Our Adoption Story - so far.

As Michael sat in his ethics class at Southeastern Seminary several years ago, he was struck by the need for the church to rise up and come alongside women who are considering abortion. If we are going to encourage them to choose life for their unborn children, then we need to provide good homes and families when those women aren't ready to parent. We wanted to be a part of that. As we talked about adoption and prayed about it, we realized more and more how adoption provides a beautiful picture of the Gospel and our desire to mirror that picture in our family grew. We wrote in our initial adoption application as our reasons for wanting to adopt: "We are so thankful that God saw fit to bring us into His family and accept us as sons (Heb 12:5-11, Rom 8:14). We also greatly value life and want to be a part (if only a small part) of God's people providing homes and families for the babies of women who find themselves pregnant but are not ready to parent. We want to encourage them to choose life. We have always wanted at least four children and it seems that God is leading us to grow our family through adoption this time."

I think I was pregnant with our third child when we began this conversation. My initial desire was to try to time an adoption so that I would still be nursing. God's timing always seems to be different from what I have in mind. Thankfully, He knows best - though sometimes I have a hard time remembering that. Financial concerns kept us from starting the process for a while. Then, after we put our two older children in school and I slowed down enough to listen, God had some work to do in my heart before we were ready to start pursueing the adoption. Last spring (2010), I started calling around to different agencies and talking to friends who had already adopted. We finally settled on one agency and sent in our initial application. Once that was approved, we received a big packet of information to complete and started in right away to get that done as quickly as possible. Everybody had to get physicals done and D. and I had to write autobiographies among a host of other things. We had everything completed, except for some training, by the first of June. I had thought (incorrectly) that we could finish the training while our homestudy was being completed. When I called to clarify that assumption, I also asked some more questions about potential costs. It turns out that some expenses which I knew were possible, were actually probable and that raised the cost of the adoption at least $5000. We held on to our application packet and took a step back to reevaluate our financial plan. When this first happened, I was afraid that we wouldn't go through with the adoption and I was unprepared for the sadness that overcame me. I also spent a good deal of time second guessing our decision to go with the agency we had chosen. It was not the least expensive..., had I made the right decision..., should we change gears before we went any further..., were we even going any further?? When D. and I were finally able to sit down and talk about all this, we realized that neither of us felt like God was telling us to stop pursueing the adoption - even with the added financial burden. There was also a question of timing for us to consider. D. would be graduating from Seminary in December and we were trying to figure out our next move. Should we be trying to do both of these things at the same time? As crazy as it seemed, we decided to continue on with the adoption.

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Quick side story -
In the middle of all the uncertainty last summer, the children and I were traveling by ourselves going from my family's house in AL to meet D. at his folk's place in TN. On the way, I made an emergency bathroom break at a place I wouldn't have normally stopped and decided to go ahead and fill up the gas tank so I wouldn't have to stop again. I started filling the tank, then unloaded all three kids and paraded through the gas station to the restrooms. After I got them all situated back in the van and closed the door, a big African American man approached me and asked where we were going. I gave him a vague answer. He wanted to know where my husband was. We were going to meet him. I just wanted to get back in the van and leave. He proceeded to tell me that God told him to give me "this" and extended his hand with some money in it. I was very wary and tried to refuse. He said you don't argue with the Holy Spirit. I eventually did accept the money. When I got back in the van and looked, I saw that he had given us $80.00. A Bible verse was stamped on the top bill. Of course, the children wanted to know what was going on and when I told them what had just happened, they immediately connected the money to our adoption.

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We finished our training and sent in the full application around the first of September. All of our homestudy interviews were done by early October and now our homestudy should be complete any day now. In the middle of all that I've done two craft fairs and a yard sale to help raise money for the adoption. Back in the summer, our two older children started asking what they could do to help raise some money. They wanted to sell something at the craft fairs I was going to be doing. That's when we put our heads together and came up with the idea for "A Heart for Adoption."

In his book, Adopted For Life, Russell Moore talks about how everyone is called to care for orphans. Not everyone can adopt but we can all support adoption and orphan care. This is where you can be a part of our story. We would greatly appreciate your prayers as we continue to walk through this process and prepare to receive a new little one into our family. We would also be honored if you choose to contribute financially to our adoption through the purchase of one of our "Hearts for Adoption."