Meet Stephen Crist*

Sometimes things move very quickly in our home - Stephen was a recent example of this.  In July we received a phone call to give a referral for our friends to host an international student from China.  During this brief phone call, we learned that there were other students needing homes.  For the past two years our boys have shared a bedroom to allow our third bedroom to be for guests.  Having a spare room has been convenient at times, but for the most part it has been empty.  We had offered several times for the room to be used by a "homeless youth" through a program called Roadmap to Graduation but we were never called.  Finding out we were pregnant last winter also made us think that the room would be a nursery and we started to use it to store the things we had collected for the baby.  After our miscarriage, the guest room sat empty once again. 

After talking to the director of international students at Lenawee Christian regarding our friends' referral, we decided to apply.  Within a week we were selected and Stephen, our son ;), moved in just 1 week later.  Stephen is wonderful!  He is 16 years old and from the Northern region of China called Tianjin.  Stephen is a diligent student as well as a gentleman.  He is a great fit for our family and we absolutely love him!!!  He is kind, patient and a bit protective of Kadan and Jaxan - they adore him too.  Jaxan loves to sit with Stephen and play Chinese videogames and Kadan likes to watch America's Funniest Home Videos with him. 

During our grief in the Spring from the loss of Deakan I NEVER would have guessed that there was a 'Stephen' in our future.  God is full of surprises because of His great love for us!  I am thankful for a God that cares so deeply about us and fills our life with blessings at every turn.