When God Writes Your Story

I want you to know that I what I am about to share is without a doubt God writing our story.

As you know, we have been in the domestic adoption process for almost 2 years. To be honest it has been unbelievably discouraging. First we experienced the failed adoption of the twins which was more devastating to us than I could ever put into words. Then we have just been waiting, and waiting and waiting some more.

About this time last year, some of our dear friends began being foster parents. The first placement they had was with two young girls. Days after they returned them to their mom, they got a placement of a little boy. To see them walk through this process of being foster parents was encouraging in that they were stepping into a lot of unknowns and just telling God yes. It challenged us in our own lives to see them give up daily comfort and ease to care for these children that showed up to them with so little and to love them even when it was hard.We have always talked about foster care. In fact, as we have talked about whether or not we want to have a third, we have talked about going through foster care. But to talk to about it and to see if lived out are two different things.

Almost as soon as our friends got their second placement of the little boy, they were told he was adoptable. Through various circumstances, they were not going to be able to adopt him and asked us if we would consider pursuing adopting him. On a practical level that looked like going to foster parent training, filling out tons more paperwork, getting another home study done and tons of other little things. We prayed a lot and talked to several people to get their opinion on what we should do.

To a lot of people it seems like a no brainer. He's a 2 year old little boy who needed a home and we are wanting to adopt. But to me, it wasn't a no brainer. I had my heart set on a baby. It felt like I was totally shifting gears. I knew there were going to be different challenges then if we got a newborn (which has it's own challenges). At the end of the day, I kept coming back to James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." The reality is, you can live that verse out in a thousand different ways. But for us, in this situation, we knew that it meant saying yes to this sweet boy.

So at the beginning of November, once all of our paperwork and home study were done, we welcomed this little boy into our home. We will begin the adoption process as soon as we have permission to do that (we have to have court approval to start and we will find out at the end of January when we will be allowed to start the process). To be honest, after what happened with the twins I feel super hesitant to let my heart "go there," but just like we did with the twins, we will trust God and pray this little boy will officially be our son soon.

 He has adjusted well and we are all learning how to operate as a family of 4. He is a sweet blessing to us from the Lord and we are so thankful to Him. There are so many details that I don't have time to share that leave no room to doubt that this was God working this out on our behalf. It was God writing the story of our family and we are forever grateful.

*At this time, we will not be sharing his name or picture. Thanks for understanding!