Midweek Moment

Greetings All!

Several folks have asked me recently for details concerning our family's adoption. So today I thought I would give you all an update. We have been matched with a beautiful little boy whom we will name Davis. He turned 2 this past July and we hope to travel to bring him home before his 3rd birthday next summer.

So how did we get started in all of this? Adoption is a thread that is woven through the tapestries of both our families. In my family, I has three cousins and an uncle who are all adopted. Debbie's parents each had a sibling and two cousins who were adopted. Not to mention all the other members of our families on both sides who were adopted by step-parents. When we wrestled with infertility for a few years before Parker's birth, we were drawn towards adoption instead of in-vitro. Even then our hearts were being pulled towards China. Then without medical interventions, we welcomed Parker in 2004 and Wesley in 2007.

But there was a growing awareness in the back of our minds that we might not be done with our little family. When Debbie needed to have a hysterectomy for her health in 2010, we promised each other that more children were still a consideration through adoption. There have been lots of moments where the idea of expanding our family kept popping up. In particular last fall when we attended a World Vision event in Gainesville. Quite honestly we were going to leave without sponsoring a child. It was Parker who was insistent that we could and should do this because so many children could use help. Parker sorted through a whole wall of profiles and picked out Precious - a child born the day before Wesley, halfway around the world in Malawi, Africa. Both boys were excited to write and draw pictures on a card for Precious. But we had some difficult questions when we went to leave and go home. Wesley was puzzled. You see, he thought we had picked out a new brother to come home with us and he couldn't understand why on earth we were leaving him there.

Since the beginning of this year, God has continued to lay the idea of adoption upon both of our hearts in many different ways. One day we went hiking on our day off and used the seven mile trek through the woods to talk through all of our feelings regarding adoption. We clearly felt this was something that God was leading us towards. We decided that day - July 23 - that we felt God was calling us to move forward in faith NOW and add to our family. And we were ready to say yes. That night, we had a family meeting with the boys to share with them about this new adventure in our family. Before I could even finish getting the story out of my mouth, Parker's face had broken into a huge smile and he kept repeating "Yes" over and over again. Wesley seemed a bit confused until we explained he would get to be both a "little brother" to Parker and a "big brother" to the next child. Then he was completely on board.

As we discerned how God was calling us to move forward, we felt drawn towards China's special needs program. Families from around the globe are willing to wait as much as six years to adopt a healthy, young-as-possible daughter from China. In the meantime, thousands of young children (boys and girls)with medical needs ranging from minor to severe wait in orphanages and foster care for their forever families. Even after these children have had surgery to correct a medical need, they cannot be placed through China's healthy child program. We did a lot of research on different medical needs and filled out our application carefully about which ones we thought we would be able to address within our family. We also felt a strong calling towards little boys. On the advocacy websites, the pictures of the boys tugged at our hearts. We have two sons already and know what an amazing blessing they can be. We hated the thought that these little boys were waiting longer for families simply because of their gender.

There will be more steps left to come. More papers to fill out, and eventually a trip to take. We would greatly appreciate your prayers as we continue to move forward toward bringing home our son, Davis.

See you Sunday,