Another Baby!!

Well friends, some exciting news is coming!  We're having a baby!  Wait, we're not pregnant.  We have, by the grace of God, decided to adopt!

 



(image taken from pinterest, although the original source could not be located)

A little back story...adoption has been on my heart since as long as I can recall wanting children.  I always said that I'd birth one and get 4 others.  Well, plans change--I've already birthed 2!  And the thought of having 5 children like a friend of mine seems completely overwhelming.  If I'm honest, after we had Shalem I thought we were done.  I have 2 boys.  I love the idea of 2 boys.

 

Enter my husband.  One day he gets into the car and says to me, "I think we should adopt a child."  WHAT?  It honestly felt like it came from east cupcake.  (Never heard that phrase?  We hadn't either until the game Catchphrase taught it to us.  It means the middle of no where!)

 

So, our conversation about adopting a child began, sometime over the summer 2012.  We prayed, then listened, then waited.  Again, I thought maybe we weren't meant to do this.  The financing particularly seems WAY too big to comprehend.  God kept prodding.

 

I began to research how to go about all this.  There are only 4 adoption agencies in BC and we have to, by BC regulation, choose to work with one of them. My organizational OCD kicked in and I made a list of every country that those 4 agencies work with.  More prayer.  After reading about each country, I crossed off which ones we didn't qualify for (there are a lot!).

 

The list was shortened to about 10.  Then I went through them again, praying and considering all the options.  The list whittled down to 5.  Then we looked at the countries that were left and considered any connections we already held to them.

 

The list became 3.  Canada, the US, and the Congo.  Our connections with Canada and the US are obvious, but I didn't feel God saying that was the way to go.  We began to explore the Congo more.  Our connection there is distant, but has great potential for growth.  The denomination that Jason pastors in, The Evangelical Covenant Church, has a long-standing history of missions in the Congo.  Our ability to preserve a child's cultural heritage is important to us and because of the mission opportunities through our denomination in the Congo, that ability is greatly increased.  And with that, the list became one.  I have a child that lives oceans and continents away, that will endure much between now and the time we meet, that is fully loved already and yet unknown. 

 

(picture taken from here)

 

So, here we are.  Just at the very beginning of something incredibly huge...and exciting!  We know that this is way out of our league financially.  Seems crazy actually.  Paying for an adoption is costly.  The paperwork is extensive, and even more-so because we're Americans living in Canada.  God is bigger than all my worries about these things.  His plan is unfolding just as he sees fit, and I am totally out of control!  If you know me at all, this is not an easy place for me.  Yet, in this place of tension I feel closer to him than I have in a long time.  I simply can not do this on my own.

 

My sweet brother has started a website for us.  It is partly out of response to the website he created that I type these words.  I want you to know our story, who we are, and why we are doing this.  And I want you to walk with us in this amazing adventure.  Please feel free to visit the website if you'd like, and certainly we ask for your prayers!