Update September 30, 2009

Today Verna is in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Shands Teaching Hospital in Gainesville, Florida. She has now been diagnosed with Septic Shock (Septus) as a result of complications from surgery on September 21, 2009. This has been an eventful day as they night before when I (husband Blair) left her she was pretty stable. Her white blood cell count doubled over night and she was not urinating  enough so they felt some bacteria was possibly after her kidney’s. In Septic Shock patients can deteriorate losing one organ after another in no defined order. They are aggressively attacking the infectious bacteria in multiple ways while monitoring all of her organs more closely, including her heart. Currently she is on at least 7 iv’s and is well sedated and restrained due to being on a ventilator.

People all over the world are praying which we are extremely grateful for. We see and feel God’s presence everywhere. Doctors are amazed at her strength and alertness even while deeply sedated. She loves her doctors and main nurses in ICU. God is doing a work in both of our families as he draws in relatives on both sides that have been distant for years. This is a great comfort and we pray it continues well past this ordeal and time of testing. My Brother Emmanuel, and 2 dear pastor associates I know  in Ghana, west Africa;  Verna’s and my mentee in Australia and others young people we assist that have faced serious abuse that turn to us for encouragement, strength, support and comfort from distant parts of the U.S., are all praying and holding us up as well… proof that Ark of Hope is indeed alive and well in cyberspace.

I will post more as I am able and text or email those I can. If you check back on one of our sites you will be able to watch news updates. www.arkofhopeforchildren.org  or  www.giveitakiss.com  and Facebook, etc. We will email those on Ark of Hope’s email database and text those I can keep up with. I/we, my wife and large tribe of 15, are all praising God in this storm. Ours and Verna’s strength continues as we know who is our strength in times of trouble. We covet your continued prayer support. For now Verna is stable again. Bacteria like this is unpredictable but we are full of faith that all will be well.

Pray for our ministry, Ark of Hope For Children. Our financial situation has become quite bleak at times and this is yet another of them. Verna, myself continue to take no pay, as we have for the last 8 years, but we are now unable to make the property payment on the 80 acres intended for the sibling care campus which is just a small part of our planned ministry, but the one that is financially strangling us as well. The Corbett family, the “first family” of Ark of Hope is holding up as well as can be expected. We are prayer warriors and strong most of the time. Our mentally challenged children do not fully know what is happening yet unless the time should come that they need to know. Verna’s ex-husband ray, whom we care for is prayerful and very supportive as well.

History; Verna and the Corbett family have been going through quite a trial. On September 21^st she had surgery for a Gastric Bypass, which was meant to be a surprise for so many. This is why so few knew. Almost immediately Verna began vomiting up everything even though all she could have were small amounts of liquid. More complications happened Tuesday evening, September 22^nd which caused her not to be able to leave the hospital until Thursday afternoon September 24th. Vomiting continued but all her vitals were good and no outward signs of infection anywhere.

On Sunday she was much more week so we took a trip to the Shand’s Teaching Hospital emergency room.  After a difficult 12 hour ordeal in the emergency and waiting rooms Verna had a thorough swallow study x-ray done. This time it showed almost a complete blockage in her colon and nothing was moving past a certain area, leaving liquids nowhere to go but back up.  Armed with this information the surgeon’s went back in for a second operation on Monday, September 29^th. Once inside they found an accordianed, (basically collapsed) colon. Upon re-stretching it they found a perforation with an infected area attached. They repaired the hole and removed the infected area, which can always leave infection and bacteria behind or moving through her system. This is called Septic Shock which she is now in the beginning stages of.

Been building many new sites for some friends of mine.  I am trying to make it back to blogging so this is my first in a while.  Be blessed and check out our new website at www.arkofhopeforchildren.com

Blair Corbett

Technorati tags: change here, change here, change here, change here, change here, change here

Come visit us!

What can you do?

Join us at the national First Annual Foster Care Prayer Vigil

As you know may know the Corbett family, founders of Ark of Hope For Children, have always had a heart for domestic orphans. Currently with 10 children, 5 which were adopted from foster care, their hearts over flow towards all of the children that must live in U.S. foster care for their own safety. You also know of their passion to build a community in High Springs, Florida where siblings from foster care will be able to stay together while in care. Recently were encouraged and blessed by joining agencies from around the world in the fourth annual "Orphan Summit." Now it is our pleasure to join with these united agencies in the first annual national Foster Care Prayer Vigil.

