adoption story

Man we love the 143mill site! 
My wife and I have adopted 2 boys (Jaxon 4yr taiwan & Levi 2yr Vietnam) we have video of our story is that legal to send/post?
Thanks for all you guys are doing!
mark

2 amazing kids

Its been almost a month ago that my husband and i left our South
Carolina home at 2 a.m. to drive to Orlando. After a crazy week of
faxing and emailing and calling our son was on a plane from
Port-au-Prince Haiti to Orlando. We were a year and a half into the
adoption process and I had just told a friend I could see no way he
could be here by next Christmas and here I was...I of little
faith...driving to Orlando and waiting with other families some of
whom had been in the adoption process for 4 years. After a day of
waiting we were told we could go into the customs area with 4 other
families to get our children.

I watched as children walked from one side of the room into the arms
of their mothers and fathers. These were children who were going
home. They now belonged to someone, to some place. We saw our son,
our beautiful son being carried to us by my mom who is a missionary in
Haiti had been able to fly on the plane with almost 100 orphans. His
first words were "mommy daddy I going to your house" He didn't speak
much English at that point and he is only three. Somehow he got it.
He was going to our house. He told me today I was his mommy with a
huge grin on his face.

It's been an incredible month. Our 2 year old daughter Sabrina, whose
adoption was finalized in September, has learned to love and annoy her
new big brother. Someone told me Sunday they didn't think I was old
enough to have two children. I am 27 and I guess younger than most
adoptive moms, but I think that is changing. I see in church leaders
around me a new understanding that adoption is something God compels
some Christians to. He moves in our hearts at different ages and
points in our lives and says this is for you. I have a child who
needs a family and have created your family to need that child.

My husband and I have also had people react as though we must be super
human people to adopt. What they don't see is that our two children
are a constant reminder of our unworthiness and God's immense Grace.
I see in both Sabrina and Will that God weaves this amazing plan for
our lives and that when we obey he will allow us to be part of
building his kingdom in ways that fill our souls. I am reminded daily
what it means to be God's adopted daughter.

Both of my children have amazing stories that are jam packed full of
moments where God's hand moved to protect their little lives. Before
they had done anything great or earned anything from God he moved the
hearts of men and women on their behalf. And that is what he does for
us all. Sabrina and Will have taught me more about God and about his
love for us all than I could ever have dreamed. Adoption isn't about
heroic people doing something amazing. To me adoption is about
followers of Christ answering a call to love like Christ does and in
return they get to see Jesus in little eyes.

Thank you for calling attention to the needs or orphans around the world
Beth Petersen

Our Quiet Hope

My wife and I are beside ourselves as we begin this journey with God to become a family.  I was wrecked at Catalyst by the focus on Adoption this year.  Not being able to have children on our own, we are in God's hands as he takes us on this journey of a lifetime.  We are blogging our thoughts and videoing our experiences @ achildfor.us. 

143 Million is One Too Many

At Catalyst 2009, I was volunteering as an usher when I received my call from God about adoption. I was only 21, still in college and broke. But God has a plan for my future that I believe will use my life and the lives of the family I'll have at some point, to change the world of kids without what I have. A family. I am still a great while away from the time in my life but I know it is something God has begun preparations for. He got through to me at 21. And I could not be more grateful that He would choose to use me in this way. I'll hopefully come back someday in the future with pictures of the work God is doing with my family, whenever that happens. 143 million is 1 too many, and I'll stand in the gap for them.

Tim Anderson
Peoria, IL

Catalyst

At Catalyst this year we were issued a challenge to turn $10 into $100. Well, I here is the story of what has evolved from that challenge, and how we are (Lord willing) going to be able minister to others through it.

After leaving Catalyst, I began to pray of what to do with the $10 and one morning He answered my prayers with an idea. Why not record a Christmas CD and ask friends and families to donate money for a ministry cause? Well, that has happened over the past month, but instead of a friend who can play the guitar and I, it has turned into a multifaceted project with most of the our worship team contributing their talents. We now have a CD with five songs and within 3 days of actually finishing the project, we have already made well over $100. However, we are not stopping there. Though the original idea was to do micro-financing, God has really placed it on our hearts to do what the Church in Acts 2 did when one of their brothers or sisters in Christ was in need. We have had two families in our church fall on really difficult times lately and our goal is to help alleviate their debt. It has been amazing to see how God has worked through this process. One of the families needs a car and, though it is not finalized, by getting the word out (unbeknownst to the family) we may have a car to give them. We've had extremely nice equipment loaned to us, friends have given their time to design the cover or create a website, a call was "misdirected" to a radio station and because of the interaction with one of the team members, we have a radio interview regarding the CD--it's been a wild ride. It only took one little push to see what God can do with $10 and willing hearts, and He shows Himself in a Mighty way. Catalyst family, you have no idea the blessings that have come through the one idea. Thank you!

If you are interested in supporting this project, here is the website of how to order a CD or to get more of the story behind it click the link above the box--- www.discoverync.com/cd.>

Blessings,
Rhea Brown

And the Journey Begins!

