Todd Hiestand

Somewhere in Guatemala…

June 30, 2006

Somewhere in Guatemala, there is a single mother carrying the child that my wife and I will raise as part of our family. I imagine It’s likely that she is young, barely 16. Quite possibly, has been sent to the city to carry and birth the child to save her family the shame.

Is she alone? Is she searching for a place to lay here head at the moment? Has she found a place to rest and sleep during her pregnancy? How tall is she? Does she believe in God? We do know that she is likely entering the 8th to 9th month of her pregnancy and the child will be born in mid-august.

It’s all a strange thought really. Next January we hope to be heading down to Guatemala to meet this child that is being formed in another woman’s womb. A woman will be giving up her child for us to raise. Why would she do this? Part of me wonders if it is because is too scared to raise the child herself and doesn’t want the hassle. Of course, that is the usual stereotypical thought about mothers who give their children up for adoption. “That mother is selfish” we say.

But, I wonder if this is really the most selfless act a mother can make. Perhaps she understands reality. She knows that were she to try and raise this child, that its chance of survival would be cut in than half. Perhaps she realizes that this is really the best thing for her child. I don’t know the exact conditions that this young girl has grown up in. But I do know that it is quite likely that this child, if he were not adopted, would spend most of his childhood underfed and under cared for in some orphanage or worse, on the street.

We talk a lot about social justice at our church. About caring for the poor and needy. About seeking justice for the oppressed. In fact, we are reading through Isaiah together in our small group and its impossible to read Isaiah 1 without feeling like the Church is no better than Israel. That our worship stinks to God and he’s ignoring our prayers.

Of course, its not that adopting makes us better than anyone else. Its not that adopting is more spiritual than raising biological children. Its not like adopting give you an excuse to ignore the poor and needy in your own town and community.

But for us, its a simple chance to live out the call of James 1:27.

Anyways, we’re getting near the end of the paperwork aspect of this adoption and we are now facing the large challenge of waiting for the child and well, honestly, waiting for the finances to all work out.

I’ll be honest; the finances are a huge aspect of it. Here is how they shake out. In the next 4-6 weeks we need $5000. Then, around November we’ll need another $10,000.

I don’t say this as a “oh, poor us” because we know that the Lord will provide the funds as we need them. We believe that he has given us a calling to adopt and we therefore believe that he will make it happen.

If you would like to share in this child’s future by making a generous gift towards these needs of course, we would welcome it.

We have a few friends that actually called other friends of theirs (that didn’t know us) and invited them to share in the process as well and between about 10 of them sent us a very generous gift.

Melanie’s parents put together a huge garage sale in their church and made over $1000 on a Saturday afternoon.

I’ve been trying to find some extra web design work to put towards the process.

So, if you would like to make a generous financial gift towards this child, you can do it in one or three ways:

#1 - Send us a check to our house. Our address is: 384 Elm Street Warminster, PA 18974

#2 - Send us a gift via paypal by using the link at the top of the sidebar…

#3 - Link to this blog post on your blog and get others to come and read this…

Of course, we covet your prayers over the next number of months. For this child, for us and for the whole process.