Our Story
We would like to thank A Child Waits Foundation for their help with our adoption expenses. Our girls are here now, and we are adjusting to being a family. They are so beautiful! We are so privileged and filled with joy that the Lord has allowed us to become their parents.
Georgina (Georgie) is 12, very active and full of mischief. She loves to cook, and is exceptionally gifted in her ability to organize things. She is a delight! Her eyes are incredibly beautiful and her energy is enviable to us older in body!
Patricia (Tricia) is 13. She is quieter in body than Georgie but also enjoys being mischievous. She loves to tease and loves to tell stories. Her beautiful smile lights up a whole room! Both girls love to sing and will spend hours singing praises to Jesus. Tricia is gifted in helps, seeing how she can help someone and doing so without being asked. She blesses us daily with little thoughtful things she does. She is also one who loves to write. She writes in her journal each day and prefers to deal with conflict by writing things out. I hope she will one day use her writing in her work as she seems to have a real gift.
Georgie's life goal is to become a missionary, but after the
long plane ride here she says she will ask God to let her be a missionary to
a country that she does not have to fly on an airplane to get to!
Tricia plans to become a nurse, and she says that she will
do that here if that is what God wants, but if He wants her to fly on an airplane
to be a nurse somewhere else, that will be ok to!
Mike and I decided to adopt about a year ago the first of
August. We moved to Oregon from Idaho in 1999. We joined a church here, and
soon noticed many beautiful little black faces in our congregation. Over time,
we noticed there was more and more of them all the time. We started asking questions
and found out that these children were from Liberia, from the Monrovian orphanage
there. We learned that there were many orphans in Liberia due to the civil war
there.
I felt God stirring my heart to adopt in May. I didn't think Mike would ever want to do so. One day I was talking to some of the adoptive moms and sharing my feelings. They suggested I not say anything to Mike, but just to pray and leave it in God's hands. By July of that year, Mike was also feeling stirred to adopt. At the end of July several of our congregation went to Liberia for a mission trip. Upon their return, they were sharing stories about the experience. One young lady was the last to share. At the end she said, "Oh, by the way, there is a lovely 12 year old girl who is highly adoptable. "Her name is Georgina, if any of you are interested."
I believe I heard the Lord urge me to adopt this little girl,
though I didn't say this to my husband at the time. Later we went to the coast
to watch the waves while we ate lunch. We were talking about the mission trip,
and I mentioned that I felt the Lord's urging about adopting Georgina. My husband
totally amazed me by saying "Well, I guess we better do it then!"
So, I contacted Stephanie (the girl from church), and got
a picture of Georgie. I fell in love at first sight. I mentioned to Stephanie
how we were concerned about adopting a girl so old (for how hard the change
would be on her) and that we were thinking that maybe adopting two children
close to the same age would make it easier to adjust and be not so lonely for
home. She said, well there is another lovely 12 year old girl that they are
really working to get adopted. Her name is Patricia. She showed me her picture
and that was it, in my heart I already had two girls.
We began the adoption process in September by taking the pre-adoption
class, but for financial reasons decided to wait until after the first of the
year to do the rest. We jumped through all the "hoops" of adoption
and today we are a family of 5 instead of 3.
Our son, Travis, (then 15) at first, was not thrilled that
we were adopting. He thought it was all wrong. We just let him speak and then
told him we felt it was what God was leading us to do so we were going to do
it. We also prayed, a lot, for God to change his heart. By the time the girls
arrived on August 14 at 1:30 pm you could not have asked for a more accepting
big brother! The girls seem to really love him and he has enjoyed being able
to teach them many new things.
Academically this will be a year of struggles for the girls.
Our education is so much more advanced than in Liberia, they will have much
catching up to do. They both seem excited about learning, and Mike and I are
committed to helping them all we can.
The girls love to cook and about all they want to eat is chicken!
We have had MUCH chicken and also learned about new foods too. Georgie discovered
she loves cucumbers and Tricia thinks hotdogs are "ok Mom!"
We have shopped and shopped and shopped, getting them ready for school. There have been doctor visits, shots and other tests to endure and Patricia will soon have a new pair of glasses to help her see at school better. They are very appreciative and loving young ladies.
We could not be more blessed!
Thank you again for sharing in our joy and adoption with your
financial help. Bless you all in the name of our Lord!
Mike and Fawna
Georgie, Tricia and Travis Heath