1 week ago... and a request

One week ago today, we saw your sweet face...
One week ago today, we knew God chose you for our family...
One week ago today, our hearts were more in love than we could've ever imagined...

Throughout this past week the Lord has continued to remind us of all the blessings He's poured out on our lives... and we are so thankful for how HE works in our lives. We are so thankful that He called us to be A's parents!

Sweet Boy A,
We can't wait to bring you home, to love you, to care for you, to nurture you, but most importantly... we can't wait to point you to Jesus! We know it won't always be easy and we know that you're scared, but we promise to love you through it all... to walk the road of healing with you... and pray for your salvation every day!

Thank you Lord for allowing us the privilege of saying that there's one less orphan in Ethiopia!

Friends & Family - THANK YOU! We have felt so loved throughout this journey... and it's just really the beginning! We hope to share more details with you as we can, but we also wanted to encourage you with this - each day we were hurting, each day we were grieving, and each day we were questioning - the Lord has used to strengthen us. Throughout this wait we've written down specific dates when certain things were going on in our hearts... and now that we know A's name and his story, those dates line up exactly with what was going on in his life during that time. When we were grieving, he was hurting...

To those of you waiting - we wait with you and pray with and for you! We are confident in the Lord's timing and He continues to show us why it was so important for us to wait for our little man...

Now for the request - we are starting to put together a book for little A from the day we felt called to adopt until the day A is in our home. We have been saving all of your comments, emails, and notes of encouragement.... if you have a specific prayer you've been praying for our little man, a verse you'd like prayed over him, a note of encouragement, etc - please post them on this blog or email them to us at ucherek1 AT hotmail DOT com. Feel free to send a photo of your family if you'd like... we can't wait for him to see all the names and faces of those that have walked this road with us!

Connected to Serve

I love when I get the opportunity to use this platform to advocate for Lifesong and the amazing orphan care ministries we get to serve!

They sat in the studio with an expectant glow as they spoke about their children they had yet to meet, but who they claimed as their very own...

Josh: "As unbelievers, we are aliens.  We are strangers.  We are separated from God.  But God has come in and adopted us, through Christ, to be in His family."
Jenn: "And we're just so thrilled that our family can be a picture of that to the world!  And just like we would never question our true son-ship to God the Father, it's been an encouragement to us to think about, we really don't have to question whether these kids are our true children... cause they are!"

When Josh and Jenn Philpot felt God's nudging toward adoption they weren't sure where they would get the money.  They received a matching grant through the Orphan Care Alliance (OCA), turning the $6,000 they had raised into $10,000, and making it possible for them to bring home not just one child but two!

OCA is a multi-church alliance in the Louisville/Southern Indiana area.  Adoption funding is just one part of their ministry.  Their many outreaches include recruiting and training foster parents, mentoring local foster children, assistance for local churches in launching orphan ministries, international orphan care, and more!  They are also a part of Lifesong's Outside the Walls Network, which connects churches to serve orphans more powerfully together than they could on their own.

 

OCA Mission Moments from Lifesong for Orphans on Vimeo.