The Beginning - August 24 2010

For a very long time, I have wanted to adopt or foster children. I have periodically researched and tried to find information that would give me an idea if it could become a reality. I never seemed to find any. Then this whole thing with my grandparents moving here came up, and a few of my aunts and uncles came to the village to help them move. My uncle Michael and my Aunt Judy were two that came and they are both adopted into the family. Uncle Michael has a blood sister, Aunt Brandy that was also adopted. It was sweet because I had a chance to talk with Aunt Judy about her story. She was born with all her organs outside her body, so for the first year of her life, she was in the hospital undergoing all sorts of surgeries. Her mother was 14 when she had her, and had put her up for adoption. No one wanted her because she was not expected to live, so finally, a home that was for mental children offered to take her. The parents in that home were abusive and drinkers. She lived there until she was 13 years old! Finally, someone got wind of what was going on and she ended up in my grandparent’s home. They adopted her. And she soon was married to a very nice man, and gave birth to two healthy boys despite all her physical problems. She almost died with the second. She is very grateful to God for what He has done and given her.

I then asked her about my uncle Michael and Aunt Brandy. When Michael was 2 and Brandy was 3 they were discovered. Michael was starved, his belly bulging to prove it. His entire body was covered in cuts, scrapes, and bruises. Brandy was completely the opposite. She was always told to wash her hands, and to stay clean, and that she was a princess. When the officers came to the house, the parents showed them their pretty, tidy little girl and claimed they had no other children. Fortunately, Brandy spoke up and said she had a little brother in the back room, and they found Michael. It is believed that there was another child, but had already died. As they took the children away, the parents said “We do not care if you take them, we can just make more!” It was not long until they were adopted by my grandparents also.

I have heard stories like this before, but these sunk deeper. My own grandparents, typical people, who tried to follow God in the best way they knew how, opened up their home to many children who came and left. These children were touched by love, something that was so scarce in their previous situation. My aunts and uncles who were adopted are good people, they try to follow God. What would have happened if someone didn’t care enough to give up their lives, and take them in and give them a real home? I have a lot of respect for my Grandparents for doing what they did. I even remember going and visiting them and playing with foster children.

Once again I was inspired. I researched the topic again and low and behold, information came flying at me. My heart pounded, it felt like a reality. There is a place in Memphis, called Agape. Ray actually has talked to a lady there and we feel like it’s a good place. I am old enough, (which is a problem with some places), we can have our own children, amount of income does not matter, (which is good ). They have a paper that our elders are supposed to fill out concerning our spiritual growth, how we are as a couple, if we can handle adopting/fostering, etc. They are Christian based. The application fee is $200.00, and the program that we want to take is called NAP, and it’s for newborns to 1year olds, costs only $150, rather than $500 for all ages. We feel like we need to stick with the younger children for now. We get to make a scrap book about ourselves, what our passions are, what we do for a living, what our interests are, how many children we have, our vision, etc. and then the birth parents get to choose where their children go. Which I thought was really neat. We are not waiting on a list until we randomly get chosen etc. The one big question that we asked was if we can live with people and still do this, they have been discussing it and have not given us an answer. Other than that, we do not know of anything that we cannot comply to. The biggest thing would be money, but we believe that God will supply it when the need arises. He has been very faithful to us and we believe he will continue if this is what he has for us to do.

We are very excited about this. God has given us a very abundant life, and it is the least we can do to share it with a little one. Just to give them a chance to live a life full of love. We love Pastor Daniel’s vision about taking care of our little ones; they are the future generation, our presidents, our leaders.