Our Adoption Testimony

Our pursuit of adoption has been the Lord’s idea from the beginning.  I had a difficult pregnancy with Caroline in 2009.  In the midst of that trial, the Lord began to whisper the idea that our family would be completed with the adoption of another child.  I know with all of my heart that this was the Lord’s whisper, because the idea of a 5^th child, especially in the context of that difficult time, was preposterous.  I mentioned the idea to Scott, who shot it down instantly with, “I can’t even have that conversation right now.”  That suited me just fine.  I was at peace knowing that if the Lord was truly calling us to adopt, He would speak to Scott as clearly as He had to me.  We didn’t discuss adoption at all until a year later when, after attending a Christian Men’s Conference, Scott surprised me with, “I think the Lord is calling us to adopt and I’m on board.”  I panicked at the idea and it took another year and the conviction of the Holy Spirit for us to contact an agency.  We spent another whole year praying for wisdom of exactly what to pursue.  Domestic or international?  If international, what country?  We wrestled hard with this decision, fearful to make the wrong one. 

We officially began our adoption journey seeking to adopt one child from Uganda.  With our home study nearly complete, our social worker called with news that she had two sisters from the Democratic Republic of Congo that she felt were a good match for our family.  We were overwhelmed.  Two kids??  The Congo??  We agreed to pray about it, but initially were convinced this was not the right fit.  After all, we’d spent a year praying and been led to Uganda.  After four days of dedicated prayer separately – we didn’t want to influence the other in any way – we agreed that yes, the Lord had revealed that these sisters were in fact our daughters.  In hindsight, the Lord’s provision is so clear.  Our agency had closed the DRC to new applicants.  If we had had our heart set on the DRC from the beginning, we would’ve been with another agency and meeting our girls wouldn’t be possible.  The Lord used Uganda to open our hearts toward Africa and to prepare us for the difficult journey of adopting from a non-Hague country.  We’re excited that instead of the one child that we were expecting, the Lord is providing sisters.  We’re hopeful that having each other will assist the girls with the many transitions of the adoption.  We’ve also learned that unbeknownst to us, there will be five Congolese girls in our immediate vicinity that are the same age range and from the same orphanage.  We’re overwhelmed with the Lord’s provision for this adoption journey.  He is so incredibly faithful and reminds us of His faithfulness regularly.  We are immeasurably grateful.