By: Hanna Thomas

Something really beautiful just happened and although I have a ton to do I decided it was important to share it with you all immediately.

We recently added 3 more kids to our family to put us at 8 total. The blessing these kids are to our family is beyond what I can write on this post. But I will definitely share more about it soon. They are 11, 13, and 16 and we have known them for 3 years. We’ve been praying for them for years now and see it truly as God’s faithfulness that they are in our home.

Our oldest is Maryln who is 16. I have spent lots of time talking with her so far, we will stay up later than normal just talking in the living room. She’s started to open up and share some of what she has experienced in her life. She’s a middle sibling and has a bunch of older siblings who are adults and the two younger siblings who live with us. She has shared about her dad and her feelings towards him, and she has shared some of what she went through when she lived in another orphanage a few years ago. It was actually an orphanage that caught on fire and burnt down killing lots of kids. She has only begun to share about how horrible it was there.

All this is just to say that at 16, this girl has been through some serious stuff. The physical and emotional pain she has experienced has made her so strong. At home, she’s always wanting to help me. I was cleaning off the stove one day and she took the steel wool out of my hands and said, “Here, let me do it for you.” She is constantly serving and she is a really good big sister to all of the kids. Her influence on our 12 year old girl has been huge. And when we go on walks, she’s always right next to me, holding the hand of a little one who needs some guidance. Her heart, even as a teenager, is so big.

We have finally had the chance to talk to the founder about our vision of a home. We have a spot picked out and plans drawn up and we are SO EXCITED to start building, Lord willing, in August. That too, is another post that I’ll do soon. But in short, our goal is to build a home in Safe Haven with the other families who are doing Orphan Care so that we can be in closer community with them, so that we can start growing our own produce, and to give our kids the proper space to flourish (having more than one bathroom for 8 kids is one important part of this).

The cost is going to be $62,500.

As soon as we were told the cost, our older kids immediately started planning ways they could raise money to build this home. These kids so badly desire this place they can call their own.

Back to Maryln. This girl doesn’t have much at all. She has a few nice outfits, a few shoes and her books for school. That’s about it. Every once in a while she works and earns a little money. But today, Maryln came in and handed me 100Q. That’s the equivalent of $20. She said, “This is for our new house. I’ve been working and I want to put this towards our home.” She gave literally all she had. I nearly broke down in tears. But I hugged her and gave her a kiss on the forehead. I didn’t know what to say.  I went to find Evan and told him and he was tearing up as I told him.

Then I thought about that story in the Old Testament where Elijah went to a village in famine and asked a widow for a drink and some bread. She told him she didn’t have bread but she had some flour and oil that she was planning to use to make the very last meal for her and her son who had been starving. Elijah told her to make some bread and share it with him. He told her that in this act of giving that her flour and oil wouldn’t run out. She gave all she had and God blessed her faithfulness with constantly restoring her supply.

$62,500 is a lot of money. But man, what a way to start the fundraising- a girl who has nothing giving everything she has.