Christmas 2014

Dear Friends & Family,

Warm Christmas greetings to you from the Orth clan residing in Suncrest!  As I sit typing this letter, our three boys are tackling each other in a friendly football game, reminding each other which Seahawk player they are… Ben is the designated quarterback, Russell Wilson, Amanuel is an incredible running back, Marshawn Lynch, and Abreham is the kicker, Steven Hauschka!

But what a great year it’s been! Though we want to be real, it is true life is full of seasons, some of which are very difficult, some that are full or joy… and there are moments in all seasons that present challenges, we want to focus this letter on the many things we are so grateful to God for His generosity, kindness, and patience to us as we do our best to figure it out.

Bart is doing well, he is still serving the Lord at Suncrest Family Worship Center as the Lead Pastor. Although the Pastorate is a great blessing, it comes with it’s difficulties as well. On an average day, when Bart’s not working, he’s typically found in our back yard helping the boys become future NFL players (I think he might be counting on that for our retirement)…but he has also had some rare and adventurous opportunities this year. In July, he had the opportunity to climb and summit Mount Rainier with some good friends. And two months later, he joined with 10 other pastors and travelled to South America for a trip to see what God’s doing in and through the South American Church.

Heather continues to enjoy the life of mom, part time homeschooling, raising three boys, and owning “Sweet Cream Golden’s”, breeding English Cream Golden Retrievers. I would classify this year in a word… okay two words, “learning curve”. Going from one to three boys overnight has been a lot of adjusting and readjusting. Life is busy and loud, full of family football games, cooking a lot of meals for growing boys, and sometimes, early bedtimes. J My favorite parenting advice I have heard this year is from Focus on the Family is about sibling fighting, he said “Stick them in the bathroom together until they work it out.” Wow, has that been effective! I stick them in there when they are furious at each other, think I have at least 20 minutes to do a quick workout on the elliptical. But no, 20 seconds later they are in my room laughing and hugging each other. What in the world? Well, it saves my emotions, and for that I am grateful! 

Amanuel has been a complete joy to our family, he is loud and enthusiastic, we call him “passionate”. He has no limits in life. When he came to America last summer, he learned how to ride a bike the very first day he was here. In all areas of life he is so driven to excel, whether it’s soccer, school, or swimming, if he wants to do it, he will not stop until he gets it. Amanuel has changed his professional dreams several times already this year, but currently plans on playing for the Seattle Seahawks when he grows up. Even though we’ve tried to explain that is a wonderful dream, but only one in a million that get the opportunity to play for the NFL (and even less when you narrow it down to exclusively one team in the NFL), he rejects the impossibility.

Abreham is thriving this year in Kindergarten. He and Amanuel are as opposite as they come with brothers. Although Abreham is quieter and more cautious, it doesn’t stop him from getting out there and trying. This little guy has blessed me so many times by his sweet comments and helpful hands. More than once, he has cleaned my bathroom (I say my, really it’s “our” – Bart and my bathroom, but its possible that I take it over and apparently it’s messy enough that our 7 year old son is feeling sorry for us!). Or today, we were getting ready for a family photo shoot, and he looked at me all dressed up and said, “You are so pretty.” It was all of three minutes later when Amanuel looked at my teeth, I said “Do I have something in my teeth?” and he said “No, they are just so close together…I don’t want mine to look like that.” Haha, you never know with boys. Little does he know braces might just be in his future (I might ask them to cinch them up nice and tight). Anyhow, Abreham is a sweet boy with lots of spunk, most of the time he spends his time tagging along with his brothers and instigating some healthy emotions for them to work through. We have seen great improvement in his social behaviors and learning this year and are excited to see what God has in store for our special son. 

Benjamin is now in first grade, and is flourishing in life. He is a lot of fun and we are enjoying his growing sense of humor, and also his love for God. We were recently at the Woodland park zoo, and we were making our rounds when we arrived at the Porcupines. The porcupine was doing this little dance standing on his two back feet from side to side, and Ben turned around and hollered “Oh my wiggle!” The boys and I still get a good laugh out of that today.  Ben has a very big heart and is a definite leader in our family; in fact, he is a big instigator for little sisters…another adoption (next news). He and Amanuel and Abreham are very close friends and are usually into the same things at the same time; whether it’s football, Spiderman, power rangers, or anything else.

