A VERY SPECIAL FAMILY

You could say our house is a little busy. We adopted five children from China, all with special needs, after having four biological children. Scripture says to take care of the widows and the orphans, and this is a passion the Lord has given us.

My husband and I felt we needed to do something beyond just living a comfortable lifestyle in the suburbs. He has a good job and we wanted to extend that blessing and share the love of Christ.

Two of our kids require blood transfusions every three weeks to keep alive, but you’d never know it by the way they run around all over the place. Two other children have spina bifida and one just had his leg amputated to prepare him for a life with a prosthetic. But we tackle these problems one day at a time and as a loving family.

Adopting these beautiful children has helped our biological kids learn how to care for others, to sacrifice. When one child is going through something serious, it affects the eight other kids. It’s teaching all of us that we are not called to a life of “me”.

Some people wonder why we adopt children with special needs. I don’t think a large family is as scared raising a child with special needs because they have dealt with kids being sick and having issues. We realize no one is perfect. Adoption comes out of brokenness and loss, so every child who is adopted has had to deal with some type of trauma, even if they are perfectly healthy. Having children with special needs has been a wonderful way to see and experience God’s grace.

We also experience a lot of activity because there are always extra kids camped out here. Our house truly is an open door to all the neighborhood children. After all, once you have nine kids, what are a few more?