Ramblings copied from Eyes Wide Open

In March, I saw a 6 day old baby in the doctor's office and began crying.  Weird thing is, I didn't even know I was crying until the tear hit my hand that was placed in my lap.  Then, I didn't even know WHAT I was crying for.



Later that night, I told Jacques about what had happens and explained I had no idea what I was crying for. We talked a bit and I thought 'that, was that'. Then.....God took a grip of our hearts and planted a HUGE seed, a seed that we should possibly consider adopting again. But I had SO many reasons why it wasn't true, that we couldn't be. We played tug-a-war for sometime with the idea, it kinda went like this:

I mean, really? A baby? It can't be. Are you kidding me? A baby? Are you sure you have the right family? I mean, life has resumed to normal and relatively stress free after our first attempt at adopting a 12 year old girl (that sadly ended in a breakdown). And I thought that adopting was not ever going to happen in our family again.  I thought this wasn't my mission anymore. What about our home schooling adventure that starts this year? Don't ya think this is going to be too much to accomplish? Ha, a baby!   It can't be. There was NO way. Are you sure? What about our ages? We're both approaching 40 and Noah's approaching double digits. Life is comfortable now. A baby?  It can't be. What about the financial side of an adoption. We don't have an $30,000 just lying around in a bank account, waiting to be spent on an adoption. How are we going to come up with THAT kinda money? Really, a baby?  It just can't be. And what about our upcoming move next year? What happens if these two big events happen at the same time?  A baby?  It just can't be, God, it can't be.  

Guilt (over questioning God and what He is asking us to do) while trying to protect my heart, followed by a bunch of scripture and parts of Dangerous Surrender, by Kay Warren came racing through my head. Let me make one point clear:

"I am the Lord's servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants" Luke 1:38           If you love me, you will obey what I command. John 14:15           "What is a litmus test of your surrender and obedience to God is how you treat the least among us." Kay Warren           'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' Matthew 25:40           "For you to become a seriously disturbed, surrendered person of faith, you will have to be willing to say yes in advance - to give God your answer before you've heard the question." Kay Warren            The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. 2 Corinthians 2:9           If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land. Isaiah 1:19           Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, Titus 3:1           As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 1 Peter 1:14           If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. John 14:23           To look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27

It was like a merry go round, going faster and faster and faster and faster and faster when we finally just came to a screeching halt. Okay, okay....yes, yes, yes....we will, we will!.

So YES my dear friends and family, you read correctly. We are adopting! We have begun an international adoption from Vietnam.   By the grace of God, we will welcome home a baby girl, under 12 months old with minor correctable special needs (like cleft palate, club feet, premature, low birth rate, etc).  It is a very LONG process that could take between 2-3 years, possibly less for a special needs.

An exciting day:  mailing our application!

It was an exuberant feeling when we finally stopped fighting the call that God has so clearly asked of us.   And we are all very excited.  


Noah (for the most part) is absolutely thrilled to be adopting a baby sister in a few years, especially after he got to spend some time with my friend's 18 month old daughter (who is adopted from Vietnam) this summer when their family visited ours (and then we visited theirs).  Every now and then he stops me to say 'will she be this small?' while holding his hand up to his waist. 


Then once, he actually gave me the list of his demands (so cute!) on whether we 'would' adopt or not!!!


In order, they were:

1. She will NOT be allowed in his room. (fair enough, I get that)
2.She will have to pick up all her toys and not leave them lying around the way the cat and dog leave there's around the living room! (LOL, so cute)
3.He will NOT be changing ANY diapers! (surprised this was not his #1 demand)

So BIG gulp...here we go. We are facing a few years living on the BARE minimums and saving every last penny, to afford the cost of our adoption. We are saving, scrimping and doing as much as we can to come up with all the money needed for our adoption. We are absolutely willing to do what ever it takes to make this happen. We are all 100% committed!

"In what ways are you allowing God to rearrange your schedule, your finances, your affections, so that you can regularly interact with those he loves?” Kay Warren

Now........I 'get' that some people may not understand or even agree with our intentions or desire to adopt, or may just plain out disagree with our decision.   My response to you, is that you have every right to your own opinions.  But please respect that we live by God's rules and not yours.   God doesn't always ask us to choose the route that is most popular, or do things that are easy and we choose to follow Him and what he wants from us rather than following the crowd.  Heck, if we always fit into the status quo, didn't turn heads or had people talking about us, wouldn't that get boring after a while?  Would we really grow?  We'd just be stuck in the same boring place in our lives?  How much fun would THAT be?

"It really isn't any of my business - or your business - what God does in someone else's life. My only business is to follow him" Kay Warren

"Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd,” Exodus 23:2

 So...with all that said, part of our plan to save money for our adoption was to come out with a new line of jewelry that I've been making. New pieces that are JUST for fundraising efforts for our adoption.

• All earrings I make (and any that have already been made), will still be sold to raise money for rice in Haiti.
• All solidarity necklaces I make (and any that have already been made), will still be sold to raise money for income for women in Kenya.
• And...all new pieces will be sold to raise money for our adoption

Once our adoption is complete, my vision is to continue to use any money raised through the sale of my jewelry in 'pay it forward' ways. A few ideas I have in my head are to help others who are adopting internationally, to help the orphanage that our little girl comes from or helping our agency, etc.