Dear Friends and family, I wish that I could sit down with each one of you over a cup of tea and tell you this amazing story. But we are separated by distance and time! So thank you for reading this, and sharing in our life. Last week one of my best friend’s, Kara called me heartsick for a little girl she had seen on the New Horizons for Children Facebook page. For those of you who are unfamiliar with New Horizons, they are a Christian organization who facilitates hosting orphans from Eastern Europe and China during the Christmas and summer holidays. Over these holidays the orphanages close down and the children are sent to foster homes and other camps within Europe and the United States. The children who are hosted in the US are introduced to life outside of the orphanage and families who could potentially adopt them or support them in someway in their future. So this one little girl had captured my friend Kara’s heart and she was calling because despite the immense love and pull from God towards this child, her husband and her had decided it was not the right thing for them to host her this Christmas. As we talked about the beauty there is just in hearing God’s voice and feeling that Spirit led love that can come from no other, I asked her what the little girl’s name was so I could join her in praying for a host family for her. When she told me that her name was O immediately my heart skipped a beat. Two years ago I had woken from a very vivid dream about a girl named O, who was about 8 or 9 years old from the Ukraine that would be a part of our family. I felt so strongly that this was God speaking to me that I searched every adoption page for a girl that matched that description. I found no child that even came close, so I let it go and gave it back to God. I shared the dream with Kara while we were on the phone and asked her to send me a picture of O. When we were done talking I looked at the picture in disbelief—she looks like one of my kids! Shocked and excited I relayed this whole story to Ethan who was intrigued and told me to find out more information. Over the next several days we filled out pre-applications and waited to hear if she was still available to be hosted and if we would be a good fit for her. We finally heard back last night that they have put her on hold for us and once our application, background checks, home inspections are all completed she will be able to come and stay with us for Christmas! The kids are very excited to share our lives with her and have been praying every day for her. As I put Ada to bed the other night the Holy Spirit was clearly speaking through her as she prayed, “Dear God I pray that you will tell O your story, I pray that you will tell her that you created the world and made her, and that you love her. And I pray that you will send her here so that we can love her. Please protect her tonight and all day tomorrow.” Of course we were both wiping away the tears to hear our child praying for someone she hasn’t even met yet with such love and empathy. This is so much an expression of what we want our lives to be about. We are fully aware that we could open our hearts and home, be vulnerable in loving her and that she may be too hurt to accept it. But we are praying Ada’s prayer over O, and we would be so grateful if you could join is in praying that as well. The cost of bringing her here is a little over $3,000. That cost covers her plane ticket and a chaperone’s plane ticket as well as processing fees and fees for things like our background checks and home inspection. We know that God has brought this girl into our life and will provide all that we need financially and emotionally. If you feel like you have a little extra to donate to help bring O here for hopefully what will be a very love-filled Christmas, we would be so thankful for even the smallest donation. Thank you so much for being in our lives and walking with us through this journey of listening to God!
In Love, Juliane, Ethan, Eliot, Ada and Finn
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To donate, go to http://nhfc.org/more-ways-to-help-orphans/make-a-tax-deductible-donation-to-help-orphans/. Click on donate to a specific child. You can pay through PayPal and make sure to enter Oksanas # in the notes ( EO354).
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