One More

If God has worked in our lives - and if you are born again, you can be confident that He has and is continuing to work, then He has called us, I believe, to share what He has done; don't keep it to yourself. Ephesians 5 states:
1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.
2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

An aroma makes an impact, it can certainly get your attention and perhaps lead someone to know and/or experience more. What is it? Well, we are called to spread the aroma of Christ. 2nd Corinthians 2 states:
14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.
15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.

 

So, we can ask how we are impacting other people with the love of Christ. We can either be drawing people in to know Him better or repelling people to reject Him.  We can make sure we are allowing the Lord to express Himself through us. 

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In 1st Corinthians 11, we find that Paul delivers what could seem like a bit of a boastful statement, but if you really think about it, we should all be challenged to point people to our Savior. Verse 1 and 2 say:
1 Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.
2 Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you.

Here are some numbers for you:

9 years of infertility

(at least) 11 miscarriages

1 trustworthy and powerful God

12 children!!

That's the legacy of the Dougherty family, better known as the "Dougherty Dozen."  Mother Alicia writes at The Christian Heart website:

After a very long infertility battle, we decided to build a family through adoption. We adopted a five-year-old son and that same week he proclaimed I had his sister in my tummy. Little did we know that six days later, we found out we were finally pregnant.

Several months after adopting our first son, we discovered he had fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). It’s a condition where alcohol passes from a mom to a baby’s body through the umbilical cord. Children with FASD can have poor executive functioning skills and are prone to explosive rage, anger issues and trouble with transitioning. We had no idea that he had FASD, and wondered what we had gotten ourselves into.

She went on to say, "We dealt with it through medication, supplements, therapy and a lot of prayer."  Alicia states:

Realizing that we were able to help our son become happy and healthy in spite of his diagnosis, we started to become more aware of children in the foster care system that suffered from FASD and were not having successful placements. We were known in the DHR community as the couple that might be open to taking care of kids with FASD. Throughout the years, we kept getting asked if we could take care of one more child with FASD. We could have said no since life was finally getting settled, but we always want to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. The guiding Bible verse for us as a couple is John 14:18 which says ‘I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.’ And one of our personal mottos is: “There’s always room for one more!”

The Doughertys have 4 biological children. They have adopted 8 kids, all of whom, she writes, "have been affected by FASD to some degree."

The family was also featured in a piece on the Today show website. It said that Alicia and Josh Dougherty began to foster children back in 2010 and related:

The first child who came to live with them was Alexander. She recalled how the little boy flew into a rage and threw a rug down the stairs at her.

“We were like, ‘What did we get ourselves into?’” Alicia said. “But we refused to give up. So we dove headfirst into researching and reading about FASD, and trying to figure out how to best meet his needs and little by little, he began to trust us.”

The couple soon became the go-to foster home for kids with FASD.

“People quickly realized that tantrums didn’t faze us,” Alicia said. "So the phone kept ringing."

Sandra Flach was a guest on The Meeting House last year. She is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Justice For Orphans.  She has had to deal with adopted children with FASD and wrote for Focus on the Family:

Traditional parenting methods do not work with children who have experienced childhood trauma—including prenatal exposure to alcohol. Instead, as parents become FASD informed, they recognize and understand the neuro-developmental differences associated with FASD. So, through the lens of FASD, we must ask ourselves, “Could this behavior be caused by a brain difference?”

But, there is hope, and she offers this encouragement: 

God knit every child together in their mother’s womb—even those prenatally exposed to alcohol. Likewise, He created each child with gifts and talents. Focusing on the individual’s strengths while accommodating their disability helps foster success.

There is good news - if God has called us to serve in a particular capacity, He provides the capability.  Parenting is one of those areas - a family may not have children dealing with trauma, but there will be any number of issues that a child may encounter throughout his or her life.  And, we can rely on God to provide wisdom and strength.

The Doughertys and the Flachs did not shy away from what they knew would be a challenging road. In fact, as Alicia Dougherty says, once they learned to deal with the FASD issues, they became known for their expertise in that area, and were willing to take another.

The Doughertys achieved a measure of notoriety because of a time-lapse video that was posted on social media about, as Today says, "her next level meal-prepping skills." She relates at The Christian Heart:

When you have a dozen children, life is a little hectic. We do five loads of laundry every day. We spend over $1,000 each week on groceries and have four full-size freezers in our garage to store food. We recently purchased 12 lockers so the kids have their own space for their coats, backpacks and all their shoes. We need a 15-seat passenger van to go anywhere.

And, these families have decided not to keep what God has taught them to themselves. The Doughertys post videos of their family's life, and Alicia says: "We’re just trying to do our best, and hoping to inspire others along the way."  We can always be willing to share what God has done in our lives and what He has shown us.