Islamic Demographics

Thanks to Lisa over at A Second Generation of Homeschooling for the following video:

Adoption: We Want More and 40 Days For Life

Peter and I want more children. We know God has impressed this desire upon our hearts and we readily accept this calling. We are quiverfull. It is funny to say that we are quiverfull when the essence of this means to be open to God controlling the womb, either by giving you 1 or by giving you 18. Nevertheless, we are quiverfull and know that God has a rich plan to grow our family for His purposes and His glory. We do not know where are next child is or where he will come from, but we know he is out there and we are preparing our hearts for him (or her).

I had an anonymous poster on my AFA Journal post who asked for prayer for her daughter who is pregnant and needs clarity on a plan for her unborn baby. Please pray for this girl as well as her family as they help her to make a prayerful decision. Anonymous: I will pray with you. God has a plan for this baby. I will pray that your daughter has ears to hear what God is telling her and that she sees you as a source of wisdom.

Abortion is a big topic in our country around election time. But it's a huge topic to God all the time. Abortion and Adoption go hand in hand. Since Roe v. Wade the number of infants in the foster care system has been drastically reduced due to the increase of abortions. The movie Expelled talks about the link between Planned Parenthood and racism. I probably don't have to tell you that adoption, abortion and racism are all topics that are at the front of my mind. That being said, have you heard about 40 Days For Life? This is a powerful tool that God is using across the country to bring Pro-Lifers from differing denominations together in order to pray and peacefully picket abortion clinics. Please check out the link and pray. Maybe you can join a peaceful picket near you.

I know there are people reading this who have had abortions. My heart weeps with you at the emotion that is in your soul. I know your heart is hurting. There are many places that offer caring help. This is one. I am praying for you too...

Welcome Isaiah!

Were you waiting to hear the big news?

We are now a family of 7!

We are blessed by our sweet Isaiah.

He is 16 months and fits in perfectly with all of us.

He is a joy.

WE REJOICE!

We received news today that we will are scheduled to finalized Abi and Johns adoptions on the 22nd. That is only a few days from now and we are required to fly in order to get to the state where their adoptions will take place. We rejoice! I have spent the afternoon getting things organized to have a celebration in our home on Sunday from noon to four. If you are reading this and are family or friend who did not get the email invite, please know you are invited!

Abi is overjoyed and John, being only 4 is just confused about what we are doing on Thursday. I told him we are going shopping for a new outfit for him and he became excitedly hopeful that we were getting a "costume" like Superman. Well, we are a homeschool family with "dress up and go out in public in costumes" tendencies. Okay, not me, but John definitely!
Please rejoice with us, pray for us and thank the Lord with us that He is repaying what the locusts have stolen. Yea God!

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one's youth.
How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; They will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.
Psalm 127:4-5

Quiverfull Through Adoption

God does not grow every family in the same way.
Nor does everyone have the same convictions about children.
This is our story. This is our conviction.

When we were first married (6/95) we had wonderful Godly examples around us of how large homeschooling families worked. We didn't know why these families were continuing to have children and we never asked, we just knew we liked what we saw. Late in the same year we felt pulled to relinquish control to the Lord and stopped using birth control. At this point we had never heard of the quiverfull mindset, so we actually came about our quiverfull conviction before we even knew what that meant. We knew that the Lord is "the giver of life" (1 Timothy 6:13) and that "Blessed is the man whose quiver is full" (Psalm 127:1-5), but we didn't understand the strength of those promises. Also, at this point our conviction was primarily on how many children the Lord would bless us with, not on medical intervention, etc. People would ask us how many children we wanted to have and we would respond with, "As many as the Lord wants to give us, ten maybe?" On a side note, before we were married we both felt a strong urge to adopt. It is amazing to look back at the convictions and desires that He instilled in us before we had any concept of how those would come to fruition. We waited and waited and waited. To this day I have never conceived through God-given natural conception.

Several years into our shaping journey I was diagnosed with stage four endometriosis and we took steps to resolve it. The doctors gave us a choice: have a hysterectomy or have a baby (at which point we had been trying for several years). Our steps led us to in-vitro (not a quiverfull mindset). Only God can make a baby and He did. He made two. I miscarried in my first trimester. But the Lord heard my cry! He reminded us of our first conviction to adopt. He said to us, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." (Romans 8:14-16)

God continued to shape us as we sought which direction to go to adopt. We took every required adoption class for every possible direction (infant domestic, international, domestic, older child). He brought us to a place of understanding that His intention was to fill our quiver with what our desires had been at each stage of our lives together. We became approved for foster care and adoption. He had blessed us with years of being "us" and then brought to us our precious baby boy. Five months later we had a girl and 2 years after that we had a boy and a girl. Today they are 10, 7, 4 and 3.

God continues to grow our family as we seek His face. We rely on His promise that a quiverfull is a blessing that He desires for us and then we pray that the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) would reign in us as we teach, love, encourage and discipline our children unto godliness (1 Timothy 4:7-8). People ask us how many we are going to adopt and we still say, "As many as the Lord wants to give us, ten maybe?" Our family verse is James 1:27, "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." Whether by adoption or by birth, our children are the blessings that God intended for us and we will not stand in His way as He continues to pour them out on us. We don't want to limit God and what He intends for us. We trust Him knowing that His plans are for good (Jeremiah 29:11).



*Please click here to watch the Dave Thomas Foundation video on the fost-adopt system.

*There were 114,000 adoptable children in the foster care system as of November 2007.