Our Journey so far

We are in the process of applying for a Matching Grant from Lifeong for Orphans. One of the things it asks for in our application is our "Adoption Journey". I just finished writing it up tonight and thought, while many of you already know our story, there still might be some of you that don't. So here it is... 

Adoption Journey:

I guess our adoption journey technically began back at the end of April ’10. Joshua and I were just finishing up a study with our small group from church called “Becoming a Good Samaritan” by Michael R. Seaton. The study had really been tugging on our heartstrings with the simple truth that we had heard our entire lives of Loving God and Loving Others… but for some reason it resonated on a deeper level with us this time. It was about this same time too when talk of baby #2 started to surface and if we were going to start trying again or not, but there had NEVER been mention of adoption before. Not because we were against it, simply because it just never had crossed our minds. I loved being pregnant with Jude and quite honestly was looking forward to pregnancy again. BUT God showed up with different plans and our hearts were un-expectantly burdened… heavily… for adoption! It took us both completely off guard! So we began to pray, “God, if this is from You and this is what You’re asking of us, make it clear!”. And boy did He! Scripture after scripture (that we had never even really noticed before) confirmed God’s heart beat for the orphans. And it became crystal clear that if we were going to love God and love others well, then what better way than to love a child who needs a mommy and daddy!

The short of it all is that we decided to step out in faith, sometimes in fear, and be obedient to the Holy Spirit’s leading. This was, and is, completely uncharted territory for the both of us and has been God-lead from day one. We have desperately sought His guidance and have watched Him show off in ways we could have never imagined. From the beginning the financial aspect of it all quite honestly freaked us out! I’m a stay at home mom and Joshua is a teacher, which speaks for itself! Our budget is tight, there’s no wiggle room for setting aside chunks of money! We knew that to the outside world (and even to us at times) it would seem crazy to be taking on such a huge financial commitment. BUT we knew that God was saying, “Do this, and trust ME”, so here we are! In just the past 6 months God has blown us away at providing over $16k to meet every fee we have had due at the exact time we’ve needed it! He is providing through generous people and circumstances and opportunities to accomplish His work and we are humbled and in awe of how He’s orchestrated it all! We truly feel like as long as we do our part and bust our booties to think of every creative avenue possible for us to fund bringing our baby home, than He’ll bless us for our efforts. There is no doubt that God’s name is all over this journey, and our prayer is that we will tell His story well in the process, giving Him all the glory!

We let go of any agenda we had for how this process was going to unfold from the very beginning- because that’s just it… it was NEVER our story to write; it’s always been a story God was writing. We’re just along for the ride. Oh the freedom in letting go of our plans and hanging onto His! What a far better story He offers than we could ever come up with!