Goodbye Sweet Boy.. I Miss You Already

No words right now, my heart hurts too much. Our God is Greater...

Two, Precious, Latvian Children

This is "A", whom we have been hosting, and "D" whom we housed at our home for 4 days when her host family was sick with the flu. I will share more about "D" in a bit. 

"A" and "D" have become fast friends.  She and "A" put together this Latvian song for us one night. (Sorry it is sideways on the video, but it was so sweet I had to share it anyway.)

Please consider hosting a child from another country, especially a child that needs a forever family. And even more importantly please remember that God's heart IS for the orphan. So if that is God's heart, shouldn't it be ours? We are to love them, care for their needs, take them in and be the father to fatherless. Please consider adopting. There are so, so many orphans and if we all adopted just one.....we would make such a change.

If you just can not adopt, then hosting is so wonderful too. You give these children a hope for something they may have never seen or believed. You could stay connected to them through prayer, letters, maybe even Skype after they leave your home, or even better yet host them again year after year until their forever family finds them. It might just be something that will keep them strong when things are so hard, when life seems too much of a burden. 

I for one am broken hearted already thinking of sending "A" back to his country next weekend. He has quickly won our hearts and been a huge part of our family for the last month. We have all come to love him so much and he us. There will be many tears when we say Goodbye. However, I hold on to God's promises and my faith is strengthened. I know that God has wonderful plans for this precious boy and for "D" who also holds a special place in our hearts. 

One thing that grew my faith is that "D" was one of the 4 children that I looked at (out of probably 40) "A" was the only boy and then there was two sisters but I wasn't sure I wanted two young sisters with our houseful.  But "D" was one of the main prospects that my heart was drawn to hosting. We ended up choosing "A" but the Lord brought her to our home even though we didn't choose her. We were so blessed by her. She is such a sweet, fun young lady who became "sister" with my girls quickly. I am going to miss her too.

A Few Updates

We picked up "A" from the airport last Saturday. Onto the way to the airport we all agreed that we were going to be sad 4 weeks later when we were making the return trip to take him back.
He is one amazing and adorable boy!! I have to say that he is just so precious. Please, please pray that the right family meets him while he is here. He is kind, respectful, obedient, loving, understands-speaks- even reads lots of English, gentle with the littles, smart, fun, eats whatever we have given him (although he really likes green apples and crackers)...I could go on. I know God will have wonderful plans for this boy.

Here is a couple of photos of him.

On Sunday, our Jacob graduated from the Basic Ellerslie Leadership program that Makenna graduated from in June of 2012. We are so excited to see what God has in store for his life. He has definitely grown a lot through the 9 week program spiritually, emotionally and socially. Today he says he plans to be a missionary one day and is going to work hard at school to he can graduate early.

It thrills me to see his love for the Lord. Here is some baptism photos from a couple of weeks ago. He decided to be baptized again (he was 2 years ago). He felt the first time was more because others were doing it and not so led by the Lord. He stood in a freezing cold lake (the day before our subzero temperatures hit), with wind and with bronchitis and proclaimed that he was giving his body to the Lord. AMEN...thank you Jesus.

 

Here are a few photos of Jacob and his friends, mentors and pastors from the Leadership Program and from church.

We are so thankful for our church and the Godly men that are there to encourage our boys in doing the hard things for the Lord.