A lot can change in a year...

Imagine this, we are late in updating a blog! I mean I did post last September. What has really changed in a year? I mean if you count the kids getting older, doing more stuff, and making life changing decisions, sure I suppose you could say that an almost year long absence from posting is a lot.

For over 10 years, Tamara and I have been discussing the possibility of adoption for our family. Before we said I do, but after we were engaged we began talking about what our "ideal" family would be, and shortly after we made it known that we wanted children that never disobeyed we discussed number of children. Ok ok, we didn't really say that we thought our kids would not disobey but we really did discuss the number of children we would like to have if God would allow us and we had always said 4 or 5 and adoption was part of that equation at least in thought. Periodically over the last 10 years God has not allowed us to stop bringing the possibility of adoption back up in our hearts and minds. This year we have really enjoyed the stage of life we are in with our kids (7,6, and 3) and the freedom that has come with not having to be tied to a schedule as much or just the ability of the kids to handle some of the variables of life. God also brought back up the thought of adoption in our hearts and we spent time talking about it. This past fall we talked about adoption off and on some and covenanted to pray about it, and then the earthquake in Haiti hit in January and God shook us again at the staggering needs of orphans around the world. We went to an information meeting about foster care and adoption where we heard testimony of those who were in the process of adoption or were thinking about what adoption might look like for their families, and God was awakening our hearts for adoption and orphan care. In February we had a conference here at the church were Dr. Russell Moore was our speaker, and he took one of his sessions to talk about his experience with adoption and again God was awakening our hearts. March was extremely busy with life and adoption was still on our radar but we had not taken time to sit down and talk intentionally about it until about mid April. We had had a late night conversation about adoption and talked through some more of the logistics of the adoption and still God was awakening our hearts. At the end of that conversation we agreed to take a week to pray about where we were in the midst of what we believed the Lord wanted us to do in obedience to a glaring need He had made know to us. That night we decided that we felt the Lord was calling us to adopt children just as we are spiritually adopted by God through the blood of Christ in salvation.

Our hearts were with the children of the nations as we thought about where we would pursue adoption. We are now a good ways into the process of international adoption through Gladney Center for Adoption based out of Ft. Worth. Due to several circumstances and some leading, we felt as though Ethiopia was the country we wanted to adopt from, and by God grace by this time next year we will be adding children to our family. Yes, you read that correctly, we have been approved for 2 children and we are requesting twins (1 boy, 1 girl) but are open to non-twin siblings as well.

As this post is published (July 20, 2010) we have finished our home study and all necessary paperwork for Gladney and now are beginning the Foreign Dossier paperwork. We are hopeful that within 4-6 weeks we will be officially on the wait list to be matched with the children God has in mind for our family.

In addition to our adoption, God has continued to put orphan care on our hearts and minds and we are seeking opportunities and praying for opportunities to care for the children of the world as we are reminded they all have names and worth and there is One who knows them all. God created them, he knows them, and he loves them and so too will we purpose to love the children of the world by our actions, our words, and our opportunity to raise awareness about the staggering numbers of orphaned children in the world right now. We felt it was time for us to do something and soon will be asking you to join us in making a difference too.