TV Interview

One of my prayers and deepest heart's desires through this whole adoption process is that we will continue to advocate for the Fatherless and inspire families to adopt children.  My prayer is that other people will look at Lincoln, our little ambassador, and be motivated to pray about what they can do to take care of orphans.  I also pray that others will look at us and say "If they can do this while raising a family on a teacher's salary, then we can overcome the financial obstacles and do this too."  Image my surprise when God dropped an opportunity in our lap to be interviewed by the local news about our adoption and how we're financing it!  I can feel His hand upon me and know that He is working mightily on behalf of His children.  I'm so humbled that He chose me, someone weak and unworthy apart from Him, to be a part of the work that ultimately HE is doing on behalf of these precious children who belong to Him.  I believe that YOU are God's plan for the orphan as well.  What part will you play in helping to take care of these 147 million?

The Process

As of right now, we're somewhere in the middle of the adoption process.  We've completed almost all of our homestudy appointments, attended the 4 and a half hour adoption education class, watched all of the required DVDs, read half the 2 inch stack of adoption related articles, and compiled half the required paperwork for the dossier.  And right now, I'm tired and wondering when it will all be done.  I have to keep reminding myself that this isn't some game or required college class--our child is waiting at the end of all of this. 
It's funny, I remember having similar feelings when I was pregnant with each of my daughters.  "Will there ever be a time when I'm not sick (I'm one of those who's sick all 9 months) and pregnant anymore?", I wondered.  So I guess I'm going to do the only thing I can do--press on toward the goal and pray for strength for each step of the journey.

147 Million Orphans

We attended the Christian Alliance for Orphan Summit VI this past year in Minneapolis, MN.  It was there that I was first introduced to the 147 Million Orphan t-shirts which were sold out by the time I made up my mind to get one.  I just purchased one recently, and the proceeds for the shirt goes to helping the cause of Fatherless.  You're giving money, AND wearing something that brings awareness to orphans--talk about killing two birds with one stone! 
You can find these super cool shirts at http://www.147millionorphans.com/, and I also recommend checking out the blogs of the women who began this ministry.  It's always so encouraging to learn about others who share the same passion for the Fatherless and see what they're doing to advocate for this cause.

Adoption Journey

Since high school, I've known that I wanted to adopt children.  Since before then, I've known that my life would be dedicated to working with children.  And so it's been--babysitting, volunteering with sunday school, being a "Big Sister" with the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program, becoming a reading partner, volunteering with children of domestically abused women, being the assistant program director at a summer camp, going through five and a half years of schooling to get my elementary education degree, volunteering with children of mothers overcoming addictions, substitute teaching, sponsoring children in Africa through World Vision, teaching 4th grade in a predominately hispanic community, looking at orphan ministries online during my college years wondering how I would someday be connected with them, and praying that God would use me to do something big. 

God put a fire in my heart for the Fatherless a long time ago, and boy have I been eager to see those prayers come to fruition.  Before becoming pregnant with each of our girls, my husband and I prayed about adopting and we felt that the time hadn't quite come.  Now, after over a decade of prayer and longing, he's given us the green light to adopt a baby boy from Ethiopia.  Wow.  He's so faithfully been working in our hearts and lives to prepare us for "such a time as this."  Makes me want to raise my hands in worship every time I think about it.  And I feel like the journey is just beginning....