In all the 13 years we have been married, Papa the Farmer and I have never had a bigger announcement than the announcement we have today. We are about to double our family size!
This winter, we will be hosting a sibling group of 4 Eastern European children for the holidays, with the hope of adopting them!
“Why Europe?” you ask? In the particular country where our chosen children live, there are over 100,000 orphans. Eighty thousand of those children are “social orphans” meaning they have parents, but their parents have lost custody of them for various reasons. After a child turns 5 years old, they only have a 20% chance of being adopted. The children “age out” of the orphanage at 16. If they haven’t been adopted they must leave. Of the children who “age out,” 80% of the young men enter a life of crime and 60% of the young ladies become prostitutes. They simply don’t have the skills they need to survive as an adult. Within 2 years (by age 18), 15% of the children who “aged out” of the system kill themselves.
James 1:27 says this:
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
So, the question is not “Am I called to help orphans?” Helping orphans is clearly the responsibility of anyone who calls themselves followers of Christ. The only question that remains is “How am I called to help orphans?” Not every Christian has to (or should) adopt. But every Christian has to do something to help.
Our family is being called to help in a very specific way. Our heart’s burden is for sibling groups. We see how much our biological children love each other. If anything happened to us, they would be devastated to be split up from each other. Plus, a single child over the age of 5 only has a 20% chance of being adopted. If that child is part of a sibling group, their chances of being adopted go way, way down. Our house is already full of children and craziness and busyness…. This is a prime time in our lives for us to add in a little more activity. We will be hosting a sibling group of 4 children from Eastern Europe over Christmas. Our job is to show them the love of Christ and let them experience life in a family who loves them. After the hosting program is over, we intend to pursue adoption.
On Friday we were matched for hosting with a sibling group of 4. There is so much that I want to tell you, but I can’t (due to agency regulations and child trafficking laws). I can tell you that we will be hosting two boys and two girls and they are all between the ages of 5 and 9.
We need a lot of miracles if these children are going to join our family for any length of time so we desperately need your prayers! Please, please help spread the word so others can be praying too! Here are some ways to help:
- We have a Facebook Group called Dubois Adoption Prayer Warriors you can join to get daily updates and specific prayer requests.
- We have an email newsletter about the adoption that you can sign up for here.
- We have a You Caring Fundraising page to raise money to buy airplane tickets, train tickets, visas, passports, etc. We have 12 days to raise $12,000. (Other families have been working toward their goals for several months, but we only heard about the program last week so we are scrambling to catch up! Good thing $12,000 is just pocket change to the Lord!)
- GoodOldDaysFarm.com/Adoption offers a list of links (still in the works! Check back often!) for various businesses and websites (including Amazon). If you shop using those links we will receive a small comission which we will put toward getting the children some items they need (winter coats, shoes, etc.)
The Lord has been working in unblievable, amazing ways to prove to us that this IS His will for our family. Click here to read more about how God has led us to orphan hosting and adoption. Thanks so much for your love, support and encouragement! It means the world to me!
And don’t forget to click here or on the widget below if you want to help bring 4 orphans HOME for Christmas:
CONGRATULATIONS!! I’m so happy for you guys!!! Praying that every obstacle or hindrance bows or moves in Jesus’ name and this entire process is completed to the glory of the Lord!!!
I have been praying specifically for this group of kids – so excited to see how God is answering that prayer! Hosting will change your life. May God bless your time with the children and your adoption process!
What a beautiful blessing for all of you! God bless you and your family in this sweet new adventure.
As an adoptive mother to a smaller sibling group, I would recommend that you read EVERYTHING you can on attachment disorder. Every adopted child I have known deals with this. Prepare yourself, yours won’t be any different. I recommend reading Heather Forbes’ works. Please don’t go into this unprepared because everyone will suffer. As much as you would like to, you cannot expect your adopted children to react to ANYTHING the way your other children do. If they do, that’s a blessing. Usually, they won’t, and you have to know how to respond. We’ve had our children eight years now. We love them, but we still struggle to understand their issues. I will pray that God gives you supernatural wisdom as you rear these children. I will also pray that your children find Jesus early in life as mine did. I know that He is the only reason we’ve held this together.
Hi Lisa,
Thank you for offering this word of warning. You are so right! I have a dear friend who is struggling with her adopted children having a severe RAD diagnosis and I have been watching her walk this path for a few years now. She has spoken to me about it, her husband has spoken to my husband. We know this is not going to be easy and they have opened our eyes to some more things that we wouldn’t have expected. My parents ran a foster home the entire time I was growing up so I have seen first-hand how this can play out. We know this isn’t going to be easy. God never calls us to do easy things. Please keep praying for us!
And thank you for the author recommendation. I will certainly start reading!
This is going to be a long process and we’re only on the first step of bringing them here for Christmas. They have to go back to Ukraine and we take the next steps…
Congrats to you and your family! I have a heart for orphans also, and hope to someday take in older children after my kids are grown (in a few years). Still praying my husband will get on board with me! Prayers for all to go well!!