Amazing Faith
Friends of ours from church are currently in Columbia for adoption. They met their new family yesterday and posted photos on their web site for all of us "back home" to meet the children. I was moved to tears. They are ecstatic, excited, and terrified.
Yes, they are adopting a family, not just a single child. Three sisters, ages 7, 4, and 3.
This couple have been married for longer than 10 years, are at least late-30s in age (I've never asked how old they are specifically!), and are now going from a couple to being a family of 5!
Not only that, the children speak only Spanish and have some continuing medical problems as well. Bringing home a 7 year-old has very different challenges than a newborn or even a 1 year-old. Not to mention a 4 or 3 year-old having different challenges again.
I am overwhelmed and amazed at the faith that it takes to do something like this. To step out on a limb and adopt an older child takes courage. To adopt 3 siblings, takes even more. To adopt the siblings from an overseas orphanage with only a 3-inch folder of materials documenting their previous life and having the children speak another language takes nothing short of pure faith.
This couple is a good, strong Christian couple. They have been requesting our congregation's prayers throughout the whole process. They are elated to have finally met their children. The web site said that the oldest child was so excited that she was getting adopted along with her sisters - that they would never have to be separated. The other children at the orphanage were pointing to our friends sayings "There's the parents!" when they arrived. The children have had a good Christian foundation laid in the orphanage and our friends are hoping that this will be a common bond that unites them as they build a life together here in the US.
Our friends have a long road ahead before they can even bring the children back. They are hoping to be home for Christmas but they don't know. For now, they are content to spend time together, to slog through the paperwork and other details, and to get to know their girls.
Congratulations to the O. family! If you think of them, will you say a little prayer? They appreciate it.
I will continue to pray and offer outgrown toys and clothes and car and table booster seats. I will offer play dates and friendship (though I don't speak Spanish).
And I will continue to be amazed at the faith our friends have to follow God's direction for their lives and bring an entire family home from another country as their own. I can imagine it would have been so easy to have said "I don't think so." But they didn't. They accepted God's direction and the challenges it will bring. They have given 3 lovely girls a mother and father and a home again. And they are all so very blessed.
Soli Deo Gloria.
Always!
Yes, they are adopting a family, not just a single child. Three sisters, ages 7, 4, and 3.
This couple have been married for longer than 10 years, are at least late-30s in age (I've never asked how old they are specifically!), and are now going from a couple to being a family of 5!
Not only that, the children speak only Spanish and have some continuing medical problems as well. Bringing home a 7 year-old has very different challenges than a newborn or even a 1 year-old. Not to mention a 4 or 3 year-old having different challenges again.
I am overwhelmed and amazed at the faith that it takes to do something like this. To step out on a limb and adopt an older child takes courage. To adopt 3 siblings, takes even more. To adopt the siblings from an overseas orphanage with only a 3-inch folder of materials documenting their previous life and having the children speak another language takes nothing short of pure faith.
This couple is a good, strong Christian couple. They have been requesting our congregation's prayers throughout the whole process. They are elated to have finally met their children. The web site said that the oldest child was so excited that she was getting adopted along with her sisters - that they would never have to be separated. The other children at the orphanage were pointing to our friends sayings "There's the parents!" when they arrived. The children have had a good Christian foundation laid in the orphanage and our friends are hoping that this will be a common bond that unites them as they build a life together here in the US.
Our friends have a long road ahead before they can even bring the children back. They are hoping to be home for Christmas but they don't know. For now, they are content to spend time together, to slog through the paperwork and other details, and to get to know their girls.
Congratulations to the O. family! If you think of them, will you say a little prayer? They appreciate it.
I will continue to pray and offer outgrown toys and clothes and car and table booster seats. I will offer play dates and friendship (though I don't speak Spanish).
And I will continue to be amazed at the faith our friends have to follow God's direction for their lives and bring an entire family home from another country as their own. I can imagine it would have been so easy to have said "I don't think so." But they didn't. They accepted God's direction and the challenges it will bring. They have given 3 lovely girls a mother and father and a home again. And they are all so very blessed.
Soli Deo Gloria.
Always!
