And Here is Where the Game Changes

God has been working over here, people!  He has been working hard and we have been turned sufficiently on our ears.  And in all honesty, we could NOT be happier about it or more excited for our new direction.  Allow me to tell you the story.

Last Wednesday night we had our home visit part of our home study.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the process, this is the part of the adoption process where they come and inspect your home to make sure that it is a decent place to live and ask some questions regarding safety, etc.  I was super nervous about the meeting- and of course our house had to be perfectly clean.  Well, as perfectly clean as I could get it.

Our caseworker Cathy arrived at our house at 7:30 and seemed very nice.  She met all the kids and talked to them some about adopting and what did they think about that, etc.  Then she took a tour of our house and asked some safety questions.  Nothing too difficult.  She had specifically asked for us to ask someone to come over at that point to help take care of the kids, so she could talk to us alone.  So once that happened, she continued to talk to just Josh and I for about an hour.

During that part, she was talking about the babies that get adopted to families in this program.  She talked about the typical birth mother, and what we could likely expect.  Each birth mother has an opportunity to choose from 2-3 families for their babies to go to, etc.  But then she said something interesting.  She told us that most of these babies won’t actually end up in foster care.  She said that we live in such a great country that doesn’t just let babies die because someone always steps in to help.

And that’s right about where I started to feel uncomfortable.  Whether we adopted some of these babies or not, they would still have an opportunity to grow up.  In America.  And probably in good homes.  If we didn’t adopt them, someone else would.  I started to wonder what in the world we were doing.

The reality is that God has been breaking my heart for Africa in the last few weeks.  In the last few weeks I have been reading news stories and watching videos of  children/babies/people dying because of lack of food and water caused by the drought.  When Cathy pointed that out- that the babies here are not in a life or death situation, no matter who they’re born to, I began to feel uncomfortable with our adoption choice.

Cathy left our house at about 9:30 pm that night.  As Josh and I got ready for bed, I brought up my discomfort with our path.  And in all honesty, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had been praying all along for me to change my heart and want to do an international adoption.  That’s what he had wanted to do from the start.  He switched gears almost before the words were out of my mouth!  The program we were in is a great one, for sure.  But I believe that it is a program mainly suited for families or couples who are looking to grow their family.  And that is a great reason to adopt, but that is not where our hearts are.  Our heart is to give children a chance at life who wouldn’t otherwise have one.  Yes, our heart is to raise all of our children in a loving, stable and Christian environment… but before they can have that chance, they have to not die.  We want to help them to not die.

This week has been a whirlwind of phone calls, emails and internet research.  We have searched and prayed and talked and researched and have made our choice.  We will be changing our adoption path.  Drastically.

In tomorrow’s mail, we will be mailing out our application to One World Adoption agency to enroll in their Democratic Republic of Congo adoption program.  Both of us are thrilled.

Despite being one of the biggest countries in Africa, and having 5 million orphans in that country alone, the DRC adoption program is relatively small.  From what I hear it is one of the most difficult countries to travel to.  It is the second poorest country in the world with an 80% unemployment rate.  Poverty is rampant there.  Conditions are not great, the heat is intense and in a lot of areas there is no electricity.  Civil war devastated much of the country for over a decade, and it has not yet recovered.

For a girl who doesn’t even particularly like camping, I can honestly say that- I. Can. Not. Wait. To. Go.  Because my babies are there!  I believe with all my heart that God timed our decision and plan absolutely perfectly.  Adopting from the DRC I believe, was God’s plan in the first place, we just didn’t know it until now.

Please join us in prayer as we embark on this journey.  Our hearts have been moved for this country and we believe that God is indeed leading us to the children that He has chosen for us.