Our Process Begins!

In my last update I shared a little about the fact that Mike and I have felt led to adopt for a long time. The Lord has been moving in our hearts for the past several months and finally confirmed for us a few weeks ago that the time is NOW! First let me share a little about how this ever even started…

Before we were even married, I used to joke around with Mike and tell him that one day I wanted a kid from every country. He knew I was exaggerating, yet he also realized their was some truth behind it. It never scared him off. 🙂 About a month after we were married, we were leaders at a weekend student conference. One of the videos they showed during the conference was about a family that adopted from the Ukraine. I don’t even remember what organization it was, I just remember sitting their crying and thinking that this is what I wanted to do someday. I told Mike when we got home from that weekend that I really was serious about adopting, and for the first time he seriously talked about it with me and said that he could see us doing it someday. Fast forward about two years while we were in Louisville for Seminary. We started going to Highview Baptist Church and one of the first things we noticed about the church was their amazing heart for adoption. They had a thriving adoption ministry, the pastor had adopted a child from China and was in the process of adopting from Ethiopia (after we left they also adopted from the Phillipines), and the church as a whole just seemed to “get it”. We knew then and there that God was confirming this call in our lives and giving us the opportunity to see it lived out. We are so grateful that God gave us that time.

We are adopting from Ethiopia. We got our hearts set on Ethiopia when, like I just mentioned, we were in Louisville and watched our Pastor adopt from there. It first just started because his little girl had to be the cutest thing I had ever laid eyes on. My response was something like, “I want a kid like her”! We also found out that Ethiopia was one of the quickest and cheapest programs to go with (That was of course over 3 years ago – things have changed). Our reasoning quickly became less trivial. Through some research we learned about the unthinkable numbers of orphans in Ethiopia, we learned of the malnutrition, short life expectancy, and the unreal amount of people infected with HIV/AIDS. We knew that this was where we would someday adopt.

So, we have officially started! We registered with our agency today. We will be filling out paperwork and raising money for months and months. Then, we will WAIT and WAIT and WAIT to get our referral and see the beautiful face of the child God has chosen for us. Then, of course, MORE WAITING, until we get to finally bring him or her home. We know that this is a long process and that we will be stretched even more than we are anticipating. However, we also know that every bit of the journey we are beginning will be worth it when we are able to become a family with a child who otherwise wouldn’t have one.

Mike and I went back and forth about when to tell people we were doing this. We couldn’t decide if it was like pregnancy when they suggest you wait 12 weeks? And we were concerned about telling people right at the beginning considering how long this process will take. But, the more we thought/talked about it we realized that we want as many people praying with us as possible. We want people praying for the process we are about to go through and for our sweet child and the circumstances that are going to bring them in need of a family. So we’re telling the world from the VERY BEGINNING! 🙂

Stay tuned for what is to come…