A couple of months ago I sat in my living room holding my sweet little girl in my arms. It had only been 5 months since we brought her home from Ethiopia and we had gotten through the "rough" stuff when it came to adopting from a foreign country. The Salmonella poisoning that gave her several bouts of diarrhea every day, the sleepless nights, and the undiagnosed lactose intolerance were a thing of the past. Life was good. I had my four boys and finally a little girl. I was content.
I find it funny that when I start feeling content that's when God speaks and says "I'm not finished with you." Of course I didn't hear Him audibly, but He spoke to my heart that day. I knew at that moment that He had another daughter waiting for me. I told Andy immediately and he gave me that "your crazy" look. He knew better than to say no, but I read the look on his face and decided to not push him. You see, we were still paying off the tickets we bought for our trips to Ethiopia and we didn't have any savings. Everything was spent on bringing Grace into our family. So how were we going to afford another one?
I prayed for God to change my heart if this wasn't the plan He had for our lives because I wanted to make sure that He didn't put this desire in my heart for another purpose. Maybe start an adoption ministry or possibly an orphan care ministry? I wanted to be 100% sure. I prayed that God would change Andy's heart if we were to adopt again. I didn't nag Andy about adopting once during the next two months. I knew it wouldn't do any good because he's so hard headed :) When it comes to adoption I don't believe God would tell me to adopt and not tell Andy too so I left it to God to convince him.
On July 7th He did just that. We came home from church that afternoon and Andy knew we were suppose to adopt. He looked at me and said "Our family isn't complete." I already knew that, but sometimes he's a little slow :) We both knew that we needed to pay off our one credit card that we had used to purchase our tickets for Grace's adoption. God is so good. Our Adoption Tax Credit would cover it.
We started telling our family and friends that we were adopting again. I must say I was a little taken aback by a lot of responses. We heard "Again? Really? This soon? Why not from the states?" several times. I'd be lying if I didn't say my feelings weren't a little hurt, but God didn't say this would be easy. I can understand the responses because I know what I'd be thinking if I were in their shoes. I'm writing this blog to answer some of these questions.
First, we have learned that when God calls answer the calling or be left out of the blessing. Yep, He can find someone else to do it, but he asked us to adopt.
Second, we are not bringing our daughter home tomorrow. International adoption takes months and often times years to bring a child home. Grace's adoption only took 10 months. This is RARE! Also, we have to raise the money for this adoption. This is not an easy task when we've "fundraised" all of our friends and family out with our first adoption. More to come on that subject in a later post.
Last, we feel God has called us to Ethiopia. We didn't wake up one day and say "Oh, Ethiopia sounds great! Can't wait to spend thousands of dollars and countless hours on ridiculous amounts of paperwork!" I know I'm sarcastic, but the reality is not good times. Don't get me wrong, we are blessed through the process, but it is often times not an easy one.
So there you have it. Yes, we are crazy! Crazy and in love with a God who has blessed us beyond measure and we can't wait to bring our next blessing home!
I find it funny that when I start feeling content that's when God speaks and says "I'm not finished with you." Of course I didn't hear Him audibly, but He spoke to my heart that day. I knew at that moment that He had another daughter waiting for me. I told Andy immediately and he gave me that "your crazy" look. He knew better than to say no, but I read the look on his face and decided to not push him. You see, we were still paying off the tickets we bought for our trips to Ethiopia and we didn't have any savings. Everything was spent on bringing Grace into our family. So how were we going to afford another one?
I prayed for God to change my heart if this wasn't the plan He had for our lives because I wanted to make sure that He didn't put this desire in my heart for another purpose. Maybe start an adoption ministry or possibly an orphan care ministry? I wanted to be 100% sure. I prayed that God would change Andy's heart if we were to adopt again. I didn't nag Andy about adopting once during the next two months. I knew it wouldn't do any good because he's so hard headed :) When it comes to adoption I don't believe God would tell me to adopt and not tell Andy too so I left it to God to convince him.
On July 7th He did just that. We came home from church that afternoon and Andy knew we were suppose to adopt. He looked at me and said "Our family isn't complete." I already knew that, but sometimes he's a little slow :) We both knew that we needed to pay off our one credit card that we had used to purchase our tickets for Grace's adoption. God is so good. Our Adoption Tax Credit would cover it.
We started telling our family and friends that we were adopting again. I must say I was a little taken aback by a lot of responses. We heard "Again? Really? This soon? Why not from the states?" several times. I'd be lying if I didn't say my feelings weren't a little hurt, but God didn't say this would be easy. I can understand the responses because I know what I'd be thinking if I were in their shoes. I'm writing this blog to answer some of these questions.
First, we have learned that when God calls answer the calling or be left out of the blessing. Yep, He can find someone else to do it, but he asked us to adopt.
Second, we are not bringing our daughter home tomorrow. International adoption takes months and often times years to bring a child home. Grace's adoption only took 10 months. This is RARE! Also, we have to raise the money for this adoption. This is not an easy task when we've "fundraised" all of our friends and family out with our first adoption. More to come on that subject in a later post.
Last, we feel God has called us to Ethiopia. We didn't wake up one day and say "Oh, Ethiopia sounds great! Can't wait to spend thousands of dollars and countless hours on ridiculous amounts of paperwork!" I know I'm sarcastic, but the reality is not good times. Don't get me wrong, we are blessed through the process, but it is often times not an easy one.
So there you have it. Yes, we are crazy! Crazy and in love with a God who has blessed us beyond measure and we can't wait to bring our next blessing home!
No comments:
Post a Comment