We have a HUGE announcement and what better way to tell you all than through modern techonology? Long and I are adopting a baby girl from Ethiopia!
Why adopt?
Long and I have talked about adoption before we were married. But, the desire starts from when I was a child (Long has his story as well and our paths intersect). As a young teenager I babysat for a sweet family that had two adopted children. The experience was lifechanging and the children had wonderful parents. I use to visualize the way their life would've been had they not been adopted. Also, I was always drawn to troubled kids---the ones that simply wanted to belong to someone. I remember when I worked in daycare, the little boy whose parent's were divorcing would follow me everywhere. He would sit on my lap and thirst for attention. Many days I prayed for him to experience peace and comfort. Although I fulfilled my role at the time, I felt helpless to change his circumstances. As I got older and went to college I experienced the greatest tragedy of my life. Losing my best friend and first love, Keith was a defining moment and process that took several years to grasp (obviously there is much I'll never understand until eternity). Shortly after his death my roommate and close friend, Natalie was killed. It was a time of grief, questions, doubt, and fear. On the other side of it all God brought peace, maturity, security, and love. He refined me more into the image of His son, giving me desires for eternal purposes. I know this earthly journey is brief and I want nothing more than to hear, "well done my good and faithful servant." The simple truth is that adoption is a calling and my heart cannot contain the thought of one of my boys left without a family. God sets the lonely in families. He says, "I will not leave you as orphans." He calls Christians to be the hands and feet of Christ. Afterall, we have been adopted by Jesus Christ!
Long's story has to do with his experience in Vietnam and the fact that he is one generation away from a very difficult life. His parents endured many trials before coming to America and he has always hoped to rescue an orphan. Psalm 69:18, "Come near and rescue me."
But more than any other motivation, we do not want to adopt simply because there is a need (meaning, there is a need, but that cannot be our only motivation)- we want to do it to because we are convinced that this is what pure and undefiled religion is in God's eyes. We want to do it because Christ did it for us. It is a picture of His gospel and those who are led by God to adopt a child will get the benefit of seeing this gospel in a clear and practical way. They will see what it means to love someone who you cannot see. They will see what it means to do whatever it takes to bring their child home. They will see how a family is not made up of those who look the same or share the same story- it is those who are called by God.
There is plenty of need in the U.S., why not adopt here?
Yes, there IS need in the U.S. There are people called to adopt children in America but Long and I are not one of them. The adoption process in America is very different than International. Without going into all the details or offending anyone, the biggest issue for us is that there is a 35 percent chance the birth mother would change her mind and take the baby back. We don't want to be in that situaiton, especially putting our boys through that loss. They are much too young to understand that process. But, most of all we are called to Ethiopia, not America. We in no way feel adopting locally is less of a miracle than traveling across the world to bring our daughter home. Finally, there is need in all countries (147 MILLION ORPHANS)! I'm often caught singing with my boys... "Jesus loves the little children all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world." Jesus says, "Go into all the world..."
Why adopt from Ethiopia?
There have been many signs that this is what God wants us to do, but right after I gave birth to Owen the desire to adopt hit me like a ton of bricks. I remember staring into my newborn baby's eyes and completely overwhelmed with the love I felt for him. I remember crying about the reality that millions of children do not have parents to love, care and cherish them. The thought came to me that these orphaned children are just as precious in the sight of God as my very own biological son. At that time I got on Amazon.com and ordered a book called Strength of Mercy. The book is the story of a young teenage girl named Heather who travled to Romania to work in various orphanges. She ended up bringing her baby sister, Hannah home from one of those orphanges. She brought many children back to the U.S. before the Romanian goverenment closed to adoptions. Out of this experience her parent's, Jan and Don Beazely founded All God's Children International, an adoption agency that not only facilitates adoptions but also does orphan work in various countries. They have their own orpahanges as well in Ethiopia and Guatemala. We began supporting one of the orphanages called, Hannah's Hope in Guatemala. Fast forward a few years and we are in North Carolina. One Sunday morning Long was talking to our pastor's daughter, Miana and getting to know her. We found out she was adopted from Romania 17 years ago through All God's Children International. In fact, she was the very last baby, Heather, the founder's daughter brought out of Romania! This very girl was mentioned in the book I read 3 years prior. It was really amazing and a huge sign to us that we are on the right path to experience the miracle of adoption.
This is pretty straightforward:
*There are approximately 5 million orphans in a country less than twice the size of the state of Texas.
*Between 60-150 million kids live on the streets
*One in six children die before their fifth birthday.
*One in ten children die before their first birthday.
*Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school; 88% will never attend secondary school
*In the 1980's one million Ethiopians died of starvation
*Some areas still practice female circumcision
*82% of the population survives on less than 1 dollar a day
*Only 24% of households have access to safe drinking water
*Ethiopia’s doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000
*Children and family are honored above all else
*1 in 3 people are HIV+, the average life expectancy is 37
On a final note, we do not want to just adopt a child and remain blind to the issues in Africa. We want to continue to support ministries that are trying to meet the needs of the people. There are obviously deeper issues and adopting children will not solve the overall problems. There are countless children left behind and only a few are chosen to be in a forever family.
Check these sites out if you're interested:
http://amazima.org/blog.html (19 year old girl who left her home in TN and now lives in Uganda, mothering 13 children and doing much more.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duyL9UjLrdM One of my friends who just returned home with her daughter. Incredible video!
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/19/60minutes/main3386661.shtml Plumpynut
"...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."(Proverbs 24:12)
We will be setting up a blog as our journey begins. We will officially begin on November 2, 2009 (Isaac's 9 month birthday) and the process takes approximately 16-18 months. Our baby girl will be around 6-8 months upon coming home. I'll send out info. about our blog, so stay tuned and come follow us as we walk this road!
In Christ,
Lindsay
Why adopt?
Long and I have talked about adoption before we were married. But, the desire starts from when I was a child (Long has his story as well and our paths intersect). As a young teenager I babysat for a sweet family that had two adopted children. The experience was lifechanging and the children had wonderful parents. I use to visualize the way their life would've been had they not been adopted. Also, I was always drawn to troubled kids---the ones that simply wanted to belong to someone. I remember when I worked in daycare, the little boy whose parent's were divorcing would follow me everywhere. He would sit on my lap and thirst for attention. Many days I prayed for him to experience peace and comfort. Although I fulfilled my role at the time, I felt helpless to change his circumstances. As I got older and went to college I experienced the greatest tragedy of my life. Losing my best friend and first love, Keith was a defining moment and process that took several years to grasp (obviously there is much I'll never understand until eternity). Shortly after his death my roommate and close friend, Natalie was killed. It was a time of grief, questions, doubt, and fear. On the other side of it all God brought peace, maturity, security, and love. He refined me more into the image of His son, giving me desires for eternal purposes. I know this earthly journey is brief and I want nothing more than to hear, "well done my good and faithful servant." The simple truth is that adoption is a calling and my heart cannot contain the thought of one of my boys left without a family. God sets the lonely in families. He says, "I will not leave you as orphans." He calls Christians to be the hands and feet of Christ. Afterall, we have been adopted by Jesus Christ!
Long's story has to do with his experience in Vietnam and the fact that he is one generation away from a very difficult life. His parents endured many trials before coming to America and he has always hoped to rescue an orphan. Psalm 69:18, "Come near and rescue me."
But more than any other motivation, we do not want to adopt simply because there is a need (meaning, there is a need, but that cannot be our only motivation)- we want to do it to because we are convinced that this is what pure and undefiled religion is in God's eyes. We want to do it because Christ did it for us. It is a picture of His gospel and those who are led by God to adopt a child will get the benefit of seeing this gospel in a clear and practical way. They will see what it means to love someone who you cannot see. They will see what it means to do whatever it takes to bring their child home. They will see how a family is not made up of those who look the same or share the same story- it is those who are called by God.
