bandeau curricula: The Ark House Foster Home

John Taylor and I want to share with you a foster home called The Ark House that is very dear to our hearts. But first, we want to share with you our amazing story of how we came to know this family?.

God laid adoption on John Taylor?s heart years ago and in May, God united mine and John Taylor?s hearts on international adoption. When we decided to pursue the process of adoption in China, we never knew just how big God was moving and didn?t realize what a ride we were in for! During that time, we were reading a book together titled TrueFaced. That season was a huge turning point in our hearts, marriage, and lives and that book impacted us in a way that nothing else had. Since the book is all about God?s grace, and giving the timing, we immediately knew we wanted to name our one day Chinese daughter Grace. We called friends in Wisconsin (Patti and Mark) who have adopted 3 times from China to ask them for prayers. ?They shared their amazing stories with us.? It was the story of the adoption of one of their daughters that really touched our hearts.? Their daughter Naomi lived at The Ark House foster home before being adopted.

We?ve become very close with this foster family in China. We believe that God connected us to them for so many reasons. We?ve been shown that we?ve been put in this family?s lives for a reason and that is to share their story in America. So, friends and family we want you to know, pray for, and love our family in China ? Patrick, Hetty, their 3 biological sons, and their 13 Chinese foster children. Their story is amazing! They have prayed for a year that someone in the USA would help spread their story, make them a blog/website, and help find support for them. That person happened to be me! Once Hetty expressed their needs to me, I felt called to help them. I built a blog for them and set it up so that the foster children could get ?Sponsors? so that Patrick and Hetty won?t have to ever worry about financially supporting the children and they can do what the Lord has called them to do. Here is an insert from their blog so you can learn more about them?.

We?ve been foster parents in China since 2002 when we felt the Lord calling us to sell our home and our belongings to move. In our hearts we had a great desire to help Chinese orphans.

We arrived in our city in August and immediately got involved with the foster care program. By September 2002, we were fostering our first child! We currently foster 13 children in our home. Many of our children are special needs and some only mild special needs. 10 of the children we?ve fostered have been adopted ? 2 within China, 1 to Denmark, 1 to The Netherlands, 1 to Canada, and 4 to America! In all, 1 of our children was operated on for spina bifida, 1 had heart surgery, and 1 had surgery for cleft lip and cleft palate.

We are honored to be a part of these children?s lives and we get great joy out of being their foster parents. We feel blessed that we can care for these children and show them deep, encouraging love. Our hope is that each child will one day get to be with their ?forever parents?, but until then it is our commitment to provide a loving environment. None of this could happen without our Heavenly Father above and without your help and support. For that, we thank you and give Him all the glory.

Thanks for reading,
Hetty, Patrick, Geoffrey, Kevin, Ian, and all the children

We invite you to visit their new blog where you can read more about each of their foster children and more about sponsorship. Please spread the word about their family! Patrick and Hetty need financial support and we?re covering this blog post in prayer that God will touch many hearts though the power of networking and the internet. We believe that God is going to bless them so they are able to bless others and their children. We hope you?ll read about them, sponsor, share their link and most of all PRAY for them!

There is also a donate page on their blog for one time (or monthly) donations at the amount of your choice. I do know that their boiler (hot water heater) is currently broken and they are having to boil the water because they can?t afford a new one. They?ve been told the broken one can?t be fixed because it?s so old and the new one will cost anywhere between $4,500 and $6,500. We?re believing that God is going to bless them so greatly that they?ll be able to buy a solar or light powered boiler that will save them up to 80% on their bill each month! Could you imagine the bill when you have 13 children! More so than that, could you imagine not having hot water for yourself or the 13 children?! So please pass their site along to anyone that you feel led to share with!

We?re stepping out in complete faith that the Lord will one day bring home our Chinese daughter and be her forever family. We don?t know how or when this may happen, but we?re trusting that God has a plan and that His will be done in our lives and in hers. We plan to write posts in the coming weeks/months as we get further into this process and start fundraising to cover our adoption costs, but right now we long to help the children at The Ark House get the proper amount of sponsors since some of them currently have none. Patrick and Hetty offer a loving, encouraging home for these orphans. They pray over them, speak truth over them, tell them about Jesus and give them time and attention they would not get in a orphanage. If they do not have enough sponsors, they can?t pay their workers. If they can?t pay their workers, they have no workers. If they have no workers, children in their home get placed elsewhere?..and that means orphanages. We really want to help them and most of all we want to keep the children that know and love Patrick and Hetty in this home!

On behalf of Patrick, Hetty, their family, and all the children ? We thank you!
Many Blessings and Merry Christmas,
Catherine & John Taylor

John Taylor and I have made cross ornaments.? Every person who donates $10 or more to The Ark House will get a cross.