The beginning

I suppose our decision to adopt came as a surprise to almost everyone, except ourselves. Of course, if you had asked us a year ago if we were going to have any more kids, we would have given a firm "NO!". We had been adamant for years that we didn't want to have any more kids. Don't misunderstand me. We love our children more than I can possibly say. It's just that our kids are getting older and more self-sufficient. We can sleep peacefully most nights and can even sleep in on Saturday mornings. Why change all that?! Not to mention that child-birth and I did NOT get along very well, so it just seemed the obvious choice was not to have any more children.

Of course, God had something to say about all of this.

My first and now constant circle of friends after moving to Missouri either had adopted, had been adopted, were in the process of adopting, or worked with orphans in one degree or another. I didn't really think anything about this at the time, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't have an impact on me. In fact, my friend Jenny, who has two adopted children from Guatamala, often teased me that I'd better be careful hanging out with all these adopters and adoptees or we'd end up adopting, too. I would just laugh politely in response. It's clear to me now how God was putting the support, encouragement and resources in place. Not to mention "the bug".

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27 NIV

Sometime last year I checked out a book from our church library called Fields of the Fatherless. I didn't go in looking for that book; rather the book found me. I brought it home and began reading it. It was about the things that are of utmost importance to God and making those things most important in our lives. In scripture, God speaks of three groups that are most on his heart, that he feels the most compassion for and that he most longs for believers to show mercy and love to. They are the widow, foreigner and orphan. The "fatherless". The ones without a home. Without Jesus in our life, we're all homeless; we're all orphans.

"For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." Romans 8:15 NIV

Scott saw me reading this book and asked, "Does this mean we're going adopt?" I said, "No." That was about 8 months ago.

Then, I started to get "the baby bug." I noticed babies everywhere. Now, I firmly believe some people just naturely gravitate towards babies. They're "baby people." They're the ones who offer to hold a crying baby, want to cuddle a baby, make cute faces at babies, etc. I am not one of them. So, why was I suddenly so attracted to babies all the time? I even signed up to work in the nursery one day. Me! Working in the nursery! Of course, I loved it but what was this all about?!

About 8 weeks ago, Scott and I began a discussion about adopting. We'd had brief conversations during the previous year, but just in passing. This time, we both felt very strongly that we should adopt. And we both felt strongly that we should adopt an infant. And we both felt strongly that we should adopt from Ethiopia. We'd been praying separately about these things and it was awesome for me to see God working through both of us; leading us down the same path to the same decision at the same time.

It's taken us a while to select our adoption agency, but we're finally there. We filled out the pre-application and just received the formal application in the mail today. I got so emotional just looking at it. There was a picture of the orphanage in Addis Ababa and I thought, "that might be my baby's first home." It's overwhelming how much work God has done in our lives and in our hearts to consider that we will be so much more blessed by another of His precious, little ones.