
"Life can best be understood looking backwards, but it has to be lived moving forwards." - Hudson Vanderhoff
Last Saturday, I had the blessing of listening to one of the most incredible testimonies that I have ever heard. Hudson and Patty Vanderhoff are an ordinary couple whom the Lord is using in an extraordinary way. The Vanderhoff's have committed in a most unique way to glorifying the Lord through bringing the world literally into their home. Hudson and Patty have eight biological children and thirteen adopted children. That's right; they have twenty-one children. And that's not the whole story. Every adopted child has unique physical or emotional needs that the Vanderhoffs knew about leading to their adoption. The faces of the Vanderhoff children represent the vast spectrum of the human race. It is an incredibly beautiful and moving picture.
Hudson shared his family's verse which is found in Isaiah 8:18. It reads, "Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion." Hudson stated that his family is itself a demonstration of the powerful of God's grace and kingdom. What a blessing and a challenge to listen to this man's story of love.