A Little More Of Our Story

In the absence of anything new to report since yesterday's post about our AC repairs, I'm sharing the second part of our adoption story with you. And still waiting for the repair service to come. Rumor has it that they will be here "within the hour," but I'm not staking my entire day on it!

The last segment of our story ended with my junior high self reading a book, The Family Nobody Wanted, and feeling inspired and connected to Helen Doss's passion for the then "un-adoptable" children in the U.S. foster/orphanage system. Here's the next step in our journey:

Many years after reading that book, The Boss and I began dating during our sophomore year at Messiah College. Once I sensed that this relationship was becoming serious, I shared with him my heart for adoption. I’ve always known that I’d like to have biological children, but I told him that I felt a strong urging of the Lord to seek out children from other nations that could benefit from the background, experience, and godly up-bringing that I and my future spouse could offer. He was surprised, but agreed to pray about it as it concerned our future together. I’ve been so privileged over the years to watch God “water” the dream of adoption as a calling in my husband’s heart also.

Since then, there’s always been an understanding that this was the path the Lord had called us to; that the real issue was not “if” but “when.” In fact, many of our friends say that they remember us talking about and being certain that adoption was part of our future as a family – even when we were newly engaged! I specifically remember watching news programs about the orphaned children in the former Czechoslovakia, weeping and begging God to let us begin our family even then. It was so hard to wait on HIS timing and HIS plan for the unfolding of our dream.

Over these 16½ years of marriage, even as the Lord was blessing us with four beautiful children, we still carried a sense, a “knowing,” that our family was not yet complete. Each of our kids is gifted, smart, and talented; but more importantly than that, they all love Jesus deeply and they believe in this “family mission” to which God has called us. I feel incredibly blessed that the Lord trusted me enough to give me this dream, even in seed form; and that He has watered it over the years. I am even more blessed that He saw fit to bring me a husband who could joyfully share this dream with me and make it his own. We believe that adoption is part of our family identity and we are excited to see the harvesting of the fruit of that little seed, planted in the heart of a junior high girl.

I am looking forward to sharing the more current parts of our story with you soon! Thanks for hanging in there to read the individual installments.