New Kids T shirts

What a cutie world changer!!!

Right now we have the gray "I'm Gonna Change The World" kids shirts. Our other two models are wearing our women's adult XS shirts. Order yours today from our side bar :)

Fallapalooza

Here are a few sneak peaks from our Fallapalooza event yesterday evening. I am waiting on some pics from the event that someone so graciously took, but in the meantime I am showing some of my sister's pics, as well as some of Shoof below. What a great night it was!! You see Charlene and I above sporting our new OH shirts! Charlene is my faithful OH sidekick. When you email "info", you get Charlene. She is awesome!

I think my nephew's face says it all. All the kids had a blast coloring pictures for kids in Africa.

Above, my little cutie, Nathan, is showing his support for his brother's band, Shoof :)

We had a GREAT turnout. I was thrilled......and what a beautiful night it was!!!
We even had an OH supporter in from GA come for the fun.
Many from the African adoption fellowship group came out. Thank you all for your support :)
Below, you see me with my three sisters. They are all such great Ordinary Heroes. There are 15 kids between us....whoo!
My son, Collin, is in this pic with his friend, Allie. They are both in the Shoof teen band. Collin is sporting one of our new colors in our Africa shirt. They are awesome! Order yours ;)
Our event coordinator is INCREDIBLE! She and her amazing team thought of it all. I am so blessed to have them. Many thanks to Elizabeth and the whole committee!!
We even had the grandest of porta potties.

The kids LOVED the face painting.
Here are all the cousins watching over the baked goods table. We had some of the most delicious baked goods that were baked with love in support of our event. Thanks to everyone who baked :)
Below, I'm standing in front of the Tin Can treats. They have the cutest set up and had such great treats for everyone.
Here you see Dana, our amazing shirt girl, showing off all of her awesome creations. Thanks Dana.
The new kids shirts were a BIG hit!!! Order one for your little world changer today from our sidebar!

My other son, Cam and his friend, are obviously Shoof fans :)

Shoof! Little Connor is even showing off with some behind the back, bass moves.



Shoof, singing with Jason Scheff, lead singer of the hit band, Chicago!!!
Two of Jason's sons are in the Shoof band. It is a lot of fun!
The kids had a blast!
What a beautiful, perfect, fall night it was. I will be posting more pics soon. We had many amazing singers and some awesome Ordinary Heroes at this event. Many thanks to all who came and to those who helped with it.

Blessings!

Come Out To Fallapalooza THIS SATURDAY....

Everyone plan to bring the fam and join us this Saturday at 5pm in Franklin. CLICK HERE to go to the site for directions and all the event info. We have some amazing artists performing, food, face painting, balloons, fun, etc. Check it all out on the OH site. See you there.

Korah Night at 3rd & Lindsley

WATER FOR KORAH was a huge success. Thanks to everyone who came out to support the cause. This was all organized by Ashli, who traveled in our group, on this last Ethiopia trip. We all came back with a goal amount to raise in order to help provide land and water for the trash dump area in Ethiopia. Ashli out did herself. And special thanks to Kristi Neumann for helping to organize and get the bands to perform for this cause. It was so much fun.

Shoof, pictured above, was the opening act. It is an all teen band, which my son plays in. They are so amazing!!
Little Connor, on bass, is rockin it at only 9 years old.

Cole, an amazing 13 yr old guitarist

Jason, one of the best 13 yr old drummers around

My amazing 14 yr old, Collin, on the guitar.

Ashli got up and shared her heart and passion for Korah. Her surprise to everyone for the night is that she leaves next month to MOVE THERE. Yes, she is moving to Ethiopia. We can't wait to have our Ordinary Hero ambassador on the ground permanently. She is amazing!!
I shared a bit about what OH is all about.
The awesome Kristi Neumann performed a fabulous set. She included the song she has donated to Ordinary Hero for all proceeds to benefit adoption grants, called COLE'S LULLABY. Everyone go to Itunes today and download it. If you missed the last video I posted, you can CLICK HERE to watch and hear COLE'S LULLABY. It's an awesome song! Thank you Kristi, for having such a huge heart for adoption.
Kristi Neumann
Special, special, thanks to all the different bands and artists who gave of their time for this cause. They were all awesome!!

Shirts for sale
Below are pics from our ET trip of Korah displayed by the silent auction.
Special thanks to everyone who helped make the evening a success.
Charlene and her boys below.



Rick and Amanda, pictured below, are in the process of adopting a sibling set of 2 from Ethiopia. Their adoption is what inspired Kristi to donate her song toward adoption grants.
There are some great things going on right now with so many people. God is inspiring people everywhere to either adopt, support adoption, support and help the poor, and help those in Africa who have nothing. Everyone can do SOMETHING.

Blessings :-)

Come On Out Tonight!! Plus watch this video!!

Kristi Neumann and friends are hosting a benefit concert tonight in Nashville AT 3RD AND LINDSLEY AT 8PM, with all proceeds going toward land and water development in the Korah community. If you are a regular reader of this blog then you know how the community of Korah impacted all of us from our last mission trip. If you happened to miss that video and want to get a glimpse of what we are raising money for then CLICK HERE.

The amazing Kristi Neumann met with me for coffee not too long ago and told me she wrote a song and wants all the proceeds to go toward adoption grants. She wants this song to aid in helping bring waiting children home to their forever families. Let me tell you.....IT IS AWESOME!! All of you in adoption world are going to eat it up. Make sure you download it from itunes and tell all your friends. By downloading, you are bringing a child one step closer to HOME!! I put together this video showcasing her song. YOU HAVE TO CHECK IT OUT BELOW. Then come tonight and see her sing it live!!

