

natali said...

Chrissie opened up my prayer life into a much deeper level than ever before. And I'm moving to Mali, West Africa for a year (praying about a lifetime in missions), so I would say that was a very needed boost. Chrissie will never be forgotten. Thank you so much for making Chrissie's life public and giving me the honor of praying for your sweet Serbian Sensation. I know she's dancing with her King :))

Unknown said...

Lorraine,
Your post caught my eye today because this is the same thing I just typed. You are such an inspiration as we are adopting and just got our little girl officially yesterday. She also has a heart condition and I pray she will be with us for MANY years. Whether we have her for a short time or forever, we know God called us to be her forever family and He has already blessed us all in so many ways. Thank you for your story, I know it must have been a hard one to tell, but if it brings one more orphan home then God will be glorified! Continuing prayers for your family.
Suzette

Lori said...

I continue to pray for your family and I am going to be reviewing my budget to see what I can do to help financially in some way. I know Chrissie would want that! And to the young lady Tay, I have to comment that I wish you the very best in your journey following our Lord. He will bless you for your obedience and faithfulness many times over in your lifetime! And it is sooo kind of you to do a princess ball in honor of Chrissie. I just KNOW Chrissie will be dancing herself when that happens! Lori

Lorraine, AKA Forever Blessed said...

Tay...I am SO PROUD of you, girlfriend!!!!!!!!!!!! You totally ROCK! Thank you so much for putting together a fundraiser ball. Chrissie will be SOOOO excited to watch that happen in her honor. Oh my!!!

Sweet Joni...yes, our family will definitely be adopting more children, and yes, the Chip-In for our family will help us to rescue more orphans. And, yes, I'm dead serious about orphans chained/tied to their cribs. This is particulary true of Eastern European orphanages such as Ukraine, Russie, Serbia, etc. Extremely sad, but there is hope b/c all those who are rescued are given new life where they are treasured and cherished. We just have to raise awareness and funds...there are tons of families just waiting on funds to go rescue their sweet ones!

Big Mamma Maggie Taylor...if you will go back to this post, you'll see that Reece's Rainbow and Abby's Wish are in blue. That's b/c they are links. If you click on those words in blue, it will take you to the sites that will tell more about those 2 ways of donating.

I'm so proud of all of you who have left comments...your hearts and love amaze me. Thank you!

Kat said...

God has placed an Adoption Support ministry in front of us and now we feel leading again toward a specific special needs orphan....I can't wait to see where He leads us!

Thank you for advocating for these amazing blessings from God!

The thought that someone could devalue a life because they may be different that the world's idea of perfection or because their lifespan may not be as long....makes me want to ask if there would be regret over an expense of a biological child? Not to be unkind at all, but we do not know the number of even one of our children's days. Whether biological or adopted, every precious life is so overwhelmingly valuable to God and to us. The number of days does not make it less.

Thank you for the gift of sharing Chrissie's life with us...an amazing, beyond words, gift.

Tay said...

It really is the least I can do. You and your precious girl have touched my life so much! You and your familys strength is to be admired by all! Also I was wondering if you think a slide show would be appropriate for her ball?
Love ya'll so much.

Proud Grandma said...

In honour of Chrissie I just sent $5.00 - we are foster parents to 3 children at present - one of them is special needs and we are parents to 3 children and grandparents of 10 grandchildren and Chrissie touched my heart in a special way as all of the children we have right now will never be able to go back to live with their birth parents (we have had one of the kids for 12 years and the two girls for nearly 2 years) and love them as if they were our own so I can only imagine how much Chrissie was loved by you all and how much you will all miss her until the day you all meet again in Heaven

LedaP said...

Thank you for this post - we are also struggling to raise funds for our adoption and have started a fundraiser www.fund4faith.com - we are doing everything we can to bring home our 9 year old daughter with Thalassemia from China.

I don't know if you plan to move forward with your adoption from Haiti of the group of children, but I wanted to say I wish you the very best and also that I so admire your openess and bravery you have shared with all of us during such a difficult time. Your daughter, Chrissy, was amazing, but her mother was inspiring too. Blessings to you and your family. Leda

Kate said...

Thank you for this post, Lorraine. My family is adopting 2 girls from Ukraine and I have received numerous comments (both on my blog & in real life) saying that if we can't afford the adoption, we should not be adopting. It is difficult to make people understand that affording 2 more children is not the difficulty; coming up with $37,000 to adopt them IS. I don't personally know anyone who has that kind of money laying around, and if everyone employed the logic of "if you don't have the cash to adopt sitting in your bank account, you shouldn't adopt," then there wouldn't be any adoptions (or very, very few).

I've also had people tell me that I'm using "scare tactics" to try and raise money ~ that no children are actually left in their cribs or are wasting away or subjected to the horrific conditions that I have described. I appreciate being able to direct them to your blog, and to other people who have adopted and speak of the same horrors. The truth is not always pleasant, but that doesn't negate it.

