Re-blogged from my sweet friend Jewel's blog, McRoberts Clan:
This all began on a Thursday night (January 10) when I asked for begged my friend Paula for her momma's award winning cornbread recipe. And of course if you know my friend Paula she loves to advocate for children who need a family. She sweetly supplied the recipe and stealthily added a link to a blog post containing Edgars' story. Edgars' story had gone viral! And just like all of the thousands of people who read Edgars' story, I cried and instantly fell in love with him! More than 80 families, including ours made adoption inquiries. And over the past week I spent countless hours amongst a flurry of phone calls, text messages, and emails with Morgan (Edgars' host mom), adoption agencies, homestudy agencies, family and friends, interrupted only for our fervent prayers to God for guidance and wisdom, and the occassional trip to the potty with my potty-training 2 year old, Isaac, AKA Undie Buddy.
We've waded through doubts and fears and uncertainties about financing another international adoption, and have decided that God's got this! He has called us to be Edgars' family, so we are certain He will provide through the help of others.
Edgars came to the US on a Christmas orphan hosting program for a month. He was loved, adored and cherished by his host family and they wanted to adopt him. But Latvia requires that both adoptive parents be more than 18 years older than the child. Morgan, the mom, is 7 months shy of meeting that requirement. So after grieving their lost opportunity Morgan starting advocating for Edgars, trying to find him a family. This was her plea, that I read that Thursday night that has changed our lives:
Edgars – LAST CHANCE – Age 15 (turns 16 in August)
From Latvia
Written by his precious host family:
Edgars came to us with a smile on his face. From the moment we met him at the gate, he radiated openness and incredible warmth – he was obviously a little nervous, but from the beginning he trusted us with his whole heart. One of the first things he ever said was, “Thank you for choosing me.” Edgars immediately began to display a strong desire for physical connectedness with our whole family – he hugged our 4-year-old daughter for airport photos, he stood next to me with his head on my shoulder reading his translated welcome letter. He sat in the backseat during our ride home from the airport, trying everything he could think of to comfort our screaming 10-month-old son – from feeding him puffs to handing over his prized possession (his mp3 player) for him to chew on. We knew Edgars was a special boy the moment we saw him in the photolisting, but we weren’t prepared to witness the incredible kindness, maturity, and optimism that he has kept alive inside of himself with the help of our amazing God.
Edgars has bonded well with all members of our family, though it has been clear throughout that he desires a mother above all else in life. During the first two weeks, Edgars resisted developing a deep relationship with my husband but he is now seeing the value in having a healthy relationship with a father. Edgars is incredibly gentle and patient with small children, and he would do beautifully with siblings of any age or gender, or as an only child. He takes the role of big brother very seriously and enjoys helping out – he is always happy to hold a hand in the grocery store, buckle car seats, or comfort his “small” sister or brother when they get a bump.
His ability to learn and retain information – language in particular – is astounding. He spoke English with us from day one without hesitancy, though his vocabulary was limited. By day 10, Edgars knew he could translate more efficiently than Google Translate and he hasn’t asked to use it since. We speak English with him at full speed and use the same phrasing we would with native speakers, and I would estimate that he understands and responds without needing clarification to about 85% of what we say. His expressive language has developed at a similar rate, and we are shocked by the nuances and humor he injects into conversation. Edgars is an incredibly intelligent boy who will thrive academically once he is challenged and held accountable.
Edgars is very respectful and helpful, especially to women. He will not sit down at our dinner table until I am seated first. He insists on scraping the snow off the car and starting it up – then he will come back to the house to walk me out. He carries the diaper bag (I KNOW!). He notices when I haven’t eaten because I’ve been taking care of the little kids, and he will make me lunch. Every day Edgars does something to take my breath away.
A few things to note:
He has a blossoming relationship with Jesus Christ. Edgars is being mentored by a wonderful priest who ministers to the boys in his orphanage. Along with his headphones, his favorite Christmas gift was his English language Action Bible, which he stayed up reading on Christmas night until 6 am.
Edgars has some attention deficit / hyperactivity issues and takes medication. However, since being in a home environment and after about a week of gentle correction, Edgars has slowed way down. Things are no longer being accidentally dropped and broken. His need to fidget is almost non-existent, whereas it was constant in the beginning. We still see some of the attention span issues, but in no way would I consider his current behavior to be hyperactive. It is amazing what family life can do!
Edgars’ favorite time of day by far is bedtime. Since the first night, he has welcomed me into his room so that we could talk about the day, do our daily affirmation, and say a prayer together. As the weeks progressed, he has found a lot of comfort in being held and rocked – just for a minute or so – each night before being tucked in. It is during these quiet moments that I can see the little boy who still lives inside this teenager, who desperately wants to be loved and told he is good inside.
Edgars has been in the system since age 2 and has no relatives or siblings. Truly there is no reason that he should be the loving, well-adjusted boy that he is, except by the grace of God. I pray constantly that my sweet boy is given the opportunity to become a permanent member of a loving, supportive, gentle Christian family – because he deserves nothing less. Edgars will bring an abundance of joy to the forever family that awaits him. Writing this absolutely breaks my heart because this child has been one of the greatest gifts of my life. I want everyone reading this to know that Edgars has done nothing at all to deter us from adopting him – we are ineligible (we have an minimum age issue). I choose to believe that my role in Edgars’ life is to be his cheerleader, his advocate, and someday, after he is tightly bonded to his new family, I hope that I can be his friend. I feel so blessed that God chose me to be his interim mom…there is nothing I wouldn’t do for this angel in our home, who is asleep upstairs as I write this. From one mother to another – please give our Edgars what we cannot provide him. Please help Edgars find his way home!
WOW!! Right!?! I felt nothing but love for this boy and now we need your help to bring him home!
Edgars needs your help TODAY! We have taken a huge leap of faith to adopt him. We had no plans of doing another international adoption, so we have NO MONEY, not one red cent saved to fund this $36,000+ adoption!!
We need YOU to bring Edgars home and be a part of his story! And we need several thousand dollars RIGHT NOW to start the homestudy and pay our agency fees!
Here are two ways you can donate now:
1) You can donate directly to our Paypal account, by clicking on the DONATE button on the top right of our blog, or
2) You can make a tax deductible donation that will go directly to our agency through our Ordinary Hero account, http://grouprev.com/mcrobertsclan.
We would like to ask you to please pray for Edgars and share Edgars' story, so others can be a part of his story too! From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for helping us bring our son home!
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than we can ask or imagine, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory. Ephesians 3:20-21
If you want to be a part of the McRoberts' journey to bring Edgars home, please visit their blog here: McRoberts Clan Blog . Keep Edgars covered in prayer and consider donating to bring him home - you can be part of his amazing story!
Congratulations, McRoberts family! We love you!
~The Sloan Family
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