In the beginning

So, where to begin...

I never really thought that we’d ever start a blog. But for the last few weeks I have been thinking that I want to document our process of adoption to be able to look back on & reflect and than to share with our kids. 

For years people have asked us repeatedly, “when are you going to have kids??” Brandon and I have always responded with “in a few years”. No big. We had our plan. But that’s the problem, we were on OUR timing and OUR plan. We asked God to bless our path but His plan is greater. Our plan was not His. 

For a few years, I lived in fear of the responsibility of parenting and protecting them. Through different things and people that God revealed to me, I realized that in parenting  it wouldn’t be me trying and stressing over bringing up my kids right but guiding them in the way of the Lord. Training them not to fear the world but to be a light unto the world. And that through it all, it’s not Brandon and my strength, it’s through Christ alone and it’s all for His glory. I am sure that a lot of people already know this but this was something I struggled with but now I felt as though I could take on parenting. I was ready to do this! 

My timing is not God’s. Brandon and I tried for nearly two years to get pregnant. We watched as literally every one around us was getting pregnant. Super discouraging, yet over these couple years, God has shaped us, stretched us, taught us, revealed Himself to us, and drew Brandon and I even closer together. (Maybe another time I’ll share some more about this time in our lives.) Anyway, it brought us to the point of getting some infertility testing done and guess what, there is absolutely nothing wrong with us at this point! There was nothing that we really needed to fix. I loved this. This just confirmed that fact to us that God has been in control of our fertility this whole time. There is nothing that we could do in our own human ways to fix the fact that we weren’t pregnant. We could have potentially started into fertility treatments but we had both always felt that we wanted to adopt. We had just figured that we would have kids first through us and than adopt. 

Well, God, of course has His plans and His timing. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9. We felt more and more that God wants us to walk down the road of adoption now, not later. So here we are. 

In the spring of 2011, we started praying, searching through adoption agencies, and just trying to figure out where to begin. We both were leaning towards adopting from Africa. In June 2011, we decided on an adoption agency and submitted our application into the Ethiopia adoption program. We got accepted into the program and have started our journey of getting our child(ren). 

When I say child or children, Brandon and I are open to a boy or a girl, a sibling pair, or twins. We don’t know what God has for us. That’s what we are learning. Brandon and I are stepping out in faith not knowing what’s ahead. But that’s what faith is all about. We are trusting in Him. We want His way not our own. 

It is overwhelming to see all the paper work,  steps that we need to go through and the money that we need to come up with. God is greater than all this. God is greater than paper work and money. We have faith that He will provide. 

Through these past few years, we never really shared with anyone this part of our life. It's exciting just to be sharing this! It is making it all more real. Thank you already for being apart of this journey with us!