Lord you are good and your mercies endure forever (adoption)

this song keeps coming to mind as i am about to write this post. overflowing thankfulness for my faithful God.

how to start?

adoption has been something i have thought about for a long time. thought about before i was married, talked about it in the early marriage years a bit, prayed about it a lot in the past two years or so, and dwelt and meditated on it for the past 6 months to a year. the progression of desire and longing from the Lord has been great in my heart.

for russell the road has looked different. all i can say is that i praise the Lord for His goodness and perfect timing. i had been (along with others) praying for the Lord to give russ a specific word in regards to adoption. that He would clearly speak to russ as He has to me. and He has faithfully answered. i fully believe God knew that i needed to have the confirmation of the head of our family guiding and supporting in this. He knew exactly how to touch russell's heart for orphans.

so, last week russ came home from some time with his brother, in tears and hardly able to speak as God had shown him on his drive home his heart of resistance. He spoke words of love over russ about how He (God) did not resist him (russ), and how we cannot resist any of His own. He spoke of what we all are before being adopted as sons and daughters of the king. and He brought a flood of brokenness, clarity, and peace over russell.

and i cried in joy and thankfulness.

next comes the clarity as to where. for awhile now my heart has been going between Uganda and China. our church partners with Africa Renewal Ministries in Uganda, and they take many trips over there. i have talked with leaders in our church and the pastors of that ministry who came over to the states, and love the work they are doing there. as i was meeting the pastors from ARM, i just started crying, as i do pretty much any time i talk about adopting. i was able to hear about Loving Hearts Babies Home, and the agency they use in Waco for many of their adoptions.

and at the same time, i was continually tugged toward China, specifically for a cleft lip/palate adoption. as far as blogging goes, i discovered quickly that there are so so so many amazing blogs that i could enjoy reading. and therefore way too much time i could spend on this computer. so for a few years now, i have really only regularly checked in on 3 ladies' blogs, and have gotten to meet and be friends now with one of them. she has adopted from Ethiopia, and you can read her story here. her best friend is the other who i read, and her story of redemption in her marriage is beautiful. and the third blog i read is ashley ann at under the sycamore. i have taken her online snapshot photography course, and also sponsored with my shop at various times.

it is amazing how much their story has impacted our story. i truly believe God works in mighty ways through the telling of His story in each of our lives. ashley and her husband adopted a little girl with a cleft lip and palate from China. and my heart has been captured by this as well. as i was talking through this with russ on a date the other night he began to cry and told me that all the things i was saying about China were resonating with what the Lord had spoken to him on his drive home. so we left our date with China as our direction.

this past tuesday, i spoke with some ladies at the agency that ashley ann told me about at living hope adoption agency and have gotten directions on the first steps that we need to take. after that phone call a friend called who has been praying with us in this to check in. we talked about what God has done and is doing, and not two minutes after we got off the phone she called back to say "you'll never believe this. the first people i saw when i got off the phone with you were a couple with a baby from China with severe cleft lip and palate." then not five minutes later i walked into my bank and on the large flat screen t.v. was the baby that was rescued from the sewage piping in China. and i praised my Lord because He is so gracious and loving that He sends confirmations to us. He does not have to, yet He does.

and later that night, as i lay in bed reading and researching, it's like i could feel another room in my heart opening. a room for my child. and i began to realize that he (or she) is very far away from us now. that he may be alone, may be crying, may be scared. and i began to pray for his parents, his mother who must be grieving and conflicted. prayed for those who will help and love on him until we can be with him. and a peace that can only come from the Lord surrounded me with comfort that His timing is His timing is His timing. He is sovereign and He knows. He holds. He comforts. He loves. He rocks our baby with the arms of someone caring for him. He weeps for the lost and the least of these. He loves more than i ever could.

so now with the most diligence and persistence we can we will go through this process and pray and wait and pray and wait until we get our baby. and then we will pray and parent and pray and parent this baby as we do our three with us now.

i am writing this now so you my dear friends and family can read and see what He is doing. and so that you can partner in prayer with us. but i am also writing it for our baby. that he can see how the Lord wove his story together with ours, beautifully orchestrated by the love of our Savior.