ONE. That was the word that kept coming up over and over. In every Bible Study we did. In every sermon we heard. Everywhere we turned, the word ONE was being ingrained into our hearts. As we heard and saw the plight of orphans around the world—hunger, malnutrition, disease, neglect, and insufficient numbers to defend them--I knew then that we would have to act. There was no choice. But I was afraid—afraid of what it meant for our family and if we were ready for it. Was this God's calling for us or was I just reacting from emotion?
Ginger had been on board for a long time—she was actively involved in several orphan care and advocacy ministries. I had always supported her as she went on mission trips and spoke at churches about defending the fatherless. But I supported her from a distance, doing the typical guy thing, coming up with all the excuses—"We already have 3 children, we simply can't afford more". "We have a great family dynamic—what if they come in and disrupt that?"
Still stubborn, God brought in the heavy artillery. One of our children began to text me from her mom's phone, "Dad, can't we just save ONE?" Over, and over, and over. We went to an adoption conference and one of the keynote speakers said something to the effect of "Don't disregard that God may be speaking through your children to move you to adopt." Boom. The coup de grace.
After seeing every sign from God except the flashing neon one, I finally laid down all the worldly excuses that I had used to run away from our calling. God continued to make clear adopting was His will for our family and we are happy to say that we began the adoption process in March 2011 and recently accepted a referral for a precious little boy from Uganda. Which leads us to....
The Need:
After looking over mounds of paperwork, the next big step was funding. We knew God would provide the funds needed. We also knew we couldn't sit on the couch and watch cash fall from the sky! As we researched online and attended various conferences, we were surprised at the lack of fundraising tools available for prospective parents. We also noticed that in addition to the lack of tools for fundraising, the selection and quality of existing items was very limited. Adoption t-shirts created by individual families for fundraising typically had poor graphics and color schemes, often because they just created a basic design on their computer and didn't know where to go to get creative, visually-appealing designs (either stock or custom) or high-level shirt decoration.
We wanted our adoption t-shirt to be trendy and inexpensive but also spark conversation about our personal journey. Something unique to us and portrayed the message we were trying to convey. What we desired to wear and provide to others was nowhere to be found. So we felt like God was opening up another door not as much for us, but for other families who found themselves in the same boat.
Our goal and dream is to allow families to purchase great-looking merch (not just basic tees but cool stuff you would see in retail and not be embarrassed to wear!) and sell to their friends, families, on facebook, on their blogsites, at local retail shops, and anywhere else so that they can put the profits toward their adoptions cost and help realize their own adoption dream.
So that's what we hope to do. Help others to make a difference in the life of one. To save ONE. Adopt ONE. Do for the least of ONE of these. Make a change for ONE. We can't make a difference in the lives of everyone, but we can make a difference in the life of ONE. And ONE can change everything.
www.adoptiontees.com
