[Our8kidsRgifts]

Hi All! My name is Cathe'. I'm married to Ray. We have 8 children and live on a small farm outside San Antonio Tx. We are homeschoolers. We raise Labs.
We are in the middle of adopting 3 sibs 5,8,9.
And 10 month old too.
Finally they will all ours by September.
And it is ALL By Gods Grace!
We do not deserve our children but because of his loving grace we have such a family.

[ArmyWife55]

welcome and congratulations on your adoptions! unfortunately, this forum can get kind of slow sometimes... but im very glad to see you here!!!!

God bless!

[Our8kidsRgifts]

Amy thanks for e-mailing me. I'm excited to meet new friends here. Hey, to you out there I'm looking for sites on Adoption Baby books. I have Adoptionshop.com
Thankssssssssss

[overflowing]

Welcome Cathe' from a fellow homeschooling mom. 8 children, oh that's absolutely wonderful. I want 5 and hubby thinks I'm nuts. I just keep reminding him that God has it all figured out so you just never know He laughs and says "That's what I'm worried about". We currently have three children. Our son, Timothy, is almost 7 (our homegrown miracle), our daughter, Trinity, is almost 3 (our amazing adoption miracle), our baby son, Isaac, (our second adoption miracle) will be 1 at the end of next month. (we have a Isaac, too How long have you been homeschooling? It's tough but totally awesome, too.

Armywife55-How is the process going for you guys? Are you adopting domestic or international, private or county, newborn or older? Wow, that sounds so nosie...please forgive me. I just love watching God build families through adoption. It is so beautiful!!!!

Well, you both will be in my prayers tonight. May God bless you!!!! stacy

[amom4life]

Welcome Cathe! The Christian board has been REAL slow not much activity lately, but a lot of us frequent the General Adoptive Parents board.

I'm also a homeschooling mom and I love it!

Congratulations on your family!
Judy

[blessed6]

My first time here! It's nice to see fellow homeschoolers who love the Lord, and adoption!
We have been blessed with 7 children-two bio 12 and 10, and five through the miracle of adoption 3, 2, 2, 2 and 3 weeks. I feel so blessed and undeserving of the beautiful blessings God has entrusted us with to raise for His glory.

Cathe'- Do the children you are adopting live with you now? How exciting!

overflowing- My dh didn't want any children when we were first married, then agreed to two. After we had the first two and he had fallen totally in love with them, he couldn't wait to have more. He now completely leaves our family planning up to the Lord. We have an Isaac, too!

Chris
mom to Kelsa, Isaac, Grace, Mercy, Gideon, Elijah & Glory

[overflowing]

blessed6-ahhh, you have 3 - 2yr. olds...ahhh, and a newborn...wow, super mom all the way My one 2yr. old runs me ragged. How totally awesome!!! I'd LOVE to hear how your babies joined your family. And I agree...our children are totally in the Lord's hand. I think my hubby is worried that I may become pregnant with twins(my mom's a fraternal twin) after adopting once or twice more. We do not know the medical reasons as to why I haven't become pregnant since our first son. But we know God's perfect plan for our lives was to adopt our beautiful babies...hence why I've never become pregnant again I'm 28 and to dh that's a lot of years left for the Lord to allow me to become pregnant. It truly boils down to trusting God completely with how many children He has planned for our family. And to be honest with you for the last 6months God has put a huge burden and desire to adopt from China. In these last 6months I've seen my dh go from "I'm totally to content with 3 children, no more babies" to "when we travel to go to China..." So, I have full confidence in our Lord and He will handle it all. Thanks for the encouragement. I have yet to meet a super large family that started out in the beginning planning on 7 or 8 children. God works little steps at a time so we don't freak out. God bless you and I'd love to see pics.

[dkstimes]

WOW!! It's nice to see some larger families coming on!! We have 10 children all through adoption! God has blessed us beyond measure!! We are hoping to finalize our last 3 little boys before the end of summer!! What a day of rejoicing that will be for all of us! Our kids range from the age of 5 to 27! We've been involved in adoption and its ups and downs for 21 years! God has been faithful and has given us a very special family! Be blessed!! Deb

[riley6]

I have a small family in comparison. I only have six kids, four through adoption. We are continuing to foster and will accept a sibling group of two (possibly three if the right one came along). My baby is starting kindergarten in the fall and I'm already getting the empty nest syndrome again (my bios are grown).

I also tell people that the size of my family is up to God. Most are really surprised that we might not be finished. We are the largest family in our church. There are two families with five kids. The rest have four or fewer. Not a lot of people understand my love for kids and my desire to parent them.

Maybe we should ask for a board for large adoptive families.

