The weaving of our story: Part 2

And now for part 2 of our story (if you missed part 1, scroll down):

From February on, we worked on plans for Embrace with the founders Mike and Lori, who also happened to be one of the families whose foster children had made an early impact on my heart. As Lori and I met to brainstorm, she would ask me to share about our vision for our family, which was something like "we plan to adopt, someday down the road." But one afternoon, she challenged me not to listen to "everyone else" who had opinions of when the right time, place, and age was to adopt but to listen to the Lord and what He is calling our family to do at this time in life. Our story doesn't need to fit someone else's idea of what is "right"; we are only called to listen to the Lord and follow His call.

That conversation completely changed our prayer times. From that spring day until July 14, the date we planned for the first Embrace event, Daniel and I prayed together and separately every day and sought the Lord's will for our family in the area of adoption. We wanted to make sure we didn't ignore a call from the Lord based on the opinions of those around us. We wanted to be ready to get "out of the boat" if He was calling! 

The first Embrace event was a picnic on July 14, during which families interested in adoption or foster care could come meet with families who have already adopted or fostered. When we started with Embrace in February, we thought we would just be helping other families in their adoption and foster care journeys for awhile, but we suddenly found the Lord moving us into the category of (very) interested families. July 14 came and we were anxious, knowing how much prayer had gone into this event and wondering if the Lord would give us any clear direction. We had heard so much about international adoption as we had followed Nathan and Jade's adoption so closely (by the way, you can follow Jade's blog at inaweofyourgrace.tumblr.com). The Lord also had crossed our paths again with our IWU saxophone professor, Chris Lessly, who adopted her daughter Caroline from China and is now very close to bringing her second daughter, Claudia, home from the Congo (you can follow her story at adoptingclaudia.blogspot.com). Two more families from Brookhaven had also just brought children home from Uganda, but despite all we had learned about international adoption, we didn't feel the Lord moving in this direction. Though we were drawn to adopting from foster care, we felt that a younger child would be better for our home and had been told you usually couldn't adopt young children from foster care.

So we went to the picnic, allowing our hearts and minds to be open and ready to hear what God might have for us. With limited seating thanks to the incredible turnout (the picnic was a huge success!), we waited to find seats until others had found tables and "just happened" to squeeze in at Nathan and Jade's table. Before I forget, just weeks before the picnic Nathan and Jade had just completed a second adoption, this time adopting a precious little newborn African American girl named Ruby. We knew very little about this adoption other than it seemed to have happened quickly.

After eating and talking about random things, Jade asked us about our story. Instead of answering her question, we ended up pouring out all our questions regarding adoption--international? domestic? foster care? As the Lord had perfectly arranged, we were also sitting with another friend, Joy, who has experience in foster care and confirmed for us that most of the emails she receives from the county regarding foster care adoption needs are for older children, an age we would love to embrace in the future but not one we felt ready for yet. Jade, however, spoke words we'd never heard before: in the U.S., there is currently a huge need for families willing to adopt minority children. Like us, Nathan and Jade also had been informed several years prior that adopting a newborn in the U.S. is very difficult as there are long waiting lists. Being a couple able to bear children, we had no desire to jump on a waiting list that would prevent another couple longing for a baby to experience parenting. But these words from Jade cut straight to our souls--there were actually babies in the U.S. being born right now who would be placed directly into foster care simply because they didn't match someone's list of desired qualities! And as the positive message of adoption over abortion continues to spread, there will likely be an increase in the need for adoptive families for these precious little ones. I don't even think Daniel and I needed to discuss this, but when we did later, we both agreed that the Lord was definitely calling us to meet this need.


So, here we are, starting a blog on our first adoption journey, in pursuit of domestic minority infant adoption. The Lord is moving mightily as we jump into this process, but I will save those awesome things for another post on another day.