We were pretty happy with our lives, content with watching others do the Lord's work and sending a check to support this or that! But I always admired the faith of others that seemed to be just a little more in Love with Jesus than I. I remember many times praying that Jesus would give me "That kind of Faith"! What I really imagined was Jesus kind of snapping his fingers and Shane would awaken with a deeper Love and faith in Him. I look back and realize that if Jesus were to do that there would have been no point in our creation in the first place. But the prayer was made and Jesus answered in His way. He started showing me things that would tug at my heart, and we would send a check. Then he started showing me things that would absolutely break my heart, and we would send a check. Then he dropped the bomb on me, he showed me something that needed to be addressed and that a check would have little effect on, he showed me the 147 million children that live life without Love. The Bible says: "Once your eyes are open you cannot pretend you don't know what to do". With the new found deeper Love for Jesus I couldn't imagine how I would be able to explain to Him that I did nothing to show Love to the Unloved!
I remember reading a story about a family that was adopting a little girl out of Uganda and had trouble getting a visa because their daughter is HIV+. This was the very moment I first learned of orphans with HIV. Honestly, my first thought was "How could that family even consider bringing HIV around their other children"? But I kept interested and continued to read and research. I learned that this family called Project HOPEFUL for assistance. When I learned about the wonderful work that Project HOPEFUL does we decided to send them a check. Their website at the time said they were in the process of getting their 501c3, so we called to ask who we should make the check out to. Carolyn Twietmeyer answered and we talked for nearly an hour. Carolyn filled me in on much of the misinformation out there about HIV and guided me to be able to do additional research. Soon after we attended a Project HOPEFUL sponsored HIV adoption workshop and all our questions were answered and fears put to rest.
We soon became good friends with the Twietmeyer family. We first met them all on November 9th, 2009 back when they were a mere family of 13! I was most anxious to meet Selah. I had seen the pictures, read about and spoken at length to Carolyn about her. I was amazed to be able to see firsthand the miracle that happened when the answer to the calling of God is "YES". My first thoughts when seeing Selah for the first time were "What a beautiful child" and "She is so normal". By the end of that day I was thinking "Man, I could never have adopted her, she'd have me wrapped around her finger and run my house".
So, today we are the parents of four amazingly wonderful little angels of our own that just happen to have been born HIV+. We are truly blessed beyond words!
Shane & Diana Lewis "The Lew Crew"
