Surprise!!

Wow! It feels good to have a blog working again and be able to write about our wonderful, crazy lives :)

We want to update everyone on our adoption journey. Surprise!! We are adopting!!With this being my first blog post about adoption, I want to share some of our feelings of why. Some people just give us a blank stare when we tell them we are growing our family through adoption. Yes, we actually love children and are very excited for another son! The first questions are usually, "So do you know what your child looks like?" "What age is your child?" "Is it a boy or girl?" "Will he have diseases?" "Why Congo, when there are thousands of children in the US?"

Before I answer those, I want to take some time to share our hearts. I have always wanted to adopt from Africa. Every time I would go to a conference, or see a commercial, or see pics from missionaries about African children, there was something that always tugged on my heart. My dream has always been to visit Africa or to live in Africa to share the gospel and hope of Jesus with the children.

John loves children and he dearly loves our children. One of the reasons I married him was because he is so wonderful with children :) He is the "let's really think about this" before we just jump into something. So it wasn't that he totally opposed adoption, he just wasn't sure. And that's okay. We prayed together and alone about the timing of adoption, and one day as John was reading his Bible, God spoke to him and said, "Arise, my love, and go." (John has written a song using these words)John has fully been on board since that moment.

We originally were going to adopt from Ethiopia, but the wait times are close to 2 years, if not longer. Then we found Terri, a lady that lives close, who works for One World Adoption Services. We researched them, and decided to go with them. Terri is the director of Congo adoptions, so we decided to adopt from Congo. Another great reason for adopting from Congo is that travel time is short.

John and I both are grateful that God has adopted us, being Gentiles, into His family. Through Jesus, God and His blessings are fully accessible to us :). Because of grace that God has shown us, we want to share God's love with a child who otherwise would be hopeless and possibly dead if not adopted.

Okay, so now I will answer some of the questions:

We have just finished our homestudy and received word yesterday that we are #18 on the wait list for a boy age 0-3. We haven't received our referral yet. According to adoption.com, the adoption referral"refers to when prospective adoptive parents get a call regarding a child that the country or agency has selected for them based on the family's criteria. The prospective adoptive parents will also receive information on the child's health." So we haven't seen the child, and we don't know our child's age.

About our child having diseases, the children are all tested for HIV and Hepatitis. We are requesting a healthy child, and we are praying that God will keep his hand over our son. :) and God is faithful!! So be praying with us!

This is a long post, so I will go for now. I know I want to post about the name we want to give our son and why, so be on the lookout! There is so much to be said :)

Have a blessed day!!