Encourage Growth

Check out these two fabulous videos from Dr. Karyn Purvis as you walk the road to helping your children heal -

The Importance of Repairing Your Mistakes

There is no such thing as a perfect parent — and that is actually good news, so long as parents are willing to focus on repair when they fail and make mistakes.

Watch as Dr. Karyn Purvis explains why it is important for parents to repair their mistakes, and how repair can actually encourage growth and strengthen the relationship between parent and child.

The Importance of Repairing Your Mistakes from Tapestry on Vimeo.

Understanding Sensory Processing and Difficult Behaviors

Sensory processing issues often play a significant role in some of the challenges that adoptive and foster families face. And yet, parents are often completely unaware that sensory processing is in fact the issue.

Sensory processing is an important topic for anyone who loves and cares for a child from a hard place. Beacuse of their histories, children from hard places often experience altered brain development which impacts the way in which they process sensory data.

In this brief video, Dr. Karyn Purvis explains what sensory processing is and why an understanding of it is vital for adoptive and foster parents.

Understanding Sensory Processing from Tapestry on Vimeo.

Family Friday

Dear Lifesong...thanks for making this moment possible!  Taye Melese Coon arrived home on Friday, October 7th!  

We appreciate you all sooooo much!

-Jason & Emily Coon

Just Around the Corner...

Orphan Sunday, November 6, is your opportunity to raise a torch for the fatherless in your church, family or small group. 

We’re less than two weeks away, so here are some easy ways to make the most of Orphan Sunday:

• Request the Orphan’s Table (by Oct 27) and receive a simple meal, along with a prayer and discussion guide, for family or any size group.
• Request a free copy of the “Answer the Cry:  Faces of Hope” 30-minute DVD to show and discuss.
• Join the LIVE from Kansas City hour of GUIDED PRAYER and WORSHIP for the fatherless at 6 PM CST on November 6, along with Jon Egan of the Desperation Band, David Platt and other Christians around the globe!

See more at the Orphan Sunday website, including ideas for activities, downloadable posters and other materials, prayer and study guides, short videos, and much more!

Visit the Orphan Sunday Facebook page here.

New School Year - Lifesong Ethiopia

Please enjoy this update from our Lifesong Ethiopia directors, Gary and Peggy Ifft:

On September 12 we turned over our new year here in Ethiopia and now we are in 2004.  We are looking forward to many good things in this new year!

School started here on Monday, September 19.  Opening up 3 campuses with over 600 students was quite a challenge.  This is especially true, considering that we had two brand new school buildings to open up. Opening up 2 new buildings and adding over 200 students also requires a lot of new teachers, teachers' aides, feeding program cooks, cleaners, and so on.  We now have a school staff of 62 employees and 5 employees in Samuel's Home.  This is a great responsibility which we take very seriously.  At times we lie awake at night thinking about all the families who are dependent upon us for their livelihood.  We are especially grateful for faithful supporters! 

We also want to recognize a special team which accepted the challenge of building 4 additional classrooms at our Adami Tulu campus.  This team committed to building additional rooms to allow us to have 2 classrooms each of Nursery School, Lower Kindergarten, and Upper Kindergarten.  As a bonus they also decided to raise funds for a brand new latrine for the students.

 

The amazing thing was that the team members didn't really even know each other personally before becoming involved in this project.  The one thing they had in common was that each had adopted or was in the process of adopting an Ethiopian child.  They went through a rather arduous fund-raising process and decided also to come to Ethiopia to do some "hands-on" work with the building they sponsored.  So, in mid-August they arrived and spent a few days painting the buildings.  They also taught Vacation Bible School to up to 200 kids and did a lot of other very worthwhile things. We are grateful for all they did, and we really appreciate the fact that they are also determined to help us expand the work in Adami Tulu!”

God's blessings to each of you and your families,

Gary and Peggy, Lifesong Ethiopia

The Hard Questions

We believe it is critically important that parents who are preparing to adopt or foster a child must be honest and realistic about the journey and the challenges that lie ahead. Just as Jesus in Luke 14 challenged those who would follow him to ‘count the cost,’ so too parents who respond to God’s call to adopt or foster must be willing to count the cost of the adoption journey and prepare to “lay down their lives” to love their child and help him or her become all that God intends." - Michael Monroe, Tapestry

Read the rest of Michael's article, Ten Questions for Parents Preparing to Adopt or Foster here!

In the Irving, TX area? Don't miss the 2011 Tapestry Conference!!