I have a need to chronicle this journey that we have currently embarked on... to see if God has adoption in His plans for our family. Here is a recent account of what He has been doing in our hearts.
*** A LONG TIME AGO God laid adoption on my heart. The thought of the millions of children worldwide who are unloved and uncared for is a burden my heart cannot bear.
*** APRIL 2002 The week I moved to Lynden, Washington Mark and I attended a Steven Curtis Chapman concert. Steven talked of his adoption of Shaohannah and Bethany Christian Services was present to talk about adoption. My heart was tugged again.
*** SOMETIME 2003 A year or so after Mark and I were married, I asked him if he thought if adoption would ever be for us. He said that He would be open to the idea down the road, but wanted to try for our own kids first. God worked in my heart to reveal to me that I was not to push the issue with Mark and that I was to be quiet and pray. God gave me the reassurance that if adoption was for our family, He would make it known to Mark. It was really hard for me to let it go, but I knew I had to. I simply began praying that if this was what God had for us that He would make it perfectly clear to Mark.
*** April 7, 2006 Markus Jaden is born. We have our first biological child, and he is the delight of our hearts. But I keep praying about adoption.
*** July 2006 I am referred to a surgeon to have a mole removed from my face. That morning I felt a strong urging that I am to talk about adoption with Mark again. On our drive up to Seattle (Markus spent the day with the Madsons) I again ask Mark what he thinks of adoption for our family. He says he is really unsure. I ask him if he would simply pray about it. He agrees. We meet with the surgeon, and while we are waiting for the anesthesia to kick in, he shares with us that he has an adopted son from Cambodia. When their son became a part of their family, he was the same age that our Markus was currently. He shared what a blessing this little boy had been to their family. As we left the building, Mark turned to me and just said "I know". God had begun to strongly move in his heart, too.
*** February2, 2008 Halle Joy is born. We love her to bits. As I wonder if I will ever be pregnant again, I am burdened with an idea of selfishness. I feel as though it would be selfish to bring another new child into this world, into our home, when there are millions already born who need what we can provide for them.
*** May 22, 2008 We receive word of Maria Sue Chapman's homegoing. I am incredibly affected. I call Mark and share the news. We discuss their family's obedience to James 1:27 and what a miracle that Maria was placed in their home. We are impressed by the Lord with the truth that Maria Chapman was in Heaven with her Savior because the Chapmans had rescued her from an orphanage and brought her into a home where she was loved and taught about Jesus' amazing love for her. A few hours later, Mark calls and shares with me that during the morning he felt that the Lord told him two biological children was all He had for us... but that our family wasn't yet complete. We prayed together, that God would use this tragedy in the Chapman family to be a testimony to the plight of the orphan and that the church would respond in droves to the ministry of adoption.
*** May 24, 2008 Mark believes that God is calling us to begin walking through the doors on the international adoption process. I spend hours that night perusing the information I already had in hand from Bethany (which I thought I had thrown away) and on the internet.
***May 25, 2008 We submit our electronic preliminary application to Bethany. We are burdened for both China and Ethiopia. We put China on our application, but commit to the Lord that we are willing to have a child from anywhere He wills for us.
