Family Friday: the Olsons
Friday, January 7, 2011 at 1:58PM Today it's time for...
And this week we're featuring the Olsons! Take a look at that cutie! Below is a letter they sent to us. I love to hear "God stories" like this and feel so blessed to work in a place where it's not an uncommon occurance!
There are no words to thank you enough for helping bring our family together. We believe that God has called us to adoption, however we have had to take a step of faith to trust God with the finances. You are an answer to prayer.
We sent over 400 letters to friends and family asking for help with the finances. We had three responses totaling about $250. We were discouraged. We tried a book sale where we collected over 1500 books from people who wanted to help with donations. We made about $1000 selling those donated books, but that was not as much as we had hoped. We were stuck. We applied at Lifesong for Orphans and felt so blessed to receive a matching grant! We could not believe it, but when we sent a letter about the matching grant, we had over $8,000 come in! Isn't that amazing?! We were blown away. 40% of our adoption costs were raised! We are so grateful!
We are first-time parents and loving it. We started the Ethiopia adoption process in the summer of 2008 through Children's Hope International. We had many disappointments along the way, but are so thrilled to say that we are home with our son! The process for Ethiopia calls for two trips, but we decided to stay the entire time! So we were in Ethiopia for six weeks. We learned about the culture and got some key time with our son.
His name is Zain Sato Olson. Zain is a form of John meaning "Beloved" and "God's Gracious Gift." Sato is his given Ethiopian name meaning "life" or "lush" though there is no literal translation. He was born on May 6, 2010 and became our son on Nov 25, 2010. He is amazing! He already can crawl and pull himself up on things. We had to baby-proof as soon as we got home!!! He babbles all the time and always wants to be involved in the conversation. He has two teeth and seems to be getting more. He is super healthy and growing like crazy!
Again, thank you so much for all you have done for us. We hope that you got a glimpse of the Kingdom impact you have made. God's heart is for adoption and we know that you have reflected this part of His character with your generosity.
Much love,
Erik, Bet, and Zain Olson
http://wechoseyou.blogspot.com
Ephesians 1:3-8 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.
Genesis 22:13-14 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided.”
Thank you, Olsons! The Lifesong team has counted it a joy to work with you and we are honored to be a part of your story!
The cool thing is, this wasn't a huge event. Just a small group of believers coming together with willing hearts for a cause. A cause that we believe is at the heart of our Father in Heaven. And believe me, it was powerful.
