Choose to be a starfish thrower!

One day, an old man was walking along the beach in the early morning and noticed what appeared to be thousands of starfish washed up on the shore. Up ahead in the distance, he spotted a boy who appeared to be gathering up the starfish and tossing them back into the ocean. Overwhelmed by the sheer multitude of the suffering creatures, the old man just stood and watched as the boy picked up another starfish, and yet another, releasing them in the healing safety of the cool green water.

Finally, he approached the boy and asked him why he spent so much energy doing what seemed to be a waste of time. The boy replied "If these starfish are left out here like this, they will bake in the sun, and this afternoon all of them will be dead." The old man gazed out as far as he could see and responded "But, there must be hundreds of miles of beach and thousands of starfish. You can't possibly rescue all of them. What difference is throwing a few back going to make, anyway?"

The boy then held up the starfish he had in his hand and threw it to safety in the waves and replied "It made a difference to that one!"

I have a link on my blog to the website of The Starfish Foster Home where my son, Cameron, is currently living and has been since he was 9 weeks old. I am grateful for Amanda, the founder, and the role she and others played in saving my son's life.

Helping just one does make a difference. Choose to be a starfish thrower!

Who does he belong to, Mama?

On March 22, 2011 we received the call. It wasn't exactly what I imagined it would be like for so many years. But, when is anything in life what we imagine or expect it to be?

I was shaking as I looked at the referral pictures of Cameron and his medical file on my computer. I was also wondering if he was my son. Geoff was at work, and I needed to forward the file to him so he could review it.

While I was looking at these sweet pictures, Gretchen came over and saw Cameron. She said "Oh, mama, that little boy is sooo cute. Who does he belong to?" My heart was full. I could not say, "well, we think he is your little brother and belongs to the Murrays." So much more paperwork needed to be done and filed and authenticated and sent to China and, and, and...

Besides, Geoff had not yet seen Cameron's photo, so I needed to wait. I also needed to answer my daughter. I finally understood a concept that has been so difficult for my heart to grasp for so long. I finally had the answer for Gretchen and said "Gretchen, that boy belongs to God." She was happy with that answer and skipped away on to the next activity. My eyes filled with tears because this little boy who did not yet have a family, but also wasn't quite yet part of ours, was then and will always be a child of God.

It is so hard as a mama to really understand how anyone could love these little people more than we do. But He does. God loves us more than we could ever possibly imagine. He only entrusts them to us for a little while, and I pray we raise them as He wants us to. The Bible says that God is the Father to the fatherless. I will be eternally grateful for the love that He has for Cameron and that Cameron will be a part of our family.