Welcome home!

Big news! We just learned this week that our family of three grows another number next week with a 7 yo brother. We are very excited! Brayden wrote this note for the kid's new room, along with three others. Steve and I also plan on writing a handful of encouraging notes to decorate his room with as we welcome the new little guy in to our home.

Orphan Care as a biblical mandate

God is amazing. Can I get an Amen?! He works in mysterious ways. Yah - you can second that. He has placed several people in our path since we began this journey, who were already in our path, we just didn't know it yet.

1. First we met a couple who we've since become friends with, in our state-approved training classes we took in October 2011. We were looking for a church home and already had it in our calendar to visit this particular church the following Sunday when we struck up conversation with a couple in the same class. They were already members at the church we had planned on visiting and invited us to their Sunday School class. Months later, we felt God's leading our family to that church and joined.

2. We met another couple in another adoption training class, who our adoption specialist introduced us to. They were young and lived in our area - AND we discovered we all go to the same church. We have since met for lunch as families and learned that we all share the same heart to begin an orphan care ministry in our church.

So, we have plans to meet with our pastor in a week to discuss the possibilities of raising awareness in our church body of God's mandate to care for the orphan. We know not all people feel called to adopt a child, but we all can work together as believers to support and show Christ's love to the fatherless and point the next generation to Christ. Whether you are part of the ALL, the MANY, or the FEW, we can all do something ... My friend Jennifer Dove shared with me what Johnny Carr of Bethany Christian Services has taught her:
The ALL can pray.
The MANY can get involved meeting practical needs or volunteer.
The FEW can move forward as God leads to be a safe family, a foster home, or adopt.

• Begin praying today what role God has for you in loving his children.
•Ask the Lord how you can glorify him with the blessings and resources you've been given (it's all His, remember?)
• If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, who are you - the all, the many, or the few? We could use all hands on deck!

Prayers while we wait for a match

115,000 children in the U.S. foster-care system are waiting for permanent, loving families. Some children need a home for just a little while, while some need for a bit longer, and others need someone to raise them for majority of their little lives into being strong, independent, and God-fearing adults. As Christians, our mandate from God is to love all His little children, to point them all to Christ, and to raise up the next generation for His glory. All of these miracles from God have a planned purpose in this world. Some can't see past their circumstances without a loving parent gently guiding them to the healing, restoration, and hope we find in Jesus Christ. Don't they all deserve that chance? I know if I wasn't privileged to grow up in a healthy and safe Christian home I would hope someone would have picked me up along the way and shown me the opportunity of new life. James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." Isaiah 1:16-17 "Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed.Take up the cause of the fatherless;  plead the case of the widow." Psalm 68:5-6 "A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land. Deuteronomy 10:18 "He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing." As we move through the waiting period of being matched with a child(ren) that the professional specialists and case workers deem a good fit for all, we continue and pray through what God's direction is for us. We are thankful He has opened our hearts to love a child that needs a safe and healthy family, a child who has not come from my wound, but is already growing in our hearts.  We don't know the name, age, sex, race, or background he/she has found themselves in, but we are already here - praying for this/these child(ren): • that their hearts be tender to the Lord's working in their lives • hearts soft to our loving correction • able to forgive those who have treated them poorly in their past • able to love and trust in future relationships • for excitement to be a part of another family (for some, they have had multiple [4-14 homes] foster families before a permanent family can be identified) • for their ability to adjust to our lives (school, church, home, lifestyle) • for Steve, myself, Brayden's and our immediate family's hearts to be tender to accept their good and bad days, to know how to nurture and how to lovingly correct in a way that they understand we want what's best for them, and be in support of us as a family, no matter what. • for our church body to support us and be a second family to this child who may not know what family should look like The prayers go on and on ... Today we meet with our adoption specialist as we discuss the history of a particular child which we have been identified for. Here we are, again, being stretched as we consider opening up our hearts to the possibility of only being in a child's life for a season, and hopefully longer. The child is currently in need of a foster home that is willing to work toward permanency if the parent's rights are in fact terminated; the system has labeled this case high risk since there's a high risk a family member may step up to the plate and adopt the child. At the beginning of our journey I didn't think I could handle parenting a child only for a season, but God continues to open my heart and show me that I can - through His strength. Of course, if the best for the child is to be in our home permanently, then that's what we will pray for. If it's God's will for the child to be permanently adopted into our family, the process could take a year's time and by March/April 2013 we could officially have another child added to our family. Until then, we pray for God's clarity as we move forward. With the little bit we have learned so far about this particular child we feel strong about the opportunity and excited too! We feel we can support the needs of the child concerning what we have learned this far. If after today's meeting we feel led to move further then we plan to meet with the child's case worker by the end of this week to learn all there is to know about the child's history and current needs. If at that time we feel God's continuing to move us forward, then placement in our home would happen quickly, as a foster situation. My heart has been so widened for so many children we wouldn't have known about unless we were in this process. There's the caucasian teenage mother we met six months ago on the side of the road at night I now pray for often. There's the african-american child we looked into just a few weeks ago that we learned we couldn't fully support his needs. He still needs a home that can give him complete and full undivided attention for a lifetime - a boy who has a great big smile, personality, and desire to have a family who can help him despite the destructive background he knows - I pray for him nearly every day. There's the teenage mother who considered us as a potential adoptive family for her bi-racial baby who she just had this month. She decided to keep her baby and we are thankful she has Christian support around her as she steps into motherhood. And now, there's this bi-racial child who we are looking further into today to share our home and hearts as foster parents. We welcome every opportunity pray for each of these beautiful children of God as we spread our heart's wings wider and wider. Everything is yours God.