Well it all started when I was just a little girl of about 6 or 7 years old.  My parents helped pay for an adoption of a tiny girl named Miranda.   The love for the orphan was birthed in my heart.  I always said to people that someday I was going to adopt a little boy from Africa.

 

Well time went on and we had three biological kids, Noah, Kaylee, and Grace Anna.  Noah our oldest son went to Heaven after a long, hard fight with leukemia.  I was crushed that after all of our prayers and faith believing that he would be healed that God took him and let him suffer so much at the end.  I really felt like all of my dreams had died.  One night about 2 years after Noah died I was sitting at the kitchen table and I was reading my Bible crying telling God that I was so broken in life and my dreams were gone.  It was as if God said in my heart, "Heidi I am giving you those two children in the painting."  It was a painting that a friend made and it was called Dream Outloud.  Matt Hebert made it soon after Noah went to Heaven.   I could beleive what God had just spoken to my heart.  My dream of adoption had started and I trusted God that I had two kids out there somewhere!

 

Well my dream of adopting soon met a roadblock.  I mentioned the idea of adopting to my husband.  He said definitely not.  We don't have the money and we just can't do it.  His heart was closed.  Well God begin to work and do the impossible.  One day after a ski trip with the youth group in MN he came home late and said, "Heidi God has been talking to me about the "A" word.  I had no idea what the a word was for a moment and then realized that God was talking to him about us adopting.  Well Jason continued to tell God no we just can't do it.   It was a few months later and Jason's heart had changed amazingly and we started the process to adopt!  We had only about $300.00 to start the process so we applied to Reaching Arms.   We started the process to adopt alittle boy from Guatemala.

 

One Day Jason felt like God told him to give away his truck.  Jason thought no Lord I can't give away my truck I need to sell it to pay for the adoption.  It was about a month later and Noah's anniversary on November 22.  Who did God sent to our door but the man whom needed a truck.  He had brought a card signed from a bunch of youth pastors to say that they were praying for us on this hard day of missing Noah.  Later that day Jason decided that yes he really needed to give his truck away free.  So we did!  

 

It was only a few days later as we were driving home from Thanksgiving break that God spoke so very clearly to me.  I had not been feeling very well from loosing Noah and God spoke these words to me, "Heidi you could hardly make it to the grocery store and now you are going to be going to China.  You need to go and look at the little boy on All God's Children's websight.  Wow I ran downstairs as soon as we got home.  I looked at the little boy who had stuck out to me a few weeks before.  I then begin to read that someone had given a grant of $12,400 to help him and about 7 other kids.  Jason had ran to get some milk and as soon as he got home I showed him the picture and told him about the grant to apply for.  Jason was also very excited!!!!

 

  I talked to Kate and she told me that tons of families had applied for Samuel but to apply anyway. So after church we applied very quickly.  We waited and waited for a few days.  We heard nothing.  I went to bed very sad thinking that we did not get chosen to adopt Samuel.  I started crying in the middle of the night so confused as why God had told me to go and look at Samuel's picture  and that we were going to CHina and then not fulfill this promise to us.  Well I surrendered Samuel to God and told God whatever God wants if fine that I would trust Him.  Well the next morning I went grocery shopping to make Christmas cookies with the kids and I just finished up the dishes.  I saw that on our caller id it said AGC.  I could not believe that I was getting a call from them.  It was Hollen Fraizer.  She said congratulations!!!!  If you still want to adopt Samuel he is yours!  You were amazingly chosen for the grant.  She said I have more amazing news that the family who is paying for the grant wants to pay for your entire adoption.  They even want to pay for travel, hotel, and food!!!  I was crying so hard on the phone I could hardly talk!!!  I was praising God from whom all blessings flow!!!!!  God did it!!!  Samuel would soon be our son!!!!  We went to China on an amazing trip about 6 months later!  Today is Samuel's birthday and he is 6 years old!  God is so faithful!!!

 

Well the story is not done and we flew home from China on June 1!  The next day we went out for a drive and I looked in the backseat with our 3 kids and I felt this overwelming sense that we had a daughter in Guatemala missing from us.  I told Jays and he said no we just got home from China yesterday.  So I waited on God and prayed.  I had a dream about 2 weeks later and there was a big, brown eyed little girl with chubby cheeks looking up at me.  She was crying and nobody would pick her up.  Tons of people were starting at her but nobody would take her home.  I said I will and I took her as my daughter.  Well I woke up and thought Lord was that from you??  I begin to search on line for her picture.  All God's CHildren had closed there program to anyone new starting since Guatemala were closing their doors soon.  Well one day after searching for months I saw her picture.  I prayed for months as I saw all of the kids come and go off of the web.  Esther's picture was still there.  I felt like she was our daughter but $35,000.  WE couldn't do it.  Jason was not open to adopting again at this time.  Well I prayed and everyone I knew who was a prayer warrier!  God kept speaking to me that yes she is your daughter.  I was so torn.  I don't want to be unsubmisive to Jays and yet why is God speaking to me that she is our daughter over and over again.  I watied and prayed.  It was the day before we were leaving for Florida to go back to where Noah had taken his make a wish.  We needed to heal more and go to Florida and God had provided the money to do this.  Jason came home from lunch and asked me to sit down.  He said I called Tamera and God showed me that we are to bring Esther home.   God had provided $6,000 through our volvo getting totaled in a car accident a week before.  It was only totaled because the parts cost so much not because a lot of damage was done.  I was driving to school and it was icy.  I put on my breaks and slid right into another car.  I was very shaken up and once again praying Lord why this now too.  God turned the bad into good.  He used that bad day to be the money to start Esther's adoption!  Well about a year later we were traveling to Guatemala to bring her home!!!  

 

Nothing is too hard for God!!!!  My husband just adores all of our kids.  He loves all of our kids so so much!! He is a great Dad!!!  Somehow God seems to speak adoption to moms alot of times before the Dad's.  Then once God does speak to them they are totally on board.  Just takes a lot of prayer for God to open their hearts.  Then when He does you can see the miracle start!  When your dreams die Let God dreams begin!  I am now praying for Africa and I feel like we have kids there to bring home.  It once again looks impossible and so hard.  Nothing is too hard for God!  I am so excited to see what God is going to do next to let us be apart of a miracle!!!!  I pray that He uses us in big ways to help the orphans one by one!  If God is calling you to adopt don't fear.  Pray and pray tons and let your heart break for the orphan and the poor.   When you look at the orphans you see Jesus in their faces.  I love the song by Geoffe Moore called I see Jesus!  Jesus is with them and loves them so much!  He is calling us to step out of our comfort zone and love them with His love!  He had great plans for the orphans!  Yes God took Noah and my heart still misses him so much.  God had to break me before he could really use me.  We will see Noah again someday dancing together in Heaven but until then thousands of kids are dying, lonely, hungry and cold.  THey need us to be Jesus to them to reach out and call them our own.  Let God open your heart to the cry of the orphan.  You will never be more blessed than when you adopt a child!  It is truly a miracle and blessing me us beyond words!!!

 

Habakkuk 1:5

"THe Lord replied, "Look at the nations and be amazed.  Watch and be astounded at what I will do.  For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn't even believe even if someone told you about it."

 

Habakkuk 2:3

"If it seems slow, wait patiently, for it will surely take place.  It will not be delayed."

 

Isaiah 45:2-3

 

Isaiah 43:5-7

 

Psalms 113:7

"He lifts the poor from the dirt and the needy from the garbage dump."

 

WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!!!!

 

Love Heidi Schafbuch