IT'S OFFICIAL...we were accepted into our adoption agency's Ethiopia program yesterday!!! We shed tears of joy and I did my "happy dance" (one of the many things this mommy does that embarrasses my kids). Even a day later, I find myself randomly smiling and with butterflies of excitement in my stomach at the thought that we are one step closer to bringing our child HOME!
We know some people will not understand our decision to adopt internationally, especially when there are so many children locally that need families. We strongly believe EVERY child deserves a family! However, my husband and I always felt God leading our hearts toward international adoption. One
question we are expecting to receive a lot is "Why Ethiopia?" While
our initial response is "why not Ethiopia," our decision to adopt specifically from Ethiopia has been a journey in
itself.
Our journey to the Ethiopia program was not without its hiccups. We both strongly felt God calling us to adopt but we didn't initially feel God leading us to a specific country. After researching our agency's international adoption programs, we narrowed it down to China and Ethiopia. We initially approached our agency about China because that process simply looked "easier." However the entire time we were working on being accepted into the China program, I felt unsettled. Looking back, we realize my unsettled feeling was God nudging us to His path.
"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Jeremiah 29:11
The moment we spoke with our agency's Ethiopia program, my unease immediately subsided. My husband and I always felt a pull toward Africa. Having gone to Africa for our honeymoon, we both feel a piece of Africa always stayed with us. 5 years later we feel like we are coming full circle, going back to the place where we first celebrated our marriage.
As we begin the next step of our journey (the paper chase) we take with us the lessons we have already learned while "growing our faith through family"...as long as we follow where God leads our hearts, we can trust He is guiding us down the "correct" path.
Saturday, December 14, 2013
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Our Journey - Growing our Faith Through Family
I've gone back and forth on whether a blog is truly the right forum for sharing our family's story. We ultimately decided this would be a great way to not only document, but also share, our journey with friends and family. So we have BIG news...WE ARE GROWING!
This past May, after months of subtle (and some not so subtle) nudges, I woke up one morning knowing God had big plans for our family. He wanted us to grow...in both numbers AND faith...and He wanted us to do it through ADOPTION.
Quick back story...adoption is something we have discussed so the idea was not a new concept for us. However we always agreed it was something we would look into in the future when our current children were older. As a result, it came as a big surprise to me and an even bigger surprise to my husband when I told him this was something God wanted us to do NOW. God laid this on my heart...if we were going to grow our family biologically we would do it now, so why were we pushing the idea of growing through adoption into the future?
After a few months of praying and lots of research, we finally decided on an adoption agency. Then came putting all of our personal life details on to paper, which was not as easy as I imagined. On November 19th we officially submitted our application! And so the process begins. This will be a long and often difficult process and we know our friends and family will have questions along the way. We may not always have the answers but our hope is that this blog allows us to share God's plans for our family the best way we can. This journey is a complete act of faith and we are completely trusting that God will provide for us along the way.
For now, we ask that you please pray...pray for God's will to be done, pray for our future child we long to hold and pray that our family's FAITH continues to grow as we grow our family.
This past May, after months of subtle (and some not so subtle) nudges, I woke up one morning knowing God had big plans for our family. He wanted us to grow...in both numbers AND faith...and He wanted us to do it through ADOPTION.
Quick back story...adoption is something we have discussed so the idea was not a new concept for us. However we always agreed it was something we would look into in the future when our current children were older. As a result, it came as a big surprise to me and an even bigger surprise to my husband when I told him this was something God wanted us to do NOW. God laid this on my heart...if we were going to grow our family biologically we would do it now, so why were we pushing the idea of growing through adoption into the future?
After a few months of praying and lots of research, we finally decided on an adoption agency. Then came putting all of our personal life details on to paper, which was not as easy as I imagined. On November 19th we officially submitted our application! And so the process begins. This will be a long and often difficult process and we know our friends and family will have questions along the way. We may not always have the answers but our hope is that this blog allows us to share God's plans for our family the best way we can. This journey is a complete act of faith and we are completely trusting that God will provide for us along the way.
For now, we ask that you please pray...pray for God's will to be done, pray for our future child we long to hold and pray that our family's FAITH continues to grow as we grow our family.
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