Adopting a child was somewhere in the back of my mind when I was younger. I thought I would like to do that someday, but I wonder now if at the time if I really believed I would do that one day. Or would I would marry a man who longed for the same thing? Again, this was just a thought I had once that was tucked away while I pursued life as I wanted to. Little did I know a seed had been planted that God had plans for.
God led Derek and I to one another. We lived in the same small town our whole lives and even attended similar events and yet we never knew one another. Our families even knew one another and we knew many of the same people. I always felt like we met at the perfect time, God's timing. I knew not long after we met that I wouldn't be looking any further. I had found my best friend.
As it would happen, he too, was interested in adopting. It is funny how God works in our lives. As we began to research adoption we started to look more closely into Ethiopia, which I'll be honest, I had never thought of before when I pictured adoption. Yet again, God had other plans. As we looked into requirements and learned about the countries and the need we knew where we would adopt. We may have still talked about other places, but our hearts always came back to Ethiopia.
I have tried to read everything possible. I've looked all through the Bible for answers when I asked myself so many questions about whether this was His plan for us for sure. I saw it again and again as I read things about Jesus being the defender of the fatherless(Psalm 68:5) and that He would place the lonely in families(68:6), and that religion He accepts as pure and faultless is to look after the orphans and widows (James 1:27). Once the call had been placed on my heart I began to look at how very blessed we are. At the same time, we are so very undeserving of all that we have. He has provided for our every need. Jesus gave it all. He just wants us to care for those less fortunate and those who can not defend themselves. I knew I could not say no to Him.
Derek and I have prayed about this for a long time and we are so excited to have officially started on our journey to adopt from Ethiopia! It will be months of paperwork, fundraising, waiting, and praying. We are willing to work hard to raise the money we need and to prepare for this. We believe that God will show us this generosity and support through others. We know it will be absolutely worth it.
As we got to the end of our homestudy application we got the the part that required our signatures. As we looked down and saw the words "Adoptive Father" and "Adoptive Mother" we both got a little choked up. It was a really special moment. We were so overjoyed to begin on this path that we have prayed about for so long now. I know that we will face many joys and challenges, yet we are very happy that this is the journey we are meant to be on. Please follow our journey!
