Back to School

We had the opportunity to take a week of vacation last week and go to Disney World.  It was a great week, and we talked a lot about the adoption and how our lives will change when the Lord adds a new member to our family.  We returned home and jumped back into our daily routines.  Each of us had the pile of things that had to be made up from the week of vacation - you know how that goes!  We also returned home to a packet of information about classes that we needed to take for adoption.  We have completed two of the required five classes and have found the training to be very informative.  There are so many things that we did not think about with adoption.  We knew that there would be many issues, joys and struggles along the way, but these courses have been good to help us clarify what some specific areas will be.  We look forward to working through the other courses so that we are more prepared for the adoption.  In one sense, it feels like we're back in school, but this is an education that the Lord will continue to give throughout the rest of our lives.  I guess we graduate when we enter into His glory...now that's a graduation ceremony!

Our Journey to Adoption

 

It all started for us about 10 years ago (2001) on a trip to RUSSIA.  A time when we left our comfort zone to journey around the world to have our eyes opened to another culture.  As we traveled around Russia our eyes were opened to the needs of so many children that had a bleak future.  On one occasion, we sat with a group of orphan girls in their early teens and in the conversation we asked them what they wanted to do with their life…silence.  They were unable to imagine a future outside of the orphanage.  Our interpreter went on to explain that most of the girls that are eventually released from the orphanage end up on the streets in a life of prostitution.  At another center for children, Andy met a boy named Yuri and Alicia met a little girl, Natasha, that touched both of our hearts.  If we had been able to bring her home we would have.  Who would have thought at that time, that it was just the first of little seeds that God was planting on our hearts.

In 2003, we joined a team from the church to work on a church in Mexico.  On this trip, we enjoyed the people of Latin America.  We worked side by side with people from the church and we experienced their love for the Lord and their generosity toward us.  The Lord used this trip to continue to open our eyes to the poverty around us.  We have been to Mexico since that trip and our love for the Latin American people has continued to grow.  The Lord began to speak through his word about our treatment of the poor.  In Matthew 25, Jesus speaks about the expected actions of His followers.  He commends His followers (the sheep) for caring for the sick, poor and imprisoned.  They reply that they don’t know when they served Him in such a way.  He replies, `I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' (Mt. 25:40) 

The Lord began to use friends to speak to our hearts about the needs of orphans and our need to act.  At church, Rick & Kris Lutz went to China on two separate occasions to adopt Kaitlyn and then, Makenzie. 

Dan & Diane Ruch traveled to Guatemala to adopt Sofia.  We had the privilege of going to the courthouse with Dan & Diane as they finalized the adoption of Sofia.  As Dan sat before the judge and was asked specific questions about bringing Sofia into their family and providing her with all the rights of one of his children, even extending to her the full rights of inheritance…we were struck by the picture of adoption used in Scripture to describe our relationship to God through Jesus Christ.  In Ephesians we read that we were chosen by God to be adopted as his children through Christ (Eph 1:5).  In 1 John 3:1, we read about the love of God that has been lavished upon us that we might be called children of God.  And in Romans 8, we read about the fact that in Christ, we are co-heirs with Christ.  If God sacrificed so much to rescue us from a hopeless eternity, and in Christ adopt us as His own children…what are we doing to change the hopeless future of children around the world?  At the time, the problem was too large, and we found many reasons not to adopt.

In 2009, at the Ladies retreat for our church, Alicia began to wrestle seriously with the issue of adoption.  Kris Lutz shared about a boy in china that was a close friend of Makenzie who was eligible for adoption.  Alicia had a long conversation with Diane Ruch about adoption and upon returning home from the retreat, we talked about the possibility of adoption.  Although Alicia was leaning toward adoption, Andy was able to come up with a number of reasons not to adopt.  This topic was dropped for a while.

In 2010, when a severe earthquake devastated Haiti, our hearts were drawn to the need of so many who were hurt and homeless, and again the plight of the orphan was before us.  A passage of Scripture that began to resound in our hearts was James 1:27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”  The Lord began to work on our daughter’s heart through this tragedy in Haiti.  Ariana began to be concerned for the orphans in Haiti and around the world.  The topic of adoption did not come up, but the Lord was at work in all of our hearts in different ways.

For Christmas, Andy had asked for the book “Radical” by David Platt.  Alexa bought her daddy the book without realizing that this book would be the final push that would change our family.  The book laid out a clear challenge to examine our “American Christianity” and the way that we seek security and safety.  Andy began to realize that God was calling him to examine his reasons for not sacrificing self in order to give a home and a family to one child that was facing a “hopeless” future.  Every reason he came up with seemed to be very selfish, so he brought up the issue of adoption with Alicia.  Within a few days, we were moving quickly toward the conclusion that this was the right action for our family.  We decided to talk with Ariana first…at hearing the news, her excitement was not able to be contained.  She quickly crossed the kitchen to the computer to show us a project she was working on for school…a poem about poverty, orphans and the need for people to reach out and help.  Here is the poem that Ariana had written for her project:

LOVE, PEACE and HAPPINESS

What is love?

What is peace?

What is happiness?

Do people know

What these words

Mean anymore?

