Tuesday Testimony is an opportunity for us to share some of our grant recipient's testimonies. May you be blessed by their stories.
I have had a passion for adoption and caring for the orphan all of my life. I really think this stems from the fact that I was adopted and I always saw adoption as God’s plan for my life to get me to my family and ultimately, into His family. I married a man that I knew was open to adoption because not adopting was not an option for me. Early 2009, Chris and I knew that the time was right to begin pursuing adoption and we decided that an international infant adoption would be the best fit for our family. We started trying to figure out what country we could adopt from and truly felt led to Ethiopia. We went ahead and started filling out the first of a few mounds of paperwork that would be required and started a process that would take 20 months to complete.
Just about one year after starting this process, on April 6, 2010, I received a phone call that a beautiful 4 ½ month old baby girl in Ethiopia needed a family. We quickly accepted this referral and instantly fell in love with the little face in the photos.
A few weeks later, Ethiopia completely changed their adoption process and started requiring adoptive parents to travel to the country twice, instead of once. The first trip would be to meet the child and then attend a court hearing to declare an intention to adopt a specific child after having met them. The second trip would be where a family would bring their child home with all the proper documentation.
When we started this process, I just assumed that we would cover the finances. God has been so faithful to us in the finance department and I knew that He was calling us to adopt, but I never dreamed that He wanted us to rely on Him for the money to do it, too. When we found out we had to travel twice, I just knew that God was going to have to provide for that. And He has! As soon as we turned that part of our journey over to Him, He chose to bless us again and again and again. God is good!
Adoption is such a wonderful gift. It is a gift to the parents, the extended family and the child—and it is a gift that is hugely on the heart of God—one that He is directly involved with as much as we will allow. I am so glad that we have been forced to allow Him into every part of our adoption. We have been blessed and I know the blessings will keep coming!
John 15:5 is a scripture that has come to mean a lot to me through this process. “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” With God, I believe that I can do anything, including handle all the road blocks and challenges that have been thrown at me through this adoption. Without Him, I would not have made it this far and would be in debt up to my eyeballs. God is amazing and so is walking in His plan.
On December 31, 2010, we landed at the airport and our baby girl was declared a citizen of the United States—fully ours (and God’s). She joins big brothers Gavin (5) and Reily (4). We truly are blessed!
