PLEASE Watch and Be Blessed!

Mr. & Mrs. Beaver:

If you've followed our blog for any length of time, you've read how God has created a family from two continents, bringing together under one roof two nations which were bitter enemies during the Cold War. Our family represents so many birthparents we've lost track of the count. Even our nine (soon-to-be thirteen) children from Russia represent a diversity of regions and ethnicities. And yet, in Him, we ARE a family.

When we launched into orphan care in 2001, we felt so alone. Little did we suspect that God was at work all over the globe. He was stirring hearts in amazing ways. He is so great. He is so mighty. He is so good! Please spend 33 minutes watching the film below at some point this weekend. Please watch and be blessed! We promise you will be encouraged. Consider this 33 minutes an early Christmas gift from our family to yours!

This Sunday, November 4th, is Orphan Sunday in America. May our understanding of God's majesty and our love of the least of these grow this weekend.

Jim and Denise

"Zambia's Gift to the World" by the Christian Alliance for Orphans


To God be the glory!

Nothing Will Be Impossible with God

Mrs. Beaver:

Little ones in our children's orphanage in Russia
September 2012

Twice our family has been blessed to attend the Christian Alliance for Orphans yearly conference, called Summit. If we can manage it, we'll eagerly go back again next May; the event has been so encouraging to our entire family that we know it would be worth the long, long drive from our home in Iowa to Nashville, Tennessee.

Each time we've been to Summit, we've attended a region-specific prayer session. This has given our family the opportunity to pray with about forty others for the orphans in eastern European nations, including Russia. We've had the privilege of praying with nationals from those countries who came to America specifically for Summit. We've gotten to hear them cry out in Russian (still the common language amongst these nations that were part of the former Soviet Union). Hearing heart-felt, anguished cries for the fatherless in another language is such a powerful experience!

Mr. Beaver and I will soon be the parents of 13 Russian orphans. Despite the ongoing wonder and joy of the Lord moving in our hearts repeatedly to keep adding to our family in this way, our hearts long for another solution to the orphan problem in Russia. The hard truth is that Americans adopting Russians will never solve Russia's need for families for those in their culture who are most vulnerable. We yearn and pray for Christians in that country to take up the mantle of bringing broken children into their families.

As of yet, not much movement toward adoption has happened in the Motherland of our children. However, in Ukraine God is moving. Here is a short post describing the Lord at work through Christians in Russia's neighbor just to the west: Ukraine Without Orphans.

I hope your find the post as encouraging as I did. God is at work in a big way in Eastern Europe. That's amazing to this child of the Cold War! It's a great reminder that, "Nothing will be impossible with God!" (Luke 1:37)

Why?

Mr. and Mrs. Beaver:

Many of you may have wondered why we have adopted or, perhaps, why we have adopted again and again and...

Our reason is articulated perfectly in the video below. This is our story!


Francis Chan For Orphan Sunday from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

The Very Least of These

"Faith apart from works is dead."

(James 2:17 ESV)

Please take a look at the post titled Called to the Orphan . College student Natalie articulately urges us to look again at what we can do, for the sake of the Name, on behalf of the fatherless.

O, may the church of Christ die to self and live like Him, giving, serving, rendering assistance! He calls us to turn our backs on what is comfortable, convenient and predictable. He moved INTO people's pain, and we must also, if we're to imitate Him.

Would you please spend the month of November praying about whether God would have you adopt?

Jesus died for you. Are you willing to die to your fears and careful reasonings that keep you from caring for the least of these by adding them to your family? Our God is bigger than any roadblock you could come against.

Having adopted nine older children we can tell you you will be blessed a hundred fold, far beyond anything you'll sacrifice.

Video: Statistics

Before you watch this video, please mute our blog's music.


Orphan Sunday 2011 from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

Watching the Bible Being Lived Out

God's word is utterly clear that His followers are to care for the oppressed, especially orphans and widows. James 1:27 is probably the most frequently quoted verse: "True and undefiled religion is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress."

Following National Orphan Sunday at our church in 2009, our dear friends, the Nordstroms, found their hearts moved. They realized they had Room for More. Almost immediately they launched into an effort to adopt a preschooler from Ethiopia. She just arrived home late last month...an orphan no more.

Last Saturday we visited the Nordstroms. We'd given them all of six days to recover from their trip to Ethiopia to make 4-year-old Meddie Grace a Nordstrom forever. We couldn't hold ourselves back from meeting Meddie and celebrating with our dear friends that she was FINALLY home after the 16-month adoption process.

We'd seen photos of Meddie's legendary smile, but we were blown away in person. Her grin stretches across her bright face and gives a twinkle to her eyes. She's a remarkably happy child considering all she has suffered in her short life.

This was the first chance for our newbies, who've only been in their family for four months, to be on the other side of greeting an adopted child.

Our former orphans were all smiles as they watched Meddie interact with her parents and five siblings. As Meddie sat in her sister's lap, Jaynie discovered that Meddie is ticklish.

We took with us a family tradition from our three international adoptions.

When we arrived at home from Russia nearly a decade ago with Jaynie, Cassandra and Speedy, we were surprised to discover our dining room table decorated with a giant American cupcake flag created by Mr. Beaver's mom, Jane, and his Aunt Jean, along with Anna (known here at our blog before her recent marriage by the name, Tessa), Lissie, and Joe as they eagerly anticipated our return and the arrival of our new family members. The flag was repeated when we adopted Tatiana, Natasha and Princess Bink six years ago. (This time, all 14 of us were returning from Russia together so there was no one at home to make a cupcake flag. Hmmmm....maybe at the kids' one year anniversay--sounds like a project for Cassandra!)

After enjoying cupcakes together, Meddie was ready to open her gifts. We'd allowed each of our kids to pick out something for this child came to America owning nothing. We had such fun shopping!!!

When Meddie began opening her presents, her brothers, Eddie Joe and T-Bird, were there to help.

We felt so blessed to outfit Meddie from head to...

...toe.

We thank God that He has added Meddie Grace to the Nordstrom's family. What fun to spend an evening with our friends celebrating their new little one! We loved beginning to get to know Meddie...

...and we treasured the opportunity to watch her in her own HOME with her own FAMILY!

We love you, Meddie Grace!

We Love Because - Video

On the eve of Orphan Sunday, the cry of our hearts is that those who read this blog would be as blessed by adding fatherless chidlren to their family as we have been.

God is so good, and His ways are always better than our ways. When we die to self and follow His ways we always find blessings beyond our wildest dreams. God's ways are not always easy to follow, but His blessing is sure when we do.

We pray... that you will pray... about the amazing blessing of adoption in your family.

(You'll want to mute the music in our sidebar.)


We Love Because from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

~ Tessa and Mr. & Mrs. Beaver