Tuesday, March 31, 2015

What's In A Name ... ?

Words have meaning and names have power.  ~Author Unknown

I believe that naming your child is a beautiful expression of your love towards him or her.  I believe there is great significance and responsibility in naming a child.  I’m sure not everyone holds this same belief … something I firmly believe when I hear names like Tommy Thompson, David Davis, Peter Peterson, … North West (ahem) …

While each of my children might not completely appreciate the long names that they have, I don’t think they have a problem with any of the actual names.  Each of them have three names and each name is significant or named with a purpose.

In naming our two Chinese sons, their names came quickly but not without meaning.

XXXX, XXX Bei will be Jonah Lee Bei.
               
                Jonah – quite a few years ago I took a class from Moody Bible Institute and I had to do a complete study of the book of Jonah. In my study I grew deeply aware of the provision and compassion of God.  After that study, I said to myself, "If I ever have another son, I think I'd like to name him Jonah."  The name Jonah is derived from Hebrew and means “Dove”.  A dove is symbolic of peace and gentleness, which is very much what I see when I look into this special boy's eyes.

                Lee – my mother’s name is Leanna, but she goes by Lee.  Lee is a Celtic name meaning “Healer”.


                  Bei – we will keep this portion of his given Chinese name.  The character for Bei literally means “shellfish” – oh well, it is what it is.


XX, Huang will be Rees Solomon Huang.

                Rees - In 2004, my life was forever altered when I went on a mission trip to Frodsham, England.  My husband and I were graciously and lovingly hosted by a sweet couple who quickly became another set of parents, ... Dennis and Maureen Rees.  In July, 2014, my life was forcibly altered again when Dennis passed away.  My sweet boy, Rees, will be an honorary tribute to a beautiful and treasured chapter of my life.  The name Rees is Welsh and means "ardent or fiery", which means intense feeling; passionate.


                      Solomon - Dennis suggested to me a couple years ago to read the book of Ecclesiastes.  I did and I found it both depressing and enlightening ... which I told him.  I have since then read it again.  I don't know for sure what was behind his suggestion; hopefully, one day, I will.  Originally, we were going to choose the name "Oliver" for Rees' second name but I felt it needed to change.  So, I told Brian "we need to come up with a different name and I think it should be biblical."  After a few moments, he suggested "Solomon".  Ooo ... I really like it!!  What I find very interesting is that Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes and it was the Bible verse Ecclesiastes 11:4 that propelled this adoption into action.  The name Solomon is Hebrew and it means "peace".

                  Huang - we will keep this portion of his Chinese name.  The character for Huang literally means "yellow" - again, it is what it is.  



Saturday, March 28, 2015

Crossing the Jordan ...

SURPRISE!!!

The Prendergast Family is preparing for growth as we have made the decision to adopt again from China!! 

Our last adoption was seven years ago and since then the possibility of another adoption has come up from time to time and the process to adopt another child was even initiated and then stopped at least twice.  In those instances, something just wasn’t right.  Well, a few months ago Brian had brought up adoption again, yes, Brian, … and I began to really ponder if this was something we should consider.  Truly, I can always find at least one reason that the timing isn’t right to adopt again but I began asking God to give me clarity; I asked Him to make it really clear that we should pursue another adoption.  Guess what??  He did!  This may seem silly but we were watching the movie “Faith Like Potatoes” which is the story of Angus Buchan, a South African farmer, who eventually became a full-time evangelist.  There’s a scene in the movie where Angus is trying to reserve the use of a huge stadium to hold one of his evangelical meetings and he’s questioned as to whether or not he should wait … that this might be too big a step to take.  Angus replied with Ecclesiastes 11:4 – “Those who wait for perfect weather will never plant seeds; those who look at every cloud will never harvest crops.”  And I heard God say, “The Time is Now”.

So, I began looking up different adoption agencies, not automatically assuming that we would use the same agency as we had previously gone with.  I also asked a group of adoptive families we know from our adoption experience(s) for recommendations of agencies they have utilized.   One night in February, as I lay in bed with my trusty tablet, the rest in the house fast asleep, I decided to look up an agency to learn what I could about them, like many other agencies, this one had a waiting child list and after following the appropriate steps to get a username and password, I began scanning the listing of children waiting to be adopted.  There are SO MANY children waiting for a family, so many who are in need of medical care, security and love.    It’s often difficult to see the photos of all these children but I just hope for one to tug at my heart, to cause me to look a little further.  That’s what happened when I saw the photo of Billy.  
 I was so taken aback by his photo as I had never seen any child or person with a similar appearance.  Clearly, Billy has some sort of facial anomaly.  The details listed with his photo read “Billy is a sweet little boy who gets along well with other children.  His best friend is “Alan” on WACAP’s list!  This kind hearted little boy will help out the nannies, and when he sees younger children crying he’ll pat their shoulders and wipe their tears; he’s very gentle and is good at comforting them.”  Hmm”, … I thought.  It was late; I was getting tired but I would definitely be thinking about this boy.  


