Redeeming Journey

This week has been so refreshing and exciting for us.  Not much has happened in regards to the adoption, but God has smiled down on us and our life.  We have been overwhelmed with the love and support of so many people in our lives.  We did not anticipate this much love and encouragement.  God continually uses people to speak into our lives and remind us of His plan for us and the impact that this child will have on so many people.  Thank you for your love and commitment to us and our future child you have never met.  It is exciting to know that there is someone out there that God created for us.

In regards to adoption process here is what went on this week.  We made another payment for our stateside process and are waiting on the immigration paperwork to come in and be completed.  Pray for us this week as we continue to apply for and seek out grants that will help offset some of the costs.  There are a lot of potential grants out there, but we have to go find them and apply for them.  Continue praying for our child wherever they are and for whoever is taking care of them and protecting them right now.  We love you and are overwhelmed by your love and support.

In the spring of 2009 we began asking ourselves, "Who did God create us to be and who is He calling us to be?"  After some time meditating on this and just stepping back from our lives for a little bit we both came to a realization that we felt God created our family to be redeemers.  At the time we were unsure what all this meant, but were open to whatever God was doing in our lives and what He wanted for us.  In May of 2009 both Coty and I felt strongly that part of being redeemers was for us to adopt an international child.  We did not have a specific country or child in mind or even an idea of where to start the process, but knew that God was definitely leading us in this direction.  As we personally began processing everything and continually feeling God opening doors for us, we started looking back throughout our lives and began identifying specific life experiences that had prepared us for this moment.   Towards the end of May we began researching different adoption agencies and all that went into the process.  We decided to go with Bethany Christian Services.  We found out once we began filling out the paperwork that our youngest daughter, Rowen, needed to be 1 year old before we could officially begin.  We spent the next 7 months praying and seeking God and through this time period He birthed a passion in us for our future child.  During this time we strongly felt led to adopt a special needs hard of hearing or deaf child.  While this seems like it came out of left field to a lot of people, for us it led us straight to the heart of God.  This is what He meant when He called us and created us to be redeemers.  We are to help redeem a child who has been passed over in orphanages, or is not the first on the list, to be adopted due to a hearing loss and/or other special needs. 


So, where does that leave us today?  We have officially completed our home study and have moved into the immigration process to adopt a child between the ages of 1-5 years old from the country of Ethiopia.  Why Ethiopia?  We didn't choose Ethiopia, Ethiopia chose us.  We only qualified for 4 international countries due to our family size, income level, ages, etc.  Out of the four countries three of them had barriers and obstacles with travel times or expenses that we were not able to overcome.  God clearly directed us to Ethiopia.  Our case workers from Bethany have told us the average time from this point in the adoption is 12-18 months.  Due to the fact we are adopting a deaf child who is not an infant, we do not fall into average time frames.  It could happen a lot faster or it could be a much slower process.  Either way is ok for us.  Keep in mind Rowen is only 1 and Riley is 2, and we have our hands full right now.  We should have all of our immigration paperwork done and all of our other stateside requirements completed within the next month and hopefully have everything submitted to Ethiopia before the beginning of June.  


Why the blog?  We wanted to invite you to be on this journey with us.  A journey that we hope will help lead you to the heart of God.  God is continually revealing Himself to us in this process through people we have met, scripture we have encountered or the moments where He speaks into our chaos and reminds us who He created us to be.  Check back throughout the next couple of weeks and months as we update you with what God is doing in our hearts and lives through this adoption and where we are in the journey.  We would ask that you begin praying for us.  Pray for our continued pursuit after the heart of God, for financial provision, for our future child, for Riley and Rowen as they will be making some major adjustments when our new child arrives and for our marriage.  We know that whenever we step out in obedience, the enemy is waiting to fill our minds with lies and distract us from where God is leading us.


We are so excited and can't wait to keep you posted throughout this journey