Missing Pieces

My friend Joy and her husband are at it again!  Here is an excerpt from a post I wrote about her a year and a half ago (and then I'll explain why I'm writing about her this time):

One of the very neat "side effects" of us adopting has been the friendships that we've formed with people literally all over the country. 

Some we've traveled with in China.  Some we've met through FCC (Families with Children from China) get-togethers.  Some we've met in Orphanage e-mail groups.  Many we've met in person.  Many we'll never meet this side of heaven.  ALL of them...we wouldn't know if it weren't for the common bond of "adoption."

Joy is one of these friends.

Joy is my friends' pastor's daughter's friend.  Got that?  We were connected about a year and a half ago when she and her husband were beginning their current adoption process.  At the time they were trying to discern God's will for their family:  international adoption?  domestic adoption?  Our first contact was a multi-hour phone call late one night.  Since then we've stayed updated and in touch through our blogs and through e-mail.  We've prayed each other through some difficult times...and rejoiced through each other's good times. 

Joy and her husband are the real deal.  Hearing the testimony of how God has been working in their family - from their infant son's death from SIDS, to their long and hard adoption of their youngest daughter, to this current adoption process...I have personally been greatly inspired and encouraged through my front-row seat of their process. 

And this family took a leap of faith to begin this current adoption.  As most of us in the adoption community know, when God calls you to do something, He will provide the means to get it done.  I've seen it time and time again - in mine and Jason's own adoptions and in many of our friends' adoptions.  Joy and her husband were in the vast majority of adopting couples: stepping out and starting the adoption process, not fully knowing exactly how the Lord was going to make this happen...but having full confidence that He would!

Over 1/3 of people have considered adopting and only about 2% have actually done it...with finances being a major obstacle in most people's minds.

We helped Joy's family bring home their son Aaron (then 12-years old) from the Philippines last year.  

NOW.....they are bringing home three brothers from the Philippines.  The boys are 17, 11 and 9-years old.  

The Lord has moved heaven and earth - and prompted the Philippines to bend some of their own adoption rules - in order to find these precious boys a home together.  And Joy's family gets to be their Forever Family.  

Adoption is expensive.  International adoption is expensive.  Adopting two years in a row - expensive.  Bringing home three boys from across the world at once - expensive.  But the Lord has provided everything their family needs, at exactly the right time, at each step of this process so far.  Of course He has.  

Joy's family is doing a puzzle fundraiser right now...and we get the chance to help bring those boys home, where they belong.

Click HERE to help fill in the missing pieces...and bring this family together.



God sets the lonely in families (Ps 68:6)

Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. (Matt 25:40)