Adoption: Part Two

*2006 post*

To read Adoption: Part One, go here
If you already read that, our story continues…

I ended the last post with Mark and I committing to be purposeful in prayer about adoption; to ask God what He wanted from us and when. I did a lot of journaling during that time. Here’s an excerpt from my journal a in this season of seeking God:

There are so many children who do not have a family. My heart is this: I want to reach out and nurture those who need a family…

I keep thinking of that verse in Luke: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” That is us. We have much. Why not? Why not now? There is a need and we can fill it. Will you confirm this in our hearts, Lord? We want to be obedient to You if this is indeed You speaking to our hearts about us doing this- now or in the future.

Just a few days after that journal entry, I was driving yet again and listening to the radio. Family Life Today happened to be on, and they were talking about another subject entirely, and had two women guests on to share. At the beginning of the show, when the introductions were being done, Dennis Rainey asked about the connection they’d just discovered these two guests had (it turns out that one of them was in the adoption process and the other had been adopted herself, long ago). So he asked them to briefly share about their experiences before they launched into their regular program topic. The woman who was currently adopting shared how she had just come to a place where she just felt like they had room in their lives and hearts and that they had so much to give.

And that was it. I knew right then in my spirit that that was the confirmation I had been asking God for. I turned the radio off and- through tears, thanked God for this. It was simple, really. But I just knew. That is exactly where I kept turning: that we have so much; and that there are children in this world who have been abandoned, orphaned, and have no one. I really felt a sense of responsibility. God had blessed us so abundantly. There was no question to me what God’s heart was on this. Throughout this time, God had led me to the following verses:

James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.

Deut. 10:18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.

Psalm 10:14 You are the helper of the fatherless.

Psalm 10:17 You hear, oh Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed.

Psalm 146:9 The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow.

Hosea 14:3 For in you the fatherless find compassion.

Psalm 82: 3-4 Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them…

And finally,

Psalm 68:5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families.

We knew God’s heart already. At the time we even joked, “So, we’re asking God if this is something He wants us to do. What’s He going to say, ‘NO’?!”

That same day I got online and began researching adoption agencies. A few weeks later we’d decided on an agency: All God’s Children International.

The two next questions were when and how?

WHEN? We decided to start moving forward and see how the Lord directed us.

And the HOW? I journaled this at the end of May, last year:

HOW? Only through God’s tremendous provision and creativity, because we simply don’t have the finances to do this. But we really trust that if this is the Lord’s will for us, He will be faithful to provide… somehow, some way, for this to occur.

So basically we were embarking on a huge step of faith. We live on one income and were basically living paycheck to paycheck. We had no debt, thankfully (well, besides our house), but: no savings, either. This was a huge, huge thing to us. The cost for international adoptions isn’t small. Most international adoptions range from $14,000-$30,000.

So now we needed just $195 for the application fee, and we needed to choose a country to adopt from. We had no idea where that money was going to come from, and we had no idea how we were supposed to choose a country. We decided to pray over the country and our finances, and we decided to start pinching our pennies.

And then our hot water heater broke.

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To read Adoption: Part Three, go here.