FEATURED STORY
Rwanda Adoption: Justin & Heidi
Our journey to adoption started when I was pregnant with our second daughter. One day I heard a Christian recording artist talking about James 1:27, and she said “If God said that pure religion is to care for widows and orphans, I think He really means for us to be doing it.” For some reason, that statement struck me to my core. Adoption was not some ethereal concept that we would always talk about doing “someday”. It was something we could do now, as a young family. As the months progressed, I had several dreams of an African American baby boy, and in each of the dreams, I knew he was mine. My husband thought I was crazy. We had just had a baby, and I was already talking about adopting another! I put the idea on the back burner and prayed. When our youngest was 1 year old, my husband felt it would be good to find an agency we liked. We found our agency and made the decision to pursue an international adoption, more specifically in Rwanda. Now how to raise the funds? We had very little in savings and did not feel like we were supposed to go into debt to adopt. I felt that the Lord was telling me to use what I had in my hands to raise money. In other words, take what I was already good at and allow Him to use it. Back in my school days, my mom and I had done quite well fundraising by making cinnamon rolls. I got the supplies; we prayed and told the Lord we would begin the adoption process when we had $3,000. I began taking orders, assuming it would take several months to have the money. Within 3 weeks, we had our $3,000. Over the course of the next 18 months and 700 dozen cinnamon rolls later, all of the money came in for the adoption. Through the rolls, a dinner/silent auction, and multiple gifts from caring people, God flung the door wide open for us to bring our son home.
Throughout our journey, we talked a lot with our daughters about how we were going to be bringing home their baby brother from Africa. On several occasions, our oldest daughter told me, “Mom, I think my baby brother’s name is Moses.” We laughed and brushed the comment aside, thinking that she just really liked the Bible story. About 9 months later, the agency called and said those blessed words; “We have your referral” (a referral is when a child has been chosen by the orphanage for your specific family). Our case worker told me his age, his weight, his height, and then said, “Oh, and by the way, his name is Moses.” It was as if God was wiping away every doubt or concern by showing us that He had handpicked this child for us. Coincidentally, Moses was born around the same time that we began the adoption process.
Moses David Ishimwe joined our family in Sept. 2009 and has blessed our lives every day since. We are an average family with an average income, but God did something supernatural to bring us our precious son.
Our journey to adoption started when I was pregnant with our second daughter. One day I heard a Christian recording artist talking about James 1:27, and she said “If God said that pure religion is to care for widows and orphans, I think He really means for us to be doing it.” For some reason, that statement struck me to my core. Adoption was not some ethereal concept that we would always talk about doing “someday”. It was something we could do now, as a young family. As the months progressed, I had several dreams of an African American baby boy, and in each of the dreams, I knew he was mine. My husband thought I was crazy. We had just had a baby, and I was already talking about adopting another! I put the idea on the back burner and prayed. When our youngest was 1 year old, my husband felt it would be good to find an agency we liked. We found our agency and made the decision to pursue an international adoption, more specifically in Rwanda. Now how to raise the funds? We had very little in savings and did not feel like we were supposed to go into debt to adopt. I felt that the Lord was telling me to use what I had in my hands to raise money. In other words, take what I was already good at and allow Him to use it. Back in my school days, my mom and I had done quite well fundraising by making cinnamon rolls. I got the supplies; we prayed and told the Lord we would begin the adoption process when we had $3,000. I began taking orders, assuming it would take several months to have the money. Within 3 weeks, we had our $3,000. Over the course of the next 18 months and 700 dozen cinnamon rolls later, all of the money came in for the adoption. Through the rolls, a dinner/silent auction, and multiple gifts from caring people, God flung the door wide open for us to bring our son home.
Throughout our journey, we talked a lot with our daughters about how we were going to be bringing home their baby brother from Africa. On several occasions, our oldest daughter told me, “Mom, I think my baby brother’s name is Moses.” We laughed and brushed the comment aside, thinking that she just really liked the Bible story. About 9 months later, the agency called and said those blessed words; “We have your referral” (a referral is when a child has been chosen by the orphanage for your specific family). Our case worker told me his age, his weight, his height, and then said, “Oh, and by the way, his name is Moses.” It was as if God was wiping away every doubt or concern by showing us that He had handpicked this child for us. Coincidentally, Moses was born around the same time that we began the adoption process.
Moses David Ishimwe joined our family in Sept. 2009 and has blessed our lives every day since. We are an average family with an average income, but God did something supernatural to bring us our precious son.