Beautiful Hagar & Bountiful Blessings

I have writers block.

I have started a post FIVE times, and have had to start over every time.

This is the dilemma. This week was Thanksgiving. So, I should share about what we did, and what we're thankful for, and how much delicious food we ate {boy was it good!}.

I want to share about how meaningful the holiday was, especially as I returned from Ghana and spent it with all the family I love so much.

And, I DID have a great Thanksgiving. And, I DID get to spend it with the people I love most.

But, I don't want to break up the Ghana updates to stop and talk about yet another abundant American holiday.

There. I said it.

I LOVE Thanksgiving. It has always been {one} of my very favorite holidays. And, there was no difference this year on that. I still loved it.

I love the time with family. I love the fall weather. I love the colors. I love pumpkin pie. I love our Pilgrim feast. I love our Christmas parade tradition. I love long days with our kids and their cousins.

But, something still feels off in me. I wish I could figure out what it is. I think it's a few things, actually.

I just keep thinking that we have room for more. More kids. More love. More giving. More sacrifice. Our big extended family, who we spent this holiday with, is just amazing. Even on that bigger family level, there is so much love to give. We all have SO much of everything!

What else am I supposed to do with these bountiful blessings besides just be thankful?

I am so so so so thankful. Please don't hear me saying anything else but that. I am thankful.

And, I am also continuing to feel the pull. The pull of knowing there is more need. There are children who deserve more. There are others who should be celebrating a year of blessings, but they're not.

Oh, man. I know you're tired of hearing it from me. I wish I could stop saying it. I really do. Because I know it probably gets old.

But, once you've stood eye to eye with children who have nothing...who are child slaves...you can't stop talking about it.

When you've met a child like Hagar, who has been sold by her parents, and has been a slave for FIVE years, you just can't "do" normal anymore.

Sweet Hagar wouldn't even look in my eye when I bent down to talk to her. She was hiding behind a tree while the other children crowded around us in the center of the village.

I saw her from across this crowded island, and I just knew I was supposed to be her mama for the day. So, I began to talk with her. To rub her back. To ask her about herself.

She could hardly speak, she was so shy. Or, maybe she was so defeated. It seemed much more like the latter.

After talking with her for a while and telling her how much I loved her name, and how beautiful she was, she walked by my side the whole time we were there. Even though she was very quiet about it, she never left me. And, she still hasn't left my thoughts.

I met alot of children. And, I remember many of their faces and names too.

But, something about Hagar struck me to the core.

She was fading into the background. She was unsure and unsettled.

She doesn't have clean drinking water. She drinks from Lake Volta.

She doesn't have food to eat, much less a huge turkey with all the fixings.

She doesn't have a bed to sleep in. I don't even know how much she even gets to sleep.

And, most importantly, she doesn't know that she is treasured. She doesn't know that she is beautiful.

She needs someone telling her these things...giving her a bed and food and clothes and love.

I said "goodbye" to Hagar, as I offered silent prayers over her...for her protection, for her rescue, for her deliverance, for her to KNOW she was treasured and loved and valuable.

Even after we said bye, she found me again for another hug. She was hungry for it. And, I was more than happy to give it.

The Sunday after we were home from Ghana, on the way to church, the song "Beautiful" by Mercy Me came on in the car. It is one of my favorites, and I've always said it reminds me of the kids on the lake. But, I hadn't met them yet when I said that. Now, I just sat there and cried. It is now Hagar's Song. I told the girls about Hagar that morning. And, now they pray for her too.

Will you watch this video, {pause my music at the bottom first} and pray for Hagar, and all the other children who don't know they are beautiful? They don't know they are "made for so much more than all of this". They need to hear that "they are treasured, they are sacred, they are His."

I am thankful this year. I don't take any of these bountiful blessings for granted. And, I want to share them with children like Hagar. They really deserve it.

Beautiful Hagar, my sweet friend, I am thinking of you tonight, and praying you are safe. Wherever you are, may you know--somehow--that you have hundreds praying for you right now. You are treasured, you are sacred, you are His, sweet child.