FEBRUARY 2006 We're adopting!

For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to adopt a child. I remember being 4 years old sitting at the dinner table with my best friend, Brenda. We must have just seen something on tv about children from Africa that were starving and homeless. I remember telling her I wanted to bring the kids here so that we could feed them and take care of them. Well, God planted that seed many years ago and now that dream to help the children is becoming a reality.

We have felt God laying this on our hearts for many years. We chose Haiti because it is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and the need is so great to help these children.

The average Haitian earns less than $300 per year. Many babies do not live to see their third birthday. Drinking water usually comes from a polluted river, ditch or open pond. Food is so scarce and expensive that most Haitian children receive less nutrition than the average American house pet. Hard words to hear, but they are true, which makes them even more horrible.
As most of you know, four years ago Kelsey’s birth was difficult and scary! The doctors told us that there would have been a 1 in 3 chance of again having the same premature birth. We felt God urging us to take another path to care for a child He had already planned for us hundreds of miles away!
We feel that we are at point in our lives to make a commitment to help a needy child. We’ve often thought about the impact that our lives should make on others. When we reach the end of our lives and God asks "How did you serve Me?" We want to be able to answer that question, with actions that will glorify our Creator.

(adapted from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's magazine Freedom from Hunger)

* First, take out the furniture: leave a few old blankets, a kitchen table, maybe a wooden chair. You've never had a bed, remember?

* Second, throw out your clothes. Each person in the family may keep the oldest suit or dress, a shirt or blouse. The head of the family has the only pair of shoes.

* Third, all kitchen appliances have vanished. Keep a box of matches, a small bag of flour, some sugar and salt, a handful of onions, a dish of dried beans. Rescue those moldy potatoes from the garbage can: those are tonight's meal.

*Fourth, dismantle the bathroom, shut off the running water, take out the wiring and the lights and everything that runs by electricity.

*Fifth, take away my house and move the family into the toolshed.

*Sixth, by now all the other houses in the neighborhood have disappeared; instead there are shanties - for the fortunate ones.

*Seventh, cancel all the newspapers and magazines. Throw out the books. You won't miss them - you are now illiterate. One radio is now left for the whole shantytown.

*Eighth, no more postman, fireman, government services. The two- classroom school is 3 miles away, but only 2 of your 7 children attend anyway, and they walk.

*Ninth, no hospital, no doctor. The nearest clinic is now 10 miles away with a midwife in charge. You get there by bus or bicycle, if you're lucky enough to have one.

*Tenth, throw out your bankbooks, stock certificates, pension plans, insurance policies. You now have a cash hoard of $5.

*Eleventh, get out and start cultivating your three acres. Try hard to raise $300 in cash crops because your landlord wants one-third and your moneylender 10 percent.

*Twelfth, find some way for your children to bring in a little extra money so you have something to eat most days. But it won't be enough to keep bodies healthy - so lop off 25 to 30 years of life.