Live With Eternal Perspective Podcast Episode 096 - Open Hearts for Orphans - Interview with Lisa Murphy

Welcome to the Terri Hitt – Live With Eternal Perspective Podcast
Episode #096 – Open Hearts for Orphans – Interview with Lisa Murphy

Thank you for entrusting and investing your precious time with me to grow in Jesus together. I am blessed to be back with you to discuss more ways to live with eternal perspective.

Last week I began a series of conversations to bring awareness to National Adoption Month and the miracle of adoption. When we adopted from China, several people asked why. Not only were they inquiring as to why we were adopting after we had already raised two children, but they also wanted to understand why we were not adopting from the United States. Some people asked why we were going all the way to China for our baby.

Our answer is honest and quite easy. We went where God called us to go. We never considered adopting, let alone traveling to a foreign country to do so until God changed our hearts and let us know His plan. What a glorious life we have lived because of heeding His call and stepping forward in obedience.
My guest today is Lisa Murphy, a wife of 29 years to her husband, Jim, and mother to five unexpected and beautiful children through adoption - four living on earth and one residing in Heaven. Lisa is the Founder and CEO of Open Hearts For Orphans Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit organization created to care for orphaned and abandoned children around the world through medical intervention, meeting basic needs, and providing their "Say Yes" adoption grants to families in the process. Open Hearts For Orphans especially believes that children belong in loving families and to date has issued over seventy adoption grants to families adopting children with special needs from fifteen different countries.

Lisa’s adoption story began when she embraced the unexpected grace of our Heavenly Father who crafts desires and dreams within us during our creation. He weaves lives and stories together in beautiful ways that prove His existence, love, and provision for us. I pray you will see Him at work as you listen to Lisa’s tragic, yet hope-filled story and see how God used tragedy and hardship to bring awareness, love, provision, and change for orphans because our Great God cares for what society may consider “the least of these.” Life is never just about us alone; it is about each person God created in His image with a love so deep and wide that He offered the greatest sacrifice of His son, Jesus. God uses our lives, as well, for bigger purposes than we can imagine. Stepping out in faith to follow where He directs brings blessings for so many more than just ourselves and crafts a portrait of devotion and pure, holy love that is more beautiful than any piece of art we will see this side of heaven.


----------------------------------------------------INTERVIEW------------------------------------------------
Isn’t God wise to protect us from knowing our future? What fears and insecurities we are guarded from simply because He asks us to trust Him, to join Him on the journey of crafting a life that allows His sturdy, strong arms to carry us. His mighty works are evident in Lisa’s life as God crafted her family together in the ways He desires and that give Him joy. He knew the deepest desires of Lisa’s spirit, hopes that were not even realized by her yet, would be touched through His unexpected plans.

For more information about Open Hearts for Orphans, please visit their website, Facebook page, Instagram, and YouTube channel. You may reach Lisa at openheartsfororphansorg@gmail.com. Lisa’s book, With An Open Heart their family's personal account of love, loss, and unexpected blessings is a deeply moving, true story that lovingly chronicles her family's shockingly short, yet profoundly powerful experience with their son Daniel and his zest for life. All royalties for Lisa's memoir are directed to Open Hearts for Orphans.

Father God, we humbly bow before You. You are the Great I Am, the Beginning and the End, and our Great Provider. Father, we thank You for Your gracious, lavish love. Thank you for the ways You carry us, and for the multitude of things You do that we never notice or realize. Thank You for the plans You crafted for us before we were even born. Heavenly Father, You are good, Your plans are good. Even when we do not understand them or see them, we trust in You. Our hope is in You. Help us to see and desire You more clearly, more intimately each day. In the precious name of Jesus we humbly pray. Amen.
Thank you for listening to this podcast. Please visit terrihitt.com to access podcast episodes housed in one convenient location, read blog posts, transcripts, and access additional resources designed to mature your walk with Jesus through an eternal perspective and encourage you to raise or influence children to choose Christ over culture.

I pray this podcast draws you nearer to God and helps you cling to Him, despite any circumstances in your life. Until next week, keep looking Up while focusing on new ways to Live With Eternal Perspective.