Adoption

Joel and I were married in 2005, we just celebrated our 5 year anniversary! We always knew we would adopt one day, but it was always something way down the road. We had our first son, Ethan Isaiah in 2006. He is a bright, sweet little boy whose wheels are always turning. In 2008, we decided to have another baby and quickly became pregnant. At the end of our first trimester, we lost our baby and were totally heartbroken. We were confused and frustrated, but with a “dust yourself off” attitude, we started to try again. But In the midst of our anticipation, I began to think about adoption. I started doing some research and wound up ordering an information packet on Ethiopia adoption, telling myself I just wanted to be prepared for the future.

A few weeks later, through a random and interesting series of events, we became heavily involved with an effort to rescue tribal children in rural Ethiopia. You can read more about this organization at drawnfromwater.org. Our first thoughts were a hesitant, “God, what are you doing?”. We continued to wait for our second child through the spring of 2009, and were given the opportunity that summer to go to Ethiopia to work with Drawn From Water. The trip was life-changing to say the least, and while we were there, our heart for adoption expanded into something bigger than we could have imagined. Once we returned, however, we quickly realized that we were not in a position to adopt for many reasons. I think that we were pretty confused and almost disillusioned with the whole experience because we didn’t understand what God was doing at all. I almost felt like I was mourning again. And to make matters worse, we began to watch several friends begin their own adoptions. To our surprise, we found out just a couple of weeks later that we were pregnant! My first thought was “Thank you!” and then my second thought was “Why now?”. The road just kept twisting and twisting.

During the pregnancy, a lot of changes occurred in our home and finances. We had Josiah Clay in 2010 and began to settle into life with two little boys but we could feel something brewing. Something big. While at a church event, we had the chance to listen to a presentation by a foster-adoption agency and quickly figured out that the time had come to start down this road. Our immediate thoughts went to Ethiopia, but the intimidating cost made us skeptical. We decided to find out more about foster adoption through the state of California and at first, it looked like it would work out. However, once we began the training in our home study, some of the county policies made it clear that it would not be a good fit for our family. In the midst of this decision, we had a conversation with some friends who are nearing the end of their adoption process. We realized that we had been running from what we were meant to do because the obstacles seemed too large. We thought of Caleb in the Bible and knew that we had failed to have faith. We were deeply challenged and decided once and for all to do what we knew we had to and that was to walk forward into our adoption from Ethiopia.

So here we are, walking into the unknown - the world of international adoption. And believe me, it is a whole different world. We are excited and moving forward without fear, waiting to see what God does and waiting for him to make the way.