Our Crazy Crew

I read so many wonderfully written blogs.  I doubt that this will be one of those blogs.  My strong suit is not writing.  My strong suit is organization, and a get ‘er done attitude. I love information...acquiring it and disbursing it.  That's why being an administrator at my beloved church is my dream job. So if you can bear with my bullet-point brain, please read on:  

•  Davison and I have never hosted an orphan, and we have no idea what we are doing.

• I, especially, have felt a nudging the past few years to help with the orphan crisis.  Our church has a group of folks who are VERY active in orphan care, and I have been so encouraged and challenged by their faith and determination.

• Now that our youngest biological child is 2 years old, we feel like we are “coming up for air” in our home.  For the most part, everyone sleeps at night and we are on a fairly “normal” routine. This was the first year that we considered hosting. 

 Harrison (age 2) keeps us hopping!

• We talked about hosting a few months ago, but decided that we’d wait one more year and host in summer 2017.  We really wanted to host a girl in the hopes that our 2 biological daughters (ages 4 & 7) could play with her more easily.  When we looked through the profiles of hosting children for summer 2016, it was almost all boys.

 

 Katherine (4.5) and Emily (7) love to laugh...and argue.

• At the last minute, we learned via Facebook that a family had to cancel out of hosting a child.  A plane ticket had already been purchased for her to come to the US this summer.  The child had been told she had a family to host her and Living Hope International put out the call for a family to help.  We volunteered.

• We are hosting “Alexis,” a 9-year-old girl who has never been to the US before.  

"Alexis" - how sweet is she?!

• We are under no pretense that this will be easy.  It will be hard and inconvenient.  I've had moments this week when the kids are going nuts, we're yelling, crying, tired or hungry (or all of the above) and I've thought, "What in the world are we doing?"  Fortunately, I've had more moments of thinking, "I can't wait to take Alexis to ____." Or, "I hope Alexis will like _____."  We are so eager to meet her, show her our simple life and shower her with the love of Jesus and family.

•  The first question that most everyone asks is, “How will you communicate with her?”  My answer: “I’m not totally sure.”  I know that Alexis can speak, but I’m not sure how clearly she can communicate. I’ve downloaded the Google translate app and reserved some books/dvds from the library. I’m sure that we can learn a lot before she arrive this Friday, right?  Ha!  I’m also reaching out to some Chinese-speakers in our area to see if they can come to our house and talk to Alexis.  If you know any Chinese-speakers in the Midlothian, VA area, please send them my way!

• What do we know about Alexis?  She is 9 years old, and she has been in an orphanage since birth.  She was abandoned as a newborn and found in a train station.  She had a heart defect and a spinal defect. She's had at least 2 surgeries (one at birth, one at age 4), and she has developmental delays.  She can walk and talk, dress herself, and use the bathroom independently.  There are many unknowns, but we look forward to learning about what she likes to do/eat/watch/etc and what she doesn't like.  This is a video of her made from February 2016, I think.

•   Another question I’ve heard is, “Why are you doing this?” This question has several answers:

a.       We love Jesus and want to answer His call to care for the widows and orphans. 

b.      There is an orphan crisis, and we want to help.

c.       We have been blessed with so much, and we want to share that.  We have room in our van, room at our table, room in our house, and room in our hearts for another person.

d.      We want to advocate for Alexis and hopefully help find a forever family for her.  Hosted children are exponentially more likely to be adopted than non-hosted children (I'll try to cite my source on this at a later date).  We will do this by:

                                                               i.      Posting pictures and videos of her on social media (there are many online adoption groups)

                                                             ii.      Updating this blog and circulating this info to online adoption groups

                                                            iii.      Welcoming folks into our home to meet Alexis who are considering an international adoption.

                                                           iv.      Networking with other host families and sharing resources with them.  The reason we knew about this program is because of my two dear friends from church who are also hosting Chinese orphans this summer.  Check out Rebecca's blog and Tracy's blog.

•  What we need:
• Prayer. Please pray for a forever home for Alexis.  Please pray for a lot of GRACE in our home in the coming month.  Please pray that everyone stays healthy and safe.  And pray that time in the US would put seeds of faith in Alexis' hear. 
• Mandarin - Chinese speakers, especially in Midlothian, VA.  I'd love to have a few folks over to the house to speak to Alexis so that we can communicate a little bit.  If you know of a Mandarin speaker locally, could you please forward this info to him or her?
• Social networking. Feel free to share this blog with your friends who are interested in international adoption.  Or just share in general...you never know when someone's heart may be stirred.

• Thanks for reading!  Alexis arrives this Friday....hope to update soon!  She will be here until July 22nd.