24 Stories of Adoption | Ardy Roberto's Book Review | How this book helped us decide to adopt Josh

hello guys this is ardy roberto and i’m 
here to recommend and review a book again  
although i don’t know you can get it okay i’m 
already warning you hopefully the publisher the  
adoptive families foundations will publish this 
again but this is for you know adoptive families  
families single parents uh wannabe parents 
were all thinking about adoption and this book  
was a godsend to me when my first wife and i my 
first late wife ting ting and i were considering  
adoption especially for me because i was the one 
really really pushing and really praying that  
my wife and i would adopt and the book is simply 
called 24 stories of adoption and as the title  
suggests there are two dozen or 24 stories of 
families who took the leap of faith and adopted  
and the authors are here you can see this book 
wow was published 21 years ago beat that okay  
i’m going to recommend that they republish this 
book or maybe come up with a new edition and  
yeah it has authors some people that i know who 
are here and list the names of the adopted parents  
so highly highly recommended i have an extra copy 
of the book here

if you want to order a copy i can  
send it to you okay just go to my lazada or shopee 
store okay life and style with miriam minardi and  
you can order this book on our maybe there’s 
just one or two copies okay yes so i’m gonna  
read some of the uh content uh this is again 
by the adoptive families foundation and if you  
are uh maybe you stumbled upon this video and if 
you have please consider subscribing okay liking  
sharing uh you know the drill and clicking 
the notification button to get more videos  
but if you have stumbled upon this video please 
consider subscribing and not only that but um
there are no accidents so 
maybe you you’re here because
you want to adopt and God 
has called you to adapt and  
you are 50 50 or sitting on the fence 
as they say and i want to read to you  
chapter one which is very aptly titled a leap 
of faith and about this first chapter okay let’s  
say who the authors are i guess to protect the 
privacy and identity of the children but here  
we go okay a leap of faith chapter one a leap of 
faith reaching the decision to adopt was not easy  
childless for 13 years my husband and i had gotten 
used to a carefree lifestyle that made it easy for  
us to go anywhere we wanted to go anytime 
we wanted to we enjoyed our life together  
and it was a blessing being friends with one 
another i can identify with that because my  
first wife and i didn’t think were childless 
for about the same number of years you know  
12 years so continue during the early years of 
our marriage well-meaning family and friends  
would ask why a baby hadn’t come along 
yet the more sensitive ones didn’t ask  
but we knew that they too wanted to find out 
there were times when we all felt hurt by the  
questioning and adjusting but we stuck close 
together going from one doctor to another we  
hung on to the hope that we would finally have 
our precious little bundle someday that someday  
never came five six seven years well life was 
okay anyway soon friends got tired of asking and  
we eventually put aside hoping and praying for 
a child we just got on narrowly with our lives
until one day from out of the blue a friend from 
nowhere called to ask if we wanted to take in a  
week old baby that was found by a well near their 
house in atimo and quezon’s founding a founding  
wow her parents were caring for the baby and they 
were looking for someone who would take care of  
the little one more permanently well why not we 
thought but before we decided to go for it i asked  
our friend to give us a few days to think about it 
and to consult a lawyer okay good uh good decision  
we wanted protection and that the baby’s birth 
parents would not surface some years after and  
claim the child that’s right anyway we were told 
that the only way we could get legal protection  
was to legally adopt a child but we would need the 
mother’s written consent and my friend undertook  
the task of finding out the mother’s identity in a 
small philippine town this was not very hard to do  
about a week later the mother surfaced but she 
would not agree to go to court for legal action  
she just wanted to give her baby away no questions 
asked no paper signed sadly we had to let go of  
this option with a prayer that the baby find 
a god-centered home that would nurture him
a month after this episode i received a call 
from another friend whose family owned a  
maternity and lying clinic in fairview quezon 
city this time around there was another baby  
a newborn whose mother had died in childbirth 
wow they could not trace any family anywhere  
so before surrendering the baby to dswd 
the department of social welfare and  
development my friend wanted to find out if 
we were interested in taking the baby home  
a friend had suggested that we could simply 
register the baby’s birth naming us as his parents
careful that we would not be doing 
anything against the law my husband and i  
again consulted a lawyer and dswd we were told 
that obtaining a birth certificate saying that  
we were the baby’s parents was really against 
the law and this practice which is very common  
among adoptive families is referred to as a 
simulation of birth or simulated birth adoption
having been accomplished by falsifying at 
the public document this type of adoption  
offers no enduring protection under the under 
the law for the adopted child and the adopted  
parents if we were to take in this newborn 
we could only have temporary custody over him  
while the department processed his case for 
adoption eventually he would be matched with an  
applicant adopted family but dswd could 
