New Beginnings

"Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father."

(Galatians 4:6)

I've debated writing this post for a while now. In truth, a big motivating factor for me getting back into blogging was so I could document the journey we are about to undertake.

I'll try to make it succinct as possible. But if you know me, you know how verbose I am and how I can go on and on about things that really interest me. I'll do my best, honest, not to delve into it too deeply.

Phil and I have been married 15 years now. That's a long time, folks! I can remember back before we tied the knot, we would talk about future plans and dreams. I am really blessed to say that of all the big plans that we had and big dreams, we have done most of them! Now, all those plans and dreams didn't end with rainbows and leprechauns dancing in a meadow and singing folk songs on a guitar. (Don't ask me where the mental image came from. Just go with it.) But I consider myself pretty darned blessed to be able to say that I followed dreams I wanted to pursue and dreams God gave me to pursue with my whole heart. Fail or thrive, I have to say that as a couple, Phil and I have always sought to pursue God's plans for our lives.

There is one dream and plan we talked about for ages now that we have yet to pursue. Either due to circumstances, time, or ability. And that dream is adoption.

I myself am a testimony of the miracle of adoption. My mother was adopted in 1952 and I am the direct product of adoption. Along that line of thought, it's really humbling to think about your own personal life quite possibly even BEING simply because of a selfless decision made by birth parents and then a decision carried forward to completely alter the lives of the adoptive parents and adopted child.

So it had always been the topic of discussion between Phil and I that adoption would be something we were definitely interested in pursuing one day. Fast forward 15 years and 5 biological children later and adoption is not only on the table, but at the forefront. Why now?

I am a planner. I love making lists of goals and plans. Financially, I had our entire next 5 years planned out. Plans to buy a bigger house. Plans to become completely debt free. I'm not knocking plans at all. I feel God wants us all to use wisdom in our daily lives. But personally, my life had become something I viewed as entirely mine. It was about me. Without even meaning to, I had taken God completely out of the equation.

I was loading the dishwasher one morning and often times I will pray or talk to God as I'm doing those little menial tasks throughout the day. I can't even remember specifically what I had been praying about or thinking to be honest. All I know is that I felt the Holy Spirit just drop into my mind, randomly, "what about adoption?" The thought hit me, hard. To be honest, I hadn't thought of it seriously in years.

But God had been busy in my life and in Phil's life. For the last two years, He had been restoring things for us left and right. Finances, security, peace. You name it, God was busy doing it. Thank God...He even is in the business of restoring dreams. (Joel 2:25-26)

As much as my heart jumped to the thought of being able to pursue adoption, I also reminded myself to be wise. I had to stop and consider this whole thought process. I prayed for a few days and kept it to myself. I asked God a lot of questions. What about my plans? I realized that this isn't about me. It never has been about me. It's about Him. And do I want my life to be lived the way I want it to, or do I want to follow what He's got for me? I already knew the answer there. And the bigger question I had to ask was...God, can I trust you again? Because last time I trusted...everything wasn't perfect. There were times I hurt. Times I failed. Times I cried. Times I lost. But then I remembered Romans 8:28. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." 

Hadn't God taken every bad circumstance and turned it around for my good? Absolutely. Hadn't God restored every single thing that I had lost? Yep. Could I trust God with the unknowns involved in following after Him again? Of course I could. So I let this dream begin to grow in my heart. I asked friends and mentors to pray with me. And when I decided to approach Phil, God had already been working in his heart on the topic as well. You see, God was already working behind the scenes. Isn't it just like God to upend our plans and give us something even better?

So again, it seems we will be pursuing what God has placed in our hearts. As I said before, I am big on researching and thinking things through. So the last couple of months have been fraught with number crunching, praying, reading articles, and finding out what requirements there will be involved.

The adoption process tends to be long and from what I understand, there is enough red tape to choke a bull. Despite all of that, we are excited! Our hearts have been turned specifically to international adoption. And even more specifically, China. I won't delve into those topics in this post but I promise to be more specific as to what led us in this direction in a new post soon.

We are hoping to be in full swing with the paperwork requirements no later than December of 2015. Please pray for us as we move forward in this process. Pray for guidance and direction from God, patience, and breakthrough to any obstacles we might come across. And if you have read this far into the post, you have my thanks! I will try to keep things updated here for those interested. Love and appreciate everyone who shares a part in our family's lives. We are blessed!