Dear Family and Friends,
“A father of the fatherless…God setteth the solitary in families…” - Psalms 68:5,6
As you know we have felt called and directed by God to once again adopt a “fatherless” child into our family. We are adopting a little boy from China, and will be traveling to China this September/October to bring him home (he’ll be almost 4 1/2 years old)! As a family, we’ve been excitedly praying for him! Our son’s name is Andrew Lawrence XiaoShuai!
Did you know it is estimated less than 10% of all orphan children are adopted into evangelical Christian families? According to current estimates, if only 10% more Christians in America would adopt, it would be equivalent to providing homes for all the orphans in Eastern Europe (1.5 million), Latin America (400,000), and the US foster care system (150,000).
Some of you are probably wondering what has prompted us to adopt. Well, primarily, we’ve felt so clearly directed by God to adopt that we want to obey Him, and we also desire to give an orphan child a family that he probably won’t otherwise have. God desires for orphans of all nations to be loved, cared for and adopted into Christian families – ultimately so they can become saved, and be adopted into His eternal family through Jesus Christ! There are so many things God has used to prick our hearts and move us to adopt, here are a few:
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction… James 1:27
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will – Ephesians 1:5
While we were praying about whether or not to adopt again, we would pray that if it wasn’t His will, that He would take the desire away from us. God just kept telling us over and over again that if we would trust Him that He would provide for us. God told us to take that leap of faith and put our trust totally in Him.
The biggest challenge for us is not opening our hearts and home to another child, but it is in finding the finances to make this happen. We estimate our total cost for adoption fees, document preparation, home study, airfare, travel, attorney fees, etc. to be $36,000 - that’s certainly money we don’t have, but we know God is faithful and is leading us to trust Him. By God’s grace we’ve been able to pay the initial $10,000, and we have raised $8,100 through various fundraisers, garage sale, and donations.
Honestly, it’s a little difficult (because of our pride), to make our needs known to the Body of Christ around us, but we also know it’s very Biblical to do so. We appreciate your friendship very much and would like you to pray & consider helping us in our adoption. There are two ways you can help:
1. Prayer – Please pray God would tenderly care for Andrew in China until we are able to bring him home, that God would prepare Laura, Christine and Ava for the upcoming changes to our family, and that God will give us wisdom, discernment, and insight as we raise Andrew to know Jesus Christ.
2. Financial support - Will you please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help us pay the remaining $17,900 in adoption expenses, to bring Andrew home?
Promise686 (www.promise686.org) has graciously given a Matching Grant of $3,000 to help bring Andrew home. If you would like to be a part of God bringing Andrew to Himself through our family, you can send your tax-deductible gift between now and August 18th to the address below. Your donations will be matched by promise686 on a $1-for-$1 basis up to $3000. Promise686 will pay adoption expenses out of funds received. Promise686 is a non-profit adoption and foster care ministry dedicated to expanding God’s Kingdom by helping to bring the fatherless into Christian homes.
- Please make checks payable to: Promise686, Inc. You may preference how the donation might be used by writing “Andrew Hyatt Adoption” in the memo section of your check.
(*Note: per IRS guidelines, promise686 maintains complete discretion and control over the use of all donated funds, but intends to honor the donor’s suggested use.)
- Mail checks to:
Promise686
4729 Peachtree Industrial Blvd.
Suite 100
Berkeley Lake, GA 30092
Suite 100
Berkeley Lake, GA 30092
Thank you for investing in the Kingdom through prayer and finances – it will be an investment with an eternal return! (Matt 6:20) We’ll give you an update with a picture of Andrew and details as we receive them. Please pray this entire process will glorify God and fulfill His purposes!
In Christ,
Craig, Michelle, Laura, Christine, and Ava
No comments:
Post a Comment