Less One Orphan in the World!



There are right now two less orphans in the world and I believe that my Father in Heaven is celebrating.  There are two less jewels, because of our Jewlia, and because the little guy above is ALSO joining our family.

 

Here is our story ...

God has brought us two specific jewels, and we are once again submitting our wills to our Fathers, and we are thrilled and honored to be adding a boy AND girl to our family – Jax Jean AND Jewlia Grace.   

 

There is so much that we could share with you.  Through our North American lenses we understand that many believe we already have too many children.  Although yes we agree that raising nine children is a lot on us on every level, God has simultaneously put in us a passionate broken heart for His orphans, His children.  James 1:27 is our life verse, “pure & faultless religion is this, to look after orphans & widows in their distress.”  The other simultaneous reality is that God has blessed us beyond measure, we already feel so richly blessed with the 7 jewels we have, and so we adopt out of the LOVE that He has so tangibly given us on so many realms.  We are adopting “again” because our Father adopted us and we believe HE is asking us to adopt two more.

 



Several years ago God birthed in our hearts the possibility of jewel number eight and nine.  God gave Maria a visual picture of three rows of frames, each row containing three frames of little jewels.  Well, that is what I believe now.  When we had 7 kids, I thought the last row of pictures had one frame.  AS when God gave me the vision, the last row of frames was not totally clear, I couldn't see how many frames there were. Although we did not understand it’s full meaning years ago, we love God’s grace as He so knows us.  God knows that our hearts needed lots of prep work as our life plan was to have 2 children, adding two at this point in our life so not being what “we would have planned for our life.”   God gave me this picture and word when we were in the process of adopting Kody, our 4th child.  We were considering adopting two at that times, and I felt so completely overwhelmed at the idea of having 5 children.  In the end we heard God, say "not now."  I have to say that we were relieved ... as we thought going to 4 was super crazy! 

A year ago, God again clearly spoke to Maria and said, “you will have a child with the name Grace.”  I was putting Lillyana to bed, rocking her, and singing "Amazing Grace."  Which is her favourite song as well as one of mine, and I sing it to her every night.  It was such a clear Holy Spirit moment, and it left me me speechless and in tears, as I KNEW that we would be having "one more" child.  I didn't know the time, and I thought the "time" would be several years down the road as that made the most sense to me!

In January, God literally put our little girl into our “inbox,” our sweet Jewlia.  I  had seen her face before but on this day God opened my eyes to see my very own daughter.  I saw Lillyana in Jewlia, I saw my other kids in her, I saw my "own" child.  My hubby's heart did not miss a beat, God immediately making it clear that yes he was meant to be her daddy. 

God has prepared my jewel’s hearts as well, ALL of them immediately being united in that we should adopt Jewlia.  Simultaneously, my jewels have also continuously been saying, “mom, dad, we should adopt a boy too.”   I was resistant to this (Sam and the kids have not been) and we have been on our knees, asking our Father for clear confirmation.  We have not made the decision to adopt two lightly, and just like our God guided and directed Gideon, we after much prayer, believe He is directing us to right now to add TWO jewels to our family.

 

The reality is that there are so many little boys waiting globally for families.  Right now in China there are hundreds of pre-identified, ready for families, waiting little boys.  So since beginning our process in January, lots of little boys have been possibilities.  However, at the end of February while we were attending a local adoption/foster care conference, God used several speakers to speak His plans into our lives.  We heard the story of a woman named Stephanie Fast who is an adult adoptee from South Korea, her story being one of enormous tragedy, as well as tremendous hope.  God literally, time and time again saved her life, it being a miracle in every meaning of the word that she is alive.  At one point, God used a Swedish nurse to save her life, Him speaking audible and telling her, “SHE.IS.MINE.” 

We believe this to be God’s heart for every orphan of the world; that same night as Stephanie spoke, our agency letting us know about our, now, little guy.  We were also able to speak to several other families who are in our “size” category and received confirmation.  This week we also watched the movie “The Drop Box,” God also using this as a real confirmation on His calling on our family’s life. 


One of the meanings of “Jean” is “grace, and God’s gift.”  We again did not know a year ago that God was talking about adding two children, we assumed He only meant one.  Jax is getting his middle name after "our" beloved "Aimee."  I had no idea the meaning of her middle name, and when I looked it up I KNEW it was meant to be AND I knew it was what "God had planned."  How confirming and awesome! 

We so value your prayers.  This is a major step of faith for our family, on every level, emotionally and financially.  We will also be sending out need letters and we will be doing lots of fundraising, as we are literally depending on our Father to provide for us financially to bring our two jewels home.

                                                 
It is AWESOME to me because I feel as if God has "birthed" in my heart our two new precious jewels, and never in my wildest dreams did I think I could be a mamma to NINE CHILDREN.  We often read a book on adoption at our house, one that is about the mamma's heart growing and then "popping," once the adopted child is home.  After decided to adopt again, Jase one day randomly told Ella (while I was right there), "mom's heart is growing."  It was the cutest thing, big grin on his face.  Ella had no idea what he was talking about as she is usually at school for our story times, and hadn't read it in a while.  Jase happily shared in the details!  He was SO right on, my heart is growing ;)