Welcome to our blog!

We're very excited for "lift off " day! This morning our new website Let's Rebuild the Wall is being introduced to the world, and this is the accompanying blog.



A nutshell version of how and why this all came about...



Shortly after we lost our son Elijah in 2007 (he was stillborn), God spoke very clearly to us and called us into orphan ministry. He led us through many lessons in humility and showed us that if we are to serve orphans, it will only be by following Him step-by-step because in HIM ALONE do the orphans find mercy. So we began to follow Him on that road. Orphan ministry is a very beautiful yet hard road, but we have found our Heavenly Father very very close in the "fields of the fatherless." His voice is in our ear, and we are learning to walk this road one step at a time...in faith.



Three months ago, we found ourselves at an orphanage in Taiwan meeting our new daughter that God added to our family through the miracle of adoption. Months before, we learned of this beautiful angel who happened to have an extra 21st chromosome (Down Syndrome), and we fell in love with her from one single photo. Words cannot describe the moment, but I will say that as we held our daughter for the first time, we began to understand the love God has for us as He adopted us into His forever family...with all our little quirks, imperfections and deep needs. Amazing love...amazing grace!



Shortly after coming home from Taiwan, God began to call us a bit deeper. I knew He was leading me into full-time orphan ministry; but when I began to focus on that, I would lose balance and find myself not "looking well to the ways of my household." And I knew God had called me to be a full-time involved Mama to my children. So, full-time orphan ministry and fully-invested motherhood seemed to be conflicting. How could I have the energy and focus to do both full-time??? One morning I found myself on my knees asking God to PLEASE SHOW ME how I could be faithful to his call into orphan ministry while also being faithful to serve and love my own family.

And that is when He birthed in my spirit the vision for our new website. He showed me that while I am focusing on serving and loving my family, we can overflow that love into orphan ministry right from our own living room. Over a year ago, He had led me to study the book of Nehemiah as a "blueprint" for rebuilding the wall of orphan ministry (and yes, the wall is indeed crumbled and in desperate need of repair!). And as I thought about Nehemiah, I remembered that he led the people to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem one piece at a time. Often, people simply worked on the part of the wall right in front of their own home. I finally understood! God was leading me to work on our part of the wall of orphan ministry while still focusing on the home and family He has given us. And the vision of many individuals and families working on their own part of the wall became clear.



And that was the beginning seed for our website Let's Rebuild the Wall! We pray that God will lead many people to pick up their bricks and begin rebuilding this wall of orphan ministry. This is HIS work, and we pray that we stay humble to follow step-by-step.



Oh, and who are we? Well, we are NOT professional web designers! :) We literally had to PRAY for God to show us how to do it and what to write. And we are NOT anywhere close to "having it all together" as Christians or as a family or as individuals. We are a very imperfect family who struggles sometimes to obey in even the simplest things (like loving our neighbor or family members as ourselves!). But our hearts are sincere, and we desire to follow our Heavenly Father into these fields of the fatherless, trusting Him fully. And so, here is our first big step of faith...the launching of our new website and our blog. May God be glorified, and may the wall of orphan ministry be rebuilt one brick at a time!



Please visit our website and please spread the word! There are MANY different "bricks" in orphan ministry (some families may adopt, while other families may make care packages for children in foster care...some people may feel led to travel to other countries to care for orphans, while other people financially support an orphan in a children's village). MANY opportunities! Please visit our site at http://www.letsrebuildthewall.org/ for more information.