We love telling stories of these amazing families who step out of their comfort zone and head straight for the will of God to love and help children heal through adoption. Today we present to you some people who are very near and dear to our heart who have done just that over and over again throughout their lives. And they are doing it once again with a sibling group of 9! Here is the story, straight from Loryn!
"Several months ago, we were sent a picture of a sibling group of 8 with the a message attached....'Will you consider this?' We were done adopting, because most of our children were grown and out of the house. We were looking forward to a new phase of life....but after 4 or 5 similar messages about this group of siblings, we knew we HAD TO pray about this situation! As we prayed, we felt very led that God was asking us to be open to this. As Thad and I prayed and talked and talked and prayed, we knew 8 was just too challenging to be able to ensure everyone's needs were met. As we sat in our living room and discussed this with our adult children, our son Jacob and our daughter-in-law Peggy spoke up and said 'We will take some of them!' As they said this a peace settled over all of us. We each knew we could do 4 children well, while allowing them to grow up in the same family together. It was time to move forward!
Then there were 9! Baby number 9 was born as we moved forward with the adoption process. It was determined that Jacob and Peggy would take the youngest 4 children and Thad and I would take the 5 older children.
We began moving slowly and cautiously to ensure we were directly in the center of God's will, we were not wanting to hurry this process without that! But then all the sudden things snowballed! An emergency in the foster home the younger 4 were placed in necessitated that they needed to be moved immediately!
Jacob and Peggy accepted the placement and overnight went from a family of just 2 to a family of 6!!! When that happened we knew God was asking us to be the parents of the other 5 children.
Our children have a target move in date of December 22nd, just in time for Christmas! This also allows them to finish this semester in school before they move. We have started visits with them already and are preparing as much as we can before then.
We've heard so many people say 'You're crazy! What are you thinking? You were down to one child!' and 'Don't you know you can't save the world!' Our response is, there is no doubt we are crazy we have parented 15 children full time and fostered over 100 children through our years as foster parents. But we choose to be crazy for the sake of the Gospel rather than living and empty and self-centered life. We feel it boils down to this....If not us, then who?
We received a card tonight from our 10-year old soon to be daughter, in it she wrote 'Thank you for letting us be in your home, you saved us from being separated!' Isn't that what Jesus did for us? So we move forward in hope and confidence that adoption is God's story and His story is playing out in our family's life through the additions of 9 beautiful children!"
We had actually seen this sibling set of 9 in the Heart Gallery and were ecstatic to hear that they would have the opportunity to grow up all together with this amazing family. THEY BOTH HAVE AN IMMEDIATE AND CRITICAL NEED FOR LARGER VEHICLES! SO WE ARE LOOKING TO RAISE $40,000 FOR 2 NEW OR GENTLY USED HONDA ODYSSEY'S OR TOYOTA SIENNA'S SO THESE FAMILIES CAN ACCOMMODATE THEIR NEW AND MUCH BIGGER FAMILIES. YOU CAN DONATE HERE OR PLEASE REACH OUT TO US AT INFO@PROMISELOVEFOUNDATION.COM IF YOU HAVE CONNECTIONS FOR THESE VEHICLES TO BE DONATED.
