Adoption is not man's idea, it is God's

Adopting children was a conviction we both had prior to our marriage.  In 1996 we began the adoption process here, in Summit County.  Since we both knew sign language, we knew God was calling us to adopt a deaf child.  Once our home study was completed, we began investigating deaf children available in the United States.  Miraculously, a five year old girl from China ended up on the American list.  We felt God calling us to pursue this adoption and in 1998 our first daughter joined our 2 biological boys.  Several years later, our daughter began asking us for a sister-one who was not deaf-so she could alert our daughter to any alarms that might sound.  We heavily relied on God and our faith to walk us through this journey, and despite much spiritual warfare, we welcomed our second daughter in 2003.  She also came to us from China, and when the nannies from the orphanage handed her over to us, they included a book filled with pictures and scripture.  As it turns out, they were all in the underground church and were illegally teaching the children about Jesus!  We soon became aware of a 10 year old boy who had severe medical issues.  We were sure the Lord was calling us to pray for an adoptive family for him.  After a few months with no willing adopting family coming forward, we relented and allowed the Lord to use us to bring him into our family. 

Thinking we were done with adoption, we moved into the world of foster care at The Bair Foundation.  The Bair Foundation deals mostly with older special needs children and we felt we had a track record to fit those needs.  A month after we were licensed by the State of Ohio, we received a call for 11 month old deaf twin girls.  In May, 2009 the girls permanently came into our lives from one of the worst neighborhoods imaginable. 

July 2009 brought the desperate plea from Chinese missionaries to adopt a 14 year old girl with spina bifida whom we had tried adopting three years earlier.  Other families that had pursued her at the same time as us, backed out, and she was alone once again.  God had certainly knit our heart to her in 2006 and we realized he had just been preparing us, in His time, and by April 2010, she officially joined our family. 

One more kid to go…!  In July, 2010, I was driving the NY State Thruway praising God for a solid two hours for the miraculous ways He was always providing for our family and asking Him not to let me miss his next miracle.  I stopped with three of my girls at Chick-Fil-A with just a few dollars in my pocket.  We placed a conservative order and when we went to pay, the cashier announced ‘that will be on us today’.  I began weeping as, again, I saw God’s hand of provision.  Within five minutes of receiving our free lunch, the county called requesting us to take the four year old deaf brother of our twin girls.  No need to pray about this one as God had just shown me the answer at Chick-Fil-A.  By August, 2010, we were a complete family.

In addition to our nine children, God has allowed us to care for 30+ medically and emotionally fragile foster children in our home through The Bair Foundation.  Members of CCC have been able to minister to these children at Edge, ThaPorch, Sunday School and VBC.  We are grateful to have the body of Christ always supporting us.  Many people tell us, “I could never do that!  God bless you”.  Our response is, “He has already blessed us with nine amazing kids.  We can’t do this in our strength, but only through Christ Jesus who gives us the strength.”  Adoption is not man’s idea, it is God’s.  We have had opportunities to share God’s adoption plan by his son Jesus Christ with many social workers.  Please pray for us that God will use our family as an evangelism tool that others may learn of their adoption through Jesus Christ making them co-heirs with His son.