Now that our dossier is on its way, we are waiting. Waiting for papers. Waiting for processes. Waiting on people. Waiting….
It’s hard. It is hard
to be still before the Lord and know that He is in control of this whole
process. He is in control of the papers,
the people, the process, and the wait.
He has placed Micah on our hearts and will bring him home to our family
in His timing.
In this season of waiting, it allows for reflection on our
adoption journey. It reveals how God has
been sovereign throughout the journey.
It has given time to write “our story.”
(We promised to share, right?!)
So here you go…
From Deanna’s perspective:
Many of you may be wondering, “Why adopt?” I have said that I would share our
story. The truth is, the story and the
journey are never ending. It is
difficult to know where to begin. The
simple answer is God. It all starts with
God, our almighty Savior. You see, my
life was changed in 2011. Through God’s
grace and mercy, I was adopted. I was
adopted as a child of God. (“But to all
who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become
children of God.” John 1:12)
This may be a confusing concept for some of you to
understand. Three years ago I would have
been thinking the same thing. In
November 2010, Matt and I started attending a Bible teaching church. I had never been to a church where the Bible
was so clearly explained. Matt had
always read God’s Word, but I was not interested. I did not see the importance of the
Bible. After we were regularly attending
church, I was open to reading the Bible.
We began by reading through the New Testament. I did not always understand what the Bible
said, but Matt did his best to explain it to me. A few months after, IT happened! I had accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and
Savior. John 3:16 says, “…whoever
believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” I am forever changed.
My life is different.
My heart turns to others, instead of my selfish desires. Don’t get me wrong, I am still a sinner. We all are.
It is God’s grace and mercy that gets me through the day. With a renewed life, I have a new
passion. I NEVER would have imagined how
God would work in my life. I found
myself serving God in Brno, Czech Republic.
I found myself giving to the homeless and praying with them on the side
of the road. I found myself donating
money, time and goods. I found myself
wanting to know more about God and His Word.
I want to glorify God in all my ways.
In March 2012, I attended the Hearts at Home national conference. It nourished my soul and spoke to me in many
ways. It was amazing! One speaker shared a workshop called
“Everyone has a Story.” It was not
described as an orphan care talk. She
shared her experiences of adoption and foster care. I walked in the room convinced my family was
complete. I walked out of the room
feeling God whisper the call to adopt.
In that same month, Matt and I felt God calling us to serve
together on a short term mission team.
After confirmation through prayer, we turned in our applications to join
a team that would travel to Guatemala to serve at an orphanage. We were accepted as part of the team later
that month.
In the next few months I started researching adoption and
reading adoption blogs. Most
importantly, I was praying. I was
praying for God to clearly reveal if adoption was for our family. I was praying for the child(ren) that are
waiting to join our family. I was
praying for the orphaned children waiting to join other families. It became clear that God was leading our
family to adoption. My days were touched
with adoption daily. I heard radio ads,
saw billboards, internet ads, and read blogs.
The Wendy’s kid’s meal even had a foster care advertisement! It was clear…crystal clear! The only thing…I had never shared any of this
with Matt.
It was August and two weeks before we were leaving for
Guatemala. I decided I had to tell
Matt. I shared with him how God was
speaking to my heart about adoption. I
shared that every day I was touched with something related to orphan care. He did not believe me until in that instance
the news story was about LifeSong for Orphans.
This was not coincidence! He was
very overwhelmed with the preparations for Guatemala. We decided that we would turn it over to the
Lord and pray for guidance.
Our time in Guatemala was amazing! God’s hands were at work and we were
privileged to be a part of it. Our first
day, we were greeted by a cute, pint-sized girl. We fell in love! She played and eventually fell asleep in my
arms. Melt.my.heart. In that moment, I knew that I could love
another child as my own. My prayers for
orphans and adoption became stronger. I
knew where God wanted us to be.
In November, our journey hit a milestone. Matt shared that he felt that God wanted us to
grow our family. We were to grow our
family through the miracle of adoption.
Praise God! The first step was to
determine if we would pursue international or domestic adoption. We fell in love with the people of
Guatemala. We would love to adopt from
Guatemala. The only problem is that
Guatemala is closed to adoption. We
researched the open countries in Latin America.
Many have requirements that did not fit our family. We eventually felt a connection with
Columbia. In March 2013, I began contacting
agencies that dealt in Columbia. I was
hitting many closed doors. It was clear
that Columbia was not where our child(ren) was living.
I decided that I needed to be still before God. I was going to continue praying for
direction. I would listen for God to
open the next door.
The next door was opened when I heard a speaker at my MOPS
group. She was sharing about her
adoption journey to Russia. She casually
mentioned that she was beginning the process to adopt from China. It struck me.
I began to think that maybe I should look at China’s requirements
again. When I had previously looked at
them, we did not meet most of them. Upon
a second review, we met all of them! Some
of those requirements were age, BMI and net worth. I saw now why God closed the door on us
moving to China for Matt’s work. He had placed China on our hearts for a
different reason. A reason I would have
never imagined. Our child(ren) is there!
The agency search began all over again. We finally narrowed it down to two
agencies. We prayed that God would
clearly reveal when we should start the process. We learned that if God leads us to it, we
must obey and trust He will provide.
This was hard for Matt. It was
difficult to imagine a process that costs so much and not seeing that amount in
our savings account. We know that God
will provide in ways we do not know or understand.
We scheduled phone interviews with two agencies. The second agency made a point to call at a
time when both of us could be part of the conversation. This agency worker was amazing! She was very thorough and informative. We were discussing our openness to adopting
out of birth order. She briefly
mentioned how this one boy came to mind that she was familiar with and she
would consider a child similar to him for our family. Later in the conversation Matt asked if they
dealt with any orphanages in Shanghai.
He had travelled through there on business and was curious. Guess what?
That boy she mentioned earlier, he was in Shanghai. She went on to tell us that he was on the
special focus list. Children on this list
may be placed with families that have not completed a home study or
dossier. She also told us to take out
our computer and pull up his picture on their website. I had been looking at the waiting child list
for months, and I had never seen him.
Matt and I both looked at his picture and then to each other. We had an instant connection. The rest is history as they say. We submitted our application that night. We received that boy’s file the next
day. That boy was Micah. We were officially matched a few weeks
later. We started the paper chase and it
continues! This journey is emotional and
hard. One thing is certain…God is good! This “out of order” adoption process is
nothing we could orchestrate. This is
all the hands of God. We thank Him for this
call to adopt!
And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands.
As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. 2 John 1:6