Switching gears…

As we type this letter we’d like to announce one of the great happenings currently taking place in our family life…WE ARE EXPECTING TWINS!!! Okay, not the twins you are thinking of from my womb, but they are from some special mom’s womb.  As of a month ago, we have officially begun our next ADOPTION PROCESS!  As the Lord enables, we are looking to adopt a young sibling group of SISTERS from HAITI!  While our boys long for more brothers so they can have a football team, we have decided it would be in their best interest (and their future wives) that we should adopt girls. We have chosen Haiti for various reasons, and although we looked into domestic adoption and even Foster to Adopt, both of which are greatly important and needed, we sensed the Lord calling us again to a country abroad, one that is greatly affected by poverty. Just a few facts about Haiti: it’s slightly smaller than the state of Maryland with a population of around 10 million. There are currently estimated to be over ½ million orphans. In the capital city of Port-au-Prince alone, there are currently 650 orphanages… it’s like one on every corner.  Haiti ranks among the poorest nations in the world.  Currently, 60 % of Haitians live in extreme poverty, unable to access sufficient food to eat. There is so much poverty right now that few Haitians elect to adopt. We feel blessed that God has called and entrusted us to this great task of raising more children… this time from Haiti. You can follow us on our blog: orthadoption.blogspot.com.

We would greatly appreciate your prayers that God will give us His wisdom and guide us into His perfect will as we continue in this process.

In closing… (sorry if this is the longest Christmas letter on your fridge), we wish you a blessed Christmas filled with God’s joy and His favor upon your life!  May celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ fill your home with a deep sense of gratitude towards God and an excitable anticipation, as you consider all that He is yet longing to do in and through your life to the glory of God!

Hugs, kisses, high fives, & 2014 blessings to you and yours,

Bart, Heather, and Amanuel, Abreham, Benjamin & two special and long-awaited sisters

Announcement of our Next Adoption!

I have a small obsession with life analogies and there is one in particular that continues to come alive to me after many years now. It's the life analogy of rivers. Rivers are dynamic, they begin on a mountaintop and they end at sea level. They are changing in size, color, temperature, speed. They are beautiful to look at. Peaceful to be around. They can be safe to play in, but also dangerous to float on. They flow regardless of the weather. Rivers have a strong current that is leading the water to a final destination. That is what I like most about rivers. They have so many characteristics, but the one common denominator is they are driven somewhere on purpose. That is the life I want. We are all headed somewhere, I want to be in the middle of God’s current letting Him lead me there on purpose.

Believe it or not, this river analogy does have something to do with our family. If Bart and I look back on the last 10+ years of life, we have noticed that God has taken our river on a journey to see all sorts of brokenness around the world. It certainly seems that our lives were purposefully flowing by many countries and people that were desperately in need. It has been an experience that now seems to be an integral part of who we are. There has been an underlying stirring in my heart that our adoption journey is not over. It is so exciting, but also realize that adding more kids is a lot of work and adoption itself is not always easy. On a lot of levels. Think about it...it’s like getting pregnant, but it takes much longer and costs much more. You don’t know what your child will look like, act like or talk like. You have no control over those very crucial first years when life could forever damage your child. You wish you could be there to protect them and keep them safe. You might be walking into major or minor disorders, attachment issues, or developmental delays. The worst fear for me is that you will never feel that same connection you do with a biological child and what if they never truly love me.

If it sounds familiar but you can't place it, maybe this will help ring a bell.  Adoption was God's plan first. He knew, before He decided to execute His master redemption plan, just how unlovable we would be. We are a lovely people but we do come with disorders. We sometimes show no resemblance of Him. At times our actions, looks, or tongue dishonor Him.  And worst of all, some of us would never truly love Him. But knowing all that, Jesus died for our sins anyways. Through His perfect love He adopts us into His family. He loves us. He invests in our lives. He sends His Spirit to live inside of us and promises to lead us through this life. And we have the privilege of becoming children of God. Wow. Through our unloveableness, there is this love, His love. A love that is lavished in "GRACE". It's a love that can forgive, redeem, restore and continue to love. That is the kind of love He adopts us with, and it's also the kind He gives us to pass on. How could I not offer what I have already received? God's perfect love. I pray He will funnel His perfect love through me, an imperfect daughter, onto and into as many imperfect children as He would entrust me with. It's not easy, but when did that ever become my life motto? I cannot choose to live an easy life and get to the end of all my days and say, "I feel so satisfied that I led an easy life. I did not have to risk much. I was able to float through mainly stagnant seasons of life protected and covered in algae." 

