Patience

My husband and I have been praying a lot.  Asking God to help us on this path he has called us to.  Asking God to keep our faith strong, even when the going gets tough (as it is bound to do).  Thanking God and praising Him for this calling, for believing we are worthy to raise a child of His.  

We got the packets from the agencies today.  It's been overwhelming, knowing that this will be a huge challenge for us.  We won't really be able to do much until a year from now.  My husband is in the military and deploying.  On the down side it means I need to practice patience.  On the upside, one of our worries was finances, we're young and a single income family, and after the deployment those should be much improved.  I'm also considering taking the time that my husband is away to look at getting a job to help save money for this.  We're frugal already, and this could be a bonus boost. 

Patience is not a big virtue of mine.  It's something I am constantly working on.  Reminding myself that everything has it's own time.  That He knows exactly the right moment for everything.  We have gone through all the information we had found online, as well as information that the agencies sent us, and we feel Ethiopia might be the best fit.  I ordered a book all about international adoptions with great ratings from Amazon, and plan to read that this week.  Instead of being impatient I am trying to set my clock to God's timing.  And to take that time to really pray a lot, and prepare our home and hearts.  To everything there is a season, and we should make the best of the abundance of whatever season we are in!

Gathering

Before I lose my nerve I've begun gathering information.  Sending off to agencies for more information on various countries.  I just requested information about Ethiopia, Bulgaria, and India through an agency at 3 this morning.  (what can I say?  when I'm on fire for something I don't sleep well.)  And I talked my husband's ear off this morning.  He's excited, but I think it may have been too much at 6 a.m.  Particularly when my exhausted self was making us run behind schedule!

It's just, I'm snowballing us, trying to gather enough bravery to just do it.  To not let fears or doubts rule us and back down once again.  To not allow us to falter.  To keep our goal in sight.  I even gave out our telephone number to one agency (after much research) so that perhaps we can speak with them.  We're young, so our choice of countries is more limited.  But I'm am keeping the faith that as long as we listen to what God desires of us, even if the journey is long and we have to stop to dump rocks out of our shoes (metaphorically, and perhaps literally) we will end up with a family of three in the end.  

Math, ain't it grand?  We might be helping subtract from the total of orphans, but we're be adding another heart to our little family!  That thought is keeping me going.  

*EDIT* Both Children's Hope International and All God's Children International e-mailed me today!  It's nice to see quick responses!

Mathematical Equation

I suppose I should begin at the beginning and end at the end, right?  The husband and I have been discussing adoption our entire 3 years of marriage.  I've always felt called to adopt, and once I began talking about it he and I prayed and he said he felt it was the right path for us too.  Hallelujah!  I thanked God for convincing him so I didn't have to!  

The most common response we get when we talk about it to others are questions about why we don't just "have one of our own."  First, we believe that God has intended us for adoption, that there will be a child out there that is our own.  Second, nope, as far as we know we don't have any reproductive issues, thank-you-very-much-for-asking!  (and yes, there are nosy people out there!)  People close to us have been supportive when we've talked about it in a someday far off sort of way.  But every time we put it off, God draws us right back to the thought.  And after speaking to the husband about how I felt that by ignoring it we were being stubborn, willful, and disobedient it opened up the conversation about "Why not now?"  And sure, if you think hard enough you can come up with a billion different excuses, but in the end I think "There is a child out there waiting for me to get with the program."  

There are 147 million orphans in the world.   Wow.  So many it's nearly overwhelming.  Well, we both like math, loved the slogan some other adoptive parents were using of "Minus One" and since it was a calling we felt in our hearts we decided we were "Called To Subtract."

So this is the beginning.  This is the moment we say "Yes, we're willing."  We're researching, looking into different countries, agencies, and cost.  We've made a list of ways to cut corners on our spending so that more money flows into our "Minus One" fund.  And we're preparing our hearts for a journey of a lifetime.  Thank you for joining us.