#81: Puzzle Them Home.

A few weeks ago, I blogged about Jeremy and Christi Green, two of the most amazing people I have ever met. The Greens' selfless sacrifice of adopting five (and soon to be seven) disabled Chinese children is a constant inspiration to me. They are truly Christlike examples, whose priorities are focused on the things that really matter the most in life.

As you may know, one of the two new children the Greens are adopting is 12-year old Cali, who is expected to join the family from China next month. Although Cali is beautiful in every way, with a bright spirit and wonderful smile, she is also confined to a wheelchair.

Cali Rose Green

Unfortunately, the Greens' current home is not wheelchair accessible, and it will be difficult for Cali to be able to move around once she arrives. In response to this need, last month some of the Greens' good friends started a fundraiser website called Puzzle Them Home in an effort to help the Greens build a new home. Unfortunately, the progress is going slowly and it may still be some time before the Greens can afford to build. In an effort to increase the fundraising efforts, the Greens have made an adorable YouTube video (also shown below), with the hope that it will gain traction through Facebook and Twitter and catch the attention of someone influential who can make a big difference or help spread their story. By myself, I am certainly not influential and cannot make a big difference, but if anyone who reads this post would be willing to share the Greens' story or even make a donation to the family through Puzzle Them Home, it could be the start something amazing.

There is one other thing that I wanted to address. Perhaps you may be asking yourself, "If the Greens can’t afford to take care of these new kids, then why in the world are they adopting them? Don't they know when to quit?"

In her blog post today, Christi addressed these questions and explained why they are adopting Cali and Conner, even if they do not get a new home. I have stolen some of her post below (Christi, hopefully that is okay!), but you should read the whole thing by clicking here:

In our case, each time we have pursued adoption, I have come to know that it is exactly what the Lord wants us to do. I am so extremely grateful for this knowledge. It has been so important as we go through the ups and downs and highs and lows that each new child brings to our family. Knowing, without a shadow of a doubt, that we are to pursue adopting each child is of infinite worth to me. The weight that is so heavy as we prayerfully consider these children is immediately lifted when we receive that “yes” answer and accept it. (And by the way, in case you are wondering, we have received "no" answers concerning adoption as well.)

And so, as we moved forward with Cali’s and Conner’s adoptions, I let go of the things that I had worried about as we sought answers from our Heavenly Father as to whether or not to adopt. 

One of those things was (no surprise here…) having a bigger home. I stopped worrying about how we would accommodate our new additions and how Cali would get along in a wheelchair here because I knew that it was right to adopt her. I felt so much peace as I realized that Cali was infinitely better off here, in a home that isn’t equipped for a wheelchair and where we are a tight fit, than in an orphanage without a family. That realization took a huge weight off my shoulders. Getting a new home was NOT paramount to adopting her. Happy dance!!!!!

Still (sheepish smile), I wanted a new home. (; And we decided that it was a good thing to pray for—one that we felt would be the best thing for our children and bless our family in very life-changing ways.

Let me tell you what I hoped would happen with those prayers. (: I hoped that God would basically just drop down a home out of the sky and have it land on our property. I’m not really kidding here. I wanted it to be that easy. I wanted Jeremy’s side business to take off in a way that we would make like, a million dollars this year and could build our dream home. Yes… that would be very ideal!Heavenly Father decided that He would do things His own way. And HIS way is not at all MY way!!!!! My way is NOT to have a bunch of busy, wonderful mothers who have a thousand other things to do decide to put hours and hours into serving our family. My way is NOT to have PayPal buttons and requests for donations. Seriously—UGH! My way is NOT to have people who have less money than us sacrifice to build us a great big home. My way is NOT to hear of one of Graci’s friends saving up money to buy a puzzle piece (made me cry humble tears). My way is NOT to write facebook and blog posts letting people know that “Hey! Have you heard there is a fundraiser to raise money for ME?!” Hello-- embarrassing! My way is not to set up a twitter account with the sole purpose of tracking down my kids’ favorite celebrities and sheepishly asking them to tweet. My way is NOT to have a tree set up with our pictures on it at community events asking people to learn more about our family. My way is NOT to be public with this whole new house thing.

I have found that being on this “receiving” end is actually very hard. PLEASE don’t think I’m complaining—I am so grateful! But saying, “Thank you—it means so much!” and accepting help is much harder for me than saying, “Thanks, but we’re fine!” And over and over and over in the past few months I have had to do just that--say, “Thank you,” and accept. “Thank you” to those wonderful people on the Puzzle Them Home committee who are selflessly giving of their time and talent. “Thank you” to those who are sharing our story. “Thank you” to those who have so generously donated financially to the cause. Knowing that this is the type of service I can NEVER pay back is just plain hard!

Please consider in your hearts if there is some small (or big) way that you can help the Greens. They can use your prayers, they can use your tweets/re-posts, and they can use your donations. Jeremy and Christi really are the most amazing people I have ever met, and I can think of no greater Christmas present than to see them be able to build a new home.