Rejoice with Me

"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, "Rejoice with me!" Luke 15:3-7

It is so hard to find words adequate to express our joy. As I reflect on our Maren's home-coming this phrase "rejoice with me" captures what is in my heart. Our daughter is HOME! The lost is found. Rejoice with me.

Alex and I have prayed since 2003 that the Lord would set an orphan into our family. Many mornings at breakfast I would sit down with our children and we would ask the Lord to bring us a baby who needed our family. We would say, "we are available please make a way".

However, the whole idea of adopting seemed overwhelming. We wanted to adopt so much but it would take a miracle for us to be able to do it.

Finding His Hands Taiwan was a miracle. The fact that Maren was not aborted was miraculous. Financing our adoption was another series of miracles. Being matched with a birth mom who was such a perfect complement to our family was another miracle. All of these miracles has given us great hope that God is at work. We pray that we will all be in heaven together one day. We are so happy that God has provided miracle after miracle.

It is with this joy that we wish to invite you to rejoice with us on November 14, 2010. You are invited to Maren's first birthday party. We are holding an open house in Maren's honor at in our home on Sunday, November 14th from 4-7 p.m.

In lieu of gifts, we will have a basket available for anyone wishing to make a tax deductible donation of any amount to His Hands Taiwan, the orphanage where Maren received her care for the first seven months of her life.

We look forward to celebrating with you!

Alex and Beth

For friends at a distance who would want to bless Maren's orphanage the U.S. address is:

His Hands Taiwan

P.O. Box 404

Leakey, Texas 78873

You can write in honor of Maren Brodine on the memo line.