We walked through the doors of the orphanage to the sight of 20 or so toddlers going outside to play. One little boy was looking a bit wary as the orphanage worker was telling him I was his new mama. What a shock to his little system. We would later learn that he probably still remembered his birth mama and I was not her. Our first meeting with him was one of wonder on our part and trauma on his part. He spent the whole hour crying. No amount of soothing words were able to calm him as he had to spend time with these two strangers that didn’t speak his language while everyone else was outside, which was his favorite place to be.
Three hours later we met a nine pound, six-month-old baby girl. She was all smiles that these strangers wanted to give her love and attention. She enjoyed every minute of our cuddling and attention.
Our Adoption Story
Our adoption story didn’t start there. God’s plan always starts long before the actual events happen. Have you ever had those moments when you felt God speaking to you deep in your heart?
We were driving home one day. I was in seventh grade and felt the Spirit of God speaking to me that I should adopt when I was older. I didn’t know what that looked like, but the desire translated to doing research papers on adoption in high school.
Fast forward a few years, we were a newly married couple and having issues with infertility. I had watched a friend go through the infertility process of doing all the things to have a baby and decided that was not what I wanted. God reminded me of that seventh-grade moment. It was an easy decision for me to say, “Hey, let’s just adopt”. My husband was a bit in shock. He had never thought about it before and had to get used to the idea. But God in His leading has a way of bringing our hearts in line with His.
If you have investigated adoption, you know that it is quite expensive. We were not quite sure how we were going to fund this start to our family. Watching God do His thing and provide for what He wanted us to do was an amazing and incredible experience!
While we were figuring out how to finance our adoption, God gave my husband and I each the same verse on the same day in different locations. When Wade came home from work, he said, “I have a verse I want to share with you.” I said, “That is funny, I have one too.” It was the same verse. I Thes. 5:24 “He who has called you is faithful, and He will do it.” We didn’t have anything to stress about. We just needed to exercise our faith knowing that God works all things together for our good. He had asked us to do this adoption thing, and He was going to do it. We needed to be faithful and walk through the doors that He opened for us.
Our journey began with lots of research because this girl wants to know all the details. We looked into domestic adoptions but that was not where God was leading. We decided to pursue international adoption AND well…let’s adopt two while we are at it. It’s a good thing we can’t see the future or we may not follow God’s leading.
We talked with an adoption attorney and he gave us an adoption magazine. On our way home as I was looking through the magazine we found a little ad for an agency that did international adoptions in eastern Europe. After our initial call to them, we were on our way to bringing home the children that God had for us.
Financing the Adoption
The process of raising the funds for the adoptions began. When you put yourself in God’s hands and put His plans for you in His hands, you have the great blessing of watching God work. Sometimes we try to do too much for God, when all we really need is to walk through the doors He opens.
Financing our adoptions began with the gift of a motorhome to use how we needed for the adoptions. This was followed by an incredibly large yard sale with items donated from everyone we knew. The yard sale covered exactly the amount of our first initial fee. We then were blessed with a couple of ladies from our church who decided to put together a spaghetti dinner and dessert auction. So many people from our community turned out to support these two beautiful children who were coming our way. We had other donations come in and were able to sell the motorhome for the rest of the cost.
And then we waited…and waited. Then 9/11 happened and we didn’t know what that would do for our adoptions BUT our trust was in the God who knows all things, so we waited.
The Call
The Call finally came early one morning. The agency had a 2-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl for us to meet. I asked if there was a baby girl. About a half an hour later, the agency had a 5-month-old girl for us to meet but we had to leave right away to meet her.
Within less than 10 days we were on a plane heading around the world to meet these precious children that God had for our family. The experience was truly life changing. One cannot go to another country and come home unchanged. Our perspective of what we are blessed with was forever changed.
As of this writing we have been blessed with our children for nineteen years. These two have taught us much about life, the good and the bad. The journey has not been easy but, I would do it all over again, even knowing the challenges we faced, because God asked us to do this. Our God is faithful and He will do it.
November is National Adoption Month
What is God calling you to do today? Have courage and walk through the doors He opens. The blessings and wonder and awe await you.