“It is when surrender of our lives to God is made, and not until then, that the song begins in our hearts. Only in entire surrender and devotion to Christ can we learn to sing the new song. We must abandon ourselves altogether to Christ. Many of us serve Christ so daintily, so delicately, with so much self-reserve and withholding of ourselves from sacrifice, that we never learn the reality of the joy of Christ. When we devote ourselves to Him wholly, the song will begin!”  ~J.R. Miller 1905

Our new son, known as “Marcus” for now. This is the only picture we are allowed to share right now, but stay tuned.

God is, once again, inviting us to experience an even deeper relationship with Him. To watch Him work ever new miracles in our family. To soar to higher places in His arms.

He has another little one on his way to our home, and very soon — within the next few weeks. We aren’t at liberty to share much about this new son because of his current situation, but we want you to know him, so we will share as much as we are allowed.

He was born in Africa to a very young birth mom and lived a difficult and bleak life for his first few years. When he was four years old, he was adopted by a family in the U.S. As with Braedan and Ian, his adoptive family is seeking a new home for him now. We won’t go into any detail about this, but we will say that he is now six years old, needs to come home very fast, and that our family is beseeching you to pray for us. He is coming to us with a long list of very challenging behaviors and with a heart that will struggle long and hard to trust us and believe that we are committed to parenting him for the rest of his life. The agency handling this adoption is calling him “Marcus”, so that is the name we will use in our blog posts for now.

Scott and I have prayed for several weeks about this little boy, and as a family we have prayed intensely for the past week since we spoke with his family and got a more complete picture of his story. Our only prayer has been that God would make clear to us what He wanted us to do.

We know that not every child out there needing a home is a Rosenow. And we know that God alone knows for sure how many are ours and which ones those are. We know that this is likely to be a long, tough journey for our whole family, requiring hard work, sacrifice, and more dying-to-self for each of us.  And we know that the amount of difficulty involved never confirms nor refutes a calling. So the only real question has been whether or not God was calling us to pursue this child’s adoption. We believe we have the answer to this question now.

Most of our children were ready to move forward almost immediately, and the few who weren’t so sure, came to us within a couple of days to say that they had prayed and were ready to move forward. Scott and I were still praying for clear leading about this and asked them to express their reasons for feeling like this child belonged in our home. Their answers all centered around their belief that our home is a place of healing as they related their own memories of healing after they came home, and expressed their readiness to be a part of helping “Marcus” become whole as a Rosenow. They are excited and prepared for the weeks and months we probably have ahead of us. These children God has brought to us humble and inspire us daily.

So we are working feverishly to raise the money needed and to get his paperwork finished. Unfortunately, we can’t even start the process until we come up with the $3500 agency fee and the money needed for our home study. We are waiting for them to tell us the exact amount needed for the home study, but we are expecting it to be about $1500.

Right after we get things started, we will need $2000 for our attorney’s fee, and then we will need money for plane tickets and other travel expenses for the required three to ten days in his state to wrap up the process and bring him home.

Additionally, we have to have another triple bunk bed, a car seat, and clothes, etc. before we can travel for him, and these things all need to happen as soon as possible. We are hoping to complete everything and travel in about six weeks.

As with any TSC child, The Shepherd’s Crook has set up an account for “Marcus” so that tax-deductible donations can be made to help with any of the above needs. If you are able and interested in helping us bring our son home, you can either:

donate online here

or

mail a check to
The Shepherd’s Crook Orphan Ministry
P.O. Box 773
West Chester, OH 45071

Either way, be sure you designate that the donation is for “Marcus Rosenow” 

And most of all, we ask that you please pray for “Marcus” and for us. Specifically, we are asking God for wisdom and courage and deep love for this little one who will need so much from us; and we are asking for supernatural healing of this new son’s heart. He’s already had so much grief and sadness, upheaval and transition in his short life, but God is fully able to heal him. We believe this with all our hearts.

We truly long to “abandon ourselves altogether to Christ”and “devote ourselves to Him wholly” so that we can “learn to sing the new song.” Won’t you consider joining us? ((UPDATE POSTED ON 5/3/15))

“God can take the broken fragments of a life, shattered by sorrow or by sin, and out of them make a new life whose music shall thrill many hearts. If one is discouraged, if the life seems to be hopelessly broken, the gospel of divine love brings encouragement. There are no ruins of life out of which God cannot build beauty and blessing! ~ J. R. Miller 1905