Life is risky. Or at least it feels that way. But actually there is a great joy and thrill in living with risk. At the end of my life, what I pray I'd be able to say is more along the lines of "I immersed myself fully in Jesus, living my days dangerously surrendered, I prayed to God to set me in a river that reaches the ocean with great momentum, and finishes strong. Even though my life was hard at times, I believe God used it to impact His Kingdom. I lived with purpose. I didn't need to know what's ahead, and I wasn't afraid of letting go of my agenda or comfort. I did believed the hope that I had and did not shrink back, but believed and was saved. I trusted God who is able to lead me to my final destination." 

Sometimes writing on paper what feels like a profound concept to me, doesn't come out the way I want it to, but the bottom line is this: God has led us on a continuing journey of adoption, that we don't expect will be easy and comes with great risk. But we feel this is a part of the journey God has called us to and we want to jump in with both feet doing the will of Jesus. And truthfully, there is such great joy in doing the will of God, which we know will all be worth it. He has created brokenness in our hearts for orphans in the poorest parts of this present world, that we cannot turn away from. There is a room in our home, a seat in our mini-van, a place at the table, and love in our hearts for two precious little girls of His choosing. We long to offer freely the love we already received. We feel led from the Lord to adopt from Haiti and we are so excited to meet the two treasured faces He will bring into our family. We invite you to join us on this journey, through the ups and downs and twists and turns. Life is full of the unexpected, here we go! 

October Update

Hi again!

Well Praise the LORD!!! Our adoption has been completely funded now. We are so grateful to see what God has done, and we are humbled by the way he has provided.  It has been an exciting journey and has built our faith. We are now "78" on the unofficial list, so it looks as if it could be a year and a half possibly before we'd receive a referral for a sibling group.  But we're in it for the long haul!

Our son, Ben, celebrates getting his cast off tomorrow (he broke his arm on Labor Day), and his 4th Birthday on Thursday!  Much to celebrate this week!

We hope you are having a blessed fall.  We'll keep the updates coming!  :)

August Update!

Hi Family & Friends!

We are so thankful to have you along with us on this journey of adoption.  It takes so much patience and it's wonderful to not be alone in the process.  We are moving right along on the waiting list... at about the pace of an overweight turtle.  :)  But we're doing great, and we knew it would be a long haul.

As you can see, our thermometer has moved up significantly!  We have received a large grant from the Steven Curtis Chapman foundation called "Show Hope" as well as a few generous gifts from family and friends!  So thank you so much for your support and help in this process!

Gratefully, our adoption is almost fully funded.  Our thermometer now includes receiving a sibling group, in which it's $11,000 more dollars, but worth every penny.  We're really hoping that God will bless us with two (or three!).  And if God has in mind for us one child, we are completely funded!  Praise the Lord!

We hope your summer has been blessed as you spend time with family and friends, and gear up for the fall... Bart's favorite time of year... Hunting season!  :)

Love in Christ,

The Orth's

“Our Adoption Journey Thus Far…”

Well, Bart and I are not the most tech savvy people you've ever met, so that may explain why it has taken six months since we began our adoption journey to get a blog up and rolling!  But I am excited, this is so much fun!  :)

We are blessed to be in the process of adopting one, two, or six... just kidding... children from Ethiopia.  What an exciting roller-coaster to be on.  As many of you have heard of other's testimonies of adoption, it is rare that it comes smooth and without it's up's and downs.  

There was an opportunity to hit our first big turbulence last month, mind you, on our anniversary.  Why they didn't take that into consideration is beyond me.  The email came and was quite a surprise to us, as Ethiopia has become a very well established country to adopt from.  The news was that they are reducing the number of orphans they are processing in courts from 50 per day to 5 per day.  That significant decrease could result in an additional year of waiting!

We are in prayer that God will uphold His children and bring them into homes that love them and care for them, regardless of what it looks like on paper.  We know God is in charge in all of this, but would love your support in prayer that He would protect these precious young ones, and that Ethiopia would find a way to allow more to be processed.  

So… to bring you up to speed on our adoption journey this far, we have felt called for many years to adopt, but we were waiting for the right time.  In October 2010, we felt the clear call of God to begin the process.  After much research and prayer, we chose America World Adoption Agency, and we are so glad we did. They have been amazing and are there to answer our every question.  

