When I first saw this image, it caught me off guard. It made me cry, and I couldn’t figure out why. Then, I remembered the days when Tess would have never had made eye contact like this. Maybe it’s just the depth of her eyes or that sweet little smile that is creeping up. Maybe it’s the fact that if I zoom in, I can clearly see Jude’s (one of Tess
After our adoption of Karleigh Mei in December 2008, we realized even more what a blessing it was to bring into our family a child who so desperately needs a family. The Lord began whispering in my ear that there was someone else who was made perfect for our family soon after Karleigh Mei had been home. I would look at China waiting children lists and wonder if we were supposed to pursue a child from China again. I would look at other programs from Ethiopia, Rwanda, India, etc. wondering if He was calling us there. I never had a clear answer, just that somewhere there was a child for us.
On January 12, 2010, a devastating earthquake hit Haiti. Two weeks later, we were told about a group who was trying desperately to get help to some orphans in Haiti and find them homes. These were preearthquake orphans. We were told they were looking for families who were homestudy ready or had adopted internationally before. We signed up and made ourselves available. By the time we were given the list of children, there were large sibling groups and older children remaining. We heard the Lord telling us not to pursue any of these children.
As soon as that door was closed, another possible door was opened. There was another group who was looking for families to take injured Haitian orphans in to get the medical treatment that was needed for them. We again came forward ready to help. This group wanted to make sure that not only were families homestudy ready but also state licensed to foster. We were given information on an agency who could get us licensed very quickly. The Lord was not telling us no, and so we filled out our application and off we trotted to the classes.
It was in these classes that we learned of the huge need for families to take in local children. The need is huge! We left the classes wondering exactly where it was the Lord was leading us. We had already committed to the group wanting to help the Haitians; so, we sat and waited.
Sometimes waiting is not so bad! Especially when you know all you can do is wait. The Lord is so good and gentle and kind. He really gave us a lot of time to come to grips with what He was asking us to do.
Because of circumstances in Haiti, it began to become clear to us that we would not be getting an injured child from Haiti.
I have always thought that someday I’d like to foster to adopt a child. I think that the enemy really doesn’t like this. He’s been quite successful from keeping the Church from helping hurting children. Oh, the fears that he can make us believe! The biggest fear I
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Welcome to wearegraftedin.com! This first post is the culmination of years of discussing the need for a site like this and months of more intentional planning to actually make it happen. We pray that the site will be an encouragement to families considering adoption, in the process of adopting, parenting their adopted child, fostering children, or considering the significant ministry of orphan care.
We encourage you to join the forum and use it to interact together and discuss any thing from paperwork and how to choose an agency to preparing for travel, preparing siblings for a new child, or how to engage your church in your process. May it be a source of education, encouragement, and fellowship.
We plan on posting relevant articles, challenging and encouraging essays and personal blog posts, and monthly featured families. Become a follower and be watching for some really good posts we have lined up in the coming weeks!
We invite you to become a contributor as well. We welcome your submissions for potential posts as well as your suggestions of helpful resources and retailers. We have tried to add what we think families would find helpful here but are always open for suggestions to better meet the needs of the families who will visit the site.
May He be glorified as we seek to please Him in our families and in our community together!
Grab our button, and spread the word!
