Adoption

Some of you may know that Luke and I have been prayerfully considering adoption. We both feel that our family is not yet complete; at the same time, it is very clear that we are not to have any more biological children. Between my cardiac history and the girls' kidney history, we made the decision to not grow our family the "traditional" way.

Now that we are almost at the finish line of school for me and Luke (Luke should be done with his MBA in August), we have started to have some more serious conversations about adoption. We know that we want to adopt a boy, and we know that we want an international adoption. We are leaning toward adopting from Ethiopia.

The question is, when? We were talking last night about how we want to be ready to adopt. we want to pay off bills, pay off our student loans, etc.

But, if you think about it, are you ever truly ready??

If we'd waited until we were ready to have our biological children, we'd still be waiting!

So, we're thinking that "ready" for us might look very different than we had originally planned. We have some bills we have to pay off, and we are guessing that we'll be able to do that within a year of me graduating from nursing school. At that point, I'll be able to probably only work 1 (or maybe 2) days a week, Kayla will be in kindergarten, and that would probably be a really good time for our family.

I love this precious child already, and he's not even born yet. I've already started praying for his birth mom, for the people at the orphanage who will care for him, and for HIM. I really hope and pray that this child will know, from the moment we have him, the depth of our love and want for him.

It's funny how this adoption journey (that we have yet to even embark on!) is showing me more of Who God is. God is passionate about the widows and the orphans and wants us, as a Church, to also be concerned with them.

As much as I long for the day I can hold this new member of our family in my arms, so Christ is also longing for the day He can return for His bride, the Church. Just as I don't know yet when we'll be able to go and pick this child up, neither does Jesus know when He can return for us. Just as I love this child that has yet to be born (or even conceived!), so too did Christ love me before I was born and He showed it by His death on the cross.

Please pray for me and Luke as we start looking ahead to the future of our family and what that future looks like!