I had the privelege of spending a few hours with Cynthia and Erica. They are beautiful girls who were born in Rwanda and were adopted in 2008 by The Styfffes, a family at my Church. They were living in an orphanage where they were orphaned due to HIV / AIDS.
Their parents explained, "Surely God isn't asking us to adopt and take children out of the only environment they have ever known... But our hearts began to change as orphans became personal...(In 2007) while visiting an orphanage, one of our (four) children asked, "Do you think culture is more important than family?" We had to answer,"No. Children need a family."
On March 28, 2008 the Styffes stepped off the plane in Rwanda, ready to take their three (Erica, Cynthia and their brother, Noah) children home to Orange County, California. The Styffe family is now complete with seven children. "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orpans and widows in their distress." ~James 1:27
Erica and I
On Erica's first Christmas last year, she prayed, "Thank you for Jesus' birhtday. Thank you for Christmas and presents and my family. And God, thank you that I'm not in an orphanage anymore."
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