Dear Friends and Family,
Wow…where to begin?! This will be your Christmas-in-Spring letter…times a million! J We hope this letter finds you well! It has been a crazy couple of years for the Carr’s! Joshua was gone all of 2009 in Iraq, but came home safely to us, and 2010 was a year of immense gratefulness for our family. 2011 has so far been exceptionally full of blessings as well…
· Joshua continues to work at the YMCA in Cuyahoga Falls as the Associate Executive Director. He works part-time at the Beacon Journal (local newspaper) in the sports department 3 nights a week, and also is still a ‘weekend warrior’ with the National Guard. Joshua also works with senior high youth group at our church and is on the leadership board as a delegate. He’s sort of our super star.
· Meg is in her 3rd year teaching at Roberts Middle School in Cuyahoga Falls. She’s the goofiest 6th grade Social Studies teacher they have…and loves her job. Meg also works with the senior high youth group, and especially loves meeting with and mentoring young girls.
· Caleb is finishing up kindergarten. He is working hard on reading, learning math skills, and loves art. He has tried his hand on a t-ball, soccer and basketball team. Caleb is also on our church dance team and loves to worship!
Even though we’ve painted a picture-perfect idea of what life has been like for us lately, the last few years has also come with difficulties; job worries, health concerns, loss of loved ones, etc. Through it all, God has been faithful and has shown our family great things. Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” One of those things is what we want to share with you today. Over the last few years, Joshua and I have felt very strongly on our hearts that we were supposed to adopt. This was never a “Plan B” for our family – it was always something we felt God leading us to, but were not sure of the timing. Though we can no longer have biological children of our own, the three of us feel that as a family, we are blessed to proceed with a process that we know is close to the heart of God. Many people may have questions about what we’re doing, so we’d like to answer some of them. If you have more, please feel free to call or email us!
Meg: megan.carr25@gmail.com 330.962.4787
Why adoption? Again, biologically, we cannot have more children. This has been so difficult emotionally, but we always knew we would adopt. The Bible talks about adoption in a myriad of ways, most of them being that God is a father to the fatherless, and that we ALL have been adopted into His family through our salvation. Some of the most notable adoptees in the Bible were Jesus himself (with Joseph as his adopted earthly father) and Moses (adopted by the pharaoh of Egypt!). We feel that adoption is a directive of the gospel, and while people play different parts in that role, we feel that our role is to be the adoptive family.
Domestic or International? We have decided together (all three of us!) to adopt internationally. Right now, we are looking at Asia. There are many reasons for this, and you are welcome to ask away! The best way we can explain it is that we know God’s heart is for the world – and so is ours. There are 145 million orphans in the world and we know that we are able to help at least one of them! Many Asian countries have up to a 53% abortion rate, because it is considered shameful to have children out of wedlock. Adoption domestically there is also not widely accepted. We feel very strongly that adoption not feel like a ‘business’, but as a way for many like-minded people to work together to form families, and so we are excited to work with a ministry as opposed to an agency. (Many people want to know why we did not consider domestic adoption, and the best answer is – we did – but we feel, for a variety of reasons, that this is the best option for us.)
How long does it take? That’s a tricky question. J We sure wish it was quick and easy, but for things to be ethical, we know that this will certainly be a process.
Why is it so expensive? People assume so many things about the cost of adoption, such as domestic adoptions being more inexpensive than international (which actually isn’t true), that we must be rich (NOT true! *laughing*), or that we will be writing one big check to our adoption agency and that's the end of that. None of these statements could be farther from the truth! There are fees associated with our applications, country, orphanage, home study, legal documents, notarization, translating, background checks, fingerprinting, travel, visas, and more. We'll certainly be writing checks to our agency, but our money will also be flowing into our local and state governments and various institutions in Asia. While we understand the exceptional cost, we also understand the exceptional way that God provides! We are saving, planning and working to make sure that this happens! We currently have the following fundraisers planned, with more in the works:
- Leaves of Love Tree – ongoing
- Friends and Family Garage Sale – May
- Dinner Theater – October (tentative date)
How can we help? Lots of people have asked how they can help, which blesses us SO much! We love that adoption is a collective effort – very much what the Body of Christ represents. We need prayer, first and foremost! Prayer for our family, the process itself, and our little one. We need donations and/or volunteers for our garage sale in May. Also, we would LOVE to have you be a part of our Leaves of Love Tree!
If you live close, and have items you would like to donate to our garage sale, feel free to email or call us to set up a time to drop off your items.
If you decide to donate to our Leaves of Love Tree, you can mail us your donation:
Joshua and Meg Carr
**email us for address**
Thank you all SO much!
Leaves of Love
The idea behind Leaves of Love was created by an adoptive family. They send us a 24 x 36 print of the image you see above, with enough room for 100 – 150 thumbprints. We are hoping to have people donate $10 or more for our “family tree”, and for each donation, we will add a thumbprint with their name, or special verse, etc. onto our tree. Our hope is to have it framed and placed in our baby’s room as a reminder of the family that created, loved, prayed for, and helped bring her home. If you would like to help us with this, we would be SO grateful!
We will be posting progress on our Tree, fundraising, events, process, etc. on our blog. We would love it if you followed along with us. We are honored to call you all family, friends and loved ones.
