Faithful Friday - The Evensen Family

(Sorry, its not Friday anymore. I started this yesterday, but then got busy with Carter Benjamin Benefit! :))

It's Friday! And today meet the Evensen Family!

And the precious babe they are working to bring home -

From their FSP page on RR -

EDDIE for the Evensen family — Aberdeen, WA

Derek and Rachelle Evensen have been married for 12 years.  They live on their small farm in western Washington with their three precious biological children:  Isaac is 8, Josiah is 4, and Gracie is almost 3.  Rachelle is a stay-at-home homeschooling mom, and Derek is an electrician.  They keep busy with their goats, ducks, chickens, rabbits, and dog, and enjoy Cub Scouts, AWANA, family game nights, and just about anything that involves them all being together.  They have always wanted a large family, and they knew early on that they wanted to add to their family through adoption.   They planned to find their children in US foster care, and became licensed foster parents in 2002.  However, despite fostering many children over the years, none of those have become available for adoption. 

Rachelle has always had a real heart for orphans, and one evening as she was doing an internet search on the topic of orphans, she came across Reece’s Rainbow.  She immediately fell in love with the darling little faces posted on the site.  Over the next year, she and Derek returned to the website often.  At first, they looked and prayed over the children, and despite being strongly drawn to the RR children, they felt convinced that their calling was to foster care, but definitely NOT international adoption!  But over the next several months, the Lord worked on their hearts.  They began to realize that many of the reasons to NOT adopt internationally were actually just fear and uncertainty talking.  The cost, the time away from home, the uncertainty, the language barrier, the cultural differences . . . one by one the Lord eased these fears from their hearts, until all that was left was, “Why not?”  They could not think of a single reason to NOT commit to one of these dear children. 

Eddie’s sweet, hopeful smile drew them to his profile again and again, and this little boy soon filled their dreams and discussions.  They are very eager to kiss his little head and wrap him in their longing arms and to shower him with love and to never let him go.  He has been waiting too long, and Derek and Rachelle are working as quickly as possible to get him home.  He has two brothers and a sister who are so excited to welcome their new “forever brother” home.  He is already so very loved. 

6/13/11—HOME STUDY IN PROGRESS 

Follow the Evensen family’s adoption journey on their blog http://addtothebeauty-evensen.blogspot.com/

$35.00 is available towards the cost of my adoption!

That face is a familiar site on this blog, huh? If you look on my sidebar you'll see the most popular posts, and Waiting Wednesday: Eddie is at the top. Then I posted about him (Eddie had a FAMILY!)when we found out he had a family! And now I am finally getting around to posting about his family! :) They are one amazing family, and they are naming him Gideon. I can't wait until they get to meet him! :)

Right now they are having a puzzle fundraiser for his birthday! For a $5 donation you can give Gideon one of the birthday gifts he has ever received! They will write your name on the back of a puzzle piece, and they will be able to show Gideon one day how many people loved him even before he came home!

The puzzle they are doing!

And please head on over to their blog, leave them a note of encouragement and follow along on their journey to get Gideon!