Adoption Stories: It All Happened So Fast

... and with just a click, it was gone.

Months of soliciting recipes.  Weeks of gathering stories and photos, categorizing recipes, changing it all when more copy arrived.  Ten days of formatting, re-formatting, tedious proofreading, editing, re-formatting again.  A furious last edit.  And then, this morning, with just a click, it was out of my hands and on the way to the printer.  Flavors of Forever Families: A Collection of Recipes and Redemption Stories will be a reality by the end of the week.

There were about 10 of us who looked over at least part of the final project.  Even so, there will still be some things that we missed, I'm sure. None of us has ever produced a book before.  I hope everyone who invests in this project by purchasing cookbooks finds at least a few new favorite recipes, but the purpose of the book is adoption.  To tell the stories.  To pave the way for more stories of adoption.

I have given you a preview in blogs past of some of the stories that will be included in the book:
     "Temporarily Todd"
     "Growing Paynes"

Here is another adoption story that had me frozen in worship as I entered the story into the book this past weekend:

It All Happened So Fast

by Vicki Sharp

The Sharp family: Steve, Elliott, Vicki, & Sarah

Our story started on September 14^th, 1985, the day God put us together as one.  We thought we would be like any other normal couple and be able to conceive children.  However, God had another story planned for us.

Over the next six years, we both visited several doctors and had many tests performed to discover that they were not really sure why we couldn’t have a baby.  So we started sharing with our family and friends about how we wanted a baby.  One night a friend called and asked if we would like to try to adopt a baby.  She had met a woman during a meeting about tough love with teenagers.  She said she had a girl working for her who was pregnant and didn’t want to tell her family.  She agreed to let us adopt her baby and ten days later we were the proud parents of our son, Elliot.

We thought Elliott would be our only child, but he decided he wanted a baby sister or brother so he started praying.  A couple from church had adopted children from the state so we decided we would try.  We attended classes and were approved to adopt.  Meanwhile, a cousin of Steve’s called and asked us to come and talk to a girl about adopting her baby.  However, she had left a message that she had given the baby to another couple.  We didn’t want to give up so we continued to pray.

One day while I was working in the church nursery, another friend told me she had been talking to a girl that was trying to give her baby up for adoption.  We received a call early one morning from our friend asking us to meet the girl now because she was in labor.  Steve was very shy about praying out loud, but after a heartfelt prayer from him, she said she wanted us to adopt her baby.   So seven days later we had a new baby girl, Sarah.  We truly believe that only God could have planned our adoptions. 

Steve passed away to be with the Lord earlier this year, but he was always eager to share our story; he always said it was his testimony.

 
This weekend, Vicki handed me two treasures: Steve's life story as he had written it when Elliott was six years old and a letter Steve had written to his small group leader after Sarah's adoption.  I could hear Steve's voice in my mind as I read his own words of praise for what God had done in building his family through adoption.  Steve's words are included in Flavors of Forever Families.  I pray that his story continues the legacy of adoption that he built in his own family.

More stories will follow throughout the week on this blog as we move toward the book's release this weekend.  The books will be available for $12 at CHC Southaven and CHC Hernando this Sunday.  We will release info next week on online options.  I want to personally thank you on behalf of the families who will move closer to bringing a child into a forever family for your investment in the steps of faith.

Thanks for reading.

4theVoiceless,
Al

Completed Project!

Happy Friday, everyone!

4theVoiceless has several major projects going on right now. 

We're still trying to raise funds for the House of Abraham in Jacmel, Haiti, through our Hope for Haiti campaign.  (Hope to see you tomorrow at the SHE ministry crafts fair at CHC Southaven between 9am and 5pm...) 

The adoption cookbook has been an overwhelming task this week and promises to continue to be through the weekend.  We have made significant progress, though, including settling on a name for the book:  Flavors of Forever Families: A Collection of Recipes and Redemption Stories.

Today, however, we pause to celebrate the completion of a project!  Last night, I turned in over 350 handmade Christmas cards that our church's small groups and families have made over the last few weeks as part of our participation in Orphanos' Kards 4 Kids project.  I would sum up the project like this: If the kids in orphanages in Korea, Jamaica, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, and Columbia have as much fun opening the cards as I have seen our people having making them, then this project will be an enormous success.

Thanks to everyone who spent time investing in these children that you will likely never meet.  Thank you for those who invested in your own children by involving them in this project with you.  Thank you for being James 1:27 in action.  Enjoy some photos from the project:








 

 Thanks for reading.  And for moving toward the orphan.

4theVoiceless,
Al

The Black Welcome Mat and My Inheritance

 

The Running Inheritance Joke

My dad and I have a running joke about my future inheritance.  Every time he tells me about a new upcoming trip that he and my mom are planning, he always says the same thing: “We’re just spending some more of your inheritance.”  I always respond the same way: “Spend it all.  It's not mine to spend.  I didn’t earn it.” 

Lessons Learned from the Welcome Mat

I have seen families rip themselves apart over money and things they won't get to keep long anyway.  You know what I have that belonged to my grandparents?  A black rubber "Welcome" mat.  (Well, and a few bells that belonged to my grandmother, but somehow those never made it home; I still hold out hope that they will turn up one day.)  The welcome mat has no value except this: it reminds me of daily conversations with my grandparents on their front porch.

My dad's parents lived two houses away, and my sisters and brother and I would walk to their house to visit every day.  The porch was concrete and would sweat under the welcome mat, so I would flip it over upon my arrival each day and flip it back when it was time to go home.  Perhaps a little OCD, but it became a ritual that I still remember.  The mat is outside between my garage doors now, and I still flip it from time to time, giving thanks each time to pleasant memories that are a much greater inheritance than any worldly possessions they could have left me.

No matter what my parents do or do not leave me as an inheritance, they have blessed me beyond measure.  Not just in financial assistance, great vacations, and such.  With relationships.  With passed-on wisdom and experiences.  With love.  Especially when I have been hard to love.

A Greater Inheritance

One day, though, I do expect a great inheritance. Jesus promised as much:

^" In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if not, I would have told you. I am going away to prepare a place for you. If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also."  John 14:2-3 (HCSB)

Now, you can read in Revelation about the beautiful picture of what Heaven will look like (at least a hint), and you can read 1 Corinthians 2:9 where Paul writes that eye has not seen and ear has not heard and man can't even imagine what God has in store for those who live Him; but I see the greatest part of my inheritance in this passage in John: "...where I am you may be also." 

Forever in the presence of the One who redeemed me, justified me, and paved the way for my adoption into God's family -- that's PRICELESS!  And FOREVER, beyond the greatest "forever family" that a waiting child could imagine.  Believer, walk as an fully vested member of God's family today, adopted into all that He has, namely Himself!

Thanks for reading,
Al

P.S.:  Shoutout to my son Garrett, who has blessed our family since his early arrival 16 years ago today!