This morning Stacey visited us at church. She's one of the missionaries we support, and has been a part of our global team for over 6 years. (No, that's not her in the picture!)
In Quito, Ecuador Stacey directs Precious Miracles, a home for children betweeen birth and age 2, who have been either abandoned or brought there by parents unwilling or unable to provide a life for them. Most of these little ones have special needs, and in their culture, some are seen as disposable or even a "curse" from the gods. They are seen as "throw away children".
Stacey gives them much more than an "orphanage". They're given a home filled with joy and infused with the love Christ brings into every home where He is Lord. And her goal is to find them all adoptive parents...what she calls "a forever family".
If you'd like to know more about Stacey and Precious Miracles, please visit her web site linked here. At Nags Head Church we give them two thumbs up.
Throw away children? Aren't we glad that "one man's junk is another Man's treasure"?
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11 comments:
Actually, the term 'forever family' has been around in the 'adoption' circle for years and years! It is wonderful to hear about her commitment to these children. Our friends just returned home from the Ukraine with their two new children, both with Down Syndrome. Their blog is www.cornishadoption.blogspot.com if you want to read about their 'adventure'. It was seven very long weeks in a foreign country but they have two gorgeous new children now to grow up with their other children. There are other families adopting children from around the world as well. www.reecesrainbow.com is an adoption grant ministry which helps find families for children with special needs and you can donate money towards a child or towards a family adopting or just the ministry. It helps the people who are adopting as the costs of it all can be quite daunting. It would be wonderful for you to get to know these families, from all over the world, as your church is growing to assist these children. These children are God's chosen. THIS is why the enemy is attacking them so fiercely. Doctors in the US and the UK are trying to make it so they are aborted rather than being born. Yet, if you read about these children from their parents, literally every parent has their own story of why THIS child, not their other typical children, have taught them so much about God's love and so much more. I'd like to share with you more, if you could sometime post an email I could email you several links. Also, a book every pastor should read, 'Gifts'. It is written by parents of children with DS and it is a beautiful thing to give to someone expecting a child or having just had a child with DS. Most people say they are sorry and don't ever congratulate the parents on their baby. This is so wrong. Psalms 139:13-16 tells me that God creates these gorgeous children and has each of their days planned out before they are even formed. I would encourage you to pick up a copy of the book. Seriously, if your church is growing there will most likely be someone who gives birth or might be trying to decide whether to abort since the doctors literally tell the parents to do so and I believe every pastor should read this and know what to say to someone in that situation. Thank you if you read all of this, it is on my heart to tell you this. And, if there is a way to contact you, please let me know.
Hi Anonymous,
Check out my son's blog. www.cfhusband.blogspot.com.
We've just been through one of those instances when the doctors urged abortion.
Thanks for your insights.
I wandered over from your son's blog. Thank you for posting this, and I thank God for people like Stacey. We adopted our son from Guatemala in 2006 and the things I saw there haunt me. Once you see a two year old on the street, alone, begging for money, it's hard to forget.
Anonymous is right. the cost of adopting is daunting. We would adopt again, and probably again, if it we could. My dream is that every church establishes an active and thriving adoption fund to assist families who are called to adopt. We applied for every grant out there and were denied in every instance. We're middle class, need I say more?!! My point I guess is that just because you can pay your bills, doesn't mean you have $30,000 sitting in the bank.
I have no idea where this statistic came from, so I can't give credit, but it goes something like this: "If 7% of believers adopted one child, there would be no orphans in the world." Last I read, there were roughly 140 million orphans in the world. My God charges us to care for orphans and widows. I'm pretty sure He would view this as an abomination. It's just sad that a little thing like money stands in the way.
Again, thanks for this post. Anything to get this message out is worth it.
Stacey's my hero.
Kerry, I loved hearing your story of your adoption. Thank you for sharing it! I would encourage you to visit www.reecesrainbow.com in the future. They don't approve you based upon income, the grants are donations towards individual children, so if you adopt that child that money goes toward your adoption; or towards the families in adoption process so people can adopt towards your adoption. I learned of them after reading about the mistreatment and neglect of children, mostly with down syndrome, in the NY times article on Serbian mental institutions.
I was a bit taken aback by Rick's response to my initial post. I have read his son's blog for a long time now and have really loved learning about their situation. We pray for them regularly. I do think theirs is a completely different situation to the some 90% of aborted foetuses by women told their child would have DS. Whereas I believe it is wrong for a doctor to recommend any abortion, in Tricia's case it was out of concern for Tricia's life. When geneticists and doctors recommend it for a person with a CHANCE of having a baby with DS it is just because the baby might not be typical. The staggering thing is, the tests do not even carry a 50% accuracy ratio so they are killing many typical babies in their quest to wipe out DS.
And yet, the key to discovering a cure for cancers and Alzheimers rests in these lovely people. They aren't a mistake, they are the piece of the puzzle we are missing. Anyone with a child or relative with ds will tell you, they have learned so much more about God's power and love than they ever would have without their child.
I don't blame Rick for sounding short or even insular, Nate and Tricia and Gwyneth are going through an amazingly difficult time, yet what better way to really feel the arms of the Lord? And I wasn't trying to tell Rick what to do as a pastor, just highly recommending some resources.
I have been on my own personal journey the past few years and during that time I've gone without so much and been so poor yet I wouldn't trade those days for anything. I witnessed miracles literally every day and praise God for allowing me that situation. I feel like I've been let into a special club, nearly, as even when I was working in church ministry I never felt the heart and hands of the Lord so much as I have these past few years. I praise Him and thank him for this.
Anyway, I didn't mean to get off topic so far! And I hope if anyone reading this does want to learn about international adoption and DS the cornish blog I mentioned above has lots of links with more information, as well as Reece's Rainbow. Blessings to you.
I wasn't attempting to sound short or insular. Simply pointing out that they were advised by doctors to abort.
Please read my other posts on being pro life for a fuller view of my positions.
And because we have several adoptive members of our family we are very much pro-adoption!
it's amazing how much can get lost in translation via this medium of communication.
I'll also add that it wasn't just out of concern for Tricia's life that the doctors pushed for abortion. They made it very clear that the chances of a brain damaged, DS or otherwise challenged child (whose chances of survival were minimal) were to be considered since they were high.
Now, let's try to get back to the intent of the post, please.
My goodness, that got complicated! ;).
Yeah. It happens.
So like others before me, I've decided to eliminate the aiblity to post anonymously.
When a comment takes a divergent path from the post and becomes a soap box it's time for the commenter to get his/her own soap box! (Even if the "cause" is a worthy one.)
By coming on someone's blog and posting a comment you are assuming the blogger's permission to do so and the blogger's authority to allow/disallow any content at all.
Now, what did you think about the post?
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