5 for Hope: Summer Fun...

Monday, July 27, 2009

Summer Fun...

Congratulations to our friends and their new children. The Storteboom family returned from Ethiopia last week with their new son (2 years old) and daughter (4 years old). Ryan and Amber are being wonderful helpers with their new siblings. We pray that their transition to a family of six continues to go well.

We have so enjoyed this past week. No camps, no overnight travel, and all three kids at home with us. We have been able to just spend some much-needed time together as a family. As a result of this, Ana is on day 5 of being completely dry during waking hours and is proud to be wearing "big girl undies". Joel and Grace have pulled out some board games that they have not played in months, and we've actually had some time to just relax at home. Below are some highlights from the past several weeks...

Joel and Grace attended Hope Soccer Camp in June. Joel loved it, despite a fractured right toe (no soccer for at least three more weeks...) and Grace gave it a good try. On Day 2 she asked if she could go to the skating rink instead, and on Day 3 she asked if she had to go to soccer camp next year. So... we have established the fact that Grace really isn't into soccer that much...

The next week, Joel went to Hope Basketball Camp. He looks forward to it every year. He loved every moment! The photo below was taken during camp and was published in our local paper.

Happy 4th of July!

Last weekend we spent a fun day at Silver Lake with Jen's relatives from Ohio. It is a day we look froward to every year. Ana LOVED the sand dunes and climbed with me all the way to the top! Thanks, guys, for a wonderful day!

Joel had a birthday sleepover tonight with his good friend, Brennen. Brennen's sister, Aubrie, just happens to be Grace's best friend, as well. They all had so much fun together! We feel amazingly blessed that Joel and Grace have such special friends to grow up with. (Joel is hoping that Brennen decides to attend Hope College so that they can be roommates!)

Camping out in the sunroom!

(I could hardly believe it... at 10:15 p.m. they came into the kitchen, told me about the "incredible NBA Monopoly game" they were playing, and then announced that "we thought it was an appropriate time for us to go to bed". They proceeded to brush their teeth and head back to their sleeping bags. Brennen, you can come over ANY time! :-)

1 comment:

StacyJuly 28, 2009 at 7:31 AM
Hey! You went past our house, no doubt, when you drove in to Silver Lake! If you want to come back sometime, we would LOVE to have you! I know summer is so busy, but I just thought I would throw it out there!! Looking forward to a get together with the girls, if you and Susie ever want to head up this way with the girls, we would love that too! Yay Ana on staying dry! Anaya seems so much like a little girl now with out diapers! Where does time go? Enjoy the rest of the summer!
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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."