“…once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act.”
~Proverbs 24:12



Monday, October 18, 2010

Adoption Letter to Friends

Below is the letter I mentioned earlier. If any of you have items you would like to donate to the yard sale, please let us know. We'd also love to see you on Friday and Saturday at the actual sale. Our address is listed at the end of the letter.
Thank you to everyone who has donated thus far! Please pray people show up to buy on Friday and Saturday!




“…once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act.”
~Proverbs 24:12

Dear Family and Friends,

If you have received this letter, it means that in some way you have impacted our lives. Thank you for walking this journey with us.

Three years ago, Kat and I set off on our journey to become parents. We had no idea where this path would take us. It has been filled with trials, triumphs and everything in between. Kat and I heard a story of adoption and it was as if God had planted the seed that evening that would one day be our children. In the beginning, this story was just a story of hope that some way, some how we could have a family. But over time, God continued to reveal his plan for our lives and his plan of adoption. After careful consideration and tremendous prayer, we believed that God wanted us to walk through the door of adoption. As we researched, we heard God’s calling to adopt from Russia. We had friends that had adopted from this country and we felt drawn thousands of miles away to the vast country of Russia.

We began our adoption process in January of this year. We started by contacting a home study organization to begin their process of approving us as parents. Our time was filled with completing paperwork, tracking down documentation, taking psychological tests and more medical tests than we care to remember. All of these steps were made just to get our foot in the door to begin the conversation with an agency. After we obtained approval, we chose an agency that had many years of experience in Russia and had successfully completed many adoptions. Our agency required that we travel to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania to have a face-to-face interview before they gave their approval. We traveled to Pittsburg and completed our interview in April.

We were accepted and the process continued. That meeting feels like so long ago even though it was only 5 months ago. We know now that we are adopting a biological sibling group. By God’s grace, our children will be a 2-year-old boy and a 1-year-old girl. We feel that God is giving us these children in order to make our family complete, but also so that they can have a better life. In Russia, children who are not adopted generally do not have a high quality of life. Due to the conditions in many of the country’s orphanages and the lack of resources, children grow up lacking human contact or love. Often, children that are not adopted are not able to function in the world because of their emotional, physical and social inadequacies. It is our prayer that with God’s assistance we can make a difference in the lives of these children—for they will surely make a difference in our lives and possibly yours.

James 1:27 states, “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.” We feel strongly that God urges his people to care for the orphans. Not everyone has a calling upon their heart to adopt, but we do. We feel blessed that prior to beginning our process, we were debt free minus our home mortgage which allowed us to be in the position to even consider adopting. The cost for our adoption will be around $65,000. Frankly, we can not finance this on our own. We are depending on God to provide the funding for us. We are asking you to prayerfully consider helping us with our adoption. Ways that you can help include donating items for a yard sale that we are having Friday, October 22 and Saturday, October 23; transferring Marriott points to help cover hotel costs; praying for us on our journey or any other way that God puts upon your heart. If you want to help, you may contact us by e-mail at ....

Thank you again for being on this journey with us. We would not be here without your continued love and support.

Derek and Kat Hunter

1 comment:

Krista Phillips said...

Just getting caught up again your blog... praying a ton for both of you and SO very excited for you! Praying for AWESOME weather this weekend and for great garage sale traffic!!

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