No time to blog tonight -- we've been finishing the Cupcake Kids t-shirt page! Hop on over and check it out -- there is literally something for everyone! And, as always, all proceeds benefit SixtyFeet.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”   -- Joshua 1:9

Some would tell you there’s a fine line between courageous and foolish. In fact, some would tell you that the Owens family crossed that line long ago.

When we announced our plans to adopt Hannah and Joseph, Dan and I were accused of being foolish and a whole lot worse. Our adoption pretty much broke every rule in the “What Not to Do When You Adopt” handbook. In fact, I think there might be a picture of Dan and me on the cover of that handbook.

For sure, there were a lot of unusual components to our adoption: we adopted out of birth order, we adopted two children who were not biological siblings, we didn’t use an agency, we did not adopt from a true orphanage, we had no health or family history on either child, the list goes on. But far and away, the the issue that raised the most concern was this: Dan and I adopted two “older” children.

By most standards, Hannah and Joseph are not older children. But by adoption standards, they are practically dinosaurs. The vast majority of the people seeking to adopt want a healthy baby –18 months old or younger.

So when we started telling people about our plans to adopt a 3 year old and a 4 year old, we heard things like this:

• “Older kids carry so much baggage with them. They are really going to be hard.”

• “You need to be prepared for them to show aggression towards your younger children.”

• “Do you know an older child will never really attach to you?”

• “You’re going to have to spend so much time dealing with their developmental delays.”

But Dan and I knew we’d heard the Lord on this one and we were determined to march forward. We did our best to prepare. We sought advice from friends who'd blazed the trail before us. We prayed. And we read some good books. Especially this one:


And what of all the concerns and criticism that so many people expressed to us? How have those issues played out? Well, it’s only been three months. But so far, Hannah and Joseph have never shown one second of aggression towards Baby Charlotte - unless, of course, you consider smothering someone with kisses to be aggressive.

Are they attached to us? I’d say we’re doing pretty well…


But what about their developmental delays? Well, I won’t lie… Hannah and Joseph both came to us with some significant delays. But before they even came home, Dan and I agreed that we would give them at least 6 months to learn and grow on their own before seeking any type of therapy or professional intervention.

And in that area alone, we’ve been blessed and privileged to literally behold miracle after miracle. When Hannah and Joseph first arrived, they were barely able to grip a crayon in their hands. But just last week, they colored this little treasure for me:


Three months ago, Hannah was terribly uncoordinated… almost clumsy. She was constantly dropping things and falling as she walked. She spilled her food and drink at every meal. She could not pedal a bike or climb a ladder. And yesterday afternoon, I took this video:



Yep, that would be Hannah zooming down the street on her scooter, balanced on one leg.

Hannah and Joseph came to us barely speaking a word of English. Last week, I happened to catch this on video… it’s Hannah, reading a book to Baby Charlotte:



I’m not saying that every adoption experience will be like ours. I’m not saying that the rules of the “What Not To Do” handbook don’t exist for a reason. But I am saying that I’ll take obedience to Christ over worldly wisdom any day. Whether it’s adoption or another step of faith, we can trust that He will equip us for all He calls us to do.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight.” – Proverbs 3:5-6, NIV, emphasis mine

Lately my children have been squabbling over the most ridiculous thing. It’s on the verge of driving me insane.

Practically every time we get ready to go somewhere, we end up having a long, drawn-out, sometimes heated discussion about where everyone will sit in the car. We hash out which combination of children will sit in the third row, who is sitting next to the baby, what side of the car everyone will sit on and so forth.

For a while, I tap-danced right along and indulged this silliness. I even instituted some crazy system where everyone rotated seats each time we got in the car – of course this system lasted about one day since I could never remember who previously sat where and whose turn it was to sit next to the baby and what not. And so the squabbling just continued.

Friday was no exception. I told the kids to load up in the car for a little field trip – we were headed north of the city to visit a friend’s farm. I got the baby up from her nap, fixed her milk, walked into the garage and guess what I found… yep, the four big kids arguing about where everyone should sit in the car.

And I decided that this conversation was OVER. Permanently. “Guys, ENOUGH!! Seriously. Who cares? The fate of the republic does NOT hinge on where you sit in the car. Boys in the back, girls in the middle. I don’t want to hear another word about it. Ever.”

And with that, we got in the car and headed up to the farm. I huffed and puffed most of the way there, still irritated with the whole situation. I was irritated at myself even, just for putting up with it for so long. Such silliness, so much time and energy wasted.

But then a thought popped in my head… I wonder how many times I’ve done this exact same thing? How much time and energy and money and effort have I wasted on completely meaningless things? Things with no eternal value whatsoever. How many times has the Lord looked upon me and thought “Shelly, enough! Who cares? You’re missing the point.”

The recent disaster in Japan has me thinking. And no, I’m not about to start spouting end times prophecy or anything… I have no idea when Jesus is coming back. But the tsunami in Japan, and other such tragedies, should serve as a clear reminder of our own mortality. We’re all just a vapor, our time is so fleeting.

Whether Jesus comes back tomorrow or a 1,000 years from tomorrow doesn’t really matter. Because one day we will ALL stand before Him and give account. We will answer for the ways we’ve used or squandered our resources, our time, our talents.