Across the U.S. Christians will petition God on behalf of the 514,000 domestic orphans living in our nation’s foster care  system and their caretakers. During the week of May 19 - 25 Christians will unite in a multi-denominational effort to call the believers in their city together to pray on behalf of the foster children in their state. In the Gainesville, High Springs area of North Central Florida join together to interceded in guided prayer with Ark of Hope For Children.

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To locate a foster care prayer vigil elsewhere in the U.S. click Hope For Orphan's Prayer Vigil National Locator Map.
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Every city has them. They aren’t obvious by the way they look, or even by the way they talk or act. You may very well have walked by one today without suspecting it. They are our nation’s foster children. Children come into the U.S foster care system for various reasons, including neglect, abuse, abandonment, and substance abuse by their primary caregivers. They are most often placed with complete strangers, and nearly every aspect of their lives is decided by adults who don’t really know them.

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The bottom line is this; These children are hurting deeply and they need prayer. So do the adults in their lives—their birth families, their foster families, their social workers and the agencies they work for. Join with us as we join God in His mission to redeem the lost and heal the broken. Won’t you join Ark of Hope For Children and dozens of other agencies and churches across the U.S. to intercede on their behalf?

Ark of Hope For Children
May 22, 2008 - 6:30 till 8:30pm
at Living Faith Fellowship Church
5510 NW 39th Ave., Gainesville, FL

Click here to visit our news page on our website for all of the details!

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To locate a foster care prayer vigil elsewhere in the U.S. click Hope For Orphan's Prayer Vigil National Locator Map.

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The national Foster Care Prayer Vigil efforts are organized and promoted by; 

Family Life's "Hope For Orphans"

Focus On The Family

Steven Curtis Chapman's "Shaohannah's Hope"

Be a blessing and be blessed,   Blair Corbett, Ark of Hope For Children

Reba McEntire, Michelle Wright and Lee Ann Womack have all joined the star studded music video & CD compilation Project "50 Files." The multi talented video and CD collection is dedicated to celebrating and promoting foster and adoptable children. This great project will benefit many high integrity nonprofit organizations around the country that work with children and youth in foster care every day. Sales of the Project "50 Files" will ONLY be through the website's of the selected agencies. We're very excited to be adding these great performers to the line-up of stars.

To read all about the project, see the full list of artists, videos and songs and how it will help Ark of Hope For Children click here.

Copywrite, Ink.: Blogging For Rights: BlogCatalog.com

Bloggers Unite; Human Rights

As you are doing so keep Ark of Hope For Children in mind. We are working hard for abused siblings, children, youth that live in foster care. After building our first home and filling it with adopted and birth children totaling 10 so far, we are raising fund to build and fill our second home, this time with sibling foster children! Read about our efforts here but there's much more!

In our own "Hype For Hope" Ark of Hope and I have partnered with a huge music video & CD double disc project that will celebrate and promote foster care and adoption. Set for national release and in pre-recording prep is The Melodical Hearts Foundation's "Project 50 Files." Project 50 Files is unique because it incorporates a plethora of national recording artists that are passionate about foster care and adoption due to their time as foster parents, as part of the foster care system, as adoptive parents or having been adopted. Artists to include; Jewel, Steven Curtis Chapman, Faith Hill, Wayne Warner, Sheryl Crow, Taylor Swift a complete children's choir and many more!

Click GiveitaKiss.com/project-50-files or Ark of Hope For Children/Project_50_Files help drive this campaign!

Ark of Hope and many other nonprofit agencies that care for abused children 24/7 will benefit directly from this project! This effort has the potential to build Ark of Hope For Children's second home while blessing the 514,000 children in U.S. foster care and the 119,000 awaiting adoption from the U.S. Please click on GiveitaKiss.com/project-50-files or Ark of Hope For Children/Project_50_Files to learn more and help us drive this campaign.