offer us no assurance that we would be the  
family that would be selected for this baby 
we felt then that this child was not for us  
heartbroken for the second time in just over 
a month my husband and i reflected and asked  
ourselves why these two unrelated but seemingly 
similar circumstances presented themselves to us  
was god speaking to us could it be that god was 
telling us something could it be that he wanted  
us to open our hearts and our home to one of 
his own the thought scared us if god was indeed  
telling us something then we had no choice but 
to obey good christian we needed to leave our  
comfort zone and make ourselves available 
to this child that god would choose for us  
how could we be sure that god wanted us to 
adopt how do we start finding out we knew  
that if we wanted to discover his will we had 
to go down on our knees in prayer and so we did  
we asked close friends to be with us in 
prayer as we sought to discern god’s will  
a prayer group from my office lifted us up in 
prayer week after week we sought the counsel  
of our pastors one of whom had an adopted child 
i read and we read ephesians chapter 1 verse 4  
which says in love he predestined us to be 
adopted as his sons through jesus christ
in the meantime we also did extra homework we 
contacted a few friends who knew about adoption  
either because of their association with child 
caring agencies or because they themselves were  
adopted parents we talked to them about their 
adoption experience we also visited a child  
care facility and there we were welcomed with 
warm hugs from tiny arms that wouldn’t let go  
and sweet little kisses from wet noses oh i 
knew in my heart there was no turning back  
my husband and i spent nights talking about 
our fears our inner motivation our finances  
our families our future we also found ourselves 
attending an orientation seminar on adoption at  
the kaisa buhay foundation or kbf a private 
child placement agency that’s what i used to  
then after that we found ourselves filling 
up the kbf adoption application form we ask  
ourselves more questions did we want a boy or a 
girl how old will our family support our decision  
will we learn to love the child will our families 
accept and love the child what if the child grew  
up with a rebellious spirit what if the child 
developed some serious illness and needed  
special care and what if the child once grown up 
decided to leave us and go back to her mother ouch
the more we thought about adoption the more 
questions came up and as the questions came  
the more we knew that it would be impossible 
to have the answers before we made the decision  
yes i’ll say that again and as the 
questions came and i highlighted this  
the more we knew as the questions came the 
more we knew that it would be impossible  
to have the answers before we made the decision 
we knew that we had to make a leap of faith  
faith not in ourselves but in the god of all 
creation amen we knew that our decision to  
adopt must be based on our faith that the 
good lord will take us one step at a time  
and that his grace abounds whether the child 
would love us back or not whether she would be  
sickly or not we decided that we would simply 
love her and care for her no matter what  
just like our marriage vow for richer poorer 
in sickness and in health till death do us part  
we again made a covenant with god so with peace 
in our hearts we took the major step and turned  
in our application form to kbf we knew that we 
were finally ready finally ready to commit our  
lives to loving and caring for a child then the 
waiting started the period of grace had begun
post script we have a match for you at the end 
at the other end of the line was the kbf social  
worker who had been handling our adoption 
case finally almost six months after we  
submitted our application for adoption we were 
matched with an eight-month-old baby girl yay
we scheduled an appointment with a social 
worker and in the late afternoon of that  
same day my husband and i found ourselves in the 
office of the adoption agency pouring over the  
baby’s case file and picture i get teary-eyed 
she only had one picture on the file but oh  
what a pretty smile she had she was born on 
christmas day and will turn seven this year
there we go
man i need to write joshua’s 
adoption story this way
so it’s not just about the book it’s 
about adoption and love as i say  
love is thicker than blood so if you are thinking 
of adoption go ahead order this last copy  
that is here it’s 24 stories 
of adoption uh go to our store  
life and style with miriam and already on 
shopping and you know what we’ll also pray  
for you and if you’re here you’re considering 
adoption then let me pray for you right now okay
Father God you are father to the fatherless and 
i just pray the lord that those who are watching  
this maybe it’s just one person or a couple i pray 
lord that you speak to their hearts about adoption  
and if they’re afraid or fearful then help them 
make that leap of faith towards loving a child  
through adoption please remind them that we too 
all those who are in christ are adopted into your  
family so let us make that leap of faith those 
of you who are listening make that leap of faith  
trust in God he will make your path straight i’m 
praying for you thank you lord for being with them  
in this major decision and step into creating 
a family in jesus name amen we won’t regret it  
joshua is now 13 years old sure it has not been 
without problems or challenges but just like any  
child right so thank you very much hope you 
enjoyed this episode consider subscribing  
sharing liking and pressing on the notification 
button okay more videos to come god bless you all

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