Unvitation

 Hey Folks,

First, let me apologize for weird spacing (or lack thereof). I have no idea what's up with the format today, but let's roll with it. I just wanted to share something that I've stumbled across. We've chatted about HIV on Give1 before, but I just wanted to touch base and have a look at someone else's story for a second. I know HIV can be a scary topic and at our age it's with good reason. I think we were brainwashed, you guys! Goodness, they scared us to death with all that back in 5th grade! But it's ok, we're getting wiser, and things have changed radically since then. There's been a huge increase in families willing to take on an HIV+ child. We're not sure if our child will be positive or not, but we've been educated enough to learn that it's something we can certainly handle if presented. If you happen to be one of those parents yourself, here's an example of a situation that may very well come up. This little girl was uninvited to a party because the parents of the birthday girl found out that she was positive and they were upset and scared. We are more educated because we're adopting from Africa, a place where HIV is an epidemic. Most people aren't. So we need to consider that the rest of the world doesn't know about advances in HIV because they don't need to. It's not like that here. We care more about eradicating lice. But we've got to remember to have compassion and understanding when people don't know what we know. But we don't want our babies hurt either. Yikes. A fine line. The social stigma is still there. The best thing we can do is spread truth.

IT IS NOT DANGEROUS TO INVITE HIV+ PEOPLE TO YOUR PARTY unless... you are having unprotected sex, sharing needles, giving birth, or breastfeeding! In that case, my 4 year old can't come to your party anyway! (Side note from Beth: that cracks me up)

 

^{Timothy 1:7} for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
⁸ Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God

So what do we do when people REFUSE to hear the TRUTH, and they instead choose to live in fear. I love these verses from the book of Timothy. It is no coincidence that Paul encourages us not to fear, and attaches that to shame and then suffering for the gospel.

 

We LOVE this family! We will continue to love them, and be Jesus to them the best we know how. We are saddened by their choice to reject the truth. But that is their choice, and I believe that is their loss! Because my daughter is AWESOME, and so is the rest of my family! {source of original blog post, which is totally worth reading in it's entirety}

This really has my wheels turning as it's honestly something many of us will encounter. I just came across this testimony from a beautiful HIV positive 14 year old. It's a miracle, really. Check it out.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRxDRzZxDbI]