I have been reading all the daily "Thanksgiving" posts since the beginning of November. There has not been a day go by that I have not read from multiple people their thankfulness for their family. I read these, I think the same thought of being so thankful for my family, and so thankful that God blessed my family with our 2 children. I am so thankful that He decided to bless me with our two children through adoption. So many people say, "Oh, they are so blessed to have you." No, I AM BLESSED to have them.
So, during this month of thankfulness, my heart hurts for all those who have no family and especially the ones who are voiceless and only have a small population of the world crying their plea for them. These children don't have anything. They do not have the pleasures of this world that are ruining so many children (Yeah, I did just say that, because it is true. I see more and more clearly how the youth is corrupted by all the "things and activities" that dominate their existence). But not only do they not have things, they lack the most important things, Love and, for so many, the very knowledge of God.
But for some orphans, they became One Less and we are so thankful they are our family. We are thankful to say we are blessed because of them, not that they are blessed because of us. Through the next couple weeks I want to share with you true life stories that added to families, started families, and completed families.
Leia and so many others were and are so blessed by the Love they received from the wonderful staff of His Hands Taiwan. These babies had a blessed beginning in this home. The staff at His Hands wants their babies to learn about God and our wonderful Savior. We are so thankful for this. Most of the orphans in the world, do not have a beginning, middle, or ending as these babies. No, they remain part of the 163 million who have no family, no love, and no future of knowing the Lord.
There are so many things you gain and learn through adoptions and my favorite is the awesome friends I have made and continue to make. This comes from one of those sweet friends.
We were blessed with 2 amazing biological sons Dayne in 1992 and Keagan a short 10 months later in 1993. We had struggled with infertility before Dayne so we were thrilled to be pregnant again so quickly. We love being parents and always thought we would have at least 4 children.
In 1996 we got pregnant a 3rd time--again we were ecstatic, but only 12 weeks later we lost that baby---we were devastated! But we also knew we would try again and we would have more children.
It took until 1998 to get pregnant again...this time all seemed to be going great until a routine ultrasound revealed our baby had passed away. Our son Trevor Daniel was stillborn May 5, 1998. We were beyond devastated. Still we knew we wouldn't give up. We were sure God wanted us to have more children. During this period of years I had recurrent dreams of a baby girl we would have, always telling Tim that she is beautiful but that I didn't understand because she has black hair and black eyes (she looked nothing like us). We got pregnant 3 more times between 1999 and 2004. We prayed and prayed and we finally had Peace that we were not having more children. We went on enjoying the boys we have and loving life. We were thrilled God had finally showed us that our family was complete.
Spring Break 2005 we went to Disney World with the Peach family. They also have 2 boys and all the boys had a great time!
June 2005 Paula calls and says "hey guess where we are ALL going next year for Spring break". She then tells us how ALL of us are going to China and adopt baby girls! We thought she was nuts! I mean good for them...but we have been done for over a year thinking about having more kids, we are happy, we thought we were complete. God had other plans;)
She invited us to come to an informational meeting that an adoptive family was giving at their church it was on Sunday night...ummm I work weekends, no one will work for me...Tim would never adopt....our family is compete....so many excuses I could come up with! The closer it got to the meeting the more we felt we might like to go. I asked a couple people at work if they would be interested in working...nope, not surprising its impossible to get someone to work a Sunday for me....NOT gonna happen. So I give up! I get a call...it's from a fellow coworker(someone I hadn't asked...or even considered This person NEVER works extra! NEVER!) She says I hear you would like to go to a meeting Sunday and I'd like to work for you! WHAT???
So we get to go to the meeting---we are gonna go to hush Paula, but that's it! Our family is complete!
We are sitting in the meeting and hearing all the testimonies of these "ordinary" people Then Jackie stands up....she brought some visual aids----her children from Guatemala and China! She tells her story and shows us her beautiful children. I cried through this whole meeting. I had never felt anything like this before. God had put all these things together so that we could be here with these people! So we could learn about this wonderful thing called adoption---He had even taken care of finding someone to work for me!!
We left and I asked Tim what he thought. I'm nervous at this point I'm thinking I would like to do this but we both have to want it! He says we should talk with the boys, we should decide as a family. We sat the boys down when we got home and asked what they would think if we decided to adopt them a sister...they both said "we aren't sure why that is even a question. There are babies that need homes and we want a baby...we should do it!"
That was Sunday night....Monday morning we called a homestudy agency, filled out the application with FTIA for China and called all our family and friends and told them we were expecting a baby!;) We started the crazy paper-chase and decided on a name! Ava Christine would be our daughter!
On November 17, 2005 we were officially LID (log in date) for China! we thought it would be a 6 month wait....but Gods plan is perfect and our daughter was born January 14, 2007 in China. We got THE CALL August 2, 2007. Ava's Gotcha day was October 14, 2007 what a blessing she is!
We are thrilled! Our family is COMPLETE! People ask us if we will adopt again, we say no we are done....,.well God is in control, He knows best!
August 2010...we hear about His Hands Taiwan! Some Friends of ours Donnie and Gina have just been home a short time with their little girl from there. The Dunns from Mt Carmel are working with them and we start reading about their ministry. We contact them and just inquire if we can adopt from there. We are told there is a waiting list. But we are put on the waiting for an application list.
On November 17, 2010 we are given an application to fill out! This is 5 years to the day we were LID with Ava;)
On February 9, 2011 we were accepted officially into their program. Now the real wait begins!
We thought the wait would be short, we are impatient and sometimes forget that Gods plan is perfect.
On February 9,2012---yes one year to the day of acceptance with His Hands we got an amazing email telling us that we have a beautiful daughter born January 12, 2012 in Taiwan! We click on her picture and we instantly know she is our daughter. She is what we have been waiting for! We are instantly in love!
On September 7, 2012 in a train station in Taiwan we are handed our beautiful daughter Kerrigan Jayne! What a blessing!
As we look at these 2 beautiful
Blessings, Praise God that when we said we are complete as a family...He said "no you aren't".
So again we think we are complete;). We are happy and thrilled with the family God has given us! We will see what the future holds and if God calls on us again then we will say yes!
The journey wasn't always easy! But when we look back we see God always had the perfect plan for us!
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