21 Fosters later...

DOGS that is! The KY Great Dane Rescue has had the privilege of saving the lives of 21 Great Danes from KY, OH and TN from the day we started in October 2011. Our family has personally fostered 1/3 of them.
Sometimes it gets very wild and busy. And sometimes the rescue takes over our time and takes time away from other things. I asked the kids this week if they want me to stop rescuing and they all shouted No! They said they love all of the fosters we have had and love helping the danes. They see it as their mission too which makes me so proud.
I hope that the emergency surgeries, dramatic rescues from shelter death-rows, healings, bonding and ultimately adoptions are giving them a big story to be a part of. I once heard Andy Stanley's talk about giving your kids big stories to be a part of because if we don't someone will. Someone someday will have a big, exciting, ungodly story they want my children to be in and I must have a better one to capture their imagination and make the other story look like what it is, a scam. Drugs, sex and partying will look really inviting if the home-story is lame.

So while I hate to see these emaciated, sick or injured Great Danes suffer, I am SO grateful my family can be a part of their story.

The "A" Word

Social workers are saying it. Lawyers are saying it. My husband is saying it. I'm still not comfortable using that word but "if the cool kids do it, why not me" right? Adoption. I'm actually more comfortable with the OTHER A word.
My thoughts on adopting Swagger and Tirion are still a little muddled right now. They want to be returned to their dad. They hope for it. They wait for it. I'm not ok with being the dagger to their dreams.
Consider this post a preview of a future post. I'll post more as the adoption part of our journey progresses.

"Name Your Child Likes to be Called" line

Tonight is open house! I LOVE elementary school open houses! Maybe because I'm way too involved with my kids' lives and this is the only chance I get to see all of their classmates and parents in one place to see who is influencing my child from 8am to 3pm every day. Open house is like crack to an addict for OCD parents. I truly despise all of the emergency cards I have to fill out though. Seriously! That's taking away my allotted time to tell these teachers how lucky they are to have a Harrison in their classes. Geesh.
Speaking of filling out security and info cards. My son from another mama, literally, wanted his new name on his card. The whole school calling him "confidence" by faith is A-Ok with me! You'll think I made this name up, but no, it was actually a name and could not have been more suited to my formerly shy, sullen, withdrawn 8 year old boy whose new name is...Swagger! Yes, Swagger. He loves it! So Swagger enters the 3rd grade this week with a whole world of possibilities that come with being confident and self-assured. He already has the compassion of Mother Teresa, the generosity of Rick Warren, and is in a gentleness class of his own. I'm believing God that Swagger's new confidence makes him a leader to inspire a trend of compassionate, generous and gentle elementary school students.

A couple of weeks ago. The big kids were at a summer camp. Karima was being picked on by a rude, obnoxious, little girl and it was Swagger who stepped in and told the girl to leave Karima alone and apologize. The world needs more kids like Swagger and Karima and Tirion.

Romans 4:17-18

The Message (MSG)

 ^17-18We call Abraham "father" not because he got God's attention by living like a saint, but because God made something out of Abraham when he was a nobody. Isn't that what we've always read in Scripture, God saying to Abraham, "I set you up as father of many peoples"? Abraham was first named "father" and then became a father because he dared to trust God to do what only God could do: raise the dead to life, with a word make something out of nothing. When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said he would do. And so he was made father of a multitude of peoples. God himself said to him, "You're going to have a big family, Abraham!"

Ranaming Your Older Child

So renaming my older kids has been a little harder than I thought. They love the idea of a new name, unfortunately they have more opinions than a 2 year old. Renaming Rainey (age 7) has been a challenge of monumental proportions and, in fact, as I write this we have yet to agree on a single name. Not even one! If the name hasn't been in a Barbie movie, she doesn't want it. No wonder the hospital forced me to name her the first time before I was discharged, they must have known how opinionated she would be. I know what name she needs, however, I don't want to "exasperate my child" by calling her something that makes her angry or frustrated with me.
I'm having to get creative with my strategy for calling her by faith.When I speak about Rainey to my family or even to some of you I will call her both Asana (calm) and Karima (generous). But most importantly I'm praying out loud for her and talking to the Lord about His daughter Asana Karima. I hope she starts to like the name, but really it doesn't matter.

That's my strategy for now. Strategy's are made to be improved on though, so I'll update soon.

Please post if you are renaming your child. I would love to partner with you in this faith challenge.


Call those things which be not as though they were. Roman 4:17