How It All Began

Here’s a record of our journey of responding to God’s call to “…Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world. “ James 1;27 (The Message)

Adopting has actually always been on my heart. When I was a little girl, I would pretend that I had a small brood of children that would follow me around everywhere I went. I often had a little song that I would sing about what I wanted to be when I grew up, “I want to be a Mommy and a Mouseketeer.” Even though the latter never came true (who knows - I could have been a pre-Britney Spears! Ha!), one of my greatest desires was to be a Mommy. I often thought that I wanted a big family - at least four kids - four boys for that matter. But that thought quickly changed after not enjoying being pregnant at ALL. Now, I am so grateful that we were able to get pregnant and I wouldn’t trade my children for anything but after two pregnancies, I was done being pregnant.

It’s also interesting to note that I've always wanted an African baby. Now I guess this could have happened had I married someone that wasn’t white but that wasn’t in the cards either. ☺ I distinctly remember as a child wanting a black baby doll. This came as a bit of a shock to some of my family members but my wish was granted. In fact, I still have this baby doll on my night stand as a reminder to pray.

David and I have always talked about wanting to adopt but not really knowing the right timing. I would frequently look at adoption books or websites and even requested some information from some agencies but that was the extent of our investigation.

Then, one day after church, we were talking about the sermon that Kay Warren had just given on her book, Dangerous Surrender. The message was quite disturbing as she went in to great detail about the evil in the world. It was a message that stirred our hearts, and we found ourselves wanting to be involved somehow. David turned to me and said, “We need to use our savings and adopt some children.” I was in shock at this statement. I asked, “When? From where?” He said, “From anywhere, there are so many kids that need help. We need to look into it further.” (A bit of background information: We had recently been called to move down to Orange County - a long, miraculous story in and of itself - the previous summer. This was a definite first step in deciding to move forward in the process.

A couple weeks later, we went to a meeting at church for further explanation into Saddleback’s Orphan Initiative. It’s amazing the plans they have for impacting the world’s orphans. I love our church! The whole meeting just confirmed our calling and we began to do some serious investigating.

After a few months of investigating different adoption agencies and speaking with friends that had adopted, we finally decided on an agency. It seemed surreal starting the process. So many questions swirled in my head: How will this all work out? When will it happen? How will we even afford this? How will it affect our family dynamic? On and on the questions lingered but didn’t dissuade us from surging ahead in our quest. We both had a tremendous peace about the whole situation and knew that the Lord would provide the answers. Even our girls were (and still are) excited about the process. One night before they went to bed, I told them to be praying about the possibility of adopting a baby. They were thrilled to potentially have a future brother or sister. When Emma asked about adopting, I explained how there were some babies that didn’t have a mommy or a daddy. She thought this was terrible and agreed that we would be a good family for one of those babies. Both girls quickly made plans to feed, burp, and bathe the little one. They will both be such great big sisters!

So fast forward to today: We just got approved to start the adoption process with our agency! The fun now begins! We have hopes to adopt a boy (2 or under) from Rwanda. We are especially open to adopting a sibling group. We are however open to what God wants us to do. I know that many couples have their heart set on a particular country and then God steers them in a different direction.

It’s a strange feeling, knowing that our lives will dramatically change in the coming year. Our little family is so precious but I can’t help but think that we are missing someone! It’s overwhelming to think that God knows who that little child is that He planned to be in our family. They could be alive right now! They could be forming inside their mommy’s tummy as I sit here.

I often pray for wisdom but I also pray for that little one and for the mommy – that the Lord will give her a peace that He already has it figured out and her baby will be safe.




Click here for more information about adopting from Rwanda.