Dan and I get emails from people all the time saying things like… “we love what you guys are doing with your ministry in Africa, your adoptions, your general craziness. One day we could see ourselves doing some of the same stuff.” And I can’t help but think…well, why not today?

I know that everyone’s circumstances are different, and I’m not trying to cast blame or judgement. But if the Lord has pricked your heart for something, I would urge you to act. If you’re waiting for that perfect time when all of your finances are in order, your marriage is like a romance novel and your children are behaving beautifully… I hate to break it to you, but that time is probably not ever going to come. Not on this side of Heaven at least.

Who knows how much time any of us have left? Personally, I want to make every second count.

In April of 2010 my husband, Dan, traveled to the East African country of Uganda. Dan and his friend, Michael, were traveling on the first official mission trip of our newly birthed ministry, SixtyFeet.

Dan and Michael both have extensive mercy ministry and overseas missions experience. Michael is a professional filmmaker. Dan is a former missionary to Africa. Between the two of them, they had basically seen and served in it all. But nothing could have prepared them for what awaited them in Uganda.

The facility they visited, "M" as we call it, is essentially a prison for children. Underfunded by the government and overlooked by society, some children languish in this place for years. The facility was created for teenage boys with a criminal record. But today, M houses both boys and girls -- many of them under the age of 12.

To Dan, two young children stood out.


We learned they had been in this facility for over a year, abandoned by their parents and dropped off by the police on several occasions.

Dan returned home after that trip to Africa, broken and troubled and unable to get the faces of these little ones out of his mind.


As a family, we began to pray feverently for these children. We prayed that they'd have food for each day. We prayed that they'd have clothing, shoes and bedding. But mostly we prayed, prompted by our children, that they would have a real family to love them... a Daddy and a Mommy who would show them Jesus. For months, we prayed that the Lord would call a family to rise to this task -- that He'd send someone for these children.

And one night He spoke to us unmistakably... "I did send someone. I sent you."

We said "no Lord, not us! We can't do it. What will our family and friends think? We have two young children and a 6 month old baby. We're already too busy. We don't have the money for two international adoptions. We don't have enough room in our house. We don't have a big enough car. We don't have enough faith."

And He said. "My grace is enough." And by His grace alone, we finally responded in obedience.

Along with my friend Joy, I flew to Kampala, Uganda for our court date in November 2010. Our case was unique -- no one had ever even attempted to adopt a child from M previously. There were many unknowns and no precedents for our situation.


The judge heard our case and agreed to give his final ruling in mid-December. Joy and I returned home. And Dan, accompanied by his friend Scott (and later by his friend, Judd), traveled to Uganda. Dan spent several long, hard weeks in Africa. He missed Christmas, he missed Baby Charlotte's first birthday -- but he was there in Uganda when the judge said YES! And life changed forever.


On December 30, 2010, Dan, Hannah and Joseph made it... "Home at Last." We pray that one day this happy ending belongs to many more children in "M" and the other remand facilities throughout Africa that SixtyFeet serves.

We hope this story will encourage and inspire you to step out of your comfort zone and follow something that God may be urging you to do. We give full credit to our friend Michael Lines for the film and to Griffin Gibson for the photography. But all glory, always and forever, to our Lord, Jesus Christ. Through Him all things are possible.

"Teacher, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he wasn't in our group." -- Mark 9:38

With the benefit of 2,000 years of hindsight, it's easy to judge the Apostle John for his words above. I mean, hello... "Jesus, there was someone doing some really great things in your name but we told him to cut it out because he wasn't part of our little crowd."

John's words might seem foolish or selfish or jealous -- but the reality is that we still see this kind of thing in ministry every day. And it makes me sad.

Honestly, I get really disgusted by churches and ministries who view one another as "competitors." I mean, aren't we all just in this together? Aren't we all after the same goal? I hope so.

Besides -- this kind of competition indicates a real lack of faith, in my opinion. Isn't our God big enough to provide for and sustain all the churches and ministries that He's called into existence? I'm pretty sure He can handle it.

Happily, there's a flip side to all this competition.We at SixtyFeet have been blessed, floored, blown AWAY by the many ministries that have linked arms with us and come alongside us in our work. These other Africa-focused, orphan-serving ministries could have viewed SixtyFeet as their competition. But these are Kingdom-minded people and they're all about God's will and His work, however it gets done.

These other ministries, Wiphan, Amazima, Cornerstone Development, AWAKA and others have supported SixtyFeet. Some have supported us financially. Some have given of their time, their resources and their expertise. They've sent their own supporters to our website to learn about our cause. They don't want to compete -- they just want to get er' done.

Dan and I and the rest of the SixtyFeet team desire to take a cue from these awesome ministries. We want to be like these people because they're like Jesus.

We want to be Kingdom-minded and not SixtyFeet-minded in our approach to ministry. And so we have some people we want you to meet:


This is the Dinsmore family from Arizona. In the blog world, Lara is known as The Farmer's Wife. Jon is an organic farmer and Lara is a stay-at-home-mom. They are in the process of adopting from Uganda and they have one heck of a story.

Starting now, each month, SixtyFeet will support a different family who is in the process of adopting from Uganda. We'll feature this family on our site and encourage y'all to support them too. SixtyFeet is not an adoption agency. At the moment, we don't have any children from our facilities who can even be adopted. But we want to do Kingdom work. And that means it's not about us. It's all about Him.