As I was about to close out of the list, I merely scrolled down just a bit more
and then I saw Alan and I was taken aback, yet again … and then it clicked!  This boy is the boy that was stated as being the best friend of Billy.  Oh MY!  Well, it was not our intention to seek the adoption of two boys but after sharing the information with Brian the next day,  he said, “OK!  Then we should try to adopt them both!”  My mouth just dropped WIDE OPEN!  But, truly, we did not know how we would be able to choose between them and we also felt that if they were really best friends, then they should be together.  At the ages of 5 and 6, they are fully aware that they look different and they are bonded to each other because of those differences.  We learned this after obtaining the files on the two of them. 

You might wonder why we would be so drawn to children with such extreme facial differences.  Well, when we pursued adoption for the very first time, back in early 2006, at first glance, we would not have chosen her.
   
In fact, when shown the three separate documents showing photos of little girls on a waiting child list, we immediately pushed the information sheet with her photo aside because the medical condition listed was very "foreign" to us and the black and white photo showed a child whose eyes were further apart than normal and there was "something" in between them that was undecipherable.  We had made up our minds right away that we would choose between the other two girls, however, just after that, we were notified that the other two girls were already on hold with other families and that the little girl (whose sheet we quickly moved aside was the only girl left on the list at that time.  We were assured that another list would come again soon but that just in case they would email us the file of that little girl whom we did not want to consider.  

And when we looked again this little child came to life, and although we had no idea at that moment what her medical condition would mean, we knew that God had chosen her to be our daughter.  If we hadn’t followed the tug on our hearts and stepped into the great unknown, Molly Frances would not be our daughter … and that thought is unbearable and unimaginable. She is an absolute ray of sunshine and we are so blessed that she is in our family! 


 Because of her, we also adopted Brynn, born with a similar facial anomaly. 

These two boys belong in our family too and we are eager to love them just the way that they are but to also be able to provide for them the opportunity to correct the medical conditions they have and to live a more normal life than they would ever have if left where they are currently.  We are very humbled as we make ourselves vulnerable to the thoughts, feelings and words that may be evoked as we open ourselves up WIDE in sharing this information … it’s a scary thing … but we realize that we’re going to need some help along this path that we are taking.  The fees associated with adopting one child are a bit overwhelming but for two will be nearly doubled at an estimated $45,000 and based on our experiences with our daughters we are aware that the medical issues will also certainly pull from our finances as well, even with our current medical coverage.  It is not our intention to have other people fund this adoption, but our goal is to not acquire a huge financial debt that will create a difficult burden on us once we arrive home with two more children who have special medical circumstances.  Both boys will require craniofacial surgeries, dental procedures and, likely, speech therapy.   We also are going to have to go back to driving a vehicle with more seats!  Our daughters will have to go back to sharing a bedroom; we will have more family members and less space …  …  … Some might say, “that’s easy, then just don’t do it!”   

We’ve made a choice not to choose “easy”, and on the days when we’re feeling discouraged or full of doubt, we will mimic these words: “Lord, … when helping just one more person seems like too much, help me to choose you. On the days when Satan whispers 'You can't save everyone, why are you trying?' … let me choose you.”  Katie J. Davis, Kisses from Katie  God has placed within us our heart for the orphans.  God has given us the motivation to expand our boundaries.  And God will give us courage … not to save them all … but for right now, to make a difference for just two more.  We are choosing to trust in God.


“…tomorrow,” he said, “the Lord will do a great miracle … when the priests who are carrying the Ark touch the water with their feet, the river will stop flowing as though held back by a dam, and will pile up as though against an invisible wall!” Now it was the harvest season and the Jordan was overflowing all its banks; but as the people set out to cross the river and as the feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark touched the water at the river’s edge, suddenly, far up the river … the water began piling up as though against a dam! And the water below that point flowed on … until the riverbed was empty. Then all the people crossed at a spot where the river was close to the city of Jericho, and the priests who were carrying the Ark stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan and waited as all the people passed by. (Joshua 3)

Although we will utilize money that we have saved, continue to save while living a bit more frugally, apply for grants and also hold fundraisers, … more money than we have, or project we will have, will be needed to make this happen.  What we are about to do is an enormous step of faith and we are trusting God completely for His provision.  This is our first step of faith into the waters of the Jordan River, sharing with you what God has placed on our hearts. It’s up to God to provide the miracle.  And some of you will be a part of that miracle.  

Would you consider helping to change a child’s future?  There are a variety of ways you can help us:

  • We are asking for prayer to cover our family, these two boys, the paperwork and the process.
  • We will likely do some fundraisers and would be grateful for your participation.  At this point, we would welcome any and all fundraising suggestions or ideas.
  • You can share our story with others who you feel might be interested and able to offer support.  We will be documenting our “journey” via this blog.  
  • You can support our adoption financially in a variety of ways:
Please feel free to contact us at prenderbergs@gmail.com if you would like to support us in one of these ways.


We are greatly blessed by the encouragement and support of those around us and we pray that God reciprocates and multiplies your blessing back to you!!