I received this email today and asked permission to share it. It blessed me, and I am certain you will be blessed to:
"Our family owes your entire family a huge THANK YOU! :) Just about 2 months ago, we
read of Lydia's efforts to raise the money to bring Amy Joy home. The day we found your blog
changed our lives. We got excited watching the fund grow and we all celebrated with the news
that God had indeed brought you a miracle! God chose to use that miracle to touch my
husband's heart. After 5+ years of being unwilling to discuss adoption (we have 3 beautiful
children at home already), he began looking at the possibilities. After 5+ years of begging and
pleading and crying (I was definitely not honoring God in my behavior), I tried to stay very quiet and I waited. Your family chose Sasha to sponsor for January, so we printed off his picture and
put it on our refrigerator and prayed for him every day. And now, God has given us the
opportunity to be Sasha's family. We are so thankful for Lydia's faith in God and for your
family's faith in her, and we are thankful for the fundraising that you did to add to Sasha's grant."
Sasha's new family members are: Jeff, Tina, Harry, Tucker and Lucy Thomas from the great state of Michigan!
I want you all to know, had our family not had the opportunity to know Hope Hollis and Charlie Hollis, we would be far less than we are today. Those two little ones have made a greater impact on our lives than anything or anyone else. Daily, they strive to overcome weak muscle tone and the inability to communicate with words.....but they continue to strive with all they have been given. They consistently give 100%. Hope and Charlie are constant reminders to the rest of us who, with strong minds and healthy bodies, oftentimes become lazy and ungrateful. And as a bonus: they give away the most pure love ever created....it is their gift. Without them, we would have missed out on so much.
We came into the world of Special Needs Adoptions the "Natural Way" when Hope was diagnosed at 16 weeks in the womb. The Thomas family is entering the world of Special Needs Adoptions by way of the Cross.....recklessly abandoned to their Savior. I am in awe of them.
I stand on this side of the process with two children who have Down Syndrome and another on the way later this year....because of my experience, I know the blessing the Thomas family is in for. They, however, are standing on faith alone. I can hardly wait until they have Sasha home, safe and sound.....then they will have the awesome experience of loving a child who has Down Syndrome. God doesn't ever make mistakes, and Sasha's extra chromosome didn't take Him by surprise. There is wonderful purpose; a divine purpose the Thomas family will soon grow to comprehend on a spiritual level they never knew existed. Our family is absolutely thrilled for them!!! God wins and Enemy loses once again!!! (You have to shout a huge AMEN on that!)
We have 10 more days left in January to donate to Sasha. Now that you know something about his new family, I believe it will be even more exciting to give!!! Simply go to www.reecesrainbow.org , choose donate as a gift and use paypal! In the note section just remember to signify your gift is going to Sasha from orphanage 2.
"Our family owes your entire family a huge THANK YOU! :) Just about 2 months ago, we
read of Lydia's efforts to raise the money to bring Amy Joy home. The day we found your blog
changed our lives. We got excited watching the fund grow and we all celebrated with the news
that God had indeed brought you a miracle! God chose to use that miracle to touch my
husband's heart. After 5+ years of being unwilling to discuss adoption (we have 3 beautiful
children at home already), he began looking at the possibilities. After 5+ years of begging and
pleading and crying (I was definitely not honoring God in my behavior), I tried to stay very quiet and I waited. Your family chose Sasha to sponsor for January, so we printed off his picture and
put it on our refrigerator and prayed for him every day. And now, God has given us the
opportunity to be Sasha's family. We are so thankful for Lydia's faith in God and for your
family's faith in her, and we are thankful for the fundraising that you did to add to Sasha's grant."
Sasha's new family members are: Jeff, Tina, Harry, Tucker and Lucy Thomas from the great state of Michigan!
I want you all to know, had our family not had the opportunity to know Hope Hollis and Charlie Hollis, we would be far less than we are today. Those two little ones have made a greater impact on our lives than anything or anyone else. Daily, they strive to overcome weak muscle tone and the inability to communicate with words.....but they continue to strive with all they have been given. They consistently give 100%. Hope and Charlie are constant reminders to the rest of us who, with strong minds and healthy bodies, oftentimes become lazy and ungrateful. And as a bonus: they give away the most pure love ever created....it is their gift. Without them, we would have missed out on so much.
We came into the world of Special Needs Adoptions the "Natural Way" when Hope was diagnosed at 16 weeks in the womb. The Thomas family is entering the world of Special Needs Adoptions by way of the Cross.....recklessly abandoned to their Savior. I am in awe of them.
I stand on this side of the process with two children who have Down Syndrome and another on the way later this year....because of my experience, I know the blessing the Thomas family is in for. They, however, are standing on faith alone. I can hardly wait until they have Sasha home, safe and sound.....then they will have the awesome experience of loving a child who has Down Syndrome. God doesn't ever make mistakes, and Sasha's extra chromosome didn't take Him by surprise. There is wonderful purpose; a divine purpose the Thomas family will soon grow to comprehend on a spiritual level they never knew existed. Our family is absolutely thrilled for them!!! God wins and Enemy loses once again!!! (You have to shout a huge AMEN on that!)
We have 10 more days left in January to donate to Sasha. Now that you know something about his new family, I believe it will be even more exciting to give!!! Simply go to www.reecesrainbow.org , choose donate as a gift and use paypal! In the note section just remember to signify your gift is going to Sasha from orphanage 2.
"Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve.....as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!" Joshua 24:15 (Thank you Thomas family for choosing Him!)
Thank you so much, Melanie. It feels like all I have done since we committed to adopt Sasha is cry (happy, incredibly moved tears!) - we are so blessed to be a part of THIS miracle. God is so very, very good.
ReplyDeleteWith love and gratitude,
JTHTL
Thank you for sharing this story! I heard on the RR yahoo group that Sasha had a family, but did not know anything more than that. Congratulations to Jeff, Tina & their kids! I'm SO happy for them!!!
ReplyDeleteAlso, Melanie, I wanted to let you know that my family is raising money to officially commit to Vivienne & Laura. We've begun our homestudy already, but are praying and working and asking others to help us raise the money we need to commit to the girls through Reece's Rainbow. I've read your comments in past posts about Vivienne and how your heart has wrestled with whether or not you should adopt her, so I wanted you to know that she is already loved by a family who is following God's leading to bring her (and Laura) home! :D http://snadoption.blogspot.com
I should have written "loved already", not "already loved", as I did NOT mean to imply that she's "ours" and you can't have her! I reread my comment and realized it might be interpreted that way; please know that was not my intention whatsoever. I meant it as a reassurance ~ that she is loved already, even though we haven't yet met her.
ReplyDeleteSorry if it came across badly the first time!
I just want you to know that we too were touched and forced to move to adopt partly because of Lydia's fundraiser. We donated for your little one and watched the fund grow and were thrilled on Thanksgiving Day when we saw how much had been raised. Because of your blog and many other circumstances, we too decided to adopt a child off Reece's Rainbow. His name is Aaron and he is out of the Other Angel group. We have blog now with more of our story. Aaron has already been transferred so we are working like crazy to get the paperwork done. We have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA how we are going to pay for this adventure but we made a decision to jump off the cliff and not look back. God moves in amazing ways.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your beautiful words about special needs kids. It almost made me cry... you are so right when you say "...they give away the most pure love ever created....it is their gift. Without them, we would have missed out on so much."
ReplyDeleteOccasionally, in all the struggle, I forget that my special needs sister is so very special... especially when others don't see it. Thanks for the reminder to me and the proclamation of that truth to others.