Last week, after nearly 3 months of waiting... we finally received the approval from the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) and sent off our Dossier (all of our paperwork and homestudy) to Ethiopia!  That is a big step because now we are officially on the waiting list for our children.  Currently, we are planning to commit to waiting for a sibling group of either gender between the ages of 0-3.  The wait for a sibling group is unknown, but we are expecting 8-12 months, maybe more. (And down the road, we have the freedom to request a boy or girl if the wait gets too long).  

I am not so good at waiting for much of anything, but thankfully God knew that about me and gave me a wonderful, sensible, patient (very patient), husband!  So on to the waiting!  

Thank you for being apart of our lives and our journey.  We love the support and the friendships we have from each of you and are blessed to be apart of your lives as well.

May God bless your day,

Bart, Heather, & Benji

A little back drop...

When Bart & I met, and began dating, one thing that was real important to me was to find a man who had a passion for orphans.  I had the opportunity to travel the Cameroon, Africa and to Ethiopia, Africa and found that I was totally in love with Africa, and the burden I felt for the orphans was unbearable.  In fact, if I wasn't to marry, I thought maybe my call on life was to be a missionary in Africa at an orphanage.  I knew when I first heard about Bart and began pleading for God to give him to me as my husband, that there was a good chance he'd have a heart to adopt as well!  He had been heavily involved in missions to Kenya.  And so not to my surprise, he was totally on board with this mind set, and we hoped this would be a part of our future together.  

The time line was never so clear to us, and we've tried to be surrendered to God's plan along the way.  As we prayed about children and adopting, we felt the Lord leading us to have a biological child first.  So we complied, and got some health insurance lined up, and believe it or not, the very next month I was pregnant!  Who knew it would be that easy! :)

As most of you know, at that point, we hit major turbulence.  In July of 2007, I was diagnosed with Leukemia and was 14 weeks pregnant. We were heart broken, and cried out to God, and then remembered the ROCK we were standing on.  One of the verses He spoke to us only a few days after I was diagnosed was Psalm 30:1-3:

"I will exalt you, O Lord, for you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me.  O Lord my God, I called to you for help and you healed me.  O Lord, you brought me up from the grave; you spared me from going down into the pit."

The Lord led us to a wonderful doctor at Swedish Hospital in Seattle and there we lived for the next 3 months.  That is also where our miracle baby boy, Benji (as he likes to call himself) was born at 2 lbs, 7.9 ounces.  He (and I) (and Bart for that matter!) lived at Swedish Hospital for the next three months.   God gave us strength and comfort during that season of life, and on New Years Eve, of 2007, we moved home to Spokane with our Benji!  We thank our Lord for the love and care He gave us through many loving people in Seattle, and for how He met our every need.  I believe with all my heart that this journey with Him has set us up for a future to trust Him at every turn.  And we say this often, we'd never want to go through that again, but we wouldn't trade it for the world.  

I have now been in remission for 3 1/2 years, and Praise God for every new day.  It's a blessing to have this life, a wonderful husband, and sweet and precious son, and more and more I realize what a blessing it is to be a daughter of God.  We believe there have been several promises from God that He has given to us regarding healing and a long life.  And I'll take it.  I know I have a lot of work left to do in my own life, with our family, and for His Kingdom.  So believe God I will!  

However, just a week ago, God gave me a great revelation (through my husband) about releasing the fear that I carry almost everywhere like a two ton truck hooked on to my ankle.  Bart lovingly helped me realize how the fear that gripped me was caused by not surrendering death over to God.  How scary it's been for me to think about leaving this earth and a family I love so dearly.  Yet I am so thankful for the way God used Bart's words help me surrender even death over to Him.  I have been able to find the peace I've been longing for, by not holding on and trying to control God.  There is such a freedom in releasing our lives to Him!  

"So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.  You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.  For in just a very little while, 'He who is coming will come and will not delay.  But my righteous one will live by faith.  And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him. 'But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed but of those who believe and are saved." ~ Hebrews 10:35-39

We are now six months into the adoption process with the hopes of adopting either a young sibling group or a young boy or girl from Ethiopia.  We would covet your prayers for God's guidance and God's will to be done in our family. 

Well, there you have it, a tid-bit-long back drop of our story and how we wound up here adopting from Ethiopia!