Pinch Us - We May Be Dreaming

We are not even sure where to begin to describe how we feel at this precious moment in our lives…

As many of you know, Jonathan and I felt a strong calling to “grow our family,” through international adoption, in July of 2009. Although we always believed that adoption would be one method to bring additional children into our family, we never considered the idea that it would be the only way to do so. But, as He often does, God had a different plan for our lives, which He began to share with us that summer.

We have no reason to believe that we are unable to conceive children of our own, but our hearts began to be opened to the needs of orphans around the world. Although we both grew up in the church and were aware of such things, we both (individually) felt a very distinct prompting of the Holy Spirit to adopt. Neither of us can put into words what happened, but we both remember having absolutely no doubt in our minds that this was the direction God was leading us.

Knowing next to nothing about international adoption at the time, we began by filling out a pre-application. Unfortunately, just days after feeling this incredible prompting of the Holy Spirit we encountered an obstacle that could not be overcome easily or quickly. Without going into detail, we were devastated – why would God make a path so clear and so insurmountable at the same time – but we began to do the work we were told we needed to do. We believed we would have a 3-4 year wait time before being able to officially begin the adoption process.

Fast forward nearly 2 years later, and here we are…

In late March, a friend from church came over to help Jonathan and I (okay, let’s be honest, I was more or less “supervising”) move an old couch out of the office. He and his wife have adopted, both domestically and internationally, so we were talking with him about the process we were in. He encouraged us to reevaluate our options – contact agencies, U.S. Immigration, etc. – and see if anything had changed. Although we felt encouraged that evening when he left, we were still skeptical. We were apprehensive to ask the same questions – fearful we would receive the same responses and feel the same heartache.

We finally made some calls in early April, though, and were shocked with the information we received. The roadblocks that were apparently there just two years prior, were not even spoken of in these conversations (except in our questions). It was recommended that we submit an official application with a new agency and see what happened.

So, we submitted an application to America World Adoption Association (an agency that was highly recommended from a family in our church) on Monday, April 4, which they received on Wednesday, April 6, and approved on Wednesday, April 13!!

To be honest, we do not know what happened nearly two years ago when we started this process, but we do know that His timing is perfect and there had to have been a reason for that roadblock. Jonathan & I venture to guess that perhaps we were not emotionally ready for the journey, while others have suggested that perhaps our child was not yet ready :) Whatever the case, we trust that He will guide us to the end of this journey, just as he guided us to the start of it.