Adopting arms out-stretched in Powell Butte

(below is my Dec. 27, 2011 column that ran in our local newspaper.  Support this wonderful family, won't you?)

It’s the darkest day of the year and it feels like the sun will never rise!  I know it’ll show up eventually because I can see and hear the evidence everywhere; distant, glowing pink mountain peaks and robins diving against my window in a drunken, juniper-berry stupor are all proof that the sun is on its way over the horizon and all I have to do is sit back and wait.  Elsewhere, I’m drowning in a cacophony of year-end tasks that will seemingly never get done without my coaxing.  Thankfully, making the sun come up each day isn’t one of them.

I know I’m not the only person who feels stretched to the limit in this season of cold, dark nights preceding the lengthening of days.  There are others too who are being pushed beyond the furthest edges of themselves; enduring pains and pangs that every one of us, if asked, would rather make numb until it’s all over.  But that’s not always possible, is it?  Ask any mother who has endured childbirth without an epidural and, although she will testify to the discomfort, she will never say it wasn’t worth it -- because something beautiful was born.

There are several families in Powell Butte who’ve been enduring a labor of sorts while waiting patiently for their newly adopted children to come home.  The process can be excruciating and exciting all at the same time, and the long airplane ride to meet their little loves across the ocean is probably not unlike riding on a donkey across a desert while nine months pregnant.  I’ve observed these families leap for joy and flail in discouragement as the twists and turns of court dates, paperwork, visa approvals and airline reservations come and go.  But, when all is said and done, their experience ends up being just as it was meant to be only they are stronger, and humbled beyond words at the miracle of it all.

You and I can help make the journey a bit easier for one of these adoptive families by showing up in Powell Butte at 9 a.m. on New Year’s Eve for a 4-mile run/walk.  The funds raised will bring four orphaned brothers home to their new forever family in Central Oregon.  Register and get all the details at www.freaufffamilyfun.blogspot.com.

The calendar and the earth’s axis tell us we’ll be seeing more daylight than darkness now.  So too will some children on the other side of the world as they wait in hopeful expectation for the loving arms of their new family to reach them.

In the fullness of time, the Christ was born so we can be adopted. Gal 4:4-7


All of this makes us even more certain that what the prophets said is true.  So you should pay close attention to their message, as you would to a lamp shining in some dark place.  You must keep on paying attention until daylight comes and the morning star rises in your hearts.  2 Peter 1:19