So What Made You Decide To Adopt?

This is one of those questions that I have been asked enough to wish I had a little money for each time I've heard it. I suppose having two healthy biological children already made us odd candidates for adoption. Infertility didn't make us adopt. And since we didn't adopt a boy after having two girls, people are sometimes baffled. The great thing about this question though is that it gives us an open door to give God some glory. The hard thing is that we (well, I) often fail to point to Him like He deserves.

Back in about 2002, Jason and I were in a really nice groove with our family. We had beautiful girls...ages 4 and 2 at the time. Both potty trained, sleeping in big girl beds, feeding themselves, etc. But they were still little and cute. Life was good. We were just beginning the homeschool adventure and had big dreams...then God gave us a new dream. And frankly, it scared the hound out of me.

We never even talked about domestic adoption. And I don't know why we were even thinking of adoption at all except that God put those desires in our hearts. We didn't know anyone who had adopted internationally at that point so I can only point to God when asked why we did this.

I remember researching countries and being determined that Korea was it. They would bring the child to us. And there was no way I was traveling half way around the world! Definitely Korea. Nope...we learned that we could only go the special needs route if we adopted from Korea. For some reason you could only adopt a healthy infant in certain states...weird. Then we learned what it costs to adopt. Whoa!!! I could not wrap my mind around those numbers. It seemed impossible. Still, we continued researching. Then I learned that Guatemala would also let the child be escorted to you. Great!

At the beginning of 2003 we had just about decided to go for it. We had signed up to go to a free seminar at an agency. Then we had a blizzard. Where we live, a foot of snow is a blizzard...you're homebound. This was fine with me as I was having NO peace about adoption at that point. I literally felt like throwing up when we would talk seriously about it. So we decided that it was not for us...at least not then.

And what do you know? The Lord led us to move in the spring of 2003 anyway. So the timing was an issue. But there was a problem...when we got to our new church it seemed that adoption was everywhere. One of our pastors had adopted and even had the nerve to pray that other families would do the same. You should see our church now. We have children from China, Russia, other Easten Europian countries I cannot spell, Japan, Guatemala, etc. It's so beautiful! And plenty of domestically adopted children too! We could not get away from it!

By 2004 we were seriously considering adopting again. But it was sooooo scary to me! The money, dealing with two national governments, social workers, paperwork, possible travel, the impact on Rachel and Mary Evelyn, etc. I really was afraid. But Jason was ready. So he just kept praying. I remember reading somewhere that the only things that last for eternity were God, His word, and the souls of men. This hit me like a ton of bricks...I certainly wanted my life to make a difference for eternity. Then I heard a pastor on the radio talking about "the least of these" and how when we do things for the least of these we do those things for Christ Himself. He addressed young mothers and encouraged them that taking care of children definitely counted. Oh goodness...God was really talking to me now.

I prayed that if God wanted us to do this, that He would lead me through my husband. Then I asked Jason if he would be ready if it weren't for my hesitation. He said he was ready to apply right then. So that was it! I knew God had answered my prayer. And I somehow knew that I would never regret adopting a child, but there was a real possibility that I might regret not adopting one day. By the fall of 2004, we were clients of Christian World Adoption, and life has never been the same.

And that's the story of how we decided to adopt.