Wednesday I went to the mailbox and was SHOCKED to find a letter from Sandra, Noah's foster mom in Guatemala. Despite the fact that we have written her several times and sent some packages and pictures of Noah, we have NEVER received anything from her (or never expected to either, really). It was great to hear that she had been receiving our updates and pictures and how much she misses "Edwin." She said she wishes she had a magic wand so she could take him out of the pictures to give him hugs and kisses. She expressed how incredibly thankful she is that he is in a loving family. It reminded us again of how incredibly thankful we are that Noah had such a loving family to care for him until he could come home. It was about a year ago from right now that we got our "PGN approval" meaning that Noah was legally our son. This is an old picture with Sandra holding Noah and Marlany (another of her foster children):
Yesterday was exactly 9 months since Noah came home. It seems like he's been here forever... he just fits in so naturally with our family! For those of you that haven't seen him in awhile, you'll be shocked to hear how much he is starting to talk. Most of the words aren't pronounced correctly, but it's getting so that you can understand a bunch of what he's saying. And he'll initiate things now, too. For example, yesterday while we were in the car, Noah saw a parking lot of buses. He pointed and said, "busss busss busss!" It was so sweet! Oh, and trick-or-treating last night... he was so stinkin' cute dressed as a little Dalmatian puppy! He would follow the girls (always a few steps behind) and hold out his little bag. I think he got twice as much candy as they did because everyone was just oooing and ahhing over how cute he was!As I think about the specialness of this Adoption month, my heart goes to a few friends of ours that are in process of adoption (the Meyaards, The Kleins, the Brinks, the Vander Mass family) and I remember the pain of loving a child in another country as your own, but not being able to hold him. I remember the frustration of trying to get through all the government red tape. I remember the stress of huge bills and not knowing how they would get paid. I remember the heartbreak of just simply not knowing. I pray that these families can be quickly united with their children.
My heart also goes out to all the orphans throughout the world. Precious young boys and girls growing up without a mom or dad or family to call their own. I'm reminded of God's command in James 1:27 to "look after orphans and widows." All of us, as the Body of Christ, have a responsibility in some way or another to care for orphans. Whether it's through adoption, fostering, monetary donations, prayer.... we all play an important role.
One of the ministries that has blessed us incredibly through our adoption journey (and helped in prompting us to adopt in the first place) is Shaohannah's Hope. They are doing a campaign this month called "Show Hope" to raise awareness, hope, and money for orphans around the world. The concept is "CHANGE FOR CHANGE." Simply keep all your loose change this month and at the end of the month send them a check for this cause. To learn more, you can go to: http://members.shaohannahshope.org/site/PageServer
Oh, and, no... they did not pay me to do this little advertisement. :) (I wish!) It's just something that's obviously very close to my heart. Thank you for listening and doing your part to care for orphans during this special month!
I'll end with one picture of the kids I took the other day. What a blessing they are!
1 comment:
Where is the picture of that cute little puppy? And the girls!
Post a Comment