Beauty for Ashes (or how some orphans in Baja got crazy adorable with hairbows)

*****I know we have surgery coming up soon...but I just felt like today was the day to share what God did with my little girl's dream ****

to bestow on them a crown of beauty

instead of ashes,

the oil of joy

instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise

instead of a spirit of despair.

Isaiah 61

 

 

 

So...

It all started with one little girl.

Wanting her friends down in Baja, who happen to be orphans

to know that they are beautiful...

That they are loved by God...

and breathtakingly beautiful to Him.

So she worked her little fingers off....

Making hairbows.

Because some of her friends were almost bald last year.

Because when they were found begging,

they had lice.

And Ravenna wanted them to know that it did not matter.

That they were still so beautiful.

and as a family we worked and prayed and tried to get the word out.

About these amazing kids, who happened to be orphans

that we love so much down in Baja.

Word spread and others jumped in to help!!!!

little girls from across the country and in our classrooms began giving up their own hairbows!

Friends sent ribbons and the pile grew!

More friends sent beautiful quilted fabric!

and we continued to pray and get so excited!!!

These kids didn't know what was heading their way!!!!

We made headbands...

stunning headbands with those quilted flowers and donated things!

and Parker jumped into the mix and said, "what about the boys? They need to know God loves them too!"

So he thought and he prayed,

and he decided they needed to know that God made them strong...

and started collecting jumpropes!

Boy did the jumpropes come in....

until we had 80 of them!

and friends sent school supplies,

little toys,

and all sorts of fun for the children in the villages!

and then came the shopping spree....

a woman we did not know let Ravenna shop for those girlies down in Mexico.

Tiaras and wings and more sparkly hair things!!!

it was like early Christmas as the packages came!

and they made sure things would really 'work' :)

and then...we packed it all up, boxes and boxes of donations miraculously fit in our little mini van.

and we drove

and drove,

and drove,

to the place that we dearly love.

It honestly felt like coming home.

It still makes me cry thinking about it.

Then the day came,

the day we had been dreaming of filled with all kinds of fun....

the kids started coming...

and we spread out the goodies between all of the kids on our trip to hand out...

they came shyly at first...

then Ravenna decided to set out the hair things for the girls to pick up. I wish you could have seen it. She was liked the pied piper of hairbows with a huge line of girls following her!

and she loved every minute...

and so did the girls!

The bigger girls helped 'do' the hair of the little ones...

and these children,

some who had hardly smiled all week...

blossomed.

The courtyard filled with giggles.

Boys swung galantly from the trees by their new jumpropes.

I still am amazed.

How did they know?

How could Ravenna know?

and Parker too?

Just what was needed to speak to their friend's hearts.

Maybe it was God speaking to theirs that did it...

Either way I once again stand amazed.

At how the littlest thing....

can speak so deeply...

of God's love...

Not only to them...

but to my heart too.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

1 John 3:1