Orphans No More!

Kate in March 2008, 12 months
Kate in March 2009, 24 months

AnnaClaire in March 2006, 5 months

AnnaClaire in March 2009, 3 (40 months)

Just had to share these pictures~ It's so easy to forget when our sweet girlies weren't with us. It's even harder to ever imagine them being orphans, living in an orphanage. Don't you just love how much they have changed in the time they have been with us? They have gone from orphans to princesses and I love that. I really wish there was a way to give every orphan a fairy tale ending... Make every little girl a princess, every little boy a sports star. There are 187 million orphans in the world and I doubt that number is going to shrink any time soon. I realize that not everyone is called to adopt. Although, I can tell you that in no way did we think that we would ever adopt. When we started the process for AnnaClaire, Drew was a sr. in high school! That's when parents are focusing on just getting everyone out of the house, not starting over! Yet the seed was planted and I now I cannot imagine life without our two princesses. Look what we could've missed! Our two amazing, beautiful, joyful girls who bring so much to our family... so much laughter, so much joy, so much fun! But anyway, I do know not everyone is called to adopt. However, there are a few things that anyone can do! PRAY for the orphans. Pray for families to step up to adopt babies, children, teenagers even. No child should have to go through life with no one to turn to. If you get the opportunity, VISIT the orphans. I promise you will be changed in an unexplainable way. SPONSOR the orphans. AnnaClaire and Kate's orphanages both had amazing sponsorship programs. AnnaClaire's orphanage (Chenzhou) has a Half the Sky program and there are many, many kids in that program that NEED sponsors. Kate's original orphanage (Shangrao) has an amazing program called Love Without Boundaries and they, likewise, have many kids that need sponsors. Lastly, and most dearly to my heart is Philip Hayden Foundation, the place where Kate lived for 15 months. PHF houses around 100 special needs orphans and they all need 8 sponsors for surgery/medical treatments and day-to-day care. Care for the orphans, visit the orphans, pray for the orphans. That's what we are called to do! Just think... those two beautiful princesses pictured above were once two of the 187 million orphans in the world. They lived in orphanages in China, were cared for my nannies, and were sponsored and prayed for. Look where they are now. Two sweet princesses who have come HOME through the miracle of adoption, a lot of prayers, love, faith, and a mountain-moving God who loved them and saw 2 beautiful orphans who needed families and one family who needed two sweet little girls in their lives. So I beg of you, if you can't adopt, PRAY. SPONSOR. VISIT. LOVE these orphans. SPEAK UP for those who can't speak for themselves! They all deserve it!
And after all, it is what God calls us to do!

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Proverbs 31:8