So you wanted a story....

Recently, Lorrie and I were asked to 'tell our story'.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to do justice to this God story in an email?  You can't.  You just can't.  But as I wrote the email I did manage to create a sort of 'cliff notes' version of our story - from Naomi and Jacob to  Levi, Josiah and Issac. Maybe some of you new readers will be able to put it all together now.  To help you I have embedded links to key parts of the story - that is still being written.

Lorrie and I have been married for 25 years. Since the beginning we have both had a strong desire to share our lives and our Jesus with children and have a house full of love, laughter, and teaching. First Lorrie gave birth to our oldest boy Joshua, then Noah and then Hannah– three altogether. These three brought so much joy it can’t be articulated in this brief write up. But Lorrie’s pregnancies while beautiful were also very difficult for her.

Complete…or so we thought. I’ll never forget the day Lorrie told me …”We’re not done, I don’t think God is telling us we’re done.” Within a year of that conversation we were passionately pursuing the adoption of a little girl in Southern Leyte, Republic of the Philippines. It was such a joy to see her and to watch her get to know her big sister Hannah and brothers Joshua and Noah. Once again…”Complete or so I thought.. The day we met Naomi, we also met a little boy named Jacob.

Naomi came home with us and she brought joy and this new and wild passion for living into our home. But we never forgot about Jacob….and later with Naomi’s enthusiastic blessing we adopted Jacob in 2012. You can read more about that story here.

God did amazing things in our home through these adoptions. He LOVED us through them. Jacob and Naomi reunited…well that was something to see. Their presence here brought so much life and love to us. We camped, climbed and we’ve had adventures all over. And then there was suffering… 

In 2014, Jacob was diagnosed with AML M7 Leukemia. It was devastating news. It was the hardest thing any of us have ever experienced. As his family, we felt powerless. But Jesus never left us. He was THERE with Jacob and us the whole time and his presence was palpable. Funny thing – Jake’s attitude, his heart was the glue that held the staff together on the 7th floor of Children’s Hospital while he was there. Every day Docs, nurses came into his room so they would feel better. Jacob jumped into Jesus’s arms on 2 January 2015 - he left us with a smile...

Our family has been through so much but never alone. As we watched, Naomi’s story, and Jacob’s have touched lives – not just ours. Jesus has been made much of.  So fast forward to January of 2017. Lorrie and I asked ourselves “what tells the best story about who Jesus is in our life?” Is it having been willing to adopt, love with all you have and loose a child? Or is it being willing to do it again? We chose the latter X3. Why? Because that’s exactly what our Jesus would do – its exactly what he did do - show us unmerited favor....

So there it is all we need now is a yellow and black cliff notes jacket...  Better yet watch this:

A Miracle

Do you believe in miracles? We certainly do. Today my family witnessed a miracle. Before I explain, let me back up a bit.

A year ago Marshall and I celebrated our 24th Wedding Anniversary. Over dinner conversation we started talking about what the next season of our life would be like. After all, we are getting older, our kids are growing up and even moving out. Things are changing. Basically, we asked ourselves these questions..." Where do we want to be living? What do we want to be doing? and What brings us the most joy? " You see, neither one of us can imagine being that typical "retired American couple." We both realized at that moment what we wanted these next years to look like. The thing that brings us the most joy in life is family. Specifically, children and adoption. So, that led us to a conversation about the possibility of adopting again - someday. End of conversation for awhile.

Fast forward to January of this year. We were sitting around the campfire asking ourselves the same questions we had asked back in March. This time though we involved our children. We asked our daughters first what they thought about us adopting again. Both of them looked at each other and then replied..." we would love to be big sisters BUT we really don't want anymore girls in the house." After talking with the boys we decided to begin the process of adopting a sibling group of boys. We thought 2 brothers. God brought us 3 brothers...Levi, Josiah and Isaac.

From the beginning we knew that the biggest obstacle to adopting these brothers was going to be the financial cost of the adoption itself. After all, the cost of adopting one child is a lot, three children seemed impossible. However, we took the plunge, stepped out in faith and trusted that the Lord would provide what was needed to complete the adoption of these boys into our family if this was his will for our family. We got the word out and started a GoFund me site. I started cleaning houses and babysitting - all for a donation to the adoption. More and more people found out about our adoption and more and more people donated to help bring our boys home.

God is faithful. He will (and did) provide ALL we need....

Our miracle came today when we received the total amount needed to completely fund God's adoption of these precious boys! Hallelujah! To God be the glory for the great things He has done! You should have seen us celebrating God's provision to our family this afternoon when we realized what He had done. We were definitely a sight to be seen as we were dancing around the kitchen and yelling "thank you Jesus" over and over.

     And this same time God, who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. Philippines 4:19

     Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.  Ephesians 3:20

When my faith wavered God was there. When I questioned if we were doing the right thing ( adopting 3! at 50?!)  God listened. When I had doubts that the money wouldn't come in God provided. Do you want to know the greatest thing? He used you to accomplish His will for our family. He did this through your love, your prayers and your giving. Wow! So I will ask you again. Do you believe in miracles? You definitely should because nothing is impossible with God. Thank you Lord!

Rejoice with us tonight.
Lorrie

One last thing....
As we continue moving through the adoption process would you please pray specifically for:
- An expedient turn a round of our I-800A . We found out today that our case has been assigned to an officer to handle. That's great news!
- Protection over the boys while they wait. Pray that God is working on their heart to give them a desire to join our family.
- Funding for our travel and expenses while in the Philippines. We will have 3 people going over and 6 people coming home. We estimate that we will need about 8,000.00. We will be continuing our fundraising efforts for this last step.