The Hall Family: July 2009

Sixteen months ago we brought home Stephen, Sarah, and Samuel from Liberia. We'd started the adoption about 18 months before then. But God started even earlier than that it our hearts. We both felt when we got married that we would have children both biologically and by adoption. We always knew it would be sometime later. It was when I was pregnant with Susanna that we felt God calling us to adopt "now." At the time I was on bedrest with #6 with our oldest being only 8 years old. Several of our children had/have special needs. We were living in a 2 bedroom home. We didn't have the finances for it. NOW, God? But we obeyed and God opened the doors through the long adoption process. He answered our prayers! He is so good! God taught my heart what it was to feel called to bring a child/children born of another into my home and heart and love them as my own. They arrived in our home and we set about ministering to their hurting hearts and meeting their needs and loving on them. The challenges were tremendous, but so were the blessings. Finally, though, we realized that Samuel's needs were above what we were able to provide. We prayed for God to show us what to do. We consulted many people and prayed and prayed for wisdom. We wanted for our Samuel to be able to heal from his difficult past. Again, God answered our prayers. This time, He asked us to give up Samuel. Now He taught my heart what it was to love your child but be unable to meet their needs and need to give them up for adoption. Oh that's hard!!! We obeyed and God brought just the right family for Samuel. We are grieving our loss, but rejoicing at the hope that Samuel now has. We believe that God never makes mistakes and that He is always good. We had wanted to be his forever family, but God made it clear that our family was just a part of the journey Samuel was taking to his true forever family. We will forever be honored and thankful for the time we were able to have him with us and will always love and pray for him. May the Lord forever bless and protect him. The photos above were from when the children got to say goodbye to their brother last night.

Love, Dawn

Hannah celebrated her 7th birthday. We opened gifts at home and enjoyed cake and ice cream and THEN headed out to Chuck E. Cheese. The children were shocked and delighted that we were eating dessert before dinner. :-D

Benjamin

Miriam

Susanna

Rebekah

Naomi Ruth and Hannah playing air hockey, Susanna in the background

Stephen really enjoyed getting to go to a week of soccer camp. Although he'd never had any coaching in his life and had never played on a formal team, his personal skill level was at the 9th/10th grade level and his team skills were at the 5th/6th grade level. We're all SO proud of him!

Yesterday, we all went to a nearby park for a good chunk of the afternoon and just enjoyed relaxing and playing together. We ate a picnic lunch and then the children played on the playground.