Timm (with 2 m’s) and Hannah Heath have a habit of saying yes to life. They said yes to tossing wedding planning out the window and threw a simple wedding together in one week, yes to spending a year studying in Cambridge, England, yes to moving five times in their 5 1/2 years of marriage, and yes to settling down in small-town Wisconsin. They had often dreamt of one day adopting, but it was not until Hannah became a part of the Reece’s Rainbow Facebook community that they felt a sense of urgency for orphans with special needs.
This year Hannah, an occupational therapist, began advocating on her blog for children listed on Reece’s Rainbow. Timm, who is a pastor, began including prayers for orphans around the world each night during family devotions. The couple began talking about goals to accomplish before starting the adoption process; they had a few vague timelines, and felt like they were steadily heading in the right direction. If you had asked them if they were ever going to adopt their answer would have been “hopefully someday!”
But it was the words of their 3 1/2 year old daughter that called them to say yes once more. One night while tucking her in for bed, their daughter whispered in Hannah ‘s ear, “We need to get in the car right now and get Angelina because she doesn’t have a mommy or a daddy.” Angelina was one of the first children Hannah advocated for and those pure blue eyes and ready smile had haunted the Heaths for months as they prayed for a family to commit to her before she was transferred to an adult mental institution. When Hannah shared the words of their little daughter with Timm his response was perfect: “It isn’t a question of if we will try to adopt Angelina, but how, because of course the answer is yes.” The Heaths pray Angelina joins their family soon where she can hear that yes, she is cherished, yes, she is worth it all, and yes, she has a worthwhile life to live!
When the Heaths started their adoption journey last year they had no idea how in the world they’d would afford one adoption; their only hope was God would work all things for his good and the Heaths put their trust in Him. The family worked hard for months on fundraisers, Hannah picked up hours as an occupational therapist, and people all over the world were generous with their support. The week before Christmas 2015, Hannah sat down to crunch the numbers and discovered that they were fully funded for Angelina, in fact, due to anonymous donation to this grant, they had approximately $3,000 OVER. At this same time, an advocate on Reece’s Rainbow facebook group talked to the Heaths about a little boy waiting for a family. Timm and Hannah asked each other this question “if we could add a second child to our adoption, would we?”
The answer, of course, was YES!
Adding a second child in the same country but different region added approximately $12,000 to the adoption costs. Good thing the Heaths already had their homestudy approved for two children, not just one, just in case.
5/26/16—APPOINTMENT IS JUNE 9
Follow the family’s adoption journey on their blog at heathandhome.wordpress.com