Our New Adventure in Waiting

Dearest friends and family, we want to open our hearts to you and share with you something God has been doing in our lives and a new adventure that is opening before us.

We are on the road to adoption! Before we get to specifics, though, let me give you a little backstory...

Many of you know that ever since our marriage {almost} five years ago, one of our greatest desires has been to have children. Waiting through these years has proved to be a daily challenge of our trust in God and His plan for us. As Proverbs 13:12 truthfully says,

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick..."

 Our hearts have indeed been "sick" with longing for this most precious desire to be fulfilled. But we have also been growing. We feel that in the midst of all the tangled emotions (and there are many), God has grown a contentment in us and a trust in His time and His way. While we don't profess to have perfect trust around the clock (we don't), we do praise God for His work in our hearts.

So what have we been doing? Well, praying, certainly. We have also been the route of doctors, assuring ourselves that there is nothing out of whack that we (or they) can't fix. So far as we can tell, there is no real diagnosable issue with either of us. For this we praise the Lord, but it also leaves us scratching our heads as to why conception isn't happening. More than ever, we are confident that God is working on His own timetable and in His own way. On a missionary pastor's salary, we cannot afford the more expensive and complicated types of fertility treatments, but after considering prayerfully, we are also convinced that for us, that is just not the way we should go. Our hearts are tender toward adoption for many reasons, not the least of which is that it is a perfectly beautiful illustration of our relationship with God and our adoption into His family (Ro. 8:14-16; Gal. 4:4-6)!

Which brings us to the present. Or nearly so. About 2 years ago, we began to pray and think about adoption. The Lord has been gently tugging our hearts in that direction ever since. One major way was a situation that happened about a year ago. Some of you may know that we were presented with an adoption opportunity through some friends "out of the blue." We scrambled to find a lawyer, flew through the paperwork, got our home study finished and made a trip to OR to meet the mother. And then it suddenly fell through. We were confused, our hearts were heavy, but we felt peace. God was, as always, in control. But what was it all for?

After the ordeal we felt tired. So we waited some more. We pursued some other options with our doctor, and waited some more. About a year. And that does bring us to the present.

A couple of weeks ago, we made the decision to meet once more with the lawyer we found last year. During the whirlwind of that time, he had given us applications for his private matching "pool" just in case the other didn't work out. Those applications had been sitting on our dresser for a year before we finally brushed the dust off of them and filled them out. A private adoption through this attorney (who proved himself to be intelligent, perceptive, and kind through last year's situation) would cost about 1/5 the price of an agency adoption (which can be upwards of $25,000). One of the main things we talked to him about was how to find a birthmother. While our lawyer will be on the lookout, since this is not an agency, part of the job of finding a match is up to us.

That's where you come in! We have been encouraged to spread the word far and wide that we are on an adventure to find our baby! If you know of anyone who is pregnant and looking to put their baby up for adoption, please contact us as soon as possible. Our preference is to adopt an infant (newborn up to a few months old) within Washington state (less costly and complicated), but we're open to discussing other possibilities. If you have any questions whatsoever, please contact us (if you don't have our contact info, leave a comment on this blog post and we'll get in touch)! We'd love to talk to you more about it.

The most helpful way you can be a part of our new journey is to PRAY! We want to be moved along by God's hand in all of this and want Him to be the one to find us the perfect match. It may take time. We may be waiting awhile...but we've been in training for that, haven't we? Please pray for us to have patience and wisdom and to be prepared for whatever this crazy exciting journey is going to look like. We are praying for the second half of Proverbs 13:12 to be true in our lives:

"...but desire fulfilled is a tree of life." 

Please pray for God to fulfill the desires He has given us as we delight ourselves with Him and the ways He chooses to work in our lives (Ps. 37:4).

We are so excited to see what God has for us in this new adventure! It is an adventure in waiting and trusting and hoping and we expect to find challenge and frustrations and growth opportunities at every turn. We are overjoyed to think about the possibility of one day (soon, perhaps?) receiving a precious little one into our arms. Thank you for your willingness to stand with us and be on the lookout for us and PRAY with us! We cherish each of you and want you to know that God has blessed us greatly with your friendship.

Note: Thanks to our dear friend Kathy for taking these beautiful pictures to illustrate our special journey! If you'd like to see more photos from our shoot, please check out our Facebook album!