Posted in Adoption Encouragements and Exhortations Poverty

The Greater the Sacrifice, the Greater the Sweetness

Fruit that comes from suffering and sacrifice is surely the sweetest kind. As the farmer nurtures his tender young plant, day in and day out, he nurtures it not only by pruning and watering, but with his very heart. And then, when that tender young plant becomes a strong tree that bears much fruit, he enjoys that fruit with a satisfaction that his neighbor, who also shares in the fruit, cannot. Jesus explains it in these terms, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). That which we invest in, care about, and pour into will…

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Posted in Adoption The Hare Home

3 Things “They” Told Me About Adoption

As we were thinking through the possibility of adoption, we sought counsel from many people. During this time, I was at an adoption conference where the presenters said: “The two main reasons that people do not adopt are: 1) the cost of adoption, and 2) they are afraid that they could not love an adopted child like they would a biological child.” This same presenter told us that the first one is not a problem. As it turns out, there are A LOT of financial resources for those adopting. Our adoptions ended up costing around $70,000 in total, and every…

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Posted in Adoption Africa Christian Missions Encouragements and Exhortations

You Are Not That Special

I did a Google search for “things you should never say” and there were over 36 million results. Here are some of my favorites: 10 Things You Should Never Say to a Nun 10 Things You Should Never Say to a Canadian 300 Things You Should Never Say to a Woman (300!) 16 Things You Should Never Say to a Great Dane’s Face (can I say it to their tail?) The blogs that I usually read are the ones that apply to my life like: “10 Things Never to Say to Families with Adopted Children.” They are usually humorous and…

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Posted in Adoption Africa Culture Shock Encouragements and Exhortations The Hare Home

When People Say Stupid Things: An Alternative Response

by Dave Do you ever get asked stupid questions? Try this one on for size: on a market trip the other day the meat vendor saw Stacey, Elias and myself and asked, “Hey, where is your black woman?” Polygamy is not rare here and he assumed I had another wife, or at least another woman on the side. This type of question is the norm as we walk around here, not the exception. Adoption outside of the extended family is rare in Cameroon, multiple women/wives is common, and seeing us with black kids leads them to certain cultural assumptions. But…

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Posted in Adoption Encouragements and Exhortations

Adopted by a King

by Dave Have you ever heard of Caesar Augustus? His name might be familiar, as he plays a supporting role in the Divine Drama beginning at Jesus’ birth. You can read of him in the Gospel of Luke: “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all of the world should be registered” (Luke 2:1). It was this decree that led Joseph and Mary back to Bethlehem where Christ was born. Augustus was the Caesar at the time of Christ’s birth and was really the earthly reason that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. But did you know…

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Posted in Adoption Encouragements and Exhortations The Hare Home

What is Childlike Faith?

A number of years ago I had a Sunday School teacher who was talking about saving faith. He said that Christianity was an adult religion and the faith that was required was an adult faith. In other words, Christian faith is an informed faith. It is faith that is informed with an understanding of sin as offense against God, a lack of saving ability in ourselves, and a turning away from sin and to Christ. These truths, he said, really cannot be grasped by children. The implication is probably as obvious to you as it is to me. I trusted…

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Posted in Adoption Bible Translation The Hare Home Third Culture Kid

“Your kids are going to have issues.”

Sometimes when we go on a walk we stop traffic. Seriously. People will slow their cars down and rubberneck with some misguided thought that staring is going to answer their questions. Two adults, four kids. Adults are Irish-looking, kids are African-looking. But just to mix it up even more, all of our kids appear to be the same age (and in reality are pretty close – two 3-year-olds and two 2-year-olds). Conversations only complicate matters: not only do we have 4 Ethiopians that are being raised by Americans, they are going to be raised in Cameroon, in a village, where…

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Posted in Adoption The Hare Home

We’re Picking up the Kiddos from Ethiopia in Two Weeks!

Another answer to prayer! The US Embassy has cleared all of our paperwork and given us the green light to come pick up our kids the week of March 14th. So myself (Stacey) and a friend (Karen) will fly out March 11th and are planning to return March 17th. We’ve recently found out that our kids are only 9 days apart (Elias DOB 7/11/10 and Zoey DOB 7/20/10). We thought that was a fun fact being that their are very different in size. We would love your prayers during this transition. Namely that our hearts would selflessly love our children…

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Posted in Adoption

Learning from Ethiopian Christians: Three Encouraging Christians from My Adoption Trip

The following is my account of the stories of three Ethiopian. I wrote them down in my journal while I was in Ethiopia for our adoption court date. Alazar and Ewenetu “After taking Tarike back we went out to eat with Alazar (the driver for Celebrate Children International). He told me about how he became a believer. He was a driver at the airport and often would read his Bible in his car in between fares. He grew up in the Orthodox Church and could not reconcile the cold religion he grew up with and the Jesus about whom he…

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