We're Adopting!!

I've known for as long as I can remember that I wanted to adopt.  Why??  I don't really know.  I don't know why I wanted to when I was little at least - except for the fact that God has been preparing me for this amazing journey my whole life.

When Cole & I got married, he was open to the idea, but didn't really have a desire to adopt.  But over the years, God has changed that, and it has been such a fun thing to watch!  I have watched God take him from ... Yeah, it's a good thing.  And if God calls me to do it, I'm OK with it. ... to ... You know, maybe that is something we should do. ... to ... Yes. I want to adopt someday. ... to ... I believe that someday is coming soon. ... and now to ... I'm so excited about adopting a precious little baby!

We both know for sure that God is calling us to adopt a baby right now.  And it's SO exciting to be on the same page in this adventure!

The questions we get most often now that people are finding out that we're in the process of adopting a baby from Ethiopia are Why adopt? Why an international adoption? and Why from Ethiopia? So here are the answers we've got for those.

Why adopt? - Well, most importantly, because GOD said so!

But more than that, it's because we both believe there's no better way for us to live out what God has done for us.  The Gospel is all about adoption!  God adopted us and gave us a new name, a new life, a new inheritance, a new future.  We want to live that out in our own lives.  No, our adopting a child doesn't save them like God's adopting us saves us.  But it does give them those same things ... a new name, a new life, a new inheritance, and a new future.  We want to live it out as a picture of what God has done for us.

We also know that God is passionate about orphans.  "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit widows and orphans in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." (James 1:27)

Here is a video that I saw on a friend's blog that expresses this better than I can.

Why international?  - Again, because GOD said so.

We know that there are children all around us in the United States who need families.  It would be cheaper and probably faster.  And it is as important that they be adopted as orphans from anywhere else in the world.  But as we prayed about it, God made the answer clear to us.  OK, God, international it is.

Why Ethiopia?  You guessed it.  Because GOD said so.

I really don't have much better of an answer for that.  There are children all over the world who need families.  The estimate I keep seeing over and over is 147 million.  147,000,000!!

There are 4.8 million orphans in Ethiopia alone - 4.8 million children who need families to love them, who need education, who need medical care, and who need FOOD.  They need to learn of God's love for them!

When we did the initial application with our adoption agency, we put down three countries we most wanted to adopt from - Ethiopia, China & Taiwan.  When we got back from them the information about which countries we were best suited for, only Ethiopia was the same.  That was where my heart was already, and this was definitely confirmation for us that it was the country for us.  Ethiopia it is!

We're adopting through All God's Children International.  Here is a video from a family that adopted from Ethiopia through the same agency.  The orphanage you see in the video is the one where our baby is (or will be if he or she isn't born yet).  You might want to grab a Kleenex!  Enjoy!