We are heavily trying to promote everyone's efforts through many channels including but not limited to a brand new Project 50 Files MySpace Group and our Project 50 Files Facebook Page and Change.org Causes about Project 50 Files. Let's join these, invite our network of friends to join and even donate to help us in this great effort.

Many updates to come and we thank you in advance for your support!

Blair Corbett, Ark of Hope For Children, GiveitaKiss.com and GiveitaKissTravel.com

Help bring hope to abused and neglected children during Child Abuse Prevention Month, April 2008! Through an amazing music video project a group of national recording artists will bring their celebrity power together to equip and empower children living in foster care. Ark of Hope For Children has the opportunity to be blessed by this project. Can you help us through our Cause on Change.org by donating, copying it to your blog and networking?

Blair Corbett and Ark of Hope For Children are privileged to be working closely with country music artist Wayne Warner and The Melodical Hearts Foundation on a new music video & CD double disc promoting foster care and U.S. adoption. The dual disc is scheduled for release in Spring 2008 just in time for Foster Care Awareness Month in May.

Passionately entitled "Project 50 Files" the project will feature nationally known music artists Steven Curtis Chapman, Sheryl Crow, Wayne Warner, Faith Hill, John Michael Montgomery, Allison Krauss, Taylor Swift, Jewel and many others! Every one of the artists involved has been involved with foster care or adoption on some level; they have adopted, were adopted, spent time in foster care or are now foster parents! Now they are all coming together on the “Project 50 Files” double disc set to promote and celebrate previously abused children in foster care and awaiting adoption in the U.S.

Proceeds will benefit Ark of Hope For Children and many other nonprofit agencies that work with abused children living in foster care on a daily basis! This ambitious project is attempting something never before accomplished in the music industry. Watch the videos then read more below.

The goal of the "Project 50 Files" double disc is that it will be exclusively distributed on the Internet by one (or two) high integrity foster care or U.S. adoption agencies from each of the 50 states! These selected agencies from each state are affectionately called the "Friends of 50 Files." Each nonprofit organization will share in revenues from the sale of "Project 50 Files." Due to the star power behind the project each can receive a wealth of statewide and national publicity.

As bloggers and Internet networking junkies we can all help make a difference and put our "Blogging for Hope" skills to work! We can drive our own “Hype of Hope” campaign for abused children through "Project 50 Files.” In doing so  we'll assist all the great nonprofit agencies involved and ultimately every one of America’s 514,000 abused and neglected children living in foster care and the 119,000 awaiting adoption from foster care.

Amazing sponsorship opportunities of the entire project at a variety of levels exist. We will blog and post about those soon. Subscribe and help as we work to bring real hope to these children during Child Abuse Prevention Month this April.

Check these website links to read more about “Project 50 Files”, read the lyrics, check on current artists and agencies and more!

Ark of Hope/Project 50 Files

GiveitaKiss.com/Project 50 Files

Melodical Hearts Foundation 

Foster Care survey

www.fostercaredialogue.blogspot.com

"A place for foster children, former foster children and others to engage in a dialogic discussion of the foster care system. Our goal is to provide an environment in which users can voice their opinions, comments and concerns about foster care without judgment or recrimination. We encourage all users to be respectful and open-minded in their dialogues so that optimal communication can be achieved."   

Foster Care Dialogue

Why is it that on Christmas, when we’re celebrating someone else’s birthday we buy ourselves presents? Imagine the scene; it’s your 2,000th birthday, everybody shows up and you get to watch them all open presents for themselves… and you don’t get even one! Then they all have a massive feast and you don’t even get any food! To top it off they gather around the piano and sing about some overweight weirdo in a red suit with flying deer that visits all of our kids in the middle of the night! Yikes! Spend weeks preparing for some predator on drugs then sing about it? Now, if I was Jesus, I would take the Christ out of Christmas myself!

So at our house we’ve turned Christmas back into what we feel it should be. Our “Act of Kindness” this time of year is to “adopt” a local building in nearby Gainesville, Florida that’s filled with welfare recipients. Many of these people live on the ragged edge of homelessness all the time. By the 25th of the month their money often has run out and they have little food to last until the first of the month when their next check arrives. Although our “Act of Kindness" isn’t until Christmas Day many close friends are already preparing to share an extra special day with our family.

