A seed is planted

People wonder why we want to adopt especially when we've been blessed with having two girls the old fashioned way and you know what? I don't remember a time in my life when I thought about kids and a family when adoption was ever an option for me. It's just always been something I wanted and I truly believe God placed in my heart.

When Neil and I started dating and talked about kids he was 100% on board with adoption because he knew that he wanted to do it some day too. How awesome is that? God planted it in our hearts long before we even fell in love. We always talked about wanting to have two biologically and then adopt our third.

Our heart strings attached to adoption actually made me think "I wonder if we won't be able to conceive?" and He was just getting our hearts ready for starting our adoption process earlier than our plan. Well, we got pregnant really fast with both girlies.

Throughout our years of marriage I've read, questioned others and researched but always thinking that it was far away. Now it's on our doorstep.... Eden is 14 months old. We'd like the kids to be close in age so we are now asking for prayers for God's will to be done as far as the when and where details. The past 3 weeks we've asked our life group to pray and this past weekend I put it on our prayer wall at the ladies retreat. So it's out there... people know we really are serious and that we are going to need their prayers and support to get through the process.

In wondering where, we've always said China. We taught in China five years ago and just fell in love with the little ones at the school. SO sweet.... we love the culture, the food, the people, etc. Well, they are making the requirements harder and it looks like a 6-8 year wait. Hmmmm.... we're looking at other places. In reading through blogs and trying to find stories to follow, I've constantly come across Ethiopia. I even randomly met a lady at Claire's first swim lesson who had gone through the Ethiopian adoption process and she gave me her info (http://www.ourtaiwaneseadoption.blogspot.com/) Honestly, I never thought that as an option but the more and more I read and see pictures, the more I love those sweet faces I see. The statistics of children's death rates, AIDS rates and orphan numbers is heart breaking and astounding. Then when the Haiti earthquake happened Jan. 13th, I thought maybe God wants us to look into Haiti?

So that's where we are right now. Praying and waiting for God's perfect timing.