[gkasche]

Hello group!!
I'm not sure exactly what group I am posting this on...it came across on my adoption forums message board. I get posts from all the boards and read it daily. BUT...I would love to introduce myself because I loved what I read so far on this thread. We are from PA. We have two bio sons ages 18 and 15 and have adopted three times from India over the past six years. Our daughters are ages 8, 5, and nearly 3. We tried to adopt in PA for three years before getting frustrated and struck out on our own to "educate ourselves". I am a true believer that God places the children we are to have in our home. One day in the library I was reading a book about adoption...upon closing it my eyes caught sight of some words in the reference section in the back of the book. It was the name of an agency...a phone number and the words "India". I felt very compelled to write it down but did not do anything with the information for 8 more months. I never dreamed we could afford an international adoption. It wasn't until I hit rock bottom emotionally that God whispered to me..."Karen...find the number I had you write down...call it today". I had to really search to find that slip of paper...but when I called I talked with the first person in years that gave us any hope of adopting. The number printed in the book was her home phone number and not the agency phone number...AND she was packing to leave for India the next morning. Had I waited one more day she wouldn't have been home and I don't know if I would have called back. ALSO...she was very surprised that I had come across her number in a book...this agency never advertises. They only place about 5 babies out of India per year and all of them are special needs. Word of mouth does the job nicely enough. Six years and three adoptions later...we are a very blessed and growing family. I would also like to add that never once did we have a dime in the bank ahead of time to pay for adoption fees...but in each case...when the fee was due...the money was there. God provided over and over again. We had to step out in faith for that to happen. I have become a constant researcher in the fields of special needs adoption and adoption grants. So if anyone has any info they would like to pass along...please pm me. I also homeschool and LOVE it. My children are my life. It gets very busy but I wouldn't trade my life with anyone. My oldest son just graduated and is going into the Air Force on July 5th. With five children we are so blessed and may adopt again in the future. It is so wonderful to read of other families who think like we do. I am a true believer that God send us our children. When our youngest was six months old...she had been passed up by the sixth international family. Her medical report was very scary and we were just coming off of our second adoption. We felt very led to ask about her and were given permission to adopt her if we wanted her. We were so afraid of the finances but once again trusted God to provide. She was diagnosed with ASD and seizures. I am very happy to say that Maya Indira has been in our home now for a year. Her ASD resolved on its own and she has been seizure free since the age of 8 months. Our very sickly baby grew to be very healthy and happy. She is so dear to us. We are so glad that God directed us and comforted us in knowing He would keep her healthy and safe until we could get her home. Everyone thought we were absolutely nuts to consider taking her. We heard from everyone..."you have two boys and two girls...why on earth would you want to take a special needs child". I think if we go to adopt again..I will keep it between us and God until the day the child comes. The negative comments wear me down from people who are trying to give us unwanted advice. Anyone else in that situation? Anyway..starting to ramble on now..so I'll stop here. God Bless everyone and their big families of wonderful children!!

Happy Homeschooling everyone...Karen in PA wife to wonderful George for 21 years!! And MOM to John (bio) age 18, Aaron (bio) age 15, Sejona (India) age 8, Anjali (India) age 5 and Maya (India) age 3

[All Boys]

Well I think it is great to see so many christian ladies on here now. I also love the Lord and am a true believer that he gives us our children. You will find great supports here on the forum. It is a great place to meet others, and to be encouraged or to encourage someone else. The waiting can be very hard and we all need all the support that we can get during that time.
So once again Welcome sister in Christ.
Gina

[davisgaskin]

Welcome..... I think it is great to have a large family. It is great to see how God blesses others. It always touches me to read of all the miracles God is doing.

God Bless

[KATIEAO]

i feel it a blessing that i found this thread and that i found this whole forum!! this is our story:
my husband and i are in the final stages of getting his SIX half siblings that are from his dysfunctional dad's 3rd dysfunctional marriage. we live in MN and the kids have been in placement since December last year, they are in 3 different homes in IA. the home study approval for all six has been sent to ICPC and now it is a matter of money and medical, as they will have to be under foster care for 180 days prior to adoptionl. most of them do have special needs, particularily developmental and educational delays, social skills, speech impediments for the 3 boys. In one home is the oldest, 11 year old that is for the first time in her life getting to be a kid and feeling special, the 6 year old that has been ranked with an iq that places him in the MR (we disagree with this and also the oldest boy's score too), and the soon to be 3 year old girl. they are in the most structured home and the fm does daycare for the baby who just turned 1. the baby girl is in a home by herself and the other two boys are 8 and 4- seeming to struggle the most. they refuse to let us get all at once and are very big on not wanting us to fail. the social worker seems to doubt our capabilities and we have mixed feelings if she has other intentions. we are so excited to have the addition to our family. we have a 1 year old bio daughter and my husband has 2 daughters from a previous relationship that are 8 and 4, we get them as much as possible but really usually only some weekends. so there is our basic story, i would like to know what advise anyone would have... i have asked for the baby first because i think that will ease the transition for my own daughter and think it would be best to even have her for 2 weeks to get a jump start on her communications so i can better meet her needs, then i am open to either getting the 3 that are together or the 2 boys that are having most problems, it is tough and probably no right way. as i told the guardian ad litem, i would go get them all tomorrow if i could. any insight for me? we are attending training and seeking as much information as possible to make this as good as possible for everyone. we have faith in God to have this be positive and are so excited!! we have been preparing for this since late Febuary. my primary interests are of suggestions to maintain a healthy marriage, any reward systems effective, organization tips, devotion book recommendations, and any thing else you pro's may offer!! so please, any info will be so greatly appreciated!! thanks much and God bless your wonderful families and the love you have!!

[Our8kidsRgifts]

I haven't been back 4 awhile. My baby Faith was admitted into the hospital 4 her Sickle Cell Beta Thou. I am in TOTAL shock to see so many people who actually LOVE & Cherish their God & children!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am totally in AWWWWWWWWWWW! You ALL R a breath of fresh air. It is BY Gods Grace that WE all have a gift of Love 4 children. Someone please e-mail me if you ever plan on a certain time you chat together. ) Love you all!