A Sweet day Day to Celebrate

Today was a very happy one for our family. Anna, who's in a wedding here this weekend, flew in for a long weekend.

She couldn't bring the whole family, but she brought the newest member of our tribe, six-week-old Jillian. The little one had quite a fan club meet her at the airport!

And here was Jillian's reaction to meeting her many aunties and uncles as her Uncle Matthew held her still tiny hand.

Jillian's Auntie Zhenya (on the left), who held her so often during her first week of life when the two of us flew out to help Anna and her family, was immediately able to coax smiles out of her niece.

Uncle Matthew was the first to get to hold this precious gift from God.

As soon as Jillian was born I felt certain that this third girl in Aaron and Anna's family was going to have blue eyes like her sisters. Getting to see this grandtreasure again served only to confirm my suspicion. Such blue eyes, just like her daddy!

Not all of us were able to make the two-hour trip to the airport. Sarah, who has her own cake making business, is supplying cupcakes for the wedding of the family friend who is getting married this weekend. Here she's creating the candy ornaments with which she'll decorate each of the cupcakes.

These aren't just any cupcakes, however. These are cupcakes with a sweet purpose. The money Sarah earns from this job will go straight into the fund she is building to return to Zambia, Lord willing. She hopes to go back to the Kazembe orphanage in 2016 to work for a couple of years this time around.

I just want to finish this post by saying that this day was overflowing with yummy family time, including the joy of watching our children meet their newest niece. The day was extra sweet because 32 years ago today, Mr R proposed to me (and I immediately said YES!!!). We are both profoundly grateful to God for allowing us the wonder of walking the narrow road TOGETHER. There have been so many twists we never expected on July 30, 1983 when we agreed to marry one another.

The first upheaval to our dream life was not just infertility but barrenness. Multiple fertility specialists told us we would NEVER get pregnant. That news turned us toward adoption. And God blessed us above and beyond anything we would have dared to hope for by placing Anna in our arms within a few hours of her birth. Oh, how we thank God for the courage of her birthmother to go through with her pregnancy rather than aborting Anna! And, as it turns out, Anna has been the perfect leader of her 11 siblings. She loves Jesus deeply and seeks to serve Him. She is a blessed influence on the rest of her sisters and brothers. God's plan was so much better than our dream! What a glorious 32 years our journey has been, and today was a sweet day to celebrate.

Happy 21st, Sarah!

Sarah, who has her own cake-baking business, specifically asked to have ice cream instead of cake for her birthday celebration. The Blue Bunny ice cream parlor in LeMars was the perfect setting in which to celebrate her 21st birthday.

We were blessed that our dear friend, Kali Moores (Alison's sister-in-law), was visiting from Boston. We love having her visit her second home... our home!

The evening wasn't just about gifts. It was also a opportunity to enjoy great ice cream and great laughs together.  

We thank God for placing Sarah in our family 14 years ago! We can't imagine life without our sunshine girl.

She's Bounced Back to Her Baking

Sarah has been home from Zambia for about six weeks now. Much of that time has been spent traveling in order to reconnect with her sisters in Ohio and Massachusetts. However, when Sarah hasn't been on the road, she has been baking. She's in high gear during high school graduation season. She's made eight giant sheet cakes already and has orders for more. I'm repeatedly thanking God for the special skill he has pouring into this former orphan.

Sarah truly is fearfully and wonderfully made! She was fashioned out of love to spread love, and she does just that through lovingly serving others. Sarah was already seven when she was adopted. Some who have seen her life as a lost cause by that age, but nothing could have been further from the truth. Our God redeems and rescues! He abounds in lovingkindness!

Sarah's Already Back in the Kitchen!

Yesterday, flour was flying in our kitchen. Despite jet lag and malaria following her five months in Zambia, Sarah has returned to one of her favorite pastimes: baking. In fact, I'd go so far as to say the project which Sarah undertook energized our tired international traveler.

Within the walls of the Kazembe Orphanage, the director, Amy, tutored Sarah in the art of crafting doughnuts.

Although we don't normally deep fat fry around here, the oil was at a rapid boil on our stove yesterday as Sarah dropped in one after another of the round treats.

She had been taught just when to turn the doughnuts...

...and just when to remove them from the pan.

As Sarah busied herself, our two dogs, Sunshine (front) and Bella, kept a hopeful watch from the edge of the kitchen. I'm not sure, but perhaps they hoped that since the doughnuts were so light and fluffy, one or ~ even better two ~ would come floating toward them.

Once Sarah had finished the doughnuts, twists and doughnut holes...

