Dear Family and Friends,
Although this letter has been forming in our hearts for many months, it is still difficult to write.
You already know our unique family. You also know that God has laid it on our hearts, time and time again, to open our home to children. These past 14 years have been full of the trials and blessings only children can bring. They have shown us more about life and the Lord’s love than we ever could have imagined. It is because of the many children who have called us mom and dad that we are once again stepping out in faith to welcome another child into our family.
This decision was not easy. It is grounded in prayer, and patience; listening to God’s call and our struggles to obey, culminating in our willingness to respond. We always thought that because we had our home open to children in foster care that we once again would adopt a child from our community. But God’s plans are always bigger than we can imagine.
On Christmas Day of last year, we applied to adopt a little girl from Ethiopia. As you can imagine, international adoptions are expensive. It doesn’t seem fair. There are approximately 163 million orphans world wide. Why does it cost so much to bring one child into a forever family? Although we cannot answer this, we know that once God laid it on our hearts to adopt a little girl with special needs, specifically HIV+, we could not turn away. Our eyes had been opened and our hearts exposed to the needs of these vulnerable children.
We also began to educate ourselves and to understand how manageable HIV is here in the US and how effective the medication treatments have become. But, that is not the case with HIV+ children living in other parts of the world, especially Africa. So, this leads us to international adoption and the costs of the financial obligations we must overcome to bring a child home.
We are asking for your help.
We know all too well just how difficult it is to ask for help. It is humbling to have to reach out to others, as our pride seems to always get in the way. Our family, over the last 12 months, has been saving and preparing for this adoption. Luka and Mika have surprised us with their initiative to raising awareness and raising funds for the adoption in their own simple way. They are
We appreciate and cherish your friendship and would like to invite you on this journey with us.
We know that when God is involved, money is never the focus of the issue. So, upfront and foremost, we ask of you to support us with your prayers.
1) Prayer – Please pray for the little girl God has chosen for our family. That He watches over her, keeps her safe, and that she is receiving the medical care that her little body desperately needs. Please also pray for our extended family. We realize that this decision to adopt a child with HIV will have consequences across our family, friends, and our community. Although we understand the facts of HIV (we have included a facts sheet for you to read) much of the world still does not. There still is a strong negative stigma attached to HIV and we know that the road ahead will at times be difficult and ugly. This fact lays heavily on our conscious, but we know that God will be with us. Please, also pray that as we educate, advocate, and bring awareness to this horrible disease, our daughter will be protected and will respond well to the medical treatments. And most importantly, that God would be glorified in the process.
2) Financial Support – We are blessed with the opportunity to raise funds through our church with a matching grant from an organization called “Lifesong”. As many of you know, we have been actively involved with the foster, adoption, and orphan care ministry at Covenant Church for the last five years. What a privilege and joy it has been to share our love of mission to the orphans and to watch our church community open their hearts to “the least of these”. We are also honored to be the first recipients of this matching grant, which will enable families to breech the financial gap usually present in adoptions. Part of our pledge is to continue to help other families interested in adoption, foster care and orphan care, now and in the future.
Lifesong (www.lifesongfororphans.org), a trusted organization administering the funds, will pay adoption expenses out of funds received. Lifesong has graciously set up a fundraising account for us to help pay the remaining $12,000.00 in adoption expenses.
If you would like to be part of financially helping us, you can send your donation directly to Lifesong between now and September 1, 2011 to the address below.
Please make checks payable to: Lifesong
In the memo section please write: “Preference Munari #2092 Adoption”.
Mail checks to:
Lifesong for Orphans
Att: Munari #2092 Adoption
PO Box 40 / 202 N. Ford St.
Gridley, IL 61744
*Your contribution is fully tax deductible. In following with IRS guidelines, your donation is to Lifesong which retains full discretion and control over its use.
Thank you for not only walking beside us on this journey, but also for your prayers and support as we step out in faith, seeking a little girl somewhere in Ethiopia, in need of a forever family. As brothers and sisters in Christ “Once our eyes are opened, we cannot pretend we don’t know what to do. God who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls knows that we know, and hold us responsible to act (Proverbs 24:12).
Blessings,
Marco, Michelle, Nico, Luka, Mika, and Isabella
