Debbie and Dana Blakeslee knew that the adoption journey could be a long process. With five children already at home, the couple felt led to adopt older children. When they accepted a referral for a boy and girl from Taipei, Taiwan after more than a year into their journey, the real wait began. The Blakeslee’s learned, however, that “God was in the waiting.”
Debbie shares,
“What can we say about this wait? How can we describe the anxious thoughts, the paperwork, the people God put in our path, the friendships forged with unlikely people that God was using to bring our children home? The day the letter came from Show Hope announcing our grant, my delight knew no bounds. It was NOT just a monetary grant to me.”
By an amazing “coincidence,” the Blakeslee’s oldest daughter, vacationing in Taiwan, was able to meet her new brother and sister just days after her parents accepted the referral back in the United States.
Months later, the Blakeslee’s held their first live webchat with their children, which they continued regularly for four months until they traveled to bring home their son, Kai. Because Sarah-Grace’s case was taking longer, the family knew they would continue with their chats and return for her on a different trip. They didn’t realize their return to Taiwan would be more than a year later, but their anxiousness turned to joy when at last their family was complete!
“To Show Hope sponsors I say ‘Thank you.’ It is so much more than money you are giving. It is hope and strength to go on for many long years and it is the belief that God is on our side in the wait.”
This week we welcomed three new admissions to Maria’s Big House of Hope! Please pray for Brooke, Kelsie Rae and Holly as they enter into the loving care of our nannies and nurses. Pray for their health, comfort and joy as these sweet girls join the MBHOH family.
In case you missed the “MBHOH-January Recap” video that we tweeted about last week, we’re including it in this blog post for you to enjoy. We hope the videos from China will bring you closer to the beautiful children that your sponsorship helps every day.
Show Hope would like to invite you to attend The Connected Child Conference 2010 in Advance, North Carolina (near Winston-Salem). This conference, held March 12-13, 2010, offers two separate tracks geared towards professionals and families. Dr. Karen Purvis, co-author of The Connected Child will share her research, tips and proactive strategies for easing post-adoption family life. Show Hope is a conference sponsor and will be represented by two of our board members. Registration information for The Connected Child Conference may be found here.
If you follow us on Twitter, you may have already heard the exciting news. We are re-launching our web store with a whole new line of Show Hope apparel! Over the next few weeks leading up to the store launch, we will be giving you a sneak peak of the new merchandise that you can “purchase for a purpose.” Watch this behind-the-scenes video of our photo shoot and check back soon for updates!
Since he was just six months old, Juddah has been under our care. Although he was diagnosed with Arthrogryposis, a condition that limits the use of his joints, we feel thankful that Juddah is healthy overall due to proper nutrition, medical attention and the doting love of his nannies.
At just over three years old, Juddah is very smart, alert and responsive. This talkative little guy lives and plays in the same room as Rihanna, Jessica, Jim, and Julian.
While Juddah’s joint problems render him unable to walk, he learned to move around the room freely with the other children. According to the nurses he will most likely never walk, but through concentrated physical therapy we pray he’ll gain use of his hands. We recently outfitted him with a wheelchair to improve his mobility as he grows. Many of the children at MBHOH are living with similar conditions that restrict their mobility, and it is because of Show Hope sponsors that they are given the resources to truly thrive.
For several years, Tom and Kris considered adoption but felt they were not in the financial position to do so. Kris’ sister, who was both adopted and adopting a child herself, told Tom and Kris that God would provide the finances if it was His will.
Soon, the couple’s interest was piqued when they heard about an adoption program from Hungary, as Tom’s parents were born in Hungary. After a lot of prayer, they began the paperwork to make their dream of adoption a reality, but knew the expenses were the greatest hurdle they would face. The adoption aid grant provided by Show Hope sponsors was just what they needed to bring Monika Grace (8), Kira Alexandra (6) , and Drew Laszlo (4) home. Their three older biological children have helped the children quickly become integrated into the family. Tom writes:
“We are so we glad we took the step of faith to [adopt] and that Show Hope sponsors helped make it possible. Just last week the two older girls asked Jesus into their heart! Praise the Lord! We don’t know how we could have lived without them. Thank you so much Show Hope for doing what you do!”
The television images from Haiti are overwhelming and catastrophic and the world is seeing, some for the first time, the heartbreaking circumstances of orphans in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake. Yet, stories of hope, faith and love bring light to the dark, tragic backdrop, and it is clear that God is in the midst of the hurting and destitute. It is a blessing to hear from so many Christians across the country who desire to help out in some way. Each day we continue to be humbled by the outpouring and love of the many families who have written and called Show Hope inquiring how they may adopt children from Haiti.
The United States government, in conjunction with the Haitian government, has expedited the cases of approximately 500 adoptions that had been in process prior to the January 12th earthquake. The U.S. government granted Humanitarian Parole for these adoptions and the specific procedures for such cases must meet the eligibility requirements listed on the CIS & State Department websites: www.adoption.state.gov or www.uscis.gov .
Show Hope was invited to be on a conference call yesterday, organized by the Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives on behalf of the White House for adoption and orphan care stakeholders. One of the things they pointed out to the listeners that I wanted to convey to our audience was that just because children live in what most of us call an orphanage, that doesn’t mean that every child is an orphan by definition. Many countries, especially third world countries utilize institutional care for families who are poor and can’t meet the basic needs of their children. Considering the scope of this disaster, it is our understanding that no new adoptions will be processed in the immediate future until efforts at family reunification are made.