...she prepared to glaze her creations.

I watched amazed that my beloved daughter had learned this intricate baking process in the African bush. Who would have guessed the blessings the Lord had in store for Sarah as she departed America for Zambia?

Sarah has loved to bake since she was about 13. 

Her love of baking and decorating cakes led to her making the wedding cake for Anna, her oldest sister. (If you take a look at the link, we used to identify Sarah as Cassandra on this blog.)

She then repeated the feat for the wedding of her second oldest sister, Alison.

Before leaving for Africa, Sarah had begun building a baking business.

Even while she in Zambia, Sarah received an email asking her to make cupcakes for the wedding of a dear friend who is getting married late this summer. 

When Sarah's work was finished late yesterday, dozens and dozens of doughnuts stood ready for our church's Easter brunch this morning.

In all honesty, I think I'm glad the delicious doughnuts had a designated destination. Otherwise, I might have been tempted to stuff the circular delicacies in my mouth one after another. What a multi-faceted joy it is that Sarah's home! God abounds in lovingkindness!

Sarah's Coming HOME {plus a God Story}

Yippee!!! Hooray!!! Yahoo!!! We're due to leave for the airport in about 30 minutes to go pick up Sarah. She's been serving for five months as a teacher at the Kazembe Orphanage in Zambia. She left the capital city of Lusaka bound for a short intermediate stop in Dubai on Tuesday night (Zambia time) in the plane pictured.

We're dancing a jig of joy around here! You see we're especially grateful to God! When Sarah landed in Chicago after the flight from Dubai, she told us in a still-stunned voice that she'd been upgraded on the 14-hour flight to BUSINESS CLASS! Isn't God so good? Truly, this is *a God story* because Sarah realized as her departure time in Zambia drew near that she had the unmistakable symptoms of malaria. The malaria strain that mosquitoes carry in that part of Africa is treatable with medicine so she knew she was in no danger. However, she also knew she was going to be miserable with the body aches throughout her travels once she left Zambia. Sure enough, Sarah has suffered through the symptoms of malaria during international travel, but what kindness the Lord has shown her by giving her the unexpected treat of a lay-flat seat in which to sleep in on the lengthy flight. Thank you, God!

God Rocks! Orphanage Disaster Update

Yesterday Sarah played a small role in demolition following the terrible storm that wreaked havoc on the Kazembe Orphanage in Zambia a week ago. 

The older boys took their turns...

...as did Troy, Tom and Amy's son.

A dear friend of our family who has invested his heart this week in working to raise funds for the repairs through our church here in Iowa, was preparing materials yesterday. He saw these pictures and commented,

"I'm not sure if it was planned, but I found the pictures compelling with the scripture reference under the rainbow in the background. Somewhat profound that in the midst of the destruction and rubble, the scripture on the walls stands out and reminds us that the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever which enables us to praise Him despite circumstances!"

My heart aches for these little guys chipping away in the hot African sun.

Despite the devastation, orphanage directors Tom and Amy have not lost heart. God's grace and steadfast love have been clearly evident to them. Here's a link to the amazing God story: You ROCK!

We would ask again that you please consider making a contribution toward the repairs. Tom and Amy believe it will take $18,000 to return the orphanage grounds to their state prior to the storm. That's nearly twenty-thousand dollars they didn't have the night the winds roared and the rain fell in torrents. These on-the-ground orphan advocates are trusting the Lord to provide through friends around the world. Here's a link: Donate to the Kazembe Orphanage.

Let us live these words in honor of the Lord Jesus Christ who died for us:

"Wash yourselves. Make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Reprove the ruthless. Defend the orphan. Plead for the widow." (Isaiah 1:16,17 NASB)

disaster strikes at sarah's orphanage in zambia

The children's bathroom --
the 28 kids had been washing their hands in this facility
just five minutes before the roof was torn off.

Jim woke me yesterday morning softly uttering, "Sarah's okay...".

I sat bolt upright in our bed instantly wide awake. Immediately I began praying for God's grace to handle whatever news my beloved husband was going to give me next about our 20-year-old daughter. We both know that when you allow your children to work in third world nations, you live each day aware that they could be danger at any time.

Sure enough, Jim's next words were, "...There has been a terrible storm and much damage has been done to the orphanage." (To learn about the orphanage click here: 

The classroom in which Sarah teaches

Orphanage director Tom assessing the damage

The sad job of storm cleanup got underway immediately

Social media has it's blessings, and in this case we were able to see pictures of the damage upon rising this morning. Tom and Amy, the couple who run the orphanage recognized their need for both prayer support and financial help as soon as the storm was over. Before going to bed last night, Amy put together a number of photos of the damage and a description of their devastating day and sent out a newsletter. You can find that newsletter at this link: Disaster Strikes at Kazembe Orphanage .