My wife and I have been married for nine years, and we have three amazing kids: Caleb(7), Kealee(5), and Cohen(20mths). After having our third child, Amy and I felt like he would probably be our last, though neither one of us were ready to make that a permanent decision! We attended a “Weekend to Remember” marriage retreat on October 3^rd , just over a month ago. During one of our breaks, Amy and I were sitting together talking about what God had been speaking to us, and with joyful tears in her eyes, she told me that she did not feel we were done having kids yet. She said she wasn’t sure what that meant, just that she felt God had something else in store for us in regards to children. Well, a week later I attended Catalyst. There was a lot that spoke to me during the session on sponsoring and adopting orphans. However, when Mac Powell from third day said, “Adoption is not for everyone, but something every Christian should at least consider,” I knew “what was next” for us.  I called my wife on the phone that night and shared what God had put on my heart. And, as has always been the case when God is getting ready to do something big in our family, He had already spoken to her too. With a clear word from God, we have begun the adoption process and are trying to adopt a 3-5 year old little girl from Taiwan! We have picked an agency and are now trying to raise the $4,000.00 we need to begin our application and complete our home-study. We would appreciate your prayers, both for us and our new daughter! She is already having a special impact on our family and we don’t even know who she is yet! We have created a blog, thebrinkleysjourney.blogspot.com, and invite you to follow our story! Thanks Catalyst family for leading the way, I can’t wait for what is next!

With great anticipation,

Jason Brinkley and family

A New Adoption Story and song

The Blessings of Adoption

A Heart for Haiti

My name is Joshua Mularski and I'm the Student Ministries Director at St. John's UMC. My wife and I are in the process of adopting two girls from the nation of Haiti. In 2001 we took our previous youth group on a missions trip to a girls home (orphanage) in Haiti. During our time there my wife and both connected with two different girls. Once we went home my wife mentioned kind of jokingly that it would be neat to be able to adopt them. I sorta laughed because I didn't really think that was a possiblity and at that point we hadn't even been married for 2 months. So adoption wasn't at the forefront of mind to say the least.

Fast forward two years, and we took our group back to the girls home and instantly reconnected with same two girls as if no time had past. It was during this trip that we really started talking seriously about the idea of adoption. At that point though, we didn't know how we could even go about it. The home in Haiti wasn't set up to adopt children, and everything we heard from people was that Haiti was an extremely difficult place to adopt from. In spite of this we still felt like adopting these two girls was something that we needed and wanted to do. So in 2004 we started doing research and leg work into how this could happen. We couldn't find any adoption agencies at that point that would work with us because we had two specific girls in mind and the place were they lived was not connected with any agency. So we contacted an immigration lawyer who reviewed our case and felt confident that he could complete it. He did a great job, but ended up coming to the point where he needed a Haitian lawyer to complete several of the steps in Haiti. This turned out to be a major road block. Our Immigration lawyer did some research and pointed us to several sources to contact in Haiti, we also worked with people we knew in Haiti who recommended lawyers to us, but each contact fell through. Whether it was a lawyer who disappeared and wouldn't return phone calls for several months or someone who just didn't seem to know what they were doing, it was very clear that all of the people we talked to were not able to help us.

This sent us into a very dormant period were it felt like nothing was ever going to happen. We tried everything we knew how to and every door seemed to be closed. During this time we moved to a different church but my wife continued to travel to Haiti doing missions work at the girls home as well in other parts of the country. Then one day on one of her flights to Haiti she met a Pastor from Colorado (we live in NJ) and his wife who were adopting from Haiti. They talked about their adoption agency and it sounded like they might be a good contact for us to connect with.

Upon her return we contacted the agency so that they could review our case. They agreed to take on our case and work with us in our unique situation. This was the first agency who agreed to do this. Since that time things have moved forward pretty well until this past year. Last September our case made it to part of Haiti's social service system called the IBESR. This is a crucial step in the process and it was expected that it could be there for about 6 months or so. It has now been 10 months and we're still anxiously waiting for our approval so that the rest of the process can be finished. We've contacted our Congressmen and Senators to write letters on our behalf and some have helped us out.

So that's where we're at right now. My wife and I have led three missions trips to Haiti within the last year and have been able to visit the girls in the process. It's great to see them but heart wrenching for both them and us to say goodbye, especially since this process has been going on for so long. We never set out to adopt but once we connected with these two girls our lives have never been the same.

If you could please say a prayer that this process would be completed soon so that we can have a new chapter in this story.

Joshua Mularski

Kids Need Love

I'm the reach pastor at Big Valley Grace Community Church in Modesto,
CA. After a year of training and waiting, we picked up our foster (hope
to adopt) baby daughter 3 weeks ago yesterday. My wife has been a social
worker and has worked with foster kids for years.

She's been on me for a long time to wake up to God's call to take care
of the orphans. This past May, we brought this awareness to our church.
Very cool to hear your story and the emphasis Catalyst is going to be
making this year. If I could be a help to other church leaders and
churches wanting to make difference in this way, please give me the
opportunity!

Jeff