We all have a story.

We all have a story

As our Sunday school teacher reminds us often, we all have a story.  A beautiful story that God writes for all our lives.  Adoption was not a part of our story...so I thought.  Adoption was a wonderful thing....for somebody else.

The Lord began to work.  Over a period of a year or so, I could sense the Lord giving me more and more of a burden for the little boys and girls without a mommy and daddy to love on them.  This was a scary thing because I didn't want to adopt.  I felt the Lord may be leading us down a path I really didn't want to be walking down.  I talked to Kellie about it secretly hoping she would have no interest.  That would solve that. To my dismay, her response was, "Yeah, maybe."  We have a comfortable life.  We have 2 beautiful little boys.  Why would we even consider this?  Although my desire was not there, I became overwhelmed with this burden to seriously consider it.  I committed to praying that the Lord's will be done.  Period.  Lord, your will be done.

The Lord began to reveal His will.  It was on a mission trip to Haiti that the Lord began to confirm in my heart that this is His path.  The awesome thing is that this huge "burden" turned into excitement about the Lord using our family in such a way.  We committed to begin our adoption journey.

I can't say that we had this overwhelming faith and no fear.  Quite frankly, it was a very scary place to be.  Lord, are you sure this is Your will and not mine?  Lord, if you really want us to do this, you have to show us.  You have to give us confirmation that this is Your will.

After telling our parents and getting their blessing, we felt that was the Lord's confirmation.  We began to have a peace.  That's when the Lord decided to really show out.  It was the next weekend at a college friend's wedding in Nashville, TN, 275 miles away from home.  We were at this big rehearsal dinner with a room full of people we didn't know.  In walks a couple with a little baby that just happens to sit at the table right beside us.  Yes, that baby was just adopted a few weeks back from Ethiopia! Yes, that baby was a little boy about the same age we requested!  And yes, those strangers from a different town just happened to use the exact same adoption agency out of Utah that we are using!  Wow! Wow! Wow! Coincidence? I think not.

We stand today amazed at the faithfulness God has shown us in just a short period of time.  He has taken this "burden" and turned it into something we are truly excited about.  Although there have been many anxious moments and many yet to come, we have full confidence in the author of our story.