The Road

*Around 10 years old, finding out there were millions of children that needed homes. To me it was just easy. There are orphaned children, of course I will adopt some day.

*17 years old. Before Jake and I got married I asked him if he wanted to adopt. He kindly said, I am not sure and then I said there is no reason for us to continue in this relationship because I will adopt some day. Jake says, can I pray about it. I say, sure. We talk a week later and he is up for adoption. We continue in our relationship.

*20 years old, married and we are wanting to adopt. I am still too young. I needed to be 25. I spent a lot of time dreaming of adopting. Thinking about it when I would run and my heart would ache. I had no idea what was ahead for us.

*24 we start the process and we now have Marya and she is one. We want to adopt one baby and we have chosen Vietnam. We look at the waiting list and decide to be matched with a two year old little boy with mild special needs. After all of our paperwork I get pregnant and they stop the adoption. You cannot be pregnant and adopt at the same time. We praise God for Ezra, but it was hard to let our other little boy go. Another family stepped in and adopted him right away.

*Move to Alabama at 26 and start the process again. We decide to try to adopt two at once, toddler and baby. AS we are doing our homestudy we feel God urging us to put the age of the children and the sex of the children in His hands.

*We decide on Ethiopia, Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork!!

*We are matched with two boys Abreham was 3 and Petros was 1 AWESOME!!!!

*The next day we get a call that they have a sister that is 6 and we have to decide to do all three or none. We prayed, sought counsel and were matched with all three. Never dreamed of adopting three at once, or adopting older children at this point. There had been so much prayer leading up to this point. We knew it was God!

*One year to the date of getting matched with all three we are legally their parents. They are all one year older and it has been an amazing journey to get here. Preparation for what is ahead.

*147,000,000 orphans world wide. Pray about it. I do believe it is the heart of God. If you want to read about adoption I believe that Adopted for Life by Russell Moore is by far the best book on adoption.

*I am now 28. Through this journey I have seen so much of my sin and so much of my self motives for adoption. I have learned that the main driving force for this must be the glory of God. If it is for any other reason you will not make it.