You may want to sit down for this!

We are adopting a child from Africa! Yes, it's crazy. We realize this is something totally out of the "norm" for us to do. But we are taking a huge step of faith, and it feels AMAZING to know that we are being obedient to God in doing this. We are doing this CRAZY thing because God has laid it on our hearts. A year ago Jason and I would have laughed at the idea of adopting at all, especially internationally. Six months ago, we said "ohhh...maybe someday". And then a few weeks ago our wonderfully faithful God broke both of our hearts for the astounding number of orphans in the world. (Over 140 million...yes, MILLION!) And on August 31st Jason came home from church and said, "Let's do this. And let's do it now." I was floored, but who am I to question what God is telling my husband? So I jumped on board.


Here is the "game plan" with the details. The first step is to choose an adoption agency and the country we want to adopt from. We have picked an agency. And picking a country was kind of easy because it was narrowed down for us. Some countries have specific restrictions such as our ages, the number of children you already have in the home and their ages, the length of time we have been married, etc. Jason and I also wanted to find the part of the world with the greatest need. So we decided on Ethiopia. (See link to the right to see why.) We have started our application. From there we will have our homestudy, then several months of paperwork, and then wait for our referral (info about a child). We are requesting a child under four years old, and are not specifying a gender. We know God is going to pick out the perfect child for us. We were told by the agency that the "long end" of the wait would be 12 to 18 months. We are hoping to have him or her home for Christmas next year.



WHAT WE NEED:

1: Prayer: We need prayers for our family: Jason and myself - for wisdom, strength and patience during this process; for Aidan (who is SOOO excited!), Hannah and Houston as they prepare to welcome another child into our home; and our new child waiting to come home. Since we aren't strictly requesting a newborn, there is a very good chance that our next child is already born and waiting for us in Africa. We can only imagine what kind of conditions he or she is living in right at this very moment.

2: Money: Children aren't cheap...even orphans. And it is going to take a lot of it to get our child home to us. (See cost breakdown to the right.) And we have nada....zero...zilch of it. We are going to start doing some major saving and lots of fundraising. (More about that to come!) If you feel led to make a donation, I PROMISE it will be very, very, very appreciated!

So, now that this has been probably the longest blog post in history (and did I mention that I am brand new to this whole blog thing? bear with me...I'm learning!) - we hope that you are as excited as we are about this whole new adventure in our lives! Yes, we are crazy. We get that. But we are doing this crazy thing completely for the glory of God.

"...once our eyes are opened we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act." Proverbs 24:12