Help with Both Hands
As I start to write this post I am holding back tears due to excitement for my families future. It has been my desire to adopt for about 10 years and when I met my husband I told him it was something I want to do in my life. We agreed that we would have at least one of our own (if the Lord allowed) and then look to adopt after that. I was terrified to have my own child but God did bless us with a little boy and he will be 11 months next week! Now is the question of if we should try for another or continue saving for our adopted child. I know many people who have adopted and I have probably been too nosey with asking about information and what path they took for this process. I want to know what has worked and what hasn’t, I want to know what brought them to the decision to adopt and why they decided to go overseas or locally.
Mother’s day is coming up and I have been wanting to get back into my gift basket business, so I thought this holiday would be a great way to jump back in… but I needed a charity to sponsor and without one I had no desire to make gift baskets. So I started thinking of my passions these days and adoption came up (as always) and motherhood. This led my train of thought to those who have lost someone close to them and came to remember James 1:27- Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
So I started looking up organizations for orphans and widows and came across one that really interested me. It is called Both Hands Foundation and is what I hope to use for when we start our adoption process. Basically the concept for this foundation is to help “families fundraise for their adoptions. A family gathers a team of volunteers and Both Hands coaches them to coordinate a service project fixing up a widow's home. The family and their team send letters to raise sponsorship for their day of service. The funds raised help an orphan be adopted into a forever family!” –Bothhands.org How cool is this concept?
How it all got started…
"Almost ten years ago, I served on the board for Bethany Christian Services in Nashville and was responsible for an annual golf fundraiser where we sent letters asking for sponsorship while we golfed. A few days before the event, my friend sent my sponsorship letter back to me and scribbled on it, "JT, if you were working on a widow's house I might sponsor you, but you're just golfing. Nice cause, but not my money." I'll admit I was a bit surprised, but I called him and we had a good laugh about it. His idea never left me.”- JT Olson, founder.
I love how the simplest remark can grow into something great! We all know adoption is expensive and is sadly a deterrent for people to adopt, but this way you can raise your funds for adoption by helping someone in need! Needless to say I am excited and would love to help this organization out even though my family is not at that adoption stage just yet.
