Adoption Journey - Part 2

Late 2011 - 2012

Brad and I prayed throughout 2011 about adopting.  I think we were both feeling called by God to adopt, but we kept looking at our life with 4 very active growing kids and could not get out of our comfort zones.  With a 9 year old, 7 year old, and two 5 year olds, life was definitely feeling very manageable.  We were able to do more things as a family, and getting farther and farther out of diapers gave us lots of flexibility and freedom, to be honest. We were loving the ages of our kids.  We were in the zone...the comfort zone...and it was going to take a movement of God to get us out of it.

And, of course He moved, not just in Brad and my hearts, but first in the heart of our 9 year old daughter.  In October 2011, Ella and I had a fun night out with my sisters, Eden and Leanne, at a concert.  We all went to dinner and then to a concert with Steven Curtis Chapman, Andrew Peterson (one of my favorite artists!), and Josh Wilson.  It was a great concert!  In the middle of the concert, a family with 2 biological children and 2 adopted children were interviewed on stage.  It was a very moving part of the concert.  God used it to keep working on my heart and the family's story really impacted Ella.  Afterwards, with tears in her eyes, Ella said to me that she thought God might want us to adopt and she was going to start praying about it.  Wow, that blew me away!  Ella and I had never talked about adoption for our family, and she had no idea about the journey God had Brad and me on.  And it wasn't just an emotional high from the concert for Ella.  From that day on, she regularly prayed our family would adopt!  If she only knew!  I have to admit, I did talk to God about this...really...putting adoption on the heart of one of my kids!  My heart was melting.

The final turning point came for both Brad and me in early 2012. My friend, Karen, gave me a book called The House of Hope by Elisabeth Gifford. It is the true story of a couple in China whom Karen had spent time with when she was a missionary there. This couple, Robin and Joyce Hill, started volunteering in orphanages right before Robin was planning to retire.  What they experienced would change their lives forever.  They saw children dying in Chinese orphanages, who with surgery and some loving care could instead heal and live a full life with the possibility of being adopted into forever families. Instead of retiring, Robin and Joyce, a medical doctor, opened a medical needs foster home called New Hope in Beijing. Now, 12 years later, they have 5 of these homes in China, which altogether care for hundreds of children.  It is an inspiring story about listening to the call God puts on your heart...just taking a step out of your comfort zone and watching what God can do with that one simple step of obedience!

This book and the Hills story was all my heart needed.  Through massive tears, as I read the stories of these precious children they were saving, I cried out to God and said yes! I will do it! I will get out of my comfortable spot and take a step. I felt strongly that God was leading us to adopt in China and through the special needs program.  Wow, God, adopt...and not only adopt, but special needs. I did not feel one ounce equipped, but I prayed and told God I would trust Him.  And also said if He wanted to give us a special needs child that had been cared for by the Hills at New Hope, that would be aweome, too!

In January 2012, at the same time I was reading House of Hope, God used a message at church called 'One Not Everyone' to rock Brad's world and put him on the adoption road. Through a video teaching by Andy Stanley from North Pointe Church in Atlanta, Brad felt God leading our family to adopt. The whole gist of the message was do for one what you would like to do for everyone.  Brad felt like God was saying to him, 'If not you, then who?  I am just asking you to do for one what I know you wish you could do for many. Just do it.  Just do it.  Be My hands and feet.  Don't worry about the details. I got those.'  Kind of EXACTLY what Brad needed to hear at the exact time he was wrestling with all of this.

God moved, and we were finally ready to move with Him!  We were willing to check out the details...China...special needs...adoption agencies...just ready to take the first step and see what happened.

It took us until November 2012 to get set on exactly what direction God was leading and to move beyond the 'just checking things out' stage.  Through more prayer and research, we came to the definite conclusion, that yes, it was the special needs program in China that God was leading us to and it was Lifeline Children's Services out of Alabama who was to be our adoption agency.  Through the book, House of Hope, I really liked an adoption agency they mentioned, but the more we prayed about it, we felt God leading us to Lifeline. Although I was bummed, because that meant, in my head, giving up the idea of having a New Hope baby, we felt confident that our path of obedience included Lifeline.

So, on November 27, 2012, we officially started the adoption process and turned in our application to Lifeline Children's Services.  A couple of months before this, we told the kids we believed God was leading us to adopt.  By this point, they had heard Ella praying for adoption...she started out praying on her own and then would include adoption in family prayer time.  God used Ella to pave the way for the other kids.  By November, all of our kids were very on board and us starting the process brought much joy from each of them!

We were on our way...just one step of obedience at a time.  That is all God was asking of us.  Although we definitely wondered how we were really going to do this, we felt a pretty amazing peace behind our moments of fear and doubt. We knew we were where God wanted us to be, and there is something pretty awesome about living life at that place!