Lord,

Listen to your children praying.
Lord, send your spirit in this place.
Lord, Listen to your children praying.
Send them love, send them power, send them grace.

Father, you watch over the weak, the homeless, the orphaned and those without hope. Your wings are broad enough to cover each one and I have to say, at times I just don't understand it. I don't get how each of the children on that Angel Tree page are there living each day in an old house surrounded only by children and never knowing the love of a parent. So many are just abandoned and left just minutes after birth. More than that is their fate after their 4th or 5th birthday when they're transferred into the institutions where the filth, disease, and hunger are overwhelming. The neglect, the abuse, how can this happen??

I know I'm just one person and that my small and insignificant impact of bringing home my own children won't save all the others over there, and yet I know that You still called us to it and it was a part of our purpose. I know that I can't save the world. Only You can. I sit in wonderment, one minute in pain and the next in joy, as I look at nearly 100 faces staring back through the computer screen at me and knowing that you have a plan for their lives. The older boys that are so hard to find families to commit to especially tug my heart because it seems that as I look at their photos, they'll be the next ones I get an e-mail about saying they've been transferred to a mental institution- not long followed with the announcement of their death.

And yet I know that these children hold a stronger testimony than I do. My own testimony is weak as I am still learning so much every day on how to lean and depend on You. But these children, they have stories to tell. Even those that may never have a voice to speak it, those that make it home have a testimony. One of Grace. One of Power. One of You.

Last year You know how much time I spent grieving over the little angel named Daria when she appeared back on the Angel tree after her adoption didn't take place with her first family. You know how much I fought and cried to try to bring her home with my own little Sasha that we were trying to get to. When all the answers here on Earth turned to 'no', we knew Your will was being done, but our sadness was still rocked for little Daria as I had that same gut-feeling that on that 5th birthday that was quickly approaching she would be transferred to the institution and the next report we'd get was that of her death.

Instead you turned our sadness to joy, our grieving to laughter. Yes, it came at a cost as we weren't able to bring home our Sasha after all. But the testimony that you've now given little Daria, our Emma, is beyond what anyone could fathom. You've brought her to us, changed her name the day before her date of transfer, healed her heart, mended her lungs, and You continue to grow her body and strengthen her to make her able to do so much more than I imagined. Your hand is leading her and her testimony has provided a jumping point now for other families to come forward and bring their own children home.

Last year she was a face on the "Angel Tree" whom I grieved over. Now she's a living testimony of Your goodness and glory.

Lord, help me to have that faith that each child will come home this year. Provide the families. Provide the funding. Provide the changes necessary in governments where these children live so that they can come home sooner and without as much bureaucracy. Broaden the reach of the testimonies of those who have come home. Help me to continue to be a voice for You, a voice for the children, and lead me in the path that You have for me to continue to advocate for these.

Father, this Christmas, help us all to be reminded of those without families, without food, without love. Help us to step back from the lights and toys and gifts and to give from our hearts.

And be with each child as they wake each day and lay their heads down each night. Provide comfort. Provide warmth. Provide food. Provide love. It's only through You that we are a family, and it's through you that each waiting child will find their family as well.

Thank you, Father, for the gifts you've given us this year. Help us to be a beacon of Light for those who follow. Amen.