Days are still turning into weeks and weeks into years, and the ache never leaves. Why the guilt? We are now in the midst of our second adoption and eager to bring our 4th child into our family. Our 4th child is not home and I already want to adopt another and another and another. While adopting another and another child, I see the mother not having a roof over her head, food for her other children much less herself, no water, and barely clothing that could even be described as rags. While this mother is living a life of destitution and no hope, I am here in my comfortable home with central heat and air, probably wasting enough food to feed a small community, so many clothes that I can go a week or so without doing laundry, and also knowing the truth of the Gospel. And what are we doing about this? Nothing, sadly!
My mother-in-law knows I love to read blogs about adoption. She sent me a link to this amazing blog, www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com. Short story of Katie, she left everything she knew at the age of 18 and moved to Africa; and through the coarse of the next 3 years she is now guardian of 14 Ugondan girls who once had no hope of survival. I told David about this blog and we talked about it and we can no longer live with the way of life we have become so comfortable with and not have an overwhelming cloud of guilt hovering over us.
David and I had been discussing these feelings we were having with our friends, John and Heather Avaritt (they'll have to tell you their story). While they feel the same way, none of us had any idea what "we" can do about the state of other people's lives around the world. God showed us so clearly, and why had we never seen this before. What better example than to follow the steps of Jesus? Jesus spoke these words in Luke 4:18-19, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord." We read in James 1:27, " 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." Jesus did these things. Those suffering all over the world deserve to know that their is hope; hope in Jesus Christ. Who is going to show all these people?
One evening after talking about this topic for several weeks we both felt like we should do more than talk about it, we should do something. We talked long into the night, studied more scripture, and we both felt like there was a great need and opportunity to spread the gospel beyond the US. Everything about our life as we knew it would change, but neither one of us had been so excited and certain about anything in our life.
We expressed our decision with John and Heather, that we wanted to do evangelistic and missionary work beyond the borders of the United States. Questions were flying all over the place; excited questions though. Where? When? How? We had no clue, but soon more answers would be shown to us. David's first concern was going into a country that was not a war zone. We have 4 children to consider and not just ourselves. One thing led to another, and Costa Rica is the place that seemed to be a good place to start. must say the hardest part was shedding the light to our parents about this new-found plan.
I have never seen David so excited about something before. He has dedicated so much time in studying about this and trying to better prepare our family for this remarkable journey that we hope will soon begin unfolding.
With all of this said, here is a little more light into our crazy lives. David and I have been married 11 years. I work 1day or night a week as a labor and delivery nurse; babies are my passion. Nothing more beautiful than seeing a miracle occur by God. David is in architecture and has been ever since I met him 13 years ago. We homeschool Olivia and Logan and Carson will start next year.
Please pray for our families as we embark on this journey to glorify the Lord, spread the Word to lost souls, help feed the hungry, and see to the needs of those that God places in our paths wherever that may be. There are so many things that we know cannot happen on our own, but with God all things are possible.
written by Kalina & David
