Today over at No Greater Joy Mom, Adeye is highlighting
blogs from anyone that has adopted or fostered a child. There has been a lot of
people that have come against and attacked families that foster and adopt
children. I know this might come as a
shock to some of you but truly, it is the raw truth. Trust me… I have seen how precious, adoption
and fostering is to God’s heart first hand, how He does miracles on behalf of
these children and families. Our own
included... and how much satan hates it. I
have seen time and time again peoples closest family, friends and “anonymous”
strangers attack and discourage. It
hurts deeply but is just a sad truth that many families, that are called to
this life, as a ministry, face. I hear
it over and over again and have lived it myself. We have had countless family members and
friends say the worst things and shun us because of the children taken into our
home. Even worse, to shun one particular
child, thru no fault of his own, that we adopted, because his mom was HIV
positive. But on the other side, we have had some family
members and friends rally around us in support no matter who we take in. They love and hug each child no matter what
their past, present or prognosis. They kiss
and hug their happy faces even if they drool! We have had total strangers pray for us
fervently and love us as if they were our family and they have become cherished
friends. Now that is the love of God here on the earth!
Adeye would like to have blog owners
share today, as an encouragement…What Great Things God has Done! For He Has Done Great Things!
I will gladly and whole heartedly join her today, in sharing
that God is an awesome God and has truly done great things in our family and
life, by granting us the privilege of raising these children in our home!
God has taken this selfish woman, (myself) :) who used to live for her own gain and desires
and transformed her and her life into something that has eternal value. He took the mess I made of my life, before
serving Him, and opened my eyes to His plan for my life. A plan that would make an eternal difference
for many, by living my life for Him, just as He gave His very life for me. To daily sacrifice my wants and what I
selfishly think I need by doing daily for others. In Gods Word it says that if we do something
for the least of these my brethren, its as if you are doing it for Christ
Himself. Wow! I
don’t want my life to be for nothing. I
want to have lived and made as much of a difference for the Lord as I can. I want to serve Christ Himself and for me
that is by serving the children He has asked Tim and I too adopt.
I am still learning.
I am still growing. I still fall
and fail. I am so human. I make so many mistakes. I feel weak at times, frail, broken and
humbled to the core. I feel inadequate. I get DISCOURAGED, a lot and need someone,
anyone to give me a word of encouragement.
If no person does.,..God always does and that is all I need to pick
myself up off the ground and take it one day at a time once again. I can do all things thru Christ who strengthens me!
Tim and I are a team put together by God. I believe that with my whole heart. His love for the children that need homes in
this world runs deep. He is a wonderful
dad and is totally hands on. Tim does
not cry easily but I have seen him cry more times over hurting children than I can
count, or crying in prayer over our children before surgery and when sick. When God brought Tim and I into the service
of fostering and adopting, it changed our lives forever for the better because it
changed us. The things we saw and went
thru shaped us into more godly people.
It stripped away frivolous and made us see how serious life is for so
many and what is most important.
We got
a front row seat to miracles daily. When
I say daily I mean it. We saw hurt
children heal. We saw scared children
learn to trust. We saw many come to
salvation. We saw doctors prognosis shot
down time and time again. We saw broken
bodies healed or miracle recovery times from surgeries.
The more children we took in and wondered how to pay the
bills the more God provided. The more
the kids grew the more clothing was donated or we found at thrift stores in
their sizes. We might not have every
new gadget on the market or go on fancy vacations but we have always had a roof
over our heads, a comfortable home and good food on the table. We have always had nice clothing to wear and
a vehicle to get our large family around in.
God IS Faithful!
The things we have went thru. And YES there has been many tears cried. Many hard times and many hard days. Our days are fuller and more challenging than the average family. So daily life is just harder and many things are more time consuming…those
times made us pray more, we studied Gods Word more for comfort and
direction. We learned to stay in constant
communication with God just to get thru each moment at times. We grew closer and closer to God. He answered and directed always.
