Cheryl was bemoaning the fact that her oldest daughter had gone astray. Janice, her oldest, was not living for God and seemed to have little interest in spiritual things. Cheryl was not sure what went wrong. She and Robert adopted Janice when she was 2-years old. They had been married for five years at the time and could not have children of their own.

Adoption seemed like a great option for the young couple. After much prayer and counsel, they adopted Janice and were excited about their newly formed family.

As the years wore on it became evident that Robert was a poor spiritual leader in the home and Cheryl had little understanding of what it meant to be a mom. In addition to these deficiencies, God opened her womb and she had “her own child.” Sarah was five years younger than her sister and proved to be a “better” child than Janice.

Janice and Sarah are 27 and 22-years old respectively. Janice is in rebellion, while Sarah is a “model” child. During counseling Cheryl said,

Janice has been a hard child to parent. We tried everything. Some things worked and other things were not good ideas. Fortunately God gave me Janice to practice on before He gave me my real child. What I learned through trial and error with Janice I changed and did a better job with Sarah. Can you help me understand what went wrong with Janice?

Application Questions

1. Where would you want to start with Robert and Cheryl?
2. What would you say to Cheryl’s question?
3. What other information would you like to know from Robert & Cheryl?
4. What are some things you are suspecting right now about this counseling case?

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This note is from my friends Drew & Kamarie Miles, who will be adopting a third child, Nikolai, in early summer.

God has led us to adopt a little boy named Nikolai. Nikolai lives in an orphanage in the Ukraine. He has Down Syndrome, and like most children with Down Syndrome in Eastern Europe, he would spend most of his life in a mental institution, unless a family rescued him.

Drew and I learned of Nikolai through an adoption ministry called Reece’s Rainbow, who help children all over the world with Down Syndrome find their forever family. We both knew instantly that he was our son. Though it is difficult to explain, we had this feeling in our hearts that one of our sons was “missing.”

We immediately contacted Reece’s Rainbow and committed to do WHATEVER it takes to bring Nikolai home. The day after we sent our commitment papers, we received this email from the director of Reece’s Rainbow.

I just wanted to let you know….you just saved Nikolai from the institution. They were days from transferring him. Our facilitator called and they said they will hold him.

Nikolai was to be transferred to a mental institute had we not stepped out in faith and done what we knew God wanted us to do. We can’t begin to describe all the ways we have seen God’s hand at work. Nikolai is being held at the orphanage for our family, but we were told we need to move quickly. Within two weeks we completed all of our home study paperwork, were fingerprinted, had background checks done, medical exams, passports, etc….

We could be bringing Nikolai home in June! Reece’s Rainbow told us to expect our total adoption costs to be about $25,000. That seems like a lot and, as you might imagine, we have had a few brief moments of “panic” thinking about coming up with that kind of money in 3 to 4 months time. Drew and I have been able to put together about $7,000 and we have some friends helping us with some fundraisers for Nikolai.

We know that God is going to provide the other $18,000 we need by June. As a friend reminded me yesterday, that’s just 450 people giving $40. Please pray for our family as we go through this process. At times it feels like we are on an emotional rollercoaster.

1. Pray for Nikolai to be kept safe until we are united with him.
2. Pray that we would continue to be sensitive to God’s leading, even in the small things.
3. Pray for the financial needs to be met to bring Nikolai home.

Grace and Peace,
Drew, Kamarie, Lane, Hudson & Nikolai Miles!

If you would like to sponsor Nikolai’s adoption you can make a tax deductible donation click Reece’s Rainbow: International Down Syndrome Orphan Ministry.

Please click the Facebook link to share this article with all your Facebook friends. Ask the world of Facebook to pray for Nikolai!

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