Meet our newest fundraiser family, the Duncan family. Their fundraiser starts today and ends on the 29th! Be sure to include “Duncan Family” at checkout to have your purchase directly support their adoption! Their story definitely captures the heart. Below Amanda shares how they are going from a family of 9 to 11!
In late October, my husband and I were having a completely ordinary, “boring” Friday night. Watching Netflix, our 7 kids tucked in bed, 2 dogs sleeping on the floor, and there I was just scrolling through Facebook. I saw a post, from a girl who I had known for a few years (old neighbor), she shared about hosting. She and her husband were planning to host that winter and that some children were still waiting for a family with a few weeks left. Honestly, I had never heard of orphan hosting before that moment. I started to scroll through the pictures of waiting children (which I knew was dangerous) and when I got to one little girl’s picture I think my heart skipped a beat! I showed her to my husband and made a remark like, “I mean…come on, how cute is she?” Then, when I opened her bio, the tears started…my thought was, we can’t do this. We have 7 kids already. Her picture wouldn’t go out of my mind. I knew what I wanted to do but we decided to pray on it. Before I even opened my eyes the next morning I was seeing that little face in my mind. We quickly decided that James 1:27 was clear enough and we didn’t need to spend any more time talking, praying or trying to figure out the unknowns. From that moment on that little girl has not left my heart for one second of any day. She spent 8 weeks with us this summer and 5 weeks last winter and to be honest it was hard, exhausting, and the best thing we’ve ever done. I will never be the same person I was before hosting…and thank God for that. After winter hosting we approached the idea of adopting her and make her a permanent part of our forever family. We began the process in February. Home study, medical appointments, gathering tons of documents. Then one day it just hit me. She is in a sibling group and there are 7 of them. Two girls are already being adopted leaving 3 brothers and a sister. This broke me to my core. I know I can’t adopt them all but how can I leave her sister behind? The one who our host daughter calls her best friend? We prayed. Then prayed more. So in August we decided that we wanted her sister to be part of our family as well...this has been an emotional, stressful, heartwarming journey! We hope to travel in March, but with no guarantees. We can’t wait to be Duncan family of 11! ️