There is plenty of need in the U.S., why not adopt here?
Yes, there IS need in the U.S. There are people called to adopt children in America but Long and I are not one of them. The adoption process in America is very different than International. Without going into all the details or offending anyone, the biggest issue for us is that there is a 35 percent chance the birth mother would change her mind and take the baby back. We don't want to be in that situaiton, especially putting our boys through that loss. They are much too young to understand that process. But, most of all we are called to Ethiopia, not America. We in no way feel adopting locally is less of a miracle than traveling across the world to bring our daughter home. Finally, there is need in all countries (147 MILLION ORPHANS)! I'm often caught singing with my boys... "Jesus loves the little children all the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world." Jesus says, "Go into all the world..."
Why adopt from Ethiopia?
There have been many signs that this is what God wants us to do, but right after I gave birth to Owen the desire to adopt hit me like a ton of bricks. I remember staring into my newborn baby's eyes and completely overwhelmed with the love I felt for him. I remember crying about the reality that millions of children do not have parents to love, care and cherish them. The thought came to me that these orphaned children are just as precious in the sight of God as my very own biological son. At that time I got on Amazon.com and ordered a book called Strength of Mercy. The book is the story of a young teenage girl named Heather who travled to Romania to work in various orphanges. She ended up bringing her baby sister, Hannah home from one of those orphanges. She brought many children back to the U.S. before the Romanian goverenment closed to adoptions. Out of this experience her parent's, Jan and Don Beazely founded All God's Children International, an adoption agency that not only facilitates adoptions but also does orphan work in various countries. They have their own orpahanges as well in Ethiopia and Guatemala. We began supporting one of the orphanages called, Hannah's Hope in Guatemala. Fast forward a few years and we are in North Carolina. One Sunday morning Long was talking to our pastor's daughter, Miana and getting to know her. We found out she was adopted from Romania 17 years ago through All God's Children International. In fact, she was the very last baby, Heather, the founder's daughter brought out of Romania! This very girl was mentioned in the book I read 3 years prior. It was really amazing and a huge sign to us that we are on the right path to experience the miracle of adoption.
This is pretty straightforward:
*There are approximately 5 million orphans in a country less than twice the size of the state of Texas.
*Between 60-150 million kids live on the streets
*One in six children die before their fifth birthday.
*One in ten children die before their first birthday.
*Half the children in Ethiopia will never attend school; 88% will never attend secondary school
*In the 1980's one million Ethiopians died of starvation
*Some areas still practice female circumcision
*82% of the population survives on less than 1 dollar a day
*Only 24% of households have access to safe drinking water
*Ethiopia’s doctor to children ratio is 1 to 24,000
*Children and family are honored above all else
*1 in 3 people are HIV+, the average life expectancy is 37
On a final note, we do not want to just adopt a child and remain blind to the issues in Africa. We want to continue to support ministries that are trying to meet the needs of the people. There are obviously deeper issues and adopting children will not solve the overall problems. There are countless children left behind and only a few are chosen to be in a forever family.
Check these sites out if you're interested:
http://amazima.org/blog.html (19 year old girl who left her home in TN and now lives in Uganda, mothering 13 children and doing much more.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duyL9UjLrdM One of my friends who just returned home with her daughter. Incredible video!
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/19/60minutes/main3386661.shtml Plumpynut
"...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."(Proverbs 24:12)
We will be setting up a blog as our journey begins. We will officially begin on November 2, 2009 (Isaac's 9 month birthday) and the process takes approximately 16-18 months. Our baby girl will be around 6-8 months upon coming home. I'll send out info. about our blog, so stay tuned and come follow us as we walk this road!
In Christ,
Lindsay
1 comment:
HOORAY HOORAY HOORAY!!!!
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