the beginning.....

Well, I am joining the ranks and creating a blog to share in our journey to adopt from Ethiopia! I have found and read so many great blogs that have really inspired me, I thought I would give it a shot. Also-- what a great way to journal this experience and share with others our calling to do this, hopefully we'll inspire others too!



So I guess I will give a little history into how this whole notion of adopting a child from all the way across the world began.



Chris and I have always talked about adoption, even when we were dating. We have always had a common vision in our family being a little "different" than other families. Besides thinking that possibly adopting a child would come after we had all of our biological children, I also always thought that we would adopt domestically. Boy, did the Lord have another plan in mind for us!



One night we sat down to watch the movie "Blood Diamonds", and were very disturbed and bothered that this was something that actually goes on. (African children being abducted and forced into working as a child soldier, brutally murdering and torturing people.) The movie was very graphic, yet eye-opening. This stirred something in me. We had a brief conversation and I heard a voice speak to me, ever so gently "I will provide". What? I asked in my head. I heard it again. I brushed it off.



A few weeks later Chris received a DVD in his box at church. "Invisible Children." We put it in. Again, another disturbing but totally eye-opening experience. This documentary is about 3 guys that travel to Uganda, Africa really not knowing what to expect when they get there, and not knowing that they were about to uncover a huge story. Children from villages miles away travel by foot- every night to hide out and sleep together in an abandoned hospital (or bus station- I'm not sure). They are trying to escape the warlords, The Lords Resistance Army, that come into their villages and kidnap, rape and kill. These are the same warlords that we learned of in the movie "Blood Diamonds". We are not talking a few kids. We are talking hundreds of kids. It stunned us. Fortunately, this documentary has turned into a true movement. Check out their website, http://www.invisiblechildren.com/. Once again, this stirred something up in us. We felt like God was pointing us in the direction of Africa for some reason. We decided to start checking out agencies, start asking questions.



While researching agencies we came across a video made at an agency orphanage in Ethiopia. A segment of it shows a boy receiving a pair of shoes. They were too big, a bit silly looking, but new to him. This was the first pair of new shoes that this boy has ever received. The emotion and excitement that came from this young boy was something so raw, so pure, I LOST it. A pair of shoes??? What?? My kids get a pair of new shoes every change of season and hardly flinch. I mean, maybe if they have lights and make noise I will get a little dance and an extra hug , but that's it. I realized then, that it is that simple. "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27 He was asking us to do this. Later that evening I showed Chris, thinking he would be moved, but not to the level I was. He was also a mess!! We literally got on our knees on the floor of our playroom and cried out to God. He had placed something in our hearts and it was then we knew that our child (or children) were waiting for us in Ethiopia. Praise you God!!