A Christmas Story

I am a sucker for Christmas stories...the sappier the better. Usually I avoid movies that will make me cry, but something about the holidays makes me a little more sentimental, a little more willing to let others' stories touch my heart.


Have I got a story for you...


I promised that I would share with you the project that I have been working on for a friend...I helped to build a website and set up a blog for my friends, the Paytons.

This beautiful family is the Payton family. Jacky and Marie with their five kids, two biological, three adopted. (Do you hear the music yet?)



Also pictured with them is this handsome boy, Losha. Kinda fits in with the rest, doesn't he?

Losha is an orphan from Russia. (How about now, can you feel the foreshadowing?) The Payton family agreed to host him for two weeks through an organization called The Russian Orphan Lighthouse Project. Immediately upon meeting him, the entire family knew that God had always meant for him to be a part of their family. He cried the night before he left for Russia...saying, "Papa will come for me, Papa will come for me." (If you are not feeling the tug yet, you have a heart of stone...)

The Paytons tearfully put him on the plane back to Russia after promising to return for him, and enthusiastically set about raising the funds to adopt him (all in all, it will probably cost about $60,000). Jacky is a robotics teacher, and Marie homeschools their five (fantastic) children, so this is no small feat for them to raise the money.

They have had several fundraisers, and plan more for after the holidays. Visit http://www.paytonshope.org/ to hear more of their story (I will warn you though, have a tissue ready...), or follow the fundraising efforts on the family's blog at http://loshashope.blogspot.com/.

A wonderful, loving, Christian family working to adopt an orphan from Russia; to give him a real home and a family. What more could you want in the way of a beautiful Christmas story?

Two newspapers have picked up their story already (Tulsa World, Bigheart Times), but we are counting on word of mouth to raise the funds. If you would like to contribute, all you must do is use the ChipIn below. It works just like PayPal.

By Christmas next year, let's hope that Losha is home...home with the family God intended for him...home to stay...