The Rostedt Family Love Story

Hello! My name is Justina and we are the Rostedt family! We are excited to partner with you in our 2nd adoption through Adoption Bridge and so we'd like to share a little bit about how we got here. 

Jason and I have a deep love for orphan care and adoption and it is our desire to see every child in a family. We believe children belong in families, not in institutions, orphanages, or in the transitory life of foster care. When Jason and I first met, I was in the process of adopting our first daughter, Senlove who is from Haiti. Our love story is so unique in the fact that the Lord knew that not only did Senlove need a mother, she also needed a father, and the Lord provided! Being a witness to countless miracles in OUR adoption story fueled my faith as a believer and planted a seed of deep love for the fatherless. Since bringing Senlove home, Jason and I have been obedient in financially supporting an orphanage in Haiti and it is a joy to come along side them in prayer as well. 
 

After bringing Senlove home, the Lord has continued to abundantly bless us with 3 more healthy and beautiful children! We have always discussed adopting again, but we suspected it would happen much later. Perhaps when our youngest was along in elementary school. BUT God, His perfect will and perfect timing brought this desire of our hearts much sooner. We weren't looking to necessarily adopt at this moment in time, but LOVE found us! It was through a waiting child photo listing that was emailed to me. Many adoption agencies advocate for waiting children through sharing photos and a little bit about the child. The moment I saw our child's face, I just knew instantly that this child was meant to be in our family. It was the same knowing that I had in my spirit, the first time I saw Senlove.
 

Jason and I prayed for about 6 weeks before submitting our application to the Ministry of Justice in Bulgaria. We really just wanted the Lord's will. After a very long 2 month wait, we received the wonderful news that we had a provisional match with our desired child. This means we have 6 months to complete our homestudy and dossier and then we will, Lord willing, receive an official referral! Because he is a waiting child who has some special needs, the process should be much quicker than a traditional process. This is great news for him, as it means he will potentially be with his family, US, sooner!

There are tremendous adoption costs, typically 30k-45k for the Bulgaria program. We are hoping to raise about 15k in donations to offset some of the financial burden. We would mostly ask that you join us in prayer as that is of far more value than money to us! Here's how you can pray:

1. Please pray for our sweet 5 year old Bulgarian. We have yet to meet him in person but please pray for him to have an understanding in his heart about what is to come. Please pray for his health, his rest, and his progress as there are some delays.

2. Please pray for our children. That they will have wisdom beyond their years to understand what is to come and how our whole family dynamic will be different when he arrives. 

3. Please pray for our upcoming trip to Bulgaria. We are not sure when this will take place yet but it will be the first time we will leave our children. Please pray for my anxious heart and just for safe travels and for our children to remain safe and healthy while we are gone.

4. Please pray for all who are involved in our adoption process. Our adoption agency, our homestudy agency, our NGO in Bulgaria, the Bulgarian government, specifically the ministry of Justice, and of course ours, USCIS.

5. Please pray that this adoption glorifies the Lord, and that people who do not believe can see the very illustration of the gospel being modeled and that we can be a light in the darkness and that more would come to Christ. 

Thank you for coming along side us in our adoption process. We couldn't do it without you! You are forever woven into our story!