On the Road to Adoption...

April 9, 2007

The first time that we thought about adopting a child was two years ago. At that time, God placed an eleven year old little girl on our hearts and after much prayer, we began the adoption process. That was drastically cut short when I was diagnosed with some health issues that were, potentially, life threatening. Soon after my diagnosis, God began shutting all of the doors to our adoption efforts. Truthfully, though, adoption has ALWAYS been a desire of my heart.

A couple of months ago, God really began urging me to consider adopting again, although, this time it was to be internationally. I really questioned whether or not I was seriously being asked to approach Matthew with this again. However, God wasn’t about to let this go. It just so happened that the week that adoption first entered my mind was the Sanctity of Human Life week. I always read about abortion issues in regard to this week, so I was caught off guard when everything that I heard that week dealt, instead, with adoption. Literally, every magazine, every book, even the podcasts that I downloaded to my iPod dealt with adoption.

I realized quickly that God was very serious! After much prayer, I approached Matthew with the idea and his answer was immediately; “How fast can we get this done and how many can we adopt?” and, by the way, “We should adopt from Africa”. I immediately got choked up, because I felt very strongly that we were supposed to pursue adopting orphan children from Africa. I knew that this was from God and took it as further confirmation that we’re supposed to follow through with this.

After much research, the adoption agency that we’ve decided to use is Children's Hope Adoption (http://www.childrenshopeint.org/). They are licensed to adopt children from China, Russia, Kazahkstan, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Guatemala and Ethiopia.

So, as of today, we are officially pursuing adopting two children (a brother and a sister) under the age of three from Ethiopia.

We are so excited to begin this journey and believe with all of our hearts that this is what God has called our family to do. That being said, we know that it can ONLY happen with His help and the help of our friends and family. We are committed to sacrificing all that we can to raise the money that we will need, which is estimated to be nearly $30,000 for two children (including travel). We are moving forward in faith that God will faithfully provide the resources that we need.

Thank you to those of you who are willing to help us make this happen. I know that the rewards will be great and I can’t wait to see the testimony that comes from this.

Heather