Big Changes

About a month ago Heather and I learned of two HIV+ orphans who had been abandoned in another city of China. At the time it was believed that they were twins, because they were abandoned together. Similar to Lily they spent time in an isolation area of an orphanage due to them being HIV+. Elim, the group here that works with HIV+ orphans, brought them to Xian to care for them.

Heather and I have been completely changed because of our decision to take in Lily. We’ve seen how much of a blessing our family has been to her and how much she’s been a blessing to us. We believe that we couldn’t give our kids a greater gift than getting to be a part of this kind of work. So we started talking about the possibility of taking these two kids into our home.

As insane as it sounds (considering we already have four kids) we’ve decided that we’re going to start taking care of them. This decision has not come without counsel and wisdom from others. We know it’s crazy, but we love getting to be a family for kids who’ve been abandoned and we love doing it together.

So we’ve basically started a foster home/orphanage in our own home. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t terrified, but we feel a peace that this (despite how difficult it will be) is what we’re supposed to do. We know that we can’t do this alone, but we know that we’re never alone and that the one we serve is bigger than any circumstance. HE is the one that cares for orphans. We just want to be obedient to what He puts on our hearts. We’ve also begun making some preparations to make this a healthy situation. We’re going to bring in some extra help around our busy times (i.e. when I’m at school/teaching), also we’re going to get someone to help us with groceries and errands. Soon we will get some friends of ours together who live here to see if people would like to help out in any way they can (like babysitters for date night).

So the little girl’s name is Ellie and she’s around 2 ½ years old the little boy’s name is Sammie and he’s 1 ½ or so. In the next week or two they will move into our home. That will give us 6 that are 6 and under. The girl right now is having some health issues because she’s HIV+, similar to Lily when she first came to us and hadn’t started the medicine yet. The boy is pretty healthy, similar to where Lily is now.

That’s the news! It’s wild, but we’re stoked to be this for another couple kids and for their forever families.

With hope,

the Petersons