Avi Wisdom for Today
Today, as my Avi wisdom I am going to share a need – a need for a little girl that is still an orphan but loved and chosen by God for a very special family! This family needs help to bring her home. We know this family from a divine encounter at a medical appointment for one of our girls.
Today.15 weeks and 3 days since our princess went with Jesus. Yes I am counting not only the weeks but the days and hours as I wait to be running with Avi hand in hand. It is also one week until her 12th birthday – February 27th. Everything is as raw and painful as it was on that very first day. I am not a writer at heart. I don’t like to write. I would rather be outside running or pretty much doing anything else. But today I need to write.
Today, I read the book of Ecclesiastes in search of something. I did not find what I was searching for but I still stand on what I believe. The Bible is true – all of it! I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins and that He rose again. The only song that we sang in church this week that held any meaning for me was “My Hope is Built On Nothing Less”
My hope is built on nothing less / Than Jesus Christ, my righteousness; / I dare not trust the sweetest frame, / But wholly lean on Jesus’ name. / On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand; /All other ground is sinking sand. / When darkness veils His lovely face, / I rest on His unchanging grace; / In every high and stormy gale, / My anchor holds within the veil. / His oath, His covenant, His blood, / Support me in the whelming flood; / When all around my soul gives way, / He then is all my hope and stay. / When He shall come with trumpet sound, / Oh, may I then in Him be found; / In Him, my righteousness, alone, / Faultless to stand before the throne.
I could share everything that is wrapped up in every tear I shed every day of missing her physically here with us but what I need to share is the importance and value of her life. Avi inspires us to do more – be a louder voice – help more – adopt more – love more – give more.
When we adopted Avi, we needed help to bring Avi home and someone gave. Someone gave the remainder of her adoption costs and to this day, I still do not know who that person was.
Today I am asking that in honor of our Avi that you would read this adoption story below and HELP! Please give and no amount is too small – all donations will be tax deductible and every penny will go directly to paying their costs to bring home their third daughter from China.
Online at: www.paypal.me/Tingministries OR
By check: Ting Ministries 29 East Poplar Street, Lebanon Pa 17042
Please note: For Mercy
A friend of mine has written so beautifully what is on my heart about a child with more severe special needs. I am the blessed one to have been given the gift of Avi and her sisters. I ask you to please read and share this story and gift with others. Thank you from a very humbled heart -Stephanie
Mercy & Her Sisters: An Adoption Story
“Adoption. It’s always been on my heart to be family for children who need a mommy and daddy. Special needs children were always tugging at my heart. I yearned to nurture and love them, wanting them to see they have value and worth as a person.
So we began our journey of adoption summer of 2016 and brought home Miah from China, who had just turned 3 years old. Despite doctors’ predictions regarding her cerebral palsy and other medical challenges, she can now walk with the assistance of medical equipment. When we were in the process of her adoption there was another little girl whom we wanted to go back to adopt. So in September of that year we started the adoption process again. But the medical review was very negative, and when we received the update from the orphanage we were devastated. The report indicated extreme developmental impairment. We decided not to go ahead with her adoption, and I was determined to put this child out of my mind. We began to search for another child to bring home. In 2017 we brought home Malia at age 6 years old with cleft lip, cleft palate.
The summer of 2018 God spoke to me and said that we needed to go back and get the little girl we had said “no” to. I realized then that the decision we had made was based on fear and selfishness. I did not want to parent a child that would require lifelong care. You see, we are soon to be 56 and 57 years of age with four adult children. I wanted time to myself. But, I began to meditate on the fact that we are not our own, we are bought with a price by the blood of Jesus. I am not here for myself but to bring honor and glory to Him. I desperately needed to find out if this thought of returning for the child we had said “no” to was my own feeling or the Holy Spirit speaking to me. I had deleted all of this child’s information from my computer never to read it again. But I was able to recover all of her information and history by a few phone calls. As I read over and looked at the updated video I was no longer filled with fear. I had a peace about it. I started praying about it and that if it was the Lord telling me we needed to adopt her then my husband would have to agree. He did not. So I put her picture on the refrigerator and asked him to pray about her and then proceeded to write him a long letter detailing my own journey from fear to courage. I got down on my knees every day in front of that picture and prayed that the Lord would speak to my husband’s heart, since there was no way we could go ahead with this adoption if we were not of the same mind.
One morning as I was reading my devotions, I read, “He will refresh you with mercy”, and I knew right then we were to name her Mercy.
Satan did not want this little girl to come home and decided to ramp up his tactics. I was now facing much resistance from other family members. I asked a few prayer warriors to join me in the fight. But the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. I knew God was urging me to fight for this child despite the resistance.
A few months later my husband agreed to go ahead with the adoption. He had slowly realized that to say “no” to adopting this child would be disobedience and a sin since God was clearly asking us to bring her into our family.
Children with special needs have value. They are made perfect and designed just the way God wanted them to be. I want the world to see what they will add to our lives in regards to their gifts and strengths, and how they are wanted and valued, instead of what they take or require. We live in a society preoccupied with deficits as opposed to strengths. We need to dwell in possibility, helping our child thrive, respecting their timeline for development, setting a foundation for engaging our child’s gifts, whatever that may look like for the child, instead of trying to fix what is wrong. Many of these special needs children grow up and go on to accomplish great things.
But there are lives that come into the world neither to do great work nor to bear great burdens, but simply to be. They are the flowers of the garden which have no active mission. But they gladden the sight of Jesus. By their mere perfume, by their mere beauty, they have brought Him joy: by the very preservation of their loveliness in the valley they have lifted the Master’s heart.
Is adoption hard? Yes, but hardships develop beauty in the soul; they thrive on them; they bring out all the best in them; ease and comfort only leave them barren.
We still are carrying the financial loan from Malia’s adoption and now will be adding to that loan with Mercy. But nothing is hard for God. Without a sound or sign, from sources invisible and seemingly impossible, He will provide when the timing is right.” ~Judy, friend of Ting Ministries
Ting Ministries – Proverbs 31:8-9 BE A VOICE FOR THE VOICELESS