Although new inter country adoptions are currently closed in Haiti, God may have used the plight of the orphan there to stir your heart toward adoption; perhaps you have been praying about adopting for some time and this has prompted your heart again in this area. Due to the many inquiries about adopting we have received as of late, we wanted to be able to provide families with resources and information to assist in this journey.
We encourage any family who may be considering adoption to continue to seek the Lord in fervent prayer along with diligent research, education and counsel. Show Hope provides a website that gives a general overview of the adoption process: be it from foster care, domestically or internationally. http://www.howtoadopt.org/. Also, for a list of Christian Adoption agencies with more specific information about domestic and international processing, visit the Christian Alliance for Orphans website.
Thank you for your on-going support and prayers for the people and children of Haiti.
As news of the devastation in Haiti continues to flood in, we have received many calls, emails and blog comments wondering how you can help. While we encourage you to keep praying and offering aid to reputable emergency relief organizations, we wanted to share with you how Show Hope sponsors have already helped to make an incredible difference in the lives of waiting Haitian orphans following the earthquake. We are ecstatic to announce that we have heard from five grant recipient families whose children have traveled home safely this week, thanks in part to the ongoing financial help provided by Show Hope sponsors! We are expecting a number of other grant families to welcome home their children in the next few days.
Please pray for the Franklin’s, the Jakab’s, the Garcia’s, the Schleicher’s, and the Wilson’s as their children make the transition to their families in the United States. Pray also that adoptions are expedited and travel is safe for the Sommer and Daugherty families, and other families we expect to hear from soon.
If you have been watching news coverage, you may have seen the Wilson family on NBC Nightly News earlier this week. Watch the video highlighting the story of this Show Hope adoption grant recipient family:
Another family, the Garcia’s, welcomed home Alex and Ian this week. Below is a touching home video from their first few days together:
We are so thankful to be a part of miracle stories like these! Please remember that these families were already well-advanced in their adoption journeys. At the time of this post, there is no infrastructure to allow new adoptions to begin in Haiti, but we will keep you informed as we hear more. Thank you for joining this movement to care for orphans in Haiti and around the world.
Every day we are fielding calls and inquiries from partners and friends that we know, discussing the Haiti crisis, in particular about orphaned children. As we continue to discern our role as a ministry in response to this disaster, in addition to our continued prayers for the people, relief workers and orphans of the country Show Hope is allocating some discretionary funds to a couple of small organizations the Chapman family is connected to personally. One of the major challenges of a disaster of epic proportion like this one is coordinating emergency relief efforts, especially when there is infrastructure damage to the government. We are grateful for organizations like the American Red Cross (among many others) that exist and are trained for times such as this. The organizations that we have decided to support in the immediate short term thus far are quite smaller and have people on the ground that we know. You can find links to them below.
Also, our good friend Wess Stafford, President of Compassion International has a long personal 33 year history in Haiti as it was the place where he and his bride, Donna exchanged their wedding vows. Roughly 10% of their 65,000 sponsored children in Haiti resided in Port Au Prince near the earthquake’s Epicenter. We lift up their team and their children in prayer as well.
One of the sweetest gifts in this work is the ability to see children, once sitting on the edge of hopelessness, coming into a new understanding of themselves and their worth. Jim is just such a child. When he first came under care, he was an extremely shy little boy with congenital heart disease. Under the tender care you provided to Jim through your Show Hope sponsorship, he was able to undergo two separate surgeries in 2008 to repair his heart, both of which were successful.
Now, he is not only able to now enjoy a physically healthy heart, he is also able to move toward an emotionally healthy heart as he embraces the love and care given to him by the nurses and nannies at MBHOH. Although Jim is still a bit shy, this melts away when a cookie is in the offer! Because Jim is a bit older than the other children at MBHOH, he has been made into an “unofficial assistant” to the staff…and is paid in cookies! Learning to ride his big-wheeler is also making Jim much more adventurous. We look forward to the day when he learns to ride a bike, and pray that it will be under the watchful eye of a forever family. Thank you for giving Jim new opportunities for development at Maria’s Big House of Hope. Please pray for his heart to be both healthy and full of love.
Debbie and Dana Blakeslee knew that the adoption journey could be a long process. With five children already at home, the couple felt led to adopt older children. When they accepted a referral for a boy and girl from Taipei, Taiwan after more than a year into their journey, the real wait began. The Blakeslee’s learned, however, that “God was in the waiting.”
Every day we are fielding calls and inquiries from partners and friends that we know, discussing the Haiti crisis, in particular about orphaned children. As we continue to discern our role as a ministry in response to this disaster, in addition to our continued prayers for the people, relief workers and orphans of the country Show Hope is allocating some discretionary funds to a couple of small organizations the Chapman family is connected to personally. One of the major challenges of a disaster of epic proportion like this one is coordinating emergency relief efforts, especially when there is infrastructure damage to the government. We are grateful for organizations like the American Red Cross (among many others) that exist and are trained for times such as this. The organizations that we have decided to support in the immediate short term thus far are quite smaller and have people on the ground that we know. You can find links to them below.
