I am really excited to share some news with you! We are adopting!!! We are thrilled!
This journey into adoption has been an exciting one, let me share how God has worked!
A little tiny seed was planted.....
Several years ago Bob and I had the privilege to volunteer for Bethany Christians Services, a Christian Adoption Agency. We would help out with the fundraising banquet in several different ways, whether it was going to different businesses and asking for donations or helping with the stage set for the night of the banquet. Bethany's vision, to help the orphaned be placed into forever families, quickly became a part of our heart. Little did we know how big of a part that would play later in our lives.
"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." James 1:27
At different points in our lives we felt the desire to adopt but Bob and I never seemed to be on the same page at the same time. We just continued to pray about this. Our church partners with Bethany and so every so often we would get a picture in the bulletin of a child who was in need of a forever family. Our children would plead with us to adopt. We continued to pray.
A couple of years later, the seed began to sprout...
Bob and Robbie had the awesome privilege to go to Kenya, East Africa on a missions trip with our church. What an incredible life changing trip for the two of them to go on together and experience a different culture. They went and visited a crippled children's home where they got to minister to some of the children through some puppets they took. They would tell you though, that they were the ones that were ministered to. The children who had various sicknesses and diseases were the ones that brought joy to both of them. Robbie loved visiting the orphanage where he got to play soccer and other games with the children. His heart was overwhelmed by the joy that these children had despite their conditions and not having a family. The window of Bob's heart began to open towards adoption. We continued to pray.
...once our eyes are opened we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls knows that we know and holds us responsible to act. (paraph.) Proverbs 24:12
Through one families tragedy a bloom appears...
Derek Loux, who was one of the greatest orphan advocates, life was suddenly taken in a fatal car accident. His life was one devoted to special needs orphans and advocating on behalf of those who have been used in sexual trafficking. My sis-n-law Lisa, shared on her blog his life and I quickly went to his blog. I read something he wrote regarding his adoption of three sons and my life will forever be impacted. Here is a little tidbit of what he wrote coming home from adopting his 3 sons with special needs. He was exhausted and frustrated by the process...
On the drive home that night, the Lord whispered in my ear, "This is Redemption. Derek do you know how far I travelled to get you and bring you back? I had to be separated from my Son, in order to get you, just like you are separated from your children in order to get these boys. Do you know how expensive it was for me to purchase you? It cost me everything. Do you know how broken, sick, damaged, twisted, dirty, smelly and hopeless you were? And at the end of it all, you had nothing to give me or add to me. I did it for you. I emptied myself and became nothing so that you could have it all. This is Redemption."
My friends adoption is redemption. It's costly, exhausting, and outragious. Buying back lives costs so much. When God set out to redeem us it killed Him and when He redeems us we can't even really appreciate or comprehend it.
do you know how far I travelled to ge
Bob and I prayed, I had sleepless nights...praying and asking God to give us direction on what he wanted us to do. Through prayer one night Bob and I were talking and he said, "I believe we should start the adoption process". My heart jumped and dropped all at once...lots of emotions...and here we are, in the middle of this adoption process and we are excited by all that God is teaching us. We are eager and thrilled to be adding another little Hirschberg to our family.
"Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left...."
Isaiah 54:2-3
Please join with us in praying for our child and for all of the many...many orphaned children who are in need of a loving family to take them in and make them a part of a forever family.
I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but I still can do something and because I can not do everything, I will not refuse to do the something I can do."
Helen Keller