Continued prayers for your family. Chrissie was such a blessing to this world and I so appreciate that you shared her with us all! :)

texaslauren77 said...

Lorraine -

Thanks for all that you have done to spread the word about the plight of orphans. I had never REALLY thought about their conditions before now, and after coming to know Chrissie and your family through this blog, I was inspired to research and learn more. I cried when I read about the conditions that some of them face every day. I felt just heartsick that any child should have to live like an unwanted cast off! I'm not personally in a position to adopt right now, but have donated in the past month, and will be looking for more ways to help where I am able.

On another note, during my googling the web for info, I happened to pop "Kolevke" into my search to see what it was like, and I may have come across a video with Chrissie in it, probably right before you adopted her...there was also a still picture on the page as well. Wondering if you had seen it...If this is her, goodness, even THEN your sweet little girl had the brightest smile on her face!

Look at the bottom two pictures in the group of eight on the right hand side of the screen. I think she is also in the second of the two videos posted on this page, as well at about the 1:25 mark.

http://www.subotica.info/eventview.php?event_id=29771&tag_id=1885

Still praying for you and your family! :)

Tay said...

I am more then happy to help out with absolutly anything in honor of Chrissie, If anything it is you who helped me. Your strength and courage is something to admired by the entire world. You and your family have shown so much strength in what i can only imagin to be the hardest time ever.
I thank you for showing me to the way of the lord and thankyou for giving me the opputunity to be apart of your journey. Chrissie was blessed with such an amazing family.
I was also wondering if you would mind me showing a slide show of Chrissie at her princess ball?
Sending all my love xoxox

Difference2This1 said...

Thank you so, so much for thinking to have the live broadcast of Chrissie's celebration of life service. We live on the east coast and saving everything we can to bring home our 4th and 5th adopted children...we wouldn't have been able to make it there without finanically impacting these adoptions; yet I truly wanted to be there because even though I don't know your family personally, I wanted to be there to join so many others in saying she matters...they matter..every child matters and I will be a supportive voice to all who bring a child home. Instead myself and three of my children (2 adopted) gathered around our computer together and watched every moment of the service. We were blessed to be there in prayer and support from a distance. Child #4 (also adopted) had fallen asleep prior and I didn't mention she missed it to not hurt her feelings..but later before dinner, she expressed such a heartfelt, meaningful prayer thanking God that Chrissie's heart was better now and for taking care of her until her family can be there...at 5, she "gets it" that Chrissie has a forever family who she will reunite with someday. I mention mine that are adopted because I believe it's been a special impact to them...to see a child with a similar start in life, be so important in God's plan. It is so clear that Chrissie has impacted tons of people right now...but, she has also left a LEGACY. It is not just the current generation of adults who are touched; it is children, both adopted and bio, who "get it" through Chrissie's story that God works big things through "the least of these". What difference will their lives be to have witnessed His works in knowing of Chrissie? What seeds have been planted in little hearts because of her story? God bless, Jennifer in DE

Anonymous said...

Hi Lorraine --

Thank you for following up on the comment made concerning the money spent on Chrissy (I didn't read it). My belief is that people don't typically make these kinds of statements to be mean or disrepectful (hopefully I'm not being naive). But they are truly questions on their heart. The written word is so lacking of human expression. By answering repectfully and truthfully, you have given each of your readers (me included) something to contemplate.

I have often recieved such questions concerning my own international adoptions and the extra, un-antisipated needs of one of my children.

Unknown said...

Hi Lorraine, I have thought of you often over these past few weeks. I trust our good Lord is holding you up and comforting you all.

I would be more than happy to contribute and I hope that all your readers respond to this most worthy cause.

Love to you and yours. xx

Tamsyn

Adam said...

I am 17 years old and my family and I have committed to two beautiful angels that we are going to name Bethany and Hannah (Bethany is 2 and Hannah is 9 months) from the Ukraine. Right now we are struggling to get the money we need (my parents flight will be within 6-8 weeks from now)to rescue these girls. And it seems that people are just really selfish and won't give money to even save two little girls from Ukraine. Despite the fact that they only get one meal a day (sometimes more depending on the location) and are left in their cribs alone (like you said) almost every hour of every day - grant it there are a few orphanages that take the kids outside and play with them every so often, but not all of them care enough to do that. So, this journey is a major test of me and my families faith. But the one thing that makes me smile, is that we (my family and I) know Christ told us to adopt these girls. We know that HE will provide everything we need in His timing - not ours.

So, we continue to work and do what we can. But in the end, I know Christ will give everything we need. He called us to help His children, and I know even though man - society - may not want to help us, God doesn't need them. He can do anything. So I will stand firm in my faith and continue to wait on the Lord.

Thank you for this amazing post Lorraine, I know Chrissie is watching you and your family as we speak, and it makes her and your heavenly Father smile. I for one know you'll make the next orphan you adopt truly blessed, because you have so much LOVE and Joy to offer them - thanks be to Christ.

Glory be to our Beloved Father in heaven forever and ever!

Amen.

God bless.

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