Laura recently wrote this article for our church newsletter:
Jeremiah 29:11 states “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” This is the verse that Aaron and I have embraced for our relationship and our lives. Aaron and I have known each other since 6th grade but didn’t start dating until our senior year of college. This December we will be married eight years.
Adoption was something that Aaron and I talked about nonchalantly, and we had discussed the possibility of someday adopting, but never seriously pursued it. In late 2007, Aaron and I had just bought a home in the country and started to feel settled. It was during this time that God started to move in our hearts.
November is national adoption month and Focus on the Family was doing a special on adoption. I happened to turn on the radio and while listening, I felt God speaking to me that we should adopt. When I finally said something to Aaron, he told me that he had also had a similar experience that same week. He told me that he had had a dream that week about adoption that he couldn’t get out of his head. With that confirmation, we boldly proceeded. We researched different adoption agencies and Aaron was firm about having a Christian adoption agency. After much research, we settled on America World Adoption Agency. The final decision on choosing this adoption agency is that the motto for their agency is Jeremiah 29:11. This was another confirmation in our hearts that this is what God wanted for our lives.
After picking an adoption agency, we narrowed down our search just based on preferences. We knew we wanted an infant and that eliminated some countries. Some countries require that you travel twice to the child’s country or that you stay for an extensive amount of time and that eliminated some others. In terms of adopting, Ethiopia is relatively fast and that also helped us choose. Aaron and I have both traveled to Africa-both of us to South Africa and I have also been to Kenya. Having seen first hand the needs of the African people we knew that Ethiopia was our choice. With Ethiopia, you can choose the gender and request an age preference and we asked for an infant boy.
There have been many times that I have doubted our decision or questioned if this was the right decision but God has responded to every one of those fears. I can honestly say that God has responded to me every single time I doubted. I can remember several instances where I was thinking that this wasn’t the right thing to do and God would use somebody who would pray for us and our adoption; or I would hear on the radio about adoption and how it changed somebody’s life. It was while pursuing this adoption, that God opened up the doors for us to be a part of Respond Ministries, the orphan ministry at our church. God was already using our decision to further his kingdom and our relationship with Him has increased exponentially during this time in our lives. Adoption is definitely a leap of faith but we know that this is the direction that God is taking us.
It has now been 19 months since first starting this process and we are hoping to have our boy home by the end of the year. At the end of July we got our referral (which is when they match you with your child) for a very healthy 6 week old boy. He was born June 16th and is now 3 months old. With Ethiopian adoptions, you must pass a court date (our adoption agency will represent us over in Ethiopia) which verifies that he is truly an orphan. We don’t have our court date yet because the courts are closed until October 6th. Once we pass our court date, we will travel about 7-10 days to bring him home. God is truly teaching us patience during this waiting period!
We are both so excited about the opportunity to become first-time parents and we can’t wait to see what God has planned for us in the future. The church has been very supportive of us during this time and we are so thankful and blessed. We appreciate any prayers during this time, especially that we would pass our court date (only 60% pass the first time), that he would continue to stay healthy and that we would stay safe and healthy on our journey to pick him up.
