5 for Hope: I Samuel 1:27 (11/25/06)

Saturday, November 25, 2006

I Samuel 1:27 (11/25/06)

"For this child I prayed and the Lord has granted me the petition that I made to him."

This journey really began several years ago… I remember December of 2002. We had just brought our beautiful infant daughter (Grace Marie) home from the hospital. I was rocking her and thanking God for blessing our family with a little boy (Joel Austin- then 2 ½) and now, a little girl. Yet, at the same time, I did not feel our family was complete. As the years passed, I believe God spoke to me in ways I did not always recognize. On November 1, 2002, my dear friend, Leah, committed to praying for our family daily. Together we prayed that God would direct our family and help us to realize if He indeed had another baby planned for us. Other close friends, too, offered to pray (and have over the years). At this point, I was imagining that another baby would mean another pregnancy. Yet on 11/2/02, I walked into church and saw a sign (most likely intended for pregnant teens) stating “Adoption is a good option”. I took that as a sign that I needed to pray about. I did pray, and through the years, my faith in God grew in ways I had never before experienced. I began to really feel as though we should adopt an orphan. Brian, prayed, too. But at this point, it was purely because he knew this was something I had come to feel very passionately about. He was very happy with our family of four, and did not feel God calling us in this direction. Through countless late-night discussions, daily reading and prayers, and at times, tears – we have finally arrived at the point we are at today. Though it has been a challenging road, we have grown together in ways we never would have envisioned and God has certainly used this to strengthen our relationship with Him and one another. Brian's conviction has been inspiring. He us thrilled to finally hear God's call and respond joyfully. He moves forward with excitement and admittedly, the daily reliance on God to provide financially once our own resources are depleated. We are both excited to visit our little girl in a country we know so little about, and in time, bring her home to our family. We invite you to travel with us, these next several months – and share the rest of our journey.

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Favorite Family Verses

The grace of God will not take you where the will of God can not sustain you.

I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul..."
~Psalm 131: 1-2~

"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."
~ Phillippians 4:13 ~
(Brian chose this verse to be engraved in Jen's wedding ring.)

"No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and His love is perfected in us."
~ 1 John 4:12 ~
(Jen chose this verse to be engraved in Brian's wedding ring.)

Our Thanks to You...

For those of you who have gone through the adoption process, you understand what a blessing it is to have a "cloud of witnesses" that surround you, uphold you in prayer, and agree to give up their time to assist in the incredible amount of paperwork that accompanies this decision. We have been incredibly blessed by the love shown to us by our friends. Many of you have spent hours filling out letters of recommedation, have made countless trips to the bank to have documents notarized only to find out that they need to be renotarized (and renotarized, and renotarized). Many of you have prayed for us, not only over the past few months, but the past few years, as well. Words can not adequately express our gratitude to you for the wonderful gift of your friendship. Thank you, from our entire family, for helping us to bring Ana Hope home to our family. And now that we venture forward, as a family of five, we continue to be blessed by your friendship, your prayers, and your constant support in caring for our family.

About All God's Children International

The following is "Heather's Story" as described in her mother's book The Strength of Mercy" (Jan Beazely). "Many years ago, when I was just eighteen, God called me to walk into the fields of the fatherless in Romania. There I was honored to find my sister Hannah. I had no way of knowing that Hannah’s adoption was just the beginning of what God had planned for my life. My call became my family’s mission as well. We were probably very much like your family, very ordinary, and one day God just asked us to answer His extraordinary call. Many people have asked me, “How did All God's Children International begin?” My answer is simply this... The first time I walked into a Romanian orphanage in 1990, I was overwhelmed by what I saw and I wanted to do something. Hopeless little orphan faces stared up at me and hardly responded when I reached out to touch them. I remember praying with tears running down my face, “Lord, there are so many…and their needs are so great… How can I even begin to help them all? God spoke back to me clearly. “Heather, you see the multitudes, but I know each one by name, all I’m asking you to do is to try, just help them one at a time.” So that is what I did. A month after completing Hannah’s adoption for my parents, AGCI officially became a Christian adoption and relief agency. I returned to Romania to help give the children I left behind the second chance they deserved. One child became two. Two turned into three and now over the last 16 years we have been privileged to give thousands of second chances to orphaned children not just in Romania, but Bulgaria, Russia, Guatemala, Nepal, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Macedonia, India, China and now Ethiopia. Through our foreign adoption services, our orphan relief and child sponsorship programs, as well as our Hannah’s Hope children’s homes, AGCI continues to make a difference in little lives. We have indeed grown over the years, but my passion to rescue and care for children has never changed. I continue to help them one at a time. I understand now that the compassion I felt was there for a reason. God’s voice is never silent concerning the orphan. If you listen you can hear Him whispering in the darkness at night. He continues to shout from the rooftops at daybreak. He fervently lays before the world His concern for the orphan. So never overlook small beginnings, never dismiss the vision God plants in your heart concerning a needy child. I believe that you are not reading my words by accident, but rather by divine appointment. Thank you so much for listening to my heart. I am praying that I have encouraged you to ask, “What can I do?” For somewhere in the world today an orphan needs your help… they wait in the fields of the fatherless hoping for a second chance. There is nothing in life more overwhelming then to walk through orphanage doors around the world and hear the heartbreaking echo of the orphan's cry. Nothing more unforgettable than to watch countless children run toward outstretched arms longing for just one embrace. Nothing more painful then to gaze into silent orphan eyes pleading for someone to come and care. And there is nothing more humbling than to witness such desperate need and then not be able to give every orphan child the second chance they deserve. Together we can soothe their cries, provide the embrace they long for, and send someone to care."