Also, the amazing SHOOF, will be the opening act tonight!!! Why am I super excited about SHOOF? Well....because my son plays in this adorable teen band :) They are incredible!! Everyone come out and show your support tonight for all of the amazing artists who are so graciously donating their time for such a worthy cause.

Now enjoy this video showcasing the brand new release of "Cole's Lullaby". (Silence music at bottom of page, or CLICK HERE to go to the link)

Ordinary Hero & Kristi Neumann Help Bring Waiting Children Home from Kelly Putty on Vimeo.

Why did Kristi write this song? Let her tell you in her own words.....

"My best childhood friend had her first baby this year and he was three and a half months early. She lives in Portland and I live in Nashville. I didn't feel like there was anything I could do to help or to ease her pain, I felt useless being so far away. I thought about that little boy (Cole) so helpless in the NICU and my friend not being able to hold her little boy or to comfort him. So I wrote "Cole's Lullaby" for the family, I thought every child should have their own lullaby. I felt like the most important thing a child could know is that they are loved and always have a safe place to call home, no matter where they are. I was sitting at a restaurant finishing the lyrics to the song and my dear friend Ashli York met me to tell me about her recent mission trip to Ethiopia with Ordinary Hero. She told me her sister wanted to adopt one of the orphans from Ethiopia but that it was an expensive process to bring a child over to the United States. I instantly knew I was to record and donate the proceeds of the lullaby to this adoption, and adoptions in the future. I know I was meant to write that song for Cole (who just got to come home this month and is doing well), and now I hope that song raises lots of money so that other children can find a safe place to call home."

Lyrics to Cole's Song

It's the moon's turn to shine
So my dear we must say good night
Close your eyes and dream
And know your place is with me

Go to sleep little one
I'll be here in the morning
By your side to hold you when you wake
I'll be wishing time would fly
Begging that sun to rise
You know my darling I can't wait
I can't wait

I've never loved like this before
Because you are mine and I am yours
You have my heart, you can believe
I'll be right here tomorrow so rest at ease

Go to sleep little one
I'll be here in the morning
By your side to hold you when you wake
I'll be wishing time would fly
Begging that sun to rise
You know my darling I can't wait
I can't wait

And I'll always be your safe place to go
So my love you're never alone

Thank you, Kristi, for such an amazing song!!

How Did God Burst The Bubble I Live In?

Thank you for your comments from my last post. I would like to reflect on some points from some of them from some of you who have been put in the position of seeing outside the bubble.

Morgan~ The first time God "burst" my bubble was when I visited the nursing home for the first time. I remember thinking about how selfish my life had become, and this was God pointing me to a purpose bigger than myself: serving "the least of these".

Susan~ He has pushed us to stop being selfish Christians. Oxymoron, right? But that is what we were and are still struggling to overcome. It started with deciding that if we loved God and we loved people, shouldn't our lives reflect that?
..........Tonight He continued to work on me as I wept uncontrollably over my selfishness and how much of my life I have already wasted on myself. I pray that I don't get sucked back into the "American Dream" Christian life, but that I can pick up my cross and follow Him. It is a constant battle.

Gretchen~ I used to live in a bubble, and am SO glad that God burst it. The hardest thing is that others in my family still do.

Staci~ God has "burst my bubble" pretty recently by opening my eyes even more to the world.. I have wanted to work with orphans overseas for years, but never as much as He has given me a passion for in these last few months. He has opened my eyes to the need to reach the unreached people in the world who have never heard the Gospel and I feel my heart being tugged in that area.

Here are a few examples from my own experiences
It started with me when my kids were acting rotten, when they were all age 10 and under. My husband and I loaded them up and drove downtown to look for homeless people on the street to teach them a lesson. Well, we found them. There was an Asian man, whom my kids nicknamed Jackie Chan, we met sitting on a bench, wrapped in a blanket with two trash bags beside him that held everything he owned. My husband got out with a couple of the kids and handed him some homemade pumpkin bread and coffee that we had brought along. He immediately said "God Bless You" and quickly sat up and scarfed it down. We sat and talked with this man and heard a bit of his sad story about had he had lost everything and had no family. My kids looked like deer in headlights. Their eyes were as big a quarters. We left and went home that night. All of my kids included Jackie Chan in their prayers for weeks to come. And anytime they acted up all I had to do was remind them of Jackie. That night burst our bubble. We left on a mission to quickly find some homeless people to teach our kids a lesson and God taught us one.

I later took my bible study group out to do the same thing. We couldn't find the homeless on the streets because it was cold. I drove to the only mission I knew of which was the men's mission. They told me to go to the women's mission. I didn't even know there was one. We got there, expecting to see typical looking, toothless, dirty, homeless women and were greeted by the smiling faces of children and mommas who were hurting because they couldn't provide for them. Again, I went out to try to teach my group a lesson and God taught us all one. That burst the bubble of my worldview, once more. I couldn't lay my head down at night knowing that those hurting people are just on the other side of town, which is why we have served there since then.

We set out to adopt a child from Africa. We knew a child would need us. We could rescue him, so to speak. We landed on the rich soil of Africa and braced ourselves for the poverty we had heard about. Expecting to see the worst, we were greeted with more love than we could have ever imagined by some of the poorest people in the world. They have nothing but yet they have everything. We have everything in America, but yet, we have nothing without the love of God. We were there to pick up our child from this country but yet God grabbed our hearts in ways we could never have imagined. We went, thinking we were doing them a favor but yet God burst our bubble once more. They did so much more for us than we ever could have done for them. They opened our eyes. We came home and could not lay our heads down at night, knowing that our son's country suffers with poverty as it does and not do anything about it. We have been serving there for the past two years and receiving more blessing from them than we could ever give.

These are a few examples of how we saw outside our bubble in which we live. In each instance it required that we take the first step in order to see it. You have to go. You have to step into it in order to be changed. God is waiting there every time.

Blessings.