Well...where do I begin? For years, people have asked, "Are you done having kids?" We would laugh and respond, "we are done having them, but we would take another". We truly feel like children are a blessing and should be treasured. We have looked into different opportunities to help kids. We tried to get involved in a foster care program for kids in Houston, but that door was quickly
closed. We knew God had something planned, we just were not sure what.
A few months ago, a friend put a post on facebook about a website called "Reece's Rainbow". It caught my attention (mainly because her comment that none of her friends cared). I started looking at the site and was immediately drawn to a boy named Steven. Steven is four years old and lives in an Eastern European country. He has been diagnosed with Ataxic cerebral palsy and was left by his family around the time he was two.
A few years ago that diagnosis would have scared me. I am a nurse and have dealt with lots of different diseases. Then God blessed us with Colton. Through Colton's struggles with his left leg, many different diagnosis, many doctors appointments, many orthotics, and many tests, God has shown me that we can handle this. Yesterday, I was parent reader in Colton's class. I was running late and forgot the pile of books, so I picked one off the bookshelf in his class. It was a children's Christmas book by Max Lucado about a lamb (I can't think of the name right now). Anyway, the lamb is crippled, and the sweet story was about how God had a special plan for him. The lamb didn't like being different and always felt different. As we were leaving, we had a few minutes by ourselves (which is rare in a family with 5 kids) and I asked Colton what he thought about the story. I asked if he felt different, he said "yes, my brace makes me feel different" I then asked if it made him feel bad about himself and he replied, "why would I feel bad?" Oh, I love that little guy. I am sure there will be times when being different will be hard, but I pray that he knows that he was created just the way he is for a purpose. That God wanted him to be exactly how he is.
So, back to Steven. After several weeks of talking and praying we have begun the procedure to adopt Steven. It is something I never dreamed we would be doing 2 months ago. We are in the process of having our homestudy done. There is lots of paperwork. From all the information I have the process will take about a year.
How can you help? First of all, pray...pray for Steven and his current living conditions. Pray that someone hugs him today, pray that he has enough food and is warm. We are going to be setting up a link to Reece's Rainbow. Through the link, you can donate to the adoption costs for Steven. This is a tax-deductible donation. The estimated costs are about $25,000. We are hoping that we can quickly raise this money and won't have to worry about the costs. This amount includes all adoption fees as well as travel costs.
I will try to keep everyone updated. I am also hoping that Caitlin, our oldest daughter, will help with this blog.