Children grow up

As orphans

Abandoned and rejected.

They grow up

Experiencing war

Theft, murder

And other crimes.

What will they do

When they get older?

 Only what they

Know.

If we all help

Life will be better

For everyone.

You have a life

Choose to use it

The right way.

Alexa was also ready and excited about the possibility of adoption.  As a family, we began to pray and discuss the reasons to adopt and how adoption will affect our family.  With each day, the decision to adopt seemed to become more and more of a reality for our family.

Alicia contacted Diane Ruch and Kris Lutz to get their counsel.  We began to share with our family and close friends for their counsel and prayers.  Everyone was supportive, and some shared that they were not surprised.  We are excited as we continue our journey to adopt, yet now as the process begins in earnest, we know that there will be many ups and downs. 

Our hope and prayer, as you read this, is that you will be able to join us along on our journey and that this will be a reminder to you all to be praying for us.  That God would be going before us in this journey and through all of it we will be giving Him the glory!  Thank you for praying for us.

"One Less"

A friend of ours shared this video with us, and we felt we would share it with you.

Hurdles

I remember a time in gym class, when our teacher took us out to the track so that we could learn to jump hurdles.  A friend of mine happened to be on the track team, and was familiar with jumping hurdles.  Knowing this, our teacher turned to Dave and asked him to demonstrate for the rest of the class how to jump hurdles.  Dave quickly established a rhythm.  Step, step, step, jump…step, step, step, jump…or something like that…Dave ran from one end of the track to the other without knocking over a hurdle, tripping, or breaking any parts of his body.  I am not sure how many classmates tried and failed before I had my opportunity to make a fool of myself.  I stood at the beginning of the track looking at what looked to be a thousand hurdles (I think it was about ten hurdles, but you get the point).  I start without any problems, but then of course the first few yards are only running, which I was doing since diapers.  Then came the first hurdle.  With all the coordination I could muster and all of the jump I could find, I threw out my leg hoping to clear the bar.  My foot hit directly in the middle of the hurdle, knocking it down and throwing my balance completely off.  There was no saving face at this point, and there was no chance for me to recuperate and make an attempt at the second hurdle.  In fact, by this point I was hoping the ground was softer than it looked.  I stood up and looked at our teacher.  There was no grace to be found, just those kind words, “Come on Crossgrove, get up and jump higher!”  I usually enjoyed gym class.  Needless to say, I did not enjoy this one.

I share this story because I had the feeling of staring down the track at a series of hurdles that I wasn’t sure we would be able to jump over.  This past Saturday, we received the contract to work with our adoption agency.  The contract needs to be signed and returned with the first large sum of money required in this process.  I was home alone, looking at all of our bank accounts and bills.  I paid the bills, and looked at the hurdle again, and then back at the accounts.  Step, step, step…Alicia returned home and I informed her that we would be able to send in the contract in early March.  We were excited to see that the first hurdle was in sight, and it looked that with a few more steps we would be able to clear the hurdle.  Later that evening, a friend called and offered us a generous financial gift toward the adoption.  Step, step, step, jump.  With the help of a friend, we were able to clear the first hurdle.  We received another call today with a gift of financial help.  We know that the course before has many more hurdles, but when we began this process and I shared my concern over the financial hurdles, one of the elders of our church reminded me of the fact that Psalm 50 tells us of our father in heaven who owns the cattle on a thousand hills.  He can and does provide!

We thank the Lord for His great provision, and for His children that are providing us with encouragement, prayer and support.

Why Honduras?

On Thursday, Feb. 3, we submitted our application for adoption with Living Hope Adoption Agency to adopt a child from Honduras.  Why Honduras?

As we began our discussion about where to go to adopt a child, our first issue to discuss was do we adopt from within the United States, or do we adopt internationally.  There is a need for adoption both domestically and internationally, so this was a difficult decision.  After a lot of discussion and prayer, our hearts were drawn to the plight of orphans in impoverished countries. 

We began researching countries in the Latin American region and Honduras was just screaming out to us.  There is an estimated number of 180,000 orphans in this country of approximately 7 million people.  Children having to work in the dumps to try to earn $1 a day as young as 4-5 years old.  These facts just tore at our hearts. 

Honduras is a Latin American country located in Central America.  The Capital city is Tegucigalpa.  Honduras has just been devastated by hurricanes, HIV, and political turmoil.  With a GDP of $920 in 2000, Honduras is one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere.  The UN reports that 49% of Hondurans lives in extreme poverty.

With so many countries around the globe closing their doors to international adoption, Honduras just recently opened their doors.  As we contacted Living Hope Adoption Agency they told us that Honduras is a relatively new program for them.  Their founder has communications with Honduran leaders who have assured them that they have children ready!  At this point families desiring to adopt are only in the process of preparing to be matched with a child and been given their travel approval.  This is where faith really comes in!

We are confident in the fact that God would not be placing this desire in our hearts without a reason.  We are now trusting in him to show us if this is the correct place.  We fully trust that God will clear the path for us to continue on this Journey if this is the direction for us to go and yet confident in Him that if the door closes He will comfort us and continue to direct our path.