An amazing journey

Gosh, I feel somewhat overwhelmed before I even begin!! God is amazing and why He would call us on this road to adoption humbles me. Most days I am just trying to make it through--teaching, loving, feeding, etc. our beautiful but quite ACTIVE 4 children. I wonder sometimes if I am even equipped for the ones I have now but I have to remind myself--minute by minute sometimes that He is sufficient and that His power is made perfect in my weakness!

Let's see, I guess I need to go back about a year and and a half ago when we came home from China with sweet Sarah Beth. I need to let you know a few things about our children. They have tremedous hearts for adoption and God loves to speak through them to their somewhat stubborn parents! Actually I think before we even left for China the kids were planning our next adoption, but I remember distinctly soon after we returned Abby and Noah began drawing pictures of their brother. He had beautiful brown skin and curly dark hair.

Although Josh wasn't "into" drawing pictures he too was very on board. We wonder if they get up very late at night and plan and scheme while Chad and I are sleeping!!! After many pictures they said emphatically, "We have a brother and he lives in Africa." Whoa.... Chad and I were a little overwhelmed to say the least. I remember saying we just needed some time to get adjusted to Sarah Beth!!!

Well, God did give us about 6 months to rest before He started speaking to Chad and me! In late Spring of 2008 I was attending Beth Moore's Daniel bible study. I was at one of our Monday night discussions when the Lord clearly spoke to my heart about our new son and that we were to call him Gabriel. Although the kids felt certain that he lived in Africa, Chad and I were not convinced until May of 2008 when we read "Red Letters Campaign", by Tom Davis. This book truly led us to understand the plight of Africa with its magnitude of orphans due to the AIDS pandemic. We both became so drawn to Ethiopia and knew we were to adopt from there but were not sure of the timeline. In steps God again. He is always right on time although in our flesh many times He appears to be ahead or behind OUR schedule. So thankful it is really HIS schedule and not ours anyway!

In October of 2008 Sarah Beth and I were taking a Kindermusik class, which she loves (We just keep taking classes)!! I had been praying about God's timing to adopt and feeling fearful about starting the process again. The second week of class we stopped at the sign in table to fill out our nametags and when I went to throw our paper away, on top of the trash was the nametag Gabriel. It shook me up because I had just been praying about the adoption and here was our son's name right there in plain view. Well, I just let it slide until the next week, same story... on top of the trash was the nametag Gabriel AGAIN. Well, I grabbed it out of the trash and later that day showed it to Chad. "Do you think this is God speaking?" I asked.

We decided to pray about it and ask God for a "fleece" or a sign that this was really from him. So... the next week SB and I go to