God, Us and Adoption

"Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans….." James 1:27

After the decision to adopt our children came we decided immediately that WE WERE ADOPTING INTERNATIONALLY. We talked with several domestic agencies right after we married (just to get information) and determined that you had to be married for 2 years so we put everything on hold and besides we had decided not to adopt domestically. We finally made it to 2 years of marriage and began researching agencies and decided that our first adoption would be from Guatemala; then we'd go to China and if there was an Adoption Number 3 we'd decide on a country then.

Well, well, well, God intervened and brought a young woman named Melissa into our lives, she lived the next town over and was pregnant with number 2, number 1's dad was in prison and number 2's dad was nowhere to be found. Melissa never called us back and so we decided that we'd give her until Easter and if we did not hear back from her we would move on. Well, April, 2005 came and we moved on, we talked with a couple of other International Agencies and joined a Texas Christian Adoption Support Group called Forever Families for families that adopt Domestically, Internationally, or who are interested in Adoption. Through Forever Families we met Suzanne, a mom of 14, the 12 that are adopted were international adoptions. Suzanne kept inviting me to this DOMESTIC adoption informational meeting knowing that we were adopting Internationally, especially since this Domestic Adoption fell through. She kept telling me that God laid it on her heart to invite me, I reluctantly went and by the time I left this meeting God had changed my heart….. we needed to adopt Domestically, possibly children in Foster Care.

My heart was changed, BUT A's was not...... Two weeks later one of my aunts called me to tell me that she read in the local paper that the agency that Suzanne had encouraged me to go to was having another information sessions in a building half way between where my office and A’s office (and we only worked 5 minutes apart..... HMMMM what was God up to???). We went to that meeting and by the end of it A said, we are adopting DOMESTICALLY and through Foster Care, I was not sure that he was 100% on the page, but it was a start. Melissa’s due date was nearing and she contacted us again but when we called her back she flaked out on us AGAIN. I held firm that God was in control and it was going to be ok.

Suzanne and Julia (also a member of Forever Families) were on the board of another ministry called Here I am Orphan Ministries and I had gone to one of their workshops in May and they were having another one in August and A was able to go. After talking with Suzanne and Julia after that workshop it was obvious that A was on the path to Domestic Adoption with me. In September we turned our Application in to be a Legal Risk Foster to Adopt family (usually infants taken from the hospital and if any, their siblings). The birth parents have about 6 months to get their act together before you have the option of adopting the children. We were approved on January 12, 2006.

However, God had other plans for us, on January 10, 2006 we received a phone call about T from A's cousin, she was friends with he birthmother. Our adoption with T is a Private Adoption, which can be finalized any day.

God has moved in our hearts in such a miraculous way over the past several years, we realized that our desire for International Adoption was just that OUR DESIRE. We have come to the realization that Adoption is the least segregated thing that a person can do and are willing to go where God leads us. In our wildest Adoption Dreams did we ever think the child that we plan to adopt could possibly be born right here in our local hospital and that one of our relatives is friends with the birthmother that works at our local mall.

God is a God of Grace, dignity and LOVE. A and I are so blessed to be part of this miracle of life.

AL

P.S. - I have attached a picture of Ana and her dad on her ADOPTION DAY; she was adopted from Kazakhstan. Ana and her family are in our Forever Families group.