Here is our adoption story that we are including in some of our grant applications. I thought it would be a good way to sum up us and why we're doing this.
Adoption is something that has been on our hearts since before we got married. For us it was simply a matter of when. When our oldest daughter was born she had a lot of medical issues and spent her first 6 months in the hospital and came home with some challenges as well. Spending that much time in the NICU gave us an appreciation for the changes in a child's life that can come from something that they had no control over. Our daughter is 7 now and there are still things that we are discovering that she struggles with as a result of having spent those first 6 months in the hospital and multiple hospital stays and surgeries after that. At the same time we know God placed her in our lives and at a time in our life when we were able to give her the best possible care by being able to spend so much time with her in the hospital during her time there. We definitely think that time spent with her attributed to how well she is doing now. We have a desire to help another child have a chance at the best possible life.
We have 3 children and we desire to have more children. We would like to do this through adoption this time because we feel that God has called us as Christians to look out for the fatherless, and we have the ability and desire to do that by adopting a child into our own home. One of the reasons we have chosen to do international adoption is because even though there is a need here in the States to adopt children there is more of a safe guard put into place to help fatherless children here (not a perfect system, but something). Although the amount of money we need to raise can be daunting to think about we believe that this is something God has called us to do and through that call He will provide for us. It may take longer to go through the process because we will have to patiently work at raising the funds, but it will be worth it once we bring our new son or daughter into our home. We are thankful for places like Show Hope and others who allow people to give money to help support those who are adopting. By applying for grants and financial help it will make it possible for us to bring our child home.
Right now we have 3 children in our home. Shalom is 7 and a very smart girl. She is into learning about Presidents and anything having to do with history. Her other passion is animals and as a result we havesome interesting pets in our home. She has been a good big sister and desires to teach her siblings things she has already learned. She is excited about adopting a new child. She has more of a desire to adopt a sister, but we have talked with her how when we had her and her brother and sister God chose for us if we would have a boy or a girl. We are leaving this decision in God's hand in the same way. Calvin is 4 and on the move. He is very much into sports and would be content with playing football, baseball, basketball or soccer around the clock. He has a very tender heart and always has a hug, kiss or kind word to give to those around him. He is excited about adopting a child and I think understands the concept well for his age. It helps that we have quite a few families in our church that have adopted and our children have seen it up close. Charis is almost 2 and is always trying to do everything that her older brother and sister do. She's a happy, content girl most of thetime. Scott is a middle school youth pastor and we have been at our Church for a little over 6 years. It is a ministry that he is as passionate about now as he was when he first started. I am blessed to be able to stay home with the kids and be a full time wife and mother. We have decided to home school our kids for now and that keeps me busy. It's exciting to help your child read for the first time and we are honored to have the opportunity to teach our children how to look at the world around them, from a Biblical perspective. I have also been able to continue to work along side Scott in youth ministry. Youth ministry is something from the time we got married we wanted to work together in and having family close has made this possible to continue even with adding to our family. As parents I think some of the most important truths to impart to our children are to trust and obey the Lord. It is through our modeling of this that they can learn it the best. Adoption has given us a perfect way to teach and model this to our children.
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