Ever since I was young, the stories of missionaries like Amy Carmichael and Gladys Aylward with their work in orphan care have been stories that have tugged at my heart. I have felt that God has put the desire to adopt in my heart from a very young age and there is no ignoring it. I have been serving at Rivers of Mercy Children's Home(RoM) in Juarez, Mexico as a full-time missionary since January 2016. Before coming down here, the bible verse I clung to was Isaiah 6:8 "I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us, then said I, Here am I; send me."
As I start this adoption journey, I still stand before God saying "Here I am Lord, and I know you are with me where ever you send me whatever you call me to!" This precious little girl has lived with us since 2020. She is very dear to me and I want to give her permanency that the orphanage just cannot promise. She cannot be her own advocate and I feel like God has called me to be her advocate, her family, her mom.
This process of adoption is overwhelming and has financial hurdles but the Lord hasn’t called me to do it alone. He walks with us through what He calls us to and He calls us to live in community, as a body of Christ we are meant to live in community with one another and to help meet one another’s needs.
If you feel called to partner with me in this I need
1st and foremost prayer!
Prayer to be steadfast
Prayer for wisdom
Just Prayer! It is a very overwhelming process but God is gracious and I believe He will guide it. But Prayer for my human heart and mind to trust in Him!
And 2nd for financial partners
Would you prayerfully consider allowing God to use you to help provide for this Adoption? He has called me to this and He will not abandon me in it! I know He will walk me through this and I know that His hand is on this process and He will provide guidance and help along the way.
Little Hermanita seems to have developed a love of organizing and sorting. She has sorted through her dresser drawers and reorganized her clothes and she has gone through her toy bucket and removed all trash and things that weren't hers. I find this fascinating as I don't ever voluntarily organize anything haha. Clean sure, go through paperwork and file it correctly, I got you! But organizing and sorting through things, not my favorite haha. Maybe we will make a great team! Or maybe she will teach me her organizing ways. Puzzle campaign is ongoing!
Update #1
Hello Wonderful friends and family!
I just want to shoutout and say thank you to everyone who has helped kick off this campaign!
To keep it going and help give my little hermanita (means little sister in spanish. She calls me her sister) permanency, I want to start my first major fundraiser. “Adopting” a puzzle piece. She absolutely adores building puzzles. I custom-made a 500 piece puzzle with a photo of the two of us. When a piece is “adopted” your name will go on the back and each adopted puzzle piece will help make the puzzle whole and hopefully one day it can hang in her room in a double-sided frame.
$10 suggested donation a piece and you can adopt as many as you want!
Also, super exciting, a friend and ministry partner has promised to match donations up to $2,500!
There are several options for donating.
Donations can be made directly through this blog to go directly to the adoption fees or through Bgi.org/andrea. If you select Bgi and the drop-down adoption acct, that money is being specifically saved for the USA apartment.
You can also send directly to me through venmo or paypal.
Just leave a comment with the name or names, if multiple pieces, to go on the back of the piece(s).
You all are making this process possible!
