Over our last 11 years of marriage, we have had a call to adopt but felt the Lord telling us to wait. About 3 years ago, we felt Him lifting the “wait.” However, we were living in a 2-bedroom, 720-square-foot rental home. “When we have more space, we will be ready,” we decided. In 2022, Hurricane Ian destroyed our rental home. God was faithful, as He always is. Our financial needs were met through the generous giving of friends, family, church family, and strangers. And just 2 months after the hurricane hit, we were closing on the purchase of our first home.
Now, as we look forward to adoption, we can be thankful for tragedy! We are settled into our home, and we’ve got an extra bedroom sitting empty and ready! While we know there is a great need for adoptive families within the U.S., we feel called to bring a child home from an orphanage. We have also sought to adopt a child with special needs. (Each of us felt as a teenager that one day we would parent a child with special needs. We learned this about one another years later when we were engaged.) We have been led to the country of Bulgaria. Adoption from Bulgaria means adopting a child with special needs and institution-related trauma.
We have felt God continue to open our hands and our hearts. He has given us peace, and we feel compelled to move forward. Lord willing, our family will adopt a child from Bulgaria with Down Syndrome, age 0-3 in 2025! We know life will change entirely for our family as we bring in a family member with Down syndrome, additional developmental delays, and institution-related trauma, but we firmly believe that a life poured out for the least of these is a life WELL-LIVED! Christ is our perfect example of a humble servant and minister. We have surrendered our plans for God’s will and His Glory! And we know that His will will also result in our joy because we will receive more and more of HIM! We believe that the sacrifices that our biological sons make for their new brother or sister will be ultimately be for their benefit, too, and we pray that they see Jesus as the main character of this entire adoption story! We will disciple our new son/daughter, and faithfully do all we can to point him/her to Jesus!
We hope that this adoption journey and our future adoption STORY will put Christ on display for the world to see! God has been so faithful to lift the financial burden of adoption. Through grants such as Katelyn’s Fund and through the generous giving of His people, our adoption will be funded without our family incurring debt! What an encouragement in this calling!
