Pre-adoptive family: “We could start with one”

ROCKWALL  Patricia “Patchi” Hasegawa and her husband Tetsuya, married 13 years, have been in the adoptive family process for two years, with perhaps another six months or more to go.

Their desire for another child and their firstborn son Kuni’s request for a brother led the Hasegawas to consider adoption when Patchi didn’t get pregnant. 

“We knew nothing regarding adoption, other than a few people in my life group had adopted,” Patchi told the TEXAN. Tetsuya heard about and Patchi attended an informative adoption/foster care conference in January 2018 at Lakepointe Church, where they’d been members for two years. 

Prayer and contemplation about adoption came to an end on Nov. 25, 2018, when the message Josh Howerton (now Lakepointe’s pastor) spoke from James 1:27 brought Patchi to tears and her husband to obedience. 

“The message was so powerful and amazing,” Patchi said. “We understood the gospel of how we have been adopted into God’s family. Our hearts broke to the millions of orphans in the world.

“We did desire another child, we had the means to adopt and we wanted to obey what God was asking us to do, despite our fear,” Patchi continued. “We could not help millions, but we could start with one.” 

A week later, the Hasegawa family applied and started the adoption process with the adoption agency Holt International. 

“Everything we had control over, we did quickly,” Patchi said. “Everything else is a waiting process. Our dossier has been in Korea since February. It was just approved in early December.”

While waiting for a judge to agree to the adoption, the Hasegawas’ son they named Nobu, born in August 2019, stays with a foster family in South Korea. Nobu means “walk by faith” in Japanese.

Holt International sends emails twice each month, sometimes with photos and their son’s medical updates. The Hasegawas are learning from experiences shared by adoptive parents in their life group at Lakepointe.

“We have been blessed by a church and community that is real and authentic with their adoption [ministry],” Patchi said. “Yes, we knew it is not all easy and beautiful and it can be hard at times. People do share their struggles, but also joy and victories and heart changes.

“We know that not all are called to adopt, but we all can do something. In our church and life group, we pray, give: clothes, money, food. We help and encourage each other, we walk with each other, we celebrate each other.”

 Holt requires an online course on adoption and suggests books and articles to read to allay concerns and prepare families for the future. Studies cover parents, siblings and adopted child alike. Topics include attachment and medical issues; coping with grief, loss, identity and more, plus an awareness of a new dynamic in the home with a new family member.

“Kuni is excited to be a big brother,” Patchi said. “We are preparing our hearts and mind and lives to the changes. We pray every night together. We pray many things. Especially we pray and ask that we will all bond quickly.”