Orientation

On Friday we had our orientation. Since the agency we chose is based out of Texas, we did it over skype. We learned a lot about the process, and the agency. It made us feel that much better about the agency we chose. Generations Adoptions only places children in active Christian homes, this was the reason we chose them in the first place. We really love the fact that they see the importance of raising kids up in the way of the Lord. We also found out that the orphanage they work with is Christian run and part of a larger ministry in Uganda. They actually call it a babies home because most of the children there are 3 years old and younger. The next step for us is getting a home study done. We won't do this until the Lord provides the money to pay for the home study. If you are following our blog regularly this is one of the things you can be praying about! We know that God will provide in HIS time. Another thing you can pray for is that we would continue to have a sense of peace about the whole process. God seems to continually reassure us, what a great God we serve!

-Jenny

God Speaking

Since before we were married, we knew we would adopt "someday." Adoption is such a scary thing; it is easy to put it off not knowing what the process will be like. There had been times that I looked into adoption, researched various agencies, etc, but never really felt God's leading. However, three weeks ago something cool happened! This is what I like to call our "God speaking" week. Over the last few years we had thrown around different countries we thought we might adopt from someday, a few being Ethiopia, Congo, and Haiti, but never Uganda.

 On Monday, I'm not even sure how or why (other than the Holy Spirit’s leading), I felt compelled to research Uganda. I almost felt this immediate urgency towards Uganda. I came across an adoption agency and sent the link to Spencer, and left it at that. I decided that if this is really God's calling; then Spencer will feel it too. Well, the week went on without really talking to Spencer about it. During that week I had someone ask me if I had ever looked into international adoption and the cost to finance it. I thought to myself...okay God what’s this about? A few days later, we received a letter from our Operation Christmas child...she is from Africa about 400 miles from Uganda, coincidence? I thought again to myself...okay God, I’m listening! A few days later, on Sunday, we commissioned our pastor and his wife for their trip to Uganda. At this point, God not only had my full attention, but I was convinced this was God speaking…calling us to adopt. Oh wait, I still hadn’t talked to Spencer about it. What did he think? Was God speaking to him too?

 Some would say it’s just coincidence that all of this happened within a week’s time, and to them I would say: I don’t believe in coincidence, I believe in God’s timing. This is God speaking…

 After church I found out that he had been feeling the same way, he had been feeling a pressing from God that this is something we need to do, and the time is now! Scared and unsure of how we would finance an adoption, unsure if we would even be accepted, and intimidated at the thought of entering into parenthood, we decided to send in the application and leave the rest up to God. We figured with all of our school loan debt, it was very unlikely we would be accepted anyway. Our prayer was that if this wasn’t God’s timing our application would be rejected, but if it was God’s timing we knew we would have to step out in faith and trust that God would provide the finances for the adoption.

 Just a few days after sending in the application I received an email titled “Welcome to Our Program!” Wow! I felt a whole new set of emotions: scared, anxious, nervous, excited, unsure. And then these doubts entered my mind, I thought how in the world are we going to afford this? This whole process is scary, exciting, unsure and every other emotion, but God continually speaks peace and re-assurance to me. I felt God speaking to me this morning during church as Pastor Dan preached on compassion. He referenced this verse in 1 John 3:17-18:

"If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

So where are we now? We are stepping out in faith, in complete surrender to God; trusting that if this truly is His plan, He will provide the finances. He will make a way. Our great God can do ALL things! And if this isn’t God’s timing, we trust that he will close the door.

 We know we can’t do this alone. We will continually lean on the support of our family, our friends, our church, and ultimately our God. A saying goes “it takes a village to raise a child” we will count on our “village” to help us through this. We know that not everyone will be supportive of us; in fact we know some of you will question why we would even do this in the first place. But for those of you who will support us, we can’t thank you enough, and we’ll need as many of you as we can get. A village can never be too big, well at least our village can never be too big. J

 “Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6



 -Jenny

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