Many of our blogs seem always showing the good because life
is so good! I can only speak for my own
but I try to show honesty in all things and be open about health issues and
daily life. To show how serious our
life is and how serious the kids health issues are…but to show we live and are blessed in
spite of it all, by the grace of God. I
mean I could dwell on all the hard stuff because to be honest, life raising so
many children with special needs can be very hard. Very hard.
But the part that is hard is the physical/emotional part. The lifting a 120 pound son to change his
diaper. The unexpected run to the ER in
the middle of the night for breathing troubles.
The balancing what to do with the other kids while running to the ER
with above said child. The unexpected surgery,
the tantrums the bad behavior. The melt
downs the days that all the above happens on the same day or even in the same
evening. That is the hard part. Those are the hardest times we need peoples
prayers and encouragement. Those are the
storms of fostering and adoption. But
they are not every moment of every day and equally, if not more often, are the
hugs and love and games and being silly and doing fun home schooling together. The first steps that we never thought we’d
see. The first word when we were told
they would never speak. The eye contact
from one with autism and first joke they ever told and laughed at
hysterically. We choose to focus on the wonderful part of
the children and let the hard part go.
Only God can carry that part. I
know I can’t. With out Him helping me
thru all that worldly hard stuff I would be a mess. With out all the prayers of those who truly love
us it would be so much harder. Just
knowing people out there love and support what God has called you to do brings
more strength than you know!
God has done so many wonderful things over the years. We have seen a child who should not be able
to walk, now walking, running and dancing.
A child who should never talk, now talking with paralyzed vocal
cords! A child that is supposed to be
having seizures because of so many brain bleeds, seizure free. A child that should have HIV, HIV free! A child that should be on daily meds for
emotions and behavior, med free. A child
that we told might not make it, alive and well.
So many times that several of our children were so very ill and
recovered beautifully by the grace of God.
I could go on and on.
These are the benefits and blessings of living this
life.
These children and their clean,
happy, fed smiling faces, that call me mommy and Tim daddy, are the reason to do what Tim and I
do.
Our children love us and we cherish them every day.
They have a forever family.
They know the love of the Lord at our hands
and God asked us to and we said yes.
God is so good. Run
to what He has called you to do and you will never regret it. He will make you able to do above and beyond
what you ever thought you could do. And
because you know you could never have done it alone, all the glory is His and
you see the beauty and miracle in it all.
Front row seat and all!
I want to thank all the families today who foster and adopt children. I want to thank the people who come up along
side these families and give support. Whether
it be financial, friendship, daily help or words of encouragement. You will never know how much even the smallest
gesture means to a busy family that is balancing so many things.
I can’t tell you how many people I have met in the last six
months worldwide, that I love dearly and receive encouragement from often. That is what we need. These
are just a fraction of the great things God has done!
James 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
May the Lord God Almighty equip you daily to do above and beyond all He asks you to do! May He bring people alongside you in your life to encourage and uplift you! May He abundantly bless you for being faithful to Him just as He is faithful to all of us!
Many blessings,
susan
Precious beautiful family. God bless you all
ReplyDeleteErika
Erika, Thank you so very much! I appreciate your kind words. They blessed me today. May God abundantly bless you as well!
ReplyDeletebeautiful family, a picture of heaven!!!! Thank you for your encouraging comment on my blog this morning....it blesses our hearts when we get a message about someone being touched by GOD's story in our lives! HE IS SO AMAZING!!! He blesses those who walk in faith and trust HIM!!!!
ReplyDeleteMany blessings to you dear friend!!
Praise God! Yes Johanna! God be with you, always!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful, lovely, sweet family. Such happy smiles on all your precious treasures! What a lovely, lovely family you have!
ReplyDeleteThank you Anonymous for taking the time to leave a comment to encourage us! May God abundantly bless you!
ReplyDelete