National Adoption Day....Just one of many lives that are living today... how about helping a child

Without a doubt Andrew is alive today- healthy, heavier, walking, moving around his siblings and loving his life - All because we listened to the Lord 2 yrs ago to adopt a blind child from Bulgaria. We had shared with Victoria ( AAC - the agency we have used for most of our adoptions) that we were interested in adopting a blind child again. Our first adoption was 26 yrs ago of our son, Abraham who is blind. He is now almost 28 yrs old. She shared a picture of our a little boy from Bulgaria-Dancho. He was our 23d child- birthed into our heart and soul by an amazing Lord. We had no money this time for this adoption. We had no options either and we did not feel led by the Lord to fundraise for this adoption. We prayed about even stepping into an adoption that would cost us well over 20,000 as we owed to our contractor 8,000 dollars for the addition he had just finished. However, because we felt ( thru lots of prayer, and fasting and Bible verses written in our journals ) that we were being asked to adopt this child as our son.. We said yes and that very nite Paul emailed Victoria, Toni in Bulgaria and our contractor ( sorry for those who have heard me share this before) but it is too amazing to not share how the Lord provides when we are obedient to something He wants us to follow Him into like an adoption. Our contractor called Paul the next am to share that he and his wife had been praying for our family and loved what the Lord was doing and they wanted to "wipe away our debt of 8,000). Paul asked him if he had gotten the email or even knew we were adopting again... Jeff's response has resounded in my heart many times ," No I did not and I will read it tonite when I get home." To us this was the Lord sharing ," See I have already begun to set in motion how you will have the money for this next child I am giving you." It has been many miraculous things like this that have encouraged us thru out our lives... especially thru our adoption journeys that we have now been on for 26 yrs .....

The Lord was not done with this request... about a month later we learned of our Gracie Jane also in Bulgaria. Unfortunately in a diff. part of the country so our fees for adding her would be the more expensive way than if we could have adopted another child from the same orphanage in the same region... However the Lord often does not work things out like we think or the cheapest way... but we still are called to be obedient . Now our cost for this adoption was well over 3o,000 and that did not count our travel expenses....

When we were planning our first trip which was like a second honeymoon for Paul and I we never did consider bringing children with us. However the Lord also wanted us to bring Joseph and Cate with us to bring home Andrew and Gracie in Dec.. I already shared we had no extra money for this adoption that was now turning into one of our more expensive ones... but we watched the Lord provide....

When we needed a check for something we either got a bonus check, a donation never solicited for, or nothing was charged... also my daddy passed away in May of that year. When we came home from our first trip in July.. we needed to send to Bulgaria some money and my dad's life insurance policy was cashed and divided amonst my brothers and I and guess what ? It was exactly what we needed for the next part . Over and over again we have seen the Lord provide for our family- whether it is for an adoption , our food our home whatever the Lord has given to us just what we need - when we have needed it. We have not asked for any money ( although at times I have wanted to ) . We have just shared and prayed to God our needs . We did not gripe or complain when His timeframe was not ours but even in our unsettled spirits ( either because of a mean spirited person or the health of the child we were adopting) we had a peace that we would get to adopt this child he had given to us...

Many times our adoptions are not easy... we are a mega family and all authorities question our ability. We actually welcome this... No we don't look forward to the scrutiny but it shows that someone else cares about children and where they are being placed... We should have more dilgent people looking at our family and home and ability to parent... We parent a mega family. Always the Lord's will has been done but it has not always been a smooth journey.

Paul and I in our mid 50's - We have 7 grandchildren now... We could be content with our lives as they are. He makes a comfortable living and we could be doing alot of "typical" things like beach vacations, seeing the world or even boating by our lake house - none of which we do :) I am not at all against any of that as long as you a certain beyond a doubt that is what the Lord has called you to do... Please don't give me an attitude of , " I do my part" or I did my part already". I have not read anywhere that is the attitude we are to have in my Bible... there are lots of children who need help NOW... not when You have "done it all" and are ready.. we still have kids in college and we have seen the Lord provide for ALL of our needs....So don't bother with that one either... or " We have a medical needy child that requires all of our time" - again don't bother we have several and again have seen the Lord provide and work thru all of our medically needy children. "We have teens who have issues or our children have behavior problems"- Guess what we do too... lots of them. Now I guess you can say , " I am not healthy or young" and I might not be so hard in my attitude but I would return again to the Bible and I just don't see that as something the Lord accepts as my own excuse to not do something for orphans....

It says in James 1:27 Religion that God accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans...in their distress.

Thru out the Bible I could not find any excuse to not to help orphans. I am hoping that I might have stirred something in you - even if it is anger,guilt or an ache and I encourage you to go to the Lord with that and see what He tells you to do with that feeling.... and then do it. Even if you feel like challenging me on this post share that too. More later... I am hoping to share about each one of our journeys to adopt.