So here's our story

So many people want to know why we decided to adopt. So here it is:
For me, it began back in High School - that is when God first planted the "adoption seed", so to speak, inside of me. My youth group visited an orphanage in Honduras and I was never the same. If I could have adopted one of those children at the age of 15, I probably would have. I still pray for two kids in particular - a 9 year old boy named Juan, and a little girl, I don't remember her name - but I have her picture. Strange to think that these kids really weren't much younger than I was at the time and are all grown up now, and by God's grace, hopefully thriving despite their difficult young lives.
When my husband, Jason, and I began discussing marriage, we talked that one day, maybe adoption would be part of our lives together. Many years went by, and two biological children were born, before these desires began to resurface. And it was like God just hit me with it all at once - like, "OK - here it is.. time to start thinking about this again!" And I couldn't stop thinking about it. I was ready to begin the adoption process. Problem was, my husband wasn't. That was so hard for me - why would God lay something SO heavily on my heart and not on his? So for over a year I battled those feelings of confusion and desperate desire to begin adopting - and I did a lot of trying to convince my husband that the time was right. But for whatever reason, it wasn't. Then last December, Jason comes home from work and tells me he has something to tell me. "I think it's time to begin." Wow! and hoorah! But strangely, I wasn't as excited as I thought I would be - I think I was thinking he would change his mind; it had happened before. And then I got scared - yikes- did I really want this afterall? I was fearful - and we had decided on Ethiopia - yikes again - could we really handle black children? But God is good, and over time, those fears have disappeared and He constantly shows us his goodness and faithfulness. The process is moving along, Jason and I are unified, and funds are coming in. Wow, there is so much more to tell, and so many details I have left out (I'll gladly share any of them). But the fact of the matter is there are 145 million orphans in the world who are susceptible to all sorts of horrifics that I won't go in to. And our hearts and our home have room to spare.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27