I recently received an email from a high school girlfriend I wanted to share with ya'll. My friend, Joni Oberhauser, and her husband already have 5 children, so imagine my surprise when I got this message...
Subject: What the world needs...
is another little obie boy running around. ;)
we are expecting- again! but this time, we found out what we are having, and it's another BOY!! ;
AND...
he is already born. in fact, he is 18 months old, his name is vanya, and he lives in an orphanage in
eastern europe. vanya is also "special needs"- at this point, we have vague information, but we know that vanya is mostly blind and has some degree of brain damage and
heart disease. getting medical information from foreign countries is difficult, so we will know much more when he gets home to us in the states and can see some specialists!
you may be curious as to why we are doing this...- God has been growing in our hearts a desire to adopt for years. up until now, we have not had clear direction in this.
- we realize that we ourselves have been adopted: But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" -Galatians 4:4-6
- we know that every life is precious in God's sight and that vanya is "fearfully and wonderfully made!" (psalm 139:13-16)
- Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. -james 1:27
- Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. -proverbs 24:11. a special needs orphan like vanya would have a slim chance of survival if not adopted, and we also feel the burden of "the great commission" in this circumstance (matthew 28:18-20).
you may be wondering how this came about...- we recieved an email containing the blog of a young american woman living in eastern europe who volunteers at vanya's orphanage and is advocating for him.
- we read the blog and felt the Lord leading us to pursue adopting vanya.
you may be wondering about the process...- we are currently beginning our "home study" which will be a process of much paperwork, background checks, interviews, etc that will take approx. 1-2 months.
- we are also putting together our "dossier" which is a HUGE personal portfolio that we must prepare and submit to the courts and authorities in vanya's home country.
- sometime this spring or early summer we will need to make two trips to eastern europe in order to bring our little boy home.
- this little adventure will cost about 25 thousand dollars- YIKES! but we are trusting the Lord, and He is already providing a little here and a little there. our family is enjoying working together to cut the grocery budget down as much as possible in order to use that saved money towards bringing vanya home!
you may be interested in finding out more...
- http://doyouhaveroomforme.blogspot.com/
- www.reecesrainbow.org/sponsoroberhauser.html
if you have any other questions, please email or call! we appreciate you praying with us as the process ahead of us is rather daunting!
love from the ever-growing obie fam
---------------------------------
If you'd like to help this family financially, you can learn how to do so through the links above.
They are also planning a garage sale in the Edwardsville area for April 23-24. If you have "treasures" you'd like to get rid of and allow them to sell in the sale, they are looking for donations....and of course, shoppers!
----------------------------------
Also, a cool girl on Etsy decided to donate 20% of her sales to help bring Vanya home. I just ordered a WAY CUTE one-of-a-kind outfit.
You can visit her site here.
