Why Are We Adopting?

Because you may be wondering why we are adopting, we've listed some reasons for you:

1. Because souls are eternal. "Whoever belives in the Son has eternal life.." Jn 3:36 We want to give Julie a chance to know Christ as her Savior and experience eternal life.

2. Because children are a blessing from the Lord. "Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them." Ps 127. We have been so blessed by our other children, we just couldn't resist adding another blessing!

3. Because Jesus commanded us to take care of orphans. "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress..." James 1:27

4. Because Jesus would do it. "Whoever welcomes one of these little ones in my name welcomes me.." Mk 9:37

5. Because it helps make the world a better place. "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Eph 2:10

6. Because we have chosen to love her. "And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." ICor 13:13. We consider it an enormous priviledge to have another family member to love.


Why not adopt domestically?

1. Because of our ages it would be more difficult to adopt stateside. The Chinese think older parents are just fine.

2. Because though the foster system here is not ideal, the prospects for orphans in the U.S. are far better than the situation for Chinese orphans.

We are looking forward to adding another blessing to our family.

Looking forward to Julie's arrival

Life has been kind of crazy around here lately...Courtney's hospitalization, debate tournaments, paper work and details for our trip to China, getting a spot here ready for Julie, trying to get school done, etc., etc. Yet in the craziness we are all so excited about Julie's coming..we know that God has specifically chosen her (just as He has our other children) for our family. We pray that He would display His glory in all we do!

Baby Stuff is Piling Up

Friends,

We continue to wait for the travel dates for our trip to China. It seems like this process is taking a long time, but I am sure that it is just our excitement about going to China to meet Julie. We have been thinking a lot recently about how Julie will react to our family. We can only imagine how traumatic it will be for her to be taken from familiar surroundings - crib, facility, care givers, food, noises, language - and placed in a totally strange environment. We are praying that we will know how to comfort and reassure her.

Well we installed the baby bed in Erika's room on Saturday so it is starting to look like we might have a baby in the house. Susan has also started to accumulate the necessities for a baby - bottles, diapers, baby clothes, bibs, booster seat, play pen, plush toys, etc. Wow! It sure takes a lot to care for a baby these days! We are hopeful that Julie will find joy and comfort in our home. It surely will not be for a lack of attention!

Lord, please help us to provide the love and nurturing that Julie needs to be the Godly young woman that you desire. Please make her a late bloomer (inside joke :-) ).

For the family, Joe