How we got here.....God....thats how!!....He formed this plan for our family & in His faithful timing revealed it to us. We are just being Joyfully Obedient to His awesome plan for our family. ....But lets start at the beginning shall we?
About 2 years ago God began using our friends, church organizations, & the 147 Million Orphan ladies (thanks alot Gwen, says my husband) to show us the plight of the fatherless in the world. As I learned more about the lives and hardships that these children face everyday & throughout their lives I began wanting to do more. So, I bought gear from friends who were adopting, I prayed, I talked about orphans, I prayed, I studied, I bought gear (its a recurring theme) & I started talking to knowledgeable people about Gods plan. And I became convinced that God was calling our family to greater service, greater reliance on Him & ultimately to adoption.
Many have said that this adoption "thing" is a trend or that its people who dont realize what they are getting into (I am sure we dont....but do we ever when we have kids?). My favorite adoption quote had to have come from my friend Tara who said "Its a child, its not jeggings." Trend makes this life changing thing sound very trivial & trivial its not. Kingdom work IT IS!
But I digress....
After God put this before me over & over & over again I finally began to realize "oh You want US to do this" & began talking to Chris. & talking & talking & talking (those that know me realize it may be my favorite pasttime). Mostly those conversations were short & ended in us both saying we would pray about it, him praying I would let this "adoption thing" go & me praying he would go ahead & get on board. I knew in my heart that God would not have put this weight on my heart to return it void. He just wouldnt! However, I also know that the spiritual leader of my household was not ready. So we talked & prayed & studied! & finally a precious man of God said something that made it all click for Chris, he said...."I have never felt 'called' to adopt, and I have 4 adopted children" "because my wife feels called & after studying Gods word & how He feels about orphans I know what I am required to do....and I can be obedient" No warm fuzzys, no crying over the fatherless, just obedience....that Chris could identify with ...he knew we could love any child that came to be in our family, he knew God had laid it before us, he knew it would be difficult but he knew we had to OBEY.
So here we are...obeying...joyfully I might add!
Everytime we get discouraged God brings us another little blessing to remind us we are on His path. Sometimes I think, what if we had missed it....how many blessings would we be denying our children, how many ways to show HIM mighty would we have missed, how many times I would not need to cry out to HIM, how little I would realize my need for HIM.
Thats how we got here....or should I say thats how God got us here.
More to come on our journey to becoming a family of 5...
(a few things 1.grammer not my strong suit 2.punctuation isnt either 3.I can live with that, hope you can too)
