Mother the HIV+ Child-Traci Heim "Bring on the Hope"

This video is of my friend Traci. I had the pleasure of taping her during a recent Chicago meeting we had with Project Hopeful. She is the mother of 6 children (all adopted). Her youngest is Dasha from Ukraine. Dasha is HIV+. Traci is fast becoming one of my best friends. She is extremely bright, funny and easygoing. I love this woman. THere were two points that really drove home to me when listening to her.

One was when she mentions that being a mother is less about fulfilling our needs but loving because these children need us. It seems like a given, but truly if we consider how and why we love, it is often because we are trying to fulfill a need within ourselves. That need could be security,confidence, control or our own personal NEED to be a mother. If we really think about it LOVE is something that we should express toward out children in spite of getting nothing...even the possibility of a lack of love back from love. We love because they need us to love them and when we do it is a gift God has given us...Traci says about her kids "they don't have to love me. If they do it is a gift. But I love them..." Important point to remember when considering adoption. Do we adopt because we expect love back. Do we adopt because we expect appreciation from the child? Or do we love in spite of getting nothing back?

The other thing that I loved about what Traci said is regarding HOPE. And this could be applied to TRUTH, JOY, PEACE or anything feeling or promise that others need to survive. We oftentimes think of 'hope' as something elusive or out there somewhere in an intangible spot. The fact is that we are called to 'bring' hope to people by being the hands and feet of Jesus and 'bringing the hope' to them. When we advocate for them we are 'bringing the hope.' When we sit around thinking the hope will come from some other resource than ourselves than we are deciding not to participate in the Great Commission to bring Truth to others. .....We are blessed to be able to serve. We can choose to let someone else bring the hope...or have a person die without hope..or we can 'bring the hope'...to someone in need. Traci and her husband Scott have brought the hope to six children...one with HIV who could have died without her intervention. So we bring on the HOPE whenever we can everytime we say "Yes Lord..I am going..to be obedient and serve your children.." Traci's personal blog is LET IT BE TO ME...