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Orphaned
The dictionary says that you are an orphan if your parents have died.
My biological father died when I was 13, but as I had never met him, nor he me, the loss was not as impactful as I felt it should be. I felt a bit guilty that there was no real sense of loss back then. That caught up to me as the years passed. Eventually, I lost my great-grandmother, grandparents, mother, stepfather, and my husband. All were a vital part of my life.
One day, well into my advanced adulthood, it occurred to me that I was now orphaned.
However, I was by then also widowed with 6 grown children and 16 grandchildren.
Then, I met Bruce.
Bruce was a widowed pastor with 4 grown children and 9 grandchildren of his own.
When we married our lives suddenly increased by a good number of combined children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
We only regretted that marrying (at age 72 for me and 78 for Bruce) meant that we would not have children together. Abraham and Sarah being the only exceptions.
THEN, a few years later, our church informed us of a Tanzanian school with 230 children, 47 of whom were full orphans. Our church actively participates in supporting the school in numerous ways.
Though we live on a very small social security income and have no other resources, God taught us how to live even more frugally than we had previously. Life became very exciting. He answered our prayers again and again.
See our iamcalls.com story entitled, “When I Found My Smile.”
Thus, we “adopted” our 7 Tanzanian orphans.
Though our ages and finances prevent us from visiting in Tanzania, we can feed, clothe, and educate our Tanzanian children, whom God put into our path. We look forward to their school getting connected more fully to computers for one-on-one communication.
For now, writing to them and seeing their pictures as they thrive has been a glorious blessing.
Ironically, my husband and his first wife had married young and said they always wanted 20 children. They had two biological children, (a third in heaven), and then adopted two children. Years later, after Reba passed away, Bruce asked God for a helpmate with his website, (which you are now reading,) and for a wife. I became that wife.
Read the full story in our story entitled, “Is God Real In Your Life?”
As I mentioned, I had 6 biological children of my own, (2 daughters and 4 sons). So–between us, Bruce and I have 10 children, 25 grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, and with their spouses, a host of wonderful children-in-law.
Bruce and his first wife had also done foster care parenting for years and three other “daughters” joined their family in that way. They still keep in touch and were “still in his heart,” as Bruce puts it, so these former fosters are also counted into the family census. Over time they too called me “Mama”… and Bruce always is their “Daddy.”
If you are adding, that count is up to 13 grown children— and then we were blessed with the addition of our 7 orphans.
At the ages of 76 (me) and 82 (Bruce) we finally had our 20 children. They now range in age from George at 59 (Bruce’s oldest son) to Mary, age 5, (youngest of our Tanzanian daughters.)
Our God is SO AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL!!!.
Our dreams are fulfilled.
Yet, we know that as we serve Him, our God will continue to bless and amaze us.
We can’t wait for whatever our future holds.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. John 14:18 NKJV
He comes to the orphans, near and far, young and old.
He reminds us that He has adopted US when we receive Jesus and ask God for forgiveness through Christ.
Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. James 1:27 NKJV
Our job is to reach out to the orphans as God has reached out to us.
And He continues to enfold us.