Well....a lot has happened since I last posted. We hit our first (of many I'm sure) wrinkle in this process that shook us pretty hard. AGCI did not pan out to be the agency we hoped it would be. They gave us reason to believe we would not be good partners in finding our Ethiopian angel. Thanks to all of you who gave such Godly encouragement when we were questioning our faith and ourselves. During our saddest moments we even wondered about God's will for us to carry this through. It seems like such a huge mountain to climb when you are standing at the base thinking "do I even have the energy to do this?" The answer of course is NO! "We" do not have the energy to stand up to this mountain but God does! And, undoubtedly, this will be just the first of many times we'll question and lean on Him for the strength to do this.
2 Corintians 12:10 says That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
God did not set us on this journey just to leave us here! I have leaned on this encouraging verse Deuteronomy 3:18 "The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."
Meanwhile a sweet family that goes to our church brought home their Ethiopian princess, "Kiki" on Christmas Eve. She is beautiful in every way and a huge inspiration to us. Thank you God for sending her when we needed that encouragement!
We also received a call from another agency we were interested in (coincidentally, the same one that K came home through) and were very excited for us to begin the process through them. So, this week we received all of our documents back from the original agency and we'll be getting off to a new start!
If you think of us, please pray for God to go before us and bind up anything that would keep us from the mission He has called us to. THANKS!
A New Start
Application Approval! Yippee
We're on our way!
AGCI has agreed to allow us to move forward with their agency! Now we wait for the agency's packet of information on our next steps. We'll keep you posted.
How Did It All Begin??
My husband's brother is adopted. Adoption has always been an everyday, household word for him. For me? Not so much. I had friends growing up that were adopted. When these friends got into high school and college, they strayed down a self destructive path that I always assumed (in my unprofessional, psychological opinion) was because of the rejection they felt by their birthmother. They were raised in loving Christian homes and I witnessed their parents dismay during their downward spiral.
Fast forward six heartbreaking years of infertility to be incredibly, mercifully blessed to have a son (who is now 9 years old and wonderful!). And then 9 more years of heartbreaking secondary infertility, when finally, we were at peace with God's plan for our childbearing years and we had sufficiently grieved.
And JUST when we were at peace with no more children, I was blessed to be able to travel on a life changing mission trip to Ethiopia with SIM and Sports Friends to help run a boys soccer camp. While I was there we got to visit the Mother Theresa AIDS orphanage. The children there were so beautiful and so happy. I was very sad to say goodbye to these children knowing that the majority of them would live and die in that very orphanage. We were in various cities in Ethiopia and I FELL IN LOVE with the people, the culture and especially the children there. When we had to say "goodbye" to the boys at the camp, I realized that my heart had forever been changed by the boys that I was responsible for during the week and I found that I had PLENTY of room and LOVE in my heart for another child/children. When I got to the airport in Addis Ababa, I had to force myself to not turn around and run back through the doors to stay in the country. I had made so many new friends and experienced so many new and exciting ways of worship, I was definitely on a spiritual high.
Meanwhile, back at home, my husband and son had already decided that our family needed to adopt and they started to put pressure on me to come around to their way of thinking before I left for Ethiopia. They were praying for my heart to be softened towards this thinking as well. You see, we belong to this incredible small group of believers and we had just finished studying the book of James in the Bible. And one of the verses we really chewed on was James 1:27.
And this verse manifested itself in MANY WAYS in the life of our small group. (more about that later, maybe) At the same time, our pastor was delivering messages laced with "adoption" stories and promptings. I was slowing, slowly, slowly, gently, gently, being guided, directed and even commanded by God to this idea of adoption for OUR family. So it is with GREAT fear and trepidation and only by the grace and mercy of God.........we move forward, one faithful step at a time.
"The Application"
I wasn't really sure we'd make it here. We've spent so much time in prayer, energy and anxiousness that I wasn't really sure we'd ever get to send our application off. We had lots of hoops to jump through just in order to get the application process started. Every day, our son asked "Did you send in the application yet?" And each time, we'd ask him to be patient....yeah right.
But, we mailed it off last Tuesday, before Thanksgiving and AGCI received it today! Praise God!
Now, the prayer begins for them to accept our initial application and for the fun to begin!
And away we go!
God is moving. I feel like I am standing on the edge of cliff ready to take the biggest and by far the most life altering dive of my life! How exciting to know that God will be there every second of the way down. Whew.
After many years of infertility and secondary infertility treatments, Todd and I have been called by God to adopt...internationally.....Ethiopia!
Seriously? ...........................Us?
But we're comfy here with our one, incredible, nine year old son, who now does everything for himself.
What are we thinking? God, what are you asking us to do? Get out of our comfort zone? Bring a child from another country with another culture that has different values and morals from us? So many fears......too many to count.
And God answered a resounding, "YES"!
There are SO many hoops to jump through. So many, that I get overwhelmed and it sucks all the joy out of thinking about the sweet child that will hopefully someday come to live with us and call us Mommy, Daddy and Brother. I know God is going before us and preparing the way.
