How God Broke Me for Special Needs Adoption

What does it take for God to take us from a place of selfishness comfort to move into a realm of discomfort and unknown where things are intimidating and downright scary?
Sometimes, it just takes a child.
Jovia Richards was that child for me.
Without her, we would not have Toby as our son. And Esty would not be on her way here.
Let me back up.
We had already brought Zeb home from Uganda, and we were attending a conference called More 4 Orphans at the Vineyard in Columbus, Ohio.
I was hoping to meet Wess Stafford of Compassion (I did!) as well as a few of my favorite online friends from Project Hopeful and also Salem Richards, who has adopted 3 special needs children from Uganda.
I also was looking forward to meeting Nicolle Bompart whose husband had just died a few months prior from a gunshot wound while serving orphans in Haiti. I just had to meet this amazing woman! I attended her breakout session for the purpose of meeting her. The subject of the breakout? Special needs adoption. She even said, "If you are here, it's because God is doing something in your heart to adopt a special needs child," and I thought, "well, not me, I'm just here to meet you..." 
Little did I realize that she was RIGHT!
After her session, I found my friend Salem and delighted in a hug. I quickly realized, she had come to the conference WITH her children. And here was her daughter Jovia...who was born without arms and without legs.
Smiling at me.
With dimples.

Before I could think, I heard myself ask if I could hold her.
"Of course!" was the reply.
My heart raced as I bent down to scoop her up. A million thoughts raced through my head. Emotions flooded my heart, emotions that are now untraceable.
But when I held her, felt her warmth and watched her take her teeth to play with my conference name tag, I felt something move.
It was as big as a planet moving off it's orbit. 
I came unglued.
All my previous thoughts of why I personally would never consider a special needs child simply crumbled. This warm, sweet, happy girl was changing me. On the spot.
All the "why nots" left.
I suddenly only saw her. Jovia. A priceless treasure. A person.
And really, that's what needs to happen. 
We need to see the PERSON,
not the CONDITION,
not the SPECIAL NEED,
not the DIFFERENCE. 
We come to realize these children are really like any other child.
Any other orphan.
Or maybe, just maybe, they are even more special...because they have been rejected time and time again...for reasons far beyond their control.
Jesus loves the unlovable. "The least of these," He calls them.
Precious children!!!
What I've come to find out is that they are only perceived as the "least of these." In actuality, they are TRUE TREASURES that bring deep joy to families who say YES to them.
And they change you too. In such good ways.
So often people say things to me like, "Oh I could never do that!" when they hear we are adopting yet another child and this one being in a wheelchair. 
I answer, "Oh I cannot either! But Jesus will use me to love and minister to this child in ways I cannot yet anticipate!"
This is what Jovia gave me.
A new willingness.
An interest in special kids.
A desire to parent those whom before I thought were for "other people."
I began looking for who it might be that God would have me love.
And then I "stumbled" onto the blog post where I read about "Bo" who became our Toby.
And the rest? Well, I'd like to say it's all history...
...but it's still in process!
But it IS history: His-story.
God's story of working in and through me to love and parent needy children.
What a wild adventure of walking with Him in places I never thought I wanted to go! But as I follow Him there, I find such great joy that I only want to press deeper in and find more of Jesus!
Want in?? I sure can understand why!!! 
Now sit here a little longer and delight in the awesome video The Archibald Project made on my friend Salem and her precious family! Who knows how Jovia might minister to your heart through this! 


The Richards Family Adoption Story from The Archibald Project on Vimeo.

The girl who waited...and waited is SPOKEN FOR!

Ever since last summer, my heart has been tugged for a precious girl waiting in Zeb's orphanage.

She had a long list of special needs. People prayed for her. People loved on her. She was cherished in many many hearts, yet...

She waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Years passed and this precious girl was still waiting on it to be her turn.

If it was EVER a question: CHILDREN DO NOT BELONG IN INSTITUTIONS! (No matter how wonderful, they simply do not take the place of having a mother and a father's love...or the love of siblings!)

Esther's story has had some tremendous ups and downs along the road, but her new title is

SPOKEN FOR!!!

Her loving and incredible parents are Brad and Jenny and here is the crew pictured a little while back...

And as you can see...they have 14 other children at home! {gasp!} But wait...since then there are TWO MORE! :) :)

When you read her blog you will be AM.AZ.ED. at this family! They are so serious about their faith and DOING what Christ says!

  I LOVE people like this!!!

They have heard God speak and have said YES to Esther!! What a glorious match this is!!! Hooray!!

Every time I look at these pictures, pure joy floods my soul! Esther was completely nonverbal. Yet when her daddy holds her she hums. And oh how the angels must have rejoiced when she SPOKE and said, "Momma!!" WOW!!! Oh how incredibly blessed by God they are to become Esther's family! They have experience with a wide variety of special needs. They are bubbling over with the love of Jesus and they will be all the more amazing with Esther in the fabric of who they are!!

As I rejoice in this matching, I want to ask if you would consider helping bring Esther home to this precious family. They were able to get an expedited court date before the summer break! We have an opportunity to become PART OF THIS STORY!! Will you consider giving a gift to the FIG Fund through Project Hopeful (the wonderful non-profit organization who is collecting funds for Esther's adoption)? If so, please go here.

On behalf of Esther, her parents and many siblings, I thank you with great joy!!!

Clickety Click! Clicks for Project Hopeful

Our friends at Project Hopeful do so much GOOD.

They not only adopt and love orphans and travel around the world to serve them...

They EDUCATE.

I must admit, before I found out about them I didn't know that HIV was a manageable disease.

IT IS!!!

Project Hopeful also advocates for orphans who are shunned by society because of their positive status.

There long waiting lists of children who are orphans and sadly are

OVERLOOKED

                                                                                                  ...simply because they have HIV.

Did you know that it is easier to manage care for an HIV+ child than a child with diabetes?

I sure didn't.

Did you know that it is completely safe to live with a person who has HIV? That there is ZERO risk of infecting others in normal family life?

Did you know that a child who has HIV and is given a chance at life with the advanced medications available now can grow up and live a normal life? They can marry, give birth all without infecting others?

This is great news!!!

This is what I have learned from my friends at Project Hopeful.

In addition to these, Project Hopeful also has something called FIG accounts. This is where people can join Family In the Gap to help families and orphans who are working toward adoption. People can give to Project Hopeful (tax deductible giving) and have their money be assigned to a particular child!

All these reasons and more are why I love Project Hopeful.

I am asking all my readers and friends to click on over to Cultivate Wines and vote for Project Hopeful to be the winner to receive a grant of $50,000. 

Winning this grant would mean so much to their mission of Educating, Encouraging, and Enabling families and individuals to advocate for and adopt children with HIV/AIDS and other of the most overlooked children for adoption. 

It literally takes seconds to sign in with Facebook and vote for Project Hopeful to win!


 They need a vote from you ONCE per DAY until the end of June. Can you go "click" "click" once a day for a few weeks to help save orphans with HIV? I thought so!! ;)

Go click!!