Supernatural Conception: HIV Adoption

We are about to embark on another adoption journey. This time we call it an accidental adoption but it really is more like supernatural conception and childbirth. We thought we were done. We have three children from Ethiopia, two born to us in America and another from Guatemala. We never ever thought we would be adopting again. Similar to going into the doctor and being surprised by a positive pregnancy test, I can imagine this feels the same. Not only did we not think we would be adopting again, but we certainly didn’t think we would be adopting an HIV positive boy from Eastern Europe.
How did it happen? Three of my children are orphaned because of AIDS but are HIV negative. Still I had always felt a connection to their mother, who died of AIDS, a woman I will never meet. So before we adopted them and even to this day I have had an intense passion for children left orphaned due to HIV. And for the past few years I have been busy advocating as well for HIV positive orphans with my friend Carolyn Twietmeyer, who is the founder of an organization called Project Hopeful NFP (an organization encouraging, enabling and educating individuals and families regarding HIV/AIDS adoption).
This past summer, my husband and I started to pray about a little Ukrainian boy who is HIV positive. Over time my entire family prayed for him nightly as his picture was hanging on our fridge. His name is Aleksey and his other name ironically carried the same last name as my mother’s married name. I was sure he would be adopted because he is so adorable. But months went by and he was not adopted. As his fifth birthday approached, we discovered that if nobody stepped forward to adopt him there was a possibility he would be placed in an institution with much older children and possibly not be medicated, which would eventually lead to infection and death. If given proper medication and care, he will most likely live long enough to see his own grandchildren. The little boy on our refrigerator, the one from a country we had never visited, had supernaturally been grafted into the hearts of each of my children and had captured the heart of a mother who was sure there were no more children in her future. But the eyes in a picture spoke to me and the shouts of my faith and the truth of my religion shouted to me, “Go! Be the hands and feet of Jesus! Save him!”
As a Christian we know that the Gospel of Jesus is all about adoption. Jesus came into the world to a lost and flawed humanity and gave his life to all in adopting them into the family of Christ forever. And Jesus in our case made himself known in a mighty way regarding Aleksey through many signs. The most obvious ones were around Christmas when I had no gifts to send to his orphanage and five large boxes miraculously appeared in my driveway: toy cars, baby dolls, books, puzzles and jump ropes in just the right amount and size to send to an orphanage in Eastern Europe. I had made no announcements and no social networking—they just appeared.
Still not knowing we were adopting, as I prepared the boxes for mailing and hoped they would arrive by Aleksey’s February 26th birth date, I noticed that his birth date had been coincidentally written on the box. I wept with the understanding that God is huge, God is miraculous and God loves this little boy and is shouting to us, “I will not leave Aleksey as an orphan!”
The fact that Aleksey is HIV positive is a non-issue to us in our decision-making process. What is important is that God is calling us to go and we will be obedient. Our home now will include four countries blended together under one roof filled with love and the knowledge that Aleksey was conceived supernaturally.