Adopting Again!

Well hello blogger land! Geeeez, it's been a long time! Since we have some new news I thought it would be fitting to get on here again and actually post! So, the news is...we're adopting again! Four years ago this month God clearly spoke to me His desire for us to adopt a child. I had never experienced clearly hearing Him speak to me like that before but I knew I had to be obedient and follow Him. During our church's VBS week (Vacation Bible School) that year I broke the news to Mark and prayed he would be just as willing to follow God's will. It did take him awhile but my prayers worked and we adopted Kennedi in March of 2008. Shortly after adopting her, I knew we were not done with the amazing thing called adoption and that we would adopt again someday, I just didn't know when or from where. Around the end of last year I felt the need to work on adopting again. I am so passionate about international adoption that I tried everything to make that happen-looked into different countries, programs, and agencies-but nothing seemed right, I never felt peace about it (because I was trying to make something happen that wasn't God's will). I went to India in February on my first missions trip and before leaving I KNEW (or thought I knew) we would begin the process upon my return. God had other plans. He had other things that needed to be addressed first, a road He needed for me to travel down first. A couple months ago I felt again the strong desire to adopt again and so I spent many hours praying for God's guidance and for Him to lead us down the path that was meant for our family. Every time I would think about international adoption, I would feel Him leading me back to the idea of domestic adoption. Just like with anything new, the idea of domestic adoption honestly made me nervous. I guess it was just the unknown. But I had to choose to either do nothing or to follow God's plan for our family. I would remind myself that I was nervous too about adopting Kennedi but God sure knew what He was doing because she is just the most perfect little girl for us. So I called my dear friend Whitney to ask some questions and she invited me for dinner. She explained the process more and calmed some of my fears. She also told me some stories which touched my heart-a story of a little black girl that needed a home and NO ONE in Fresno County would adopt her because she is black. They had to find a couple in San Francisco to adopt her. That is broke my heart. How could it be that in all of Fresno County, as big as it is, that no family could be found for her? Seriously? God was confirming that this was the road we were to take. The next step would be to pray for Mark to agree to all of this. Last night (it's VBS week again!) we talked about it over dinner and he agreed to start the process! Bradley is just beside himself-he has been begging for a brother saying "I'm the only boy in this area (meaning between the kids)!" He's already planning on sharing his room with him and everything. We are requesting a 1-5 year old of any race. God already knows and this little boy is waiting for us to get our paperwork done so he can come home! Some people may say we're crazy to have 4 kids, I say we are blessed to be given the opportunity! God is awesome and had this all in His mighty plans from the beginning-we just had to FOLLOW! Will keep you posted!....