My heart cannot contain all of the gratitude I have for everyone who has shown us so much kindness! I really must allow it to overflow right here : ) I am writing thank you cards right now to thank each person/family but wanted to thank everybody publicly (Romans 13:7):
"Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor."
A few days ago I was informed by my husband that somebody (I won't use their name because they wish to remain anonymous) from our church wanted to make a donation towards our adoption expenses...okay I thought, "if it is $200 then that would be a very generous donation to help pay back our adoption loans". We hadn't told anyone that we were in need of donations or how much we owed. I didn't hear back for about a day but then I got an email from Chad because he was at work; a forward that this person from our church contacted Pathways for Little Feet, one of the Christian ministries who gave us a 0% interest loan for our adoption. They recently gave us a $5,000 loan to complete our adoption, and this man from our church contacted them and told them that he wanted to pay our loan off for us!!!! I could not believe what I was reading and then when it settled in I began to cry in disbelief. Then I called the older 3 girls around me and we all held hands in prayer and praised God for His provision and to ask God to bless this family and reward them in heaven for their kindness.
God is good and we are completely confident that He laid it on this man and his wife's heart to do this for us because like I said we didn't tell him anything about what we owed or that we needed anything. It doesn't make any sense humanly but to those who have faith in Jesus Christ to meet all of our needs, it does.
God is good and we are completely confident that He laid it on this man and his wife's heart to do this for us because like I said we didn't tell him anything about what we owed or that we needed anything. It doesn't make any sense humanly but to those who have faith in Jesus Christ to meet all of our needs, it does.
It is very humbling to accept such a great gift because you feel indebted to them and you wished there was some way you could repay them but it's hard to come up with something that can match the gift. We want to have them over for dinner to thank them but it's just a drop in the bucket. All I can do is pray that God will reward them with treasures in Heaven and fill them with joy beyond measure for giving so selflessly.
The fact is that adoption costs money, not because you are "buying a child" but because there are so many people involved who work to make it happen and legally, not to mention the fact that someone (the orphanage workers, doctors and social workers) took care of our child for over a year for us. Just as Jesus paid taxes and our ransom with his very life, we also pay what is required to adopt a child who is without a family, without hope, and, most likely, without the gospel.
The truth is there isn't a lot of hope for an orphan who grows up in Russia. 9 out of 10 will either become an alcoholic, a prostitute, get addicted to drugs, become homeless and/or commit suicide . Only 1 will become a productive member of society and even under the best circumstances, life is hard there! Just go to YouTube and watch the 6 part series "Russia: Death of a Nation" if you'd like a glimpse of the brutal reality of life there (warning: there is bad language in some parts). Citizens there are almost forced to live a life of corruption to survive. You may be thinking that there are much worse places in the world to live. I can think of a couple like North Korea or Uganda. But, did you know that Russia has the fastest growing AIDS population now? Did you know that a child is more likely to be aborted in Russia than born there? Did you know that Russia has over 7 million alcoholics who drink on average 27 liters of alcohol a year? Just watch the documentary I mentioned and you'll get a very small glimpse into life there. I cannot imagine (yes the Mama Bear is coming out) Christopher trying to survive there when he would have aged out of the orphanage system if we had not adopted him!
All I can do is praise our Father in heaven for His grace in Christopher's life so that he can have hope now through Jesus Christ, so that he can know the love of a family and what honest work is...protected from life on the streets and temptation.
Not only has God given us a gem of a son but also the means to pay for the adoption expenses, a loving church to support us, as well as loving family, a stable job for Chad and a house and food and clothing to take care of our little ones and practice hospitality in. God, we want to live our lives for YOU and not just say "thank you" but really show our gratitude with our lives!
Of course, even though I've mentioned in previous posts, the Simon family has done so much for us. Not only did they watch our girls for us for almost a month total between the 3 trips but they also made blankets for and embroidered our childrens' full names on them (some blankets they made and some we already had and they embroidered their names on them for us). They also recorded many special memories by taking pictures and sharing them with us so we didn't miss out on what they were doing. Our girls learned so much during that time from this family with 9 children ranging in ages from 18 months to 16 years (and one on the way!). They also threw us the beautiful baby shower for Christopher as you can see in the previous post! They gave us clothes and shoes and diapers too! They are so selfless and joyful as a family. They did so much for us but not only that, they did it joyfully and went more than the extra mile, they went an extra 20 or so miles : ) This is another family we feel so indebted to and cannot repay in this life but we know God will in heaven!
We want to thank the many families who came to the shower, I think there were 69 people who attended and they gave clothes, toys, boy books, diapers, art, a gift card...every need we had was met by their love and kindness! And the cake was amazing...thank you Haarhoff family!!!
Our adoption agency was (and is) amazing! They really know how to make an adoption go smoothly. The woman who did our home study was also amazing; she finished everything thoroughly and as quickly as possible so we could get our documents in to Russia on time.
We want to thank the many people who notarized papers for us as well. Another friend from church did our psychological evaluation and a huge write-up that had to be official and ready for our court appearance in St. Petersburg, Russia. It included many documents that took much time to prepare. There are others too. Our friends from the various states we've lived all had to contribute in some way as well (like reference letters). Of course, our parents for their love and traveling on the first trip. All of the encouragement we received from those who adopted before (Shiflets, Beachs, Loyds). The list goes on and on. Thank you everybody and we love you.
