Discussing Adoption

Beth and I are thrilled and excited to be on the amazing journey of adoption.  It is a journey of love, obedience, and as we are learning, much patience.  Ever since we began dating we openly discussed the possibility of adoption.  This past Christmas we began talking more and more about it and praying about it. Literally, God gave us both this incredible desire to be parents.  So we started the process.

For a variety of reasons we felt drawn to international adoption and Africa which eventually led us to Ethiopia.  There are lots of secondary reasons such as wait time (the time to receive a referral), travel time (the time you have to stay in the country), costs, etc. but the primary reason for us was we prayed about it, sought out wisdom on it, and God gave us a ton of peace about it.  The need for adoption is great all over the world and that is certainly the case in Ethiopia where there are 4.5 million orphans in a country with 75-78 million people (in the U.S. there are 500,000 orphans with 300 million people).

We have asked to adopt a sibling group of brothers and perhaps brothers and sisters.  Apparently, finding "forever families" for older (toddler age & up) siblings, especially boys, is more difficult.

So right now we are just "waiting" for our agency to refer children to us.  This process is very detailed and involves lots of bureacratic, legal, and administrative processes in Ethiopia.  These processes can be slow and cumbersome but as we have learned they are in place to protect the children and families.

For Beth and I this process is teaching us so much about God's love for us.  The Bible speaks of God "adopting" us into His "forever" family!!  God had to go through legal and costly means to make it happen but He did it because of His great love for us (see Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:5).  The verse below blows me away:

Ephesians 1:5 (NLT) --God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

We are also learning more of what it means to trust God.  I "believe in theory" that God takes full responsibility for the outcomes of our life when we are fully obedient to Him.  I have "tested that theory" several times in my life and it is true (starting Rock Bridge is one such example).  James 1:27 tells us to take care of orphans and widows.  While there are many different ways for us to obey this command, adopting is the way God has clearly revealed to us.  Then I read these two verses and WOW!!

Psalm 68:5-6

A father to the fatherless ... God sets the lonely in families.

Thanks for everyone's encouragement and we do REALLY appreciate your prayers!