As a mission family that is developing a non-profit organization for abused children, Ark of Hope For Children, we can get food from our local food bank. Then we hit the supermarkets. We gather friends that want to take part and cook turkeys, ham and all the trimmings in everyone’s home kitchen. Then, we all will deliver our hot Christmas meal to these often lonely people on Christmas Eve or Christmas day. This year’s celebration will be on Christmas Eve. They have a small meeting room with tables, enough to seat about 100 people. We decorate, turn on a little Christmas music and serve our new holiday friends... just like Jesus would.

There will be from 60 to 100 guests attending our feast. We will sing songs, tell stories and give many hugs. All of the host adults serve the plates of food and all of the children help deliver. During the meal adults and older teens will wander through and ask everyone for prayer requests, then pray with each person individually. Five of our children were adopted from foster care after facing much abuse. We watch these children, that had so little at one time, reaching out to those who have very little now, and it’s wonderful! It's such a blessing to see the loving reactions of total strangers.

At the end we take all of the left-over dry food and separate it amongst the residents. Teens along with the children help them take the extra food back to their rooms. In the end, I believe we, the host families, are blessed more than the people we are blessing. At our house we don’t share gifts any longer, partially due to finances but mostly because it’s not our birthday… it’s His! Our family feels we get enough during the rest of the year, this is one of our chances to give back. At Christmas time we entertain angels. It’s our most special time of year and dearly treasured by every one of our children.

Keep your heart open and ready to respond to that little, small voice that pushes you to get involved. There's a special blessing waiting for you… don’t let it pass you by. God Bless you and your beautiful family this Christmas season!
*We never take actual pictures out of respect for our resident guests. Pictures included are not of the actual event.

Blair Corbett - GiveitaKissTravel & Ark of Hope For Children

Technorati tags: Bloggers Unite, Acts of kindness, Christmas, family, serve

Links to a few blog posts from friends "Bloggers Unite in Acts of Kindness" blog posts;

Bob Angus; Teaching my 5 year olf the gift of giving

Frenchkys; Starlite Acts of Kindness

crpitt;  A little piece of me: Bloggers Unite

Pinoyhood; Grander than the bell and the red suit

lfwaterloo; Bloggers Unite in acts of kindness

Raven's Roads; Bloggers Unite: Save some cats

SiteProPlus; Acts of Kindness

Pulse; Acts of Kindness; Now Showing

My Den; Bloggers Unite in Actos of Kindness

Diana13; Living in a box

Rich; Sharing Acts of Kindness, Bloggers Unite

Verna's post, "Innocence Gone; Against child abuse and for real hope" was posted on three of our blog site's including GiveitaKiss.com/blog and Ark of Hope Charity Blog. Verna's blog was selected for third place and she has received a few rewards from BlogCatalog! This was quite a blessing as a dear friend has been encouraging her to start writing for quite some time. 

Rich with CopyWrite, Ink interviewed Verna and wrote an article based about Verna's blog post, the Corbett's mega-sized family of 13, (including 5 adopted from foster care), and our non-profit mission, Ark of Hope For Children. As the  third place winner Rich has blessed Ark of Hope with a special T-Shirt designed for the blog entry and introduced it on his other website/blog; Back Lot Projects. Proceeds from sales of the child abuse inspired T-shirts will directly bless Ark of Hope For Children. The T-shirts have the Bloggers Unite logo on the front and an image of a child's eyes with the words; "SHED NO TEARS. JUST SHOW THEM HOPE. Let's stop abuse." on the back with Ark of Hope's name and website.

Ark of Hope's mission is to bring siblings back together that have been separated upon entering foster care. They will provide them with Christian love and educational support to break the chains of their past abuse. This will happen in a community of 3-6 homes on one 80 acre property in Florida. Check out their shirts and take part in making a difference for abused children with us.

Many thanks to Blog Catalog and CopyWrite, Ink for their vision, inspiration, generous spirits and the Bloggers Unite; Blogging Against Abuse contest.

More on Ark of Hope For Children's mission at www.arkforkids.org All donations fully tax deductible. EIN#59-3585457

Blair Corbett - Ark of Hope For Children and the GiveitaKiss Blog