Things have settled over the past week or so. We have made peace with our decision to decline our first referral and are again waiting. Now that we have gotten a bit of perspective over the events of the past few weeks, we are are left with a renewed sense of the need to pray for orphaned children. I (Brent) find it difficult to know how to pray for such a huge, worldwide need. It was while pondering this a few weeks ago I came up with an idea. In Russia, orphaned children have to be posted on a public registry for at least six months, so that a Russian family will have the opportunity to provide homes for these children. Some time ago, a fellow adoptive parent showed us how to access the site and helped us to navigate to the registry for our region (since the site is all in Russian, of course, this is a bit tricky!). On the registry, a first name, photo, and some very basic information about the child is provided. My idea is to print these photos and translate the information so that I can pray for each child individually. I quickly realized that this is a bit of an undertaking, as there are hundreds of kids on the registry for our region. So, here is what I propose. Help pray for these children by taking one child and praying for them. If you can commit to praying for one of these children, please send me an email and I will send you back a photo and translation (thank you Google Translate!). I have compiled about 40 so far and will continue to do so as long as I keep getting emails. The really exciting thing for me is to know that one of my friends or family members will be praying specifically for my child. Ann-Marie and I are continuing to pray for our first referral and hope to see him removed from the registry soon so we can know that he has been placed with a family. As you pray, I will happily update you on the child you are praying for as well. The bottom line is that I want to see these kids placed in a loving home as soon as possible. My email address is brent @ hb-re.com Thanks for your prayers both for our family and for these kids.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Will you help us pray?
Things have settled over the past week or so. We have made peace with our decision to decline our first referral and are again waiting. Now that we have gotten a bit of perspective over the events of the past few weeks, we are are left with a renewed sense of the need to pray for orphaned children. I (Brent) find it difficult to know how to pray for such a huge, worldwide need. It was while pondering this a few weeks ago I came up with an idea. In Russia, orphaned children have to be posted on a public registry for at least six months, so that a Russian family will have the opportunity to provide homes for these children. Some time ago, a fellow adoptive parent showed us how to access the site and helped us to navigate to the registry for our region (since the site is all in Russian, of course, this is a bit tricky!). On the registry, a first name, photo, and some very basic information about the child is provided. My idea is to print these photos and translate the information so that I can pray for each child individually. I quickly realized that this is a bit of an undertaking, as there are hundreds of kids on the registry for our region. So, here is what I propose. Help pray for these children by taking one child and praying for them. If you can commit to praying for one of these children, please send me an email and I will send you back a photo and translation (thank you Google Translate!). I have compiled about 40 so far and will continue to do so as long as I keep getting emails. The really exciting thing for me is to know that one of my friends or family members will be praying specifically for my child. Ann-Marie and I are continuing to pray for our first referral and hope to see him removed from the registry soon so we can know that he has been placed with a family. As you pray, I will happily update you on the child you are praying for as well. The bottom line is that I want to see these kids placed in a loving home as soon as possible. My email address is brent @ hb-re.com Thanks for your prayers both for our family and for these kids.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Hurt, Disappointment, Confusion....
It is with heavy hearts that we post this blog entry. After over a year long journey, we received a referral yesterday to adopt a little boy. After gaining more information, however, we were very saddened to learn that this boy has several serious medical conditions that we were not expecting. After a lot of prayer, a lot of talking, and a sleepless night, we do not believe we are equipped to raise him. And so, we are making the very difficult decision to decline this referral. Please pray for us right now. Maddie, Dylan, Brent, and I are all grieving this in our own way. And, please pray for this little boy who desperately needs a home. We know God has good plans for him and the right family for him is out there (Jeremiah 29:11). Pray that the right family is led to adopt him. We are very sad that that family is not us. Pray for the child that we will adopt. We will return to the "system" to wait for another referral. Thanks for all the love and support. And, thanks to the anonymous friend who left a very sweet, unsigned card in my mailbox today. It meant a lot to me.
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