Our family has been an ever changing adventure for 31 years now. We began our marrage in 1978 and had in mind to have two children. God however had other plans. For the last several years, He has not chosen to bless our lives with additional babies (other than grandchildren!), but he has clearly called us to adoption. As we began our first adoption, He showed us that we were following the course He set for us. We received answers to many prayers along the way as He provisioned for our adoption of Luke, Tatiana and Jason- monetarily, emotionally and spiritually. Those of you who have followed our blog have read about many of these answered prayers.
As soon as returned to the United States with these three children we sensed that God still had plans for us as parents. We struggled to discern where he would have us to go for our next adoption. We prayerfully considered a number of opportunities, but in the end we felt the call most strongly to return to Colombia. We waited untill now to announce our plans because our desire was not to cause all of you to ride our emotional roller coaster as we sought God's will in where we should go or how many children we should adopt this time. We have been working on the next adoption in one form or another since around June 2009.
We ask all of you to rejoice with us as we move forward with our second adoption. We submitted our application to Children's Hope International to return to Colombia and it was approved in late November. Having been through this before, we knew a lot of the hoops we needed to jump through and have been building a new dossier since November and have completed our update on our home study. As a result, we have 90 percent of our dossier ready. We will be mailing off our I -800 form tomorrow. By the time the I -800 comes back, our dossier will be complete and our request will be on its way to Bogota! And the waiting begins.......
When we were waiting the arrival of our biological children, everyone wanted to know - Is it a boy? Is it a girl? I think many of you might have the same response as we begin this adoption! So it's a GIRL- oh yea and it's another GIRL! We are asking to adopt a sibling group of two girls eight years old or younger. Two girls- if you are keeping count, that will be 7 girls and 6 boys. Showers of blessing! Some might even say a great flood. In our hearts we are ready to receive the children God has for us, and we pray that He will hasten the time for them to join our family.
We invite you to come along with us as we follow this calling. We invite you to join with us as prayer partners, emotional support and in any way you might like. These two children are not to be ours, but rather they will belong to their heavenly father, and it is ours to steward them on His behalf. By joining with us in any capacity, you also become a steward of these young lives and share in the joy of watching God work through them. We will also be sending out periodic e-mail updates in addition to this blog, leave us a comment with an e-mail address if you want to receive the e-mails. We deeply covet your prayers.
Now for those of you reading this blog who may be considering adoption. First, we say that the destination is worth the difficulties of the journey. Second, we say press on.
Jim and Betty
Why "Eight Is Not Enough"?
When we were younger, there was a television sitcom that was called "Eight is Enough". The television watching world was entertained with the thought of a family with eight children. Most of us were shocked at the prospect of such a large family- myself included! Then ever so slowly, God began to work on our hearts, until we surrendered to Him all of our lives- yes even gave Him sovereign control over the size of our family and He has blessed us immeasurably, with eight biological children. Each of these children have been an amazing gift to us and we cherish each of them. And we praised God for them and felt to ourselves "eight is enough" - at least for a time.
Then God began to stir our hearts. It was as if He spoke to say to us "these 8 precious children I have given to you, but what have you given to my orphans in return?" A burden began to build on our hearts to adopt. We knew that for us God still had other plans for us as parents if we would be faithful to His calling- that eight is not enough. And so, we followed this call to adopted and He has continued to blessed us through adoption. First a sibling group of three from Soacha, Colombia. They joined our family in November, 2008. In May 2010, we adopted twin infants from Texas. In September of 2012 we were privileged to return to Colombia and adopt a sibling group of two from Cali. At this time, we anxiously wait for our travel date to depart for China where a very special girl and boy wait for their forever family. By the time they all reach adulthood, we will have had the amazing privilege to be parents of children in our home for a half century. Our life is full beyond measure, beyond our wildest expectations, yes even beyond anything we could have ever hoped. Truly, eight is not enough. As of late we have wondered if God's plan for us as parents all along was not for eight children, but rather eight plus eight. Our heavenly Father knows and His word assures us "I know the plans I have made for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you." We trust He knows the number of His children He wants us to love and to nurture on His behalf, and whether that is eight or eighty times eight we stand ready and say speak Lord, your servants are listening and are prepared to be father and mother to your fatherless on earth.
Then God began to stir our hearts. It was as if He spoke to say to us "these 8 precious children I have given to you, but what have you given to my orphans in return?" A burden began to build on our hearts to adopt. We knew that for us God still had other plans for us as parents if we would be faithful to His calling- that eight is not enough. And so, we followed this call to adopted and He has continued to blessed us through adoption. First a sibling group of three from Soacha, Colombia. They joined our family in November, 2008. In May 2010, we adopted twin infants from Texas. In September of 2012 we were privileged to return to Colombia and adopt a sibling group of two from Cali. At this time, we anxiously wait for our travel date to depart for China where a very special girl and boy wait for their forever family. By the time they all reach adulthood, we will have had the amazing privilege to be parents of children in our home for a half century. Our life is full beyond measure, beyond our wildest expectations, yes even beyond anything we could have ever hoped. Truly, eight is not enough. As of late we have wondered if God's plan for us as parents all along was not for eight children, but rather eight plus eight. Our heavenly Father knows and His word assures us "I know the plans I have made for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you." We trust He knows the number of His children He wants us to love and to nurture on His behalf, and whether that is eight or eighty times eight we stand ready and say speak Lord, your servants are listening and are prepared to be father and mother to your fatherless on earth.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
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5 comments:
HOW AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I shall be praying for you guys and the kids that God has chosen for you!
hermanasencristo@gmail.com
Please keep me posted! I am simply thrilled and awed to watch God at work in the Porter family and around the world! Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your journey!
Blessings,
Tracy Emery
tlemery@gmail.com
God is good... He is faithful! Yeah! Glad to get to experience this journey along with you, this time as a fellow PAP! Waiting for our appointment to get fingerprinted for approval for the 1-800... taking FOREVER...it seems!!!
Wow! Congrats on the announcement! Best wishes on all that is ahead.
Traci
Your blog has been such a blessing to read. I came across your blog in search of families experiences w/ sibling adoption from Colombia. My husband and I are feeling God's nudge in this direction of sibling adoption. I would love to receive your email updates if you don't mind. We will keep your family in our prayers as you continue in this journey.
srsteffen@gmail.com
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