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
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button okay more videos to come god bless you all