Our family is on yet another journey... one unlike any we have attempted before! We feel God is leading us to adopt a daughter from Kazakhstan. I wanted to get my thoughts and the pre-journey written down here for you to read... and to process it myself and see how God is moving.
4 years ago, I had a dream of a little Asian girl who was a part of our family. This might not seem strange to some, but I don't usually remember anything in my dreams, nothing... so when I do, I usually take it that it is from God. I don't know why that is, just something I feel. Anyway, I felt like God was telling me we were to adopt a daughter. I always wanted a daughter, but God blessed us with 2 boys. Ty and Devon are the best, and I can't imagine our family without them, but for years I felt like we needed a daughter. I had prayed for God to take that desire away from me many times (Jon and I decided to only have 2 children). I wanted to be satisfied with what God had given me, but the desire wouldn't go away. So, after this dream I brought the idea up with Jon and it was pretty much rejected immediately. I was frustrated with thinking that this was from God and Jon not getting the same message as me! Why would God tell one of us this and not the other? Maybe it was just a dream... I couldn't shake it, and continued to pray that God would let Jon in on the plan as well! This went on for another 2 years, me praying and not really saying anything to Jon about it. Then one day it came up again. Jon was a bit more open to the idea. I felt like God was telling me to be patient and to continue praying. I have to admit the past few years, I hadn't prayed with as much passion about the whole thing. I think I was protecting myself from disappointment. And let's face it... we are closer to 40 than we were years earlier when this was all started. Did I really want to start all over with more kids? Deep down in my heart the answer to that is yes, of course I would start over, if that is what God had planned for us.
So, fast forward to 2010. The idea and conversation has been brought up again. Jon is actually pretty open to the idea, but we still don't move on it. Fear maybe? Let me also mention that in the past year we have had a family move in next door that has an adopted son from Ethiopia. Getting to know them, the desire has really been stirred up again. I found out the agency they used and got on their web site and got an application package sent to us. When it came, I just put it away and never opened it! Also, sometime in this year I read an article on how adoption should be considered spiritual warfare... that the enemy doesn't want these kids to be in families. That shook me up as well. Then, at the end of August, Ty and Devon decided to move into one bedroom (totally unprompted by me!). Jon made the comment, "well, now we have one less thing in the way of us adopting." Looking back now I see how God is putting pieces of the puzzle together for us, preparing us. Then it happened: on Sept. 9, 2010, Jon came home from an OM prayer meeting where they showed a video that toward the end had some orphan statistics from around the world. And God spoke to him, telling him we need to adopt. He came home and told me that (as I was walking out the door to go to my job!) and I was FLOORED!!!!!! Finally, we were both officially on the same page!!!! 4 years in the making, but it was going to happen! I think I cried all the way to work! That night I pulled out the application and we stated filling it out and going through it. We knew it would be an Asian country. Both of us have a heart for Central Asia. But, we knew there was no way we could adopt from China with our current income status. We mailed the application, pictures of us, the boys and our house on Sept. 21, 2010. Much to our delight we were accepted into the Kazakhstan program just a few short days later. November 29, 2010 we mailed our adoption agency contracts and home study contract. We had a slight delay in getting all this filled out, and notarized with Jon out of the country for 5 weeks, but we have to believe that God's timing is perfect!
Kazakhstan is currently not accepting new paperwork while they join the Hague Convention (which regulates adoption laws and helps prevent corruption). They are supposed to start accepting paperwork again in March, which gives us plenty of time to get our home study done and paperwork in order. If you think about it, please pray for us to be able to request a girl! In the past you were not able to give a gender request. But, again, we are trusting God to pick out the perfect child for our family (and I am not painting the bedroom just yet!) This whole process should take about a year... please pray that it goes smoothly and quickly! Please also pray for us as we start looking and applying for different grants to help with the costs of bringing home our daughter!
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