Many of you know that adoption has been something that has been on our hearts for a while. About one year ago Matt and I began to seriously work towards beginning our adoption journey. We had no real "place" we necessarily wanted to adopt from. I have always be drawn to international but equally love domestic as well. We were basically open to many countries, including the US, and we just thought that we would work towards many places and the same time and go with whatever place got us our child the quickest. Ha! We learned immediately that it doesn't quite work like that. Each and every country's process is so very different and the requirements are different, requiring you have to choose your country before anything else can start. So dang, first "road block". I initially felt my heart being tugged toward China. We looked into China and quickly became scared of the process there. So we looked at a few (or many) other countries to see how their process worked. Then we had Orphan Sunday at our church and, aside from squalling THE ENTIRE TIME, I started to wonder if God was leading us to domestic adoption. We met with two different fabulous agencies in Memphis and thought we had found where we were meant to be. A weeks into that processes a couple of things happened to shift our course yet again.
First, I read a post from Ann Voscamp (www.aholyexperience.com/2016/03/when-you-dont-feel-enough-our-year-long-story-and-a-new-chapter-coming/), where she announced that their family was adopting as well. She mentioned in their journey how there was no dramatic "fireball" showing them what to do. After months of praying she still didn't feel like she had a clear answer. Her husband finally said, "Let's do it." And as she writes, "you can only walk so long before you get to a fork in the road and you've got to take a stab at faith". Wow! This was where we were!
Secondly, I was watching a YouTube video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgWk5Bsy9es) from Francis Chan and his wife from a marriage conference. I still remember being in the kitchen cooking dinner while Matt was at the playground with our girls. I was listening to the video and all of the sudden the "marriage" discussion was talking about adoption. What?!? The Lord was bringing so many things into our lives to confirm His plan for us. So naturally I started bawling again. (Which I realize is pretty much my baseline, but this adoption thing has taken it to a whole new level.) My key takeaways about adoption from listening to Francis and Lisa were:
-What if we didn't do that? Look what we would have missed at on!
-Why wouldn't we assume adoption, unless we hear a voice from heaven saying "Stop". That is what the bible is about. Assume action.
At that moment the Lord continued to press China onto my heart. I talked with Matt later that night, discussing all that I heard and was feeling and he looked at me and said "Let's do it!". Whoa, we had made our decision, one year after we started at China we were back here again. This time with confidence that this was where the Lord had our next child.
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| This was my fabulous plan to spell "CHINA" with our hands. Looked so much better in my head! ;) |
After that, things went pretty smoothly. We picked an agency, found a home study agency and began preparing for a journey to our child. We can't wait to share this journey with you. I'm not going to lie, it's exciting, and nerve wrecking, and frustrating, and plain terrifying at times. But as I said earlier, the Lord's hand is on this journey and we have already seen His provision and grace along the way. We can't wait to see how the journey continues! We appreciate your prayers as we journey along!