Children from the orphanage and the village retrieving roofing materials from nearby fields

If you would like to would like to help financially, here's a link: Donate to Kazembe Orphanage. Please consider donating. Having watched the operation of the Kazembie Orphanage through Sarah's eye's for four months, Jim and I wholeheartedly endorse the work Tom and Amy are doing to help the fatherless in rural Zambia.

Whether you can donate or not, please pray for Tom and Amy and their life's work; nearly three dozen orphaned children rely on these loving, generous followers of Christ. As we've pointed out many times in our blog, not everyone can adopt, but everyone can participate in orphan care. Prayer really matters in the care of orphaned children! We draw that conclusion straight from the Bible: "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress." (James 1:27)

A 14-Year Journey: From Russia to Zambia

Denise Reynolds:

My silly man photo bombing my efforts to capture
Sarah departing home to work in an orphanage in Africa 

Tomorrow my beloved husband's reason for being in Africa will come to an end. Mr. R's mission in Zambia will be complete. He'll watch and wave as a bus carrying Sarah departs the capital of Zambia, for an rural region 17 hours north. He told me today when we talked via Face Time that he knows he will weep as he watches that bus pull away.

Those words are hard for a wife to hear from her big, strong man. And yet, I'm full of peace knowing that his tears will be a salty mixture of grief and joy. Both of us are shedding tears of sorrow this week borne of our deep feelings for Sarah. Of, course we love her...we're her parents and that's what parents do. However, we also really like Sarah. She is a wonderfully giving young woman whose love of Jesus shines from her face day in and day out. We will miss this special light in our home. We're grieving the mere thought of her being nearly 8,000 miles away. We will miss her.

At the same time, we're also weeping tears of joy as we say our good-byes. You see, we've been on a 14-year journey with this precious girl. It was in late 2000 that the Lord began to nudge each of our hearts independently. His prod? Older children in Russian orphanages needed homes.

That nudge took us into an arena we'd never planned to enter ~ the heart-rending theater of the world's neediest. Honestly, we entered the arena of orphan care dragging our feet. We were SCARED. We didn't know anyone who had done something this...radical. We wondered, "Are we crazy? We already have the perfect family." However, we couldn't deny the need. World-wide 143,000,000 children were fatherless.

In the end, we decided to adopt one Russian child between the ages of five and eight. Then we read, "Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if one of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?" (Ecclesiastes 4:9-11) We knew the Lord was leading us to add a brother and sister. But as it turned out, that wasn't His plan either. When we finished the required home study, our adoption agency told us they had the perfect children for us. There was just one catch. There were three of them.

Double our children from three to six? Surely this was just to much for God to ask. We wrestled and prayed and wrestled some more until we turned to looked at the cross. Jesus died for our sins. He gave up His life that we might have eternal life. Could we do less than our Saviour had done? It was time to surrender our plans. It was time to deny self and take up our cross. We told our agency yes, we'd adopt the two sisters and their little brother.

On the first day that international flights returned to service following 9/11, we were in the air. We were about to become parents to three kiddos who didn't speak a word of our language, three children who'd only known abuse and neglect. But God had said feed my lambs. So we went, whispering, "We love you, King Jesus. We'd do anything for You. Even this. Oh, help us pleeeease, God!"

With the thud of a gavel in a Russian court room, Zhenya, Sarah and Matthew, ages eight, seven, and five, became our forever children. And thus began our day in and day out care for Sarah that will culminate tomorrow in her launching out on her own in Africa.

When we came to the conclusion 14 years ago that it was up to us to care for the orphans the Lord would put in front of us, Mr. R and I didn't enter the orphan care arena to simply provide food, clothing and shelter. We chose to adopt because we had a story to tell. We wanted to share the best news in human history ~ Jesus' life and death and resurrection ~ with kids whose life in an orphanage was likely to keep them from ever hearing the great good news of God's gift of redemption and salvation.

We also had a dream. Our hearts' cry was that some day these former orphans would want to tell others about Jesus' love, about His free gift of saving grace. So Sarah's trip to work in an orphanage in Africa didn't really begin last week. It is a journey that began nearly 14 years ago. And we send her off into rural Zambia with tears of joy. Because this former orphan wants to tell orphaned children about Jesus.

Sarah's Russian name (now her middle name) is Svetlana, which means light.

God is so good.