In the beginning!

Tim and I have been married for about 25 years. We have two daughters, Tella 19 and Casey 15. Both sophomore's...one in college and one in high school.

As you can tell by our blog name....WE ARE ADOPTING....

How do people come to adopt?

I'm not sure about others, but for us, we have always enjoyed children, ours and other peoples. We have taken in foster children at one point for about 3 years and are involved in youth ministry in our church.

Our friends were adopting and asked us if we would like to go with them.

Well it is a bit more involved than that. God actually orchestrated the whole thing! First He gave us a heart for children; specifically children in need. Then He worked it out that Tella, Casey and I could go to Ethiopia in June 2009. We knew that God had something amazing for us, but really weren't sure what. It was truly an amazing experience. (more details later about our trip) The amazing thing to me was that if each of us had not gone, I don't think that we would be adopting today. He spoke to each of our hearts, but one without the other would have been easy to dismiss. In my previous job as a youth social worker here in the USA I had seen many situations that broke my heart, but I had never seen anything like I saw in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It was overwhelming to say the least. The poverty, children starving and sleeping on the streets, beggars, etc.....It was more than I/we had expected to see. Through all of this that I would have seen as negative, torment....these people had such a sense of community about them; walking arm in arm, helping each other our- whether it be cooking, cleaning, or braiding someones hair; there was such a sense of camaraderie about them. This was from oldest to the youngest and it was amazing.

Once we were home, I felt God speaking to me about adoption, but I was afraid, too content with my life as it is, etc. and it was pretty easy to take what God was telling me and turn it to "well I will just send money or we can go back to build an orphanage". But, That is not what God was telling me to do. It was not the direction He wanted to lead our family.

One summer night in August, as Casey and I sat under our oak trees enjoying the evening, she began to speak to me. It made me very uncomfortably because I knew that God had been speaking to her too. Now, since it was out in the open, I/we had to make a choice. I/we could pretend that God hadn't spoken to us regarding adoption. I/we could continue on our path of doing what we wanted with "helping". I/we could drag our feet and make it impossible to work out....and a multitude of other "wrong" actions or we c0uld seek God's will for our family.

That is when He gave me this scripture:

"If any of you lacks wisdon, he should as God, who give generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does" James 1:5-8

In Joshua 1:6-9, God tells Joshua"Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."

So once He gave me these two scriptures, it was up to Tim and I...were we going to ask and believe....follow God's plan and be prosperous and successful OR were we going to let our fears of rejection by others because of our decision, apathy turn our hearts from God, or our own self will of just doing what made us comfortable?

Thankfully, we have made the choice to follow the Holy Spirits leading. This is not to say that we have not had struggles, doubts, questions, but if we look back in the first scripture....it reminds us that we must ask, believe and not doubt.

My apologies for the lenght of this post....there is so much I want to convey over what has occured in the last 6 months. I pray that you seek God's will for your own life, lean on Him and be an encouragement for those around you to do the same. Dawn