Boy, was I naïve…..

I remember the Sunday night in October of 2002, when my wife and I looked at each other after reading the stories of kids available for adoption in the Sunday paper.   We had commented about them many times, but suddenly it was different.   We were actually serious about adding one or two more children to our family!  I had no idea how many ways God would change our lives as we followed His call to love and care for orphans in the world. 

In the five years since, many people have asked us, “What made you pick Haiti?”  The short answer is that God told us to.   The long answer is that, as we started exploring different options, we found more and more connections to Haiti.  By praying, sharing our “intentions” with friends and family, and asking them to pray for God’s leading, we saw God opening many doors and gently shutting others as we searched for our children.   All doors pointed to God’s Littlest Angels in Petionville, Haiti (www.glahaiti.org).

We brought Abby and Isaac home from Haiti in June of 2004.  Isaac was 3½ and Abby was just over 2½.   Suddenly, we went from having three biological daughters (ages 17, 14 and 12) to having five children.  To say that life got a bit busier would be an understatement!

Who would have thought?

Since then, our lives have become a wonderful adventure full of many “Who would have thought?” moments:

• Who would have thought that we’d ever have five children in our family with a 15-year age spread between them?
• Who would have thought that in the last five years, we’d make more trips to a fourth world country than we would to “resort” countries?
• Who would have thought that becoming a trans-racial family would broaden our horizons and allow us to meet so many wonderful people of different races?
• Who would have thought that we’d get our story in the local newspapers because our kids were caught in the middle of a government coup?
• Who would have thought that our 2^nd oldest would decide to devote her life to caring for the orphans in Haiti?
• Who would have thought that my very blonde haired wife would learn to be an “expert” in black hair care?
• Who would have thought that we’d learn so much about how adopted kids need to be “parented” differently than biological children do?
• Who would have thought that this banker from a small town in Michigan would play a large part in helping Bethany Christian Services start facilitating adoptions from Haiti?  And that over 70 families have started the process to adopt from Haiti because of that?
• Who would have thought that we’d make friends literally all over the world with other families with Haitian children?
• Who would have thought we’d have the privilege of watching Abby change from a 20 month old who weighed 12 lbs and couldn’t even stand up on her own to a 6-year-old who is on the go and talking constantly?
• Who would have thought that finally having a boy in the family would be so much fun?
• Who would have thought I’d be on the board of an orphanage in Haiti and be helping raise money so they can build an orphanage large enough to care for the needy children until they can go home to their forever families?
• Who would have thought I’d ever be in a situation where for three months a year, I’d be able to say that I have two kids of the same age and they aren’t twins!
• Who would have thought that I’d ever have Focus on the Family ask me to share our story as part of their Orphan Care Initiative?

Since we brought our children home, many people have commented that “those kids are so blessed!”   They don’t really understand. 

We are the ones who have been blessed even more!

We’re blessed to have them as our children, blessed by the things we’ve learned in the process, blessed by the people we’ve come to meet, blessed by the people we’ve become good friends with through our adoption connections, blessed by a greater appreciation of how God moves and works in this world, and blessed by how good we’ve got it.

Stepping Up

One of the people we’ve met and come to consider friends through our adoption adventure likes to say, “Life is never boring when you follow God’s call.”  I firmly believe that now.   I think it’s even more noteworthy when you realize that friend of ours has 13 kids, 7 biological and 6 adopted.   Now that’s what I call an adventure!

When we responded to God’s urging that we had room for more children in our family, we really didn’t expect that He would lead us this way.  It’s been a wild ride with lots of ups and downs, but it has been amazing to see the way God has led and guided us.  I wouldn’t trade these last five years for anything, and we’re looking forward to seeing what else God has in store as we continue to follow the call of James 1:27: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress….”

I’d like to urge you to be open to that “still small voice” and ask God what role you can play in caring for the orphans of the world.   Then ask your family and friends to join you in prayer about what role you can all play.   If you’d like to talk to me about any of this, please feel free to e-mail me at tvanderwell@sbcglobal.net or call me at (616) 292-7559.

Tom Vanderwell was born in Sioux Center, Iowa and is the son of a Christian Reformed minister.  He’s spent the majority of his life living in Western Michigan where he married his high school sweetheart, Cheryl, 22 years ago.  They have five children ranging in age from 20 down to 6.  He’s a mortgage lender with a large regional bank, and Tom has been on the board of God’s Littlest Angels since 2006.  In his spare time, Tom enjoys reading, working on computers, camping, golf, and spending time with his family.