Something to Blog About

As I went on and on to my sister on the phone tonight, never quite getting to the "end" of what I was telling her despite the amount of words pouring from my mouth, I realized I needed to put it all down somewhere and this is the perfect spot. It's about adoption. And we are ready to take the literal step to begin a journey that will involve our family, immediate and at large, as well as the people all around us in some way or another.
We've talked for a few years about adoption, always feeling like one day we'd like to answer Jesus' call to "true religion" by actually adopting. We've had families in our lives that were multi-racial, and have seen the beautiful picture of our Father's love for us as His adopted children through these families. It's amazing how over the past few months, really just since this summer, we have been more and more drawn to these families and their stories. As we talked this summer about having another biological child I couldn't ignore the pressing feeling that there are so many children already born and in need of families - why would we be bringing a new one into the world? (October 2010)


Wow! I began this post over 9 months ago! I never finished it, because I think at that time there really was just too much to say and it was all so raw. In almost a year's time we have continued to feel the call to adopt. We have prayed, researched, prayed, talked, and prayed again. There are so many options for adoption. And there are so many needs in so many places. John and I both felt the pull from the beginning to make a difference where we are, locally, (not to say we are closed to global needs - just not at the moment). Even narrowing it down to domestic adoption, there are still so many possibilities. Every agency we've looked into (and met resistence in some instances) require an application fee to get started. We've been so hesitant to put any money anywhere so far, and we've prayed through fear concerning the financial aspect of adoption. Even working through trusting the Lord with our money (He owns the cattle on a thousand hills! Our money is His, not really ours!) we still haven't felt Him leading us anywhere specifically. Until just these last few weeks as God has made details fall in place to enable us to go through training to get started with foster care so that we can hopefully adopt a local child in need.
When I say training I mean TRAINING. Like 30 hours worth in 4 days.
It.was.exhausting.
We were tired.
Our kids were tired.
Our babysitter was tired.
But the Lord provided.
We are now set to keep the ball rolling to have our home study done within the next few months. We are currently working on "homework" that is part of all that - doing little things in our home to meet safety requirements, filling out forms (for the third time - forms seem to change every so slightly every few months and we have to keep up!), mapping out relationship patterns in our family tree, etc. All so that we can be ready when a little one (or two) is in need of a family because the one they have been born into isn't safe for them. The idea of being ready for that, so that once the need is known we can just say, "Come on!" pretty much blows my mind!
So we continue to follow the path the Lord is illuminating for us each step of the way on this journey toward adoption. We're waiting to see if the Lord is calling us to foster (which could be temporary or lead to adoption) or adopt (which would be fostering a child whose parents' rights had been terminated). The fact that we're not sure which one of these paths we'll take is proof to me that the Lord is leading us! And the heart change that has taken place in both John and me, and the growth opportunity for the kids, are amazing bonuses that come with following the Lord. He is the defender of the fatherless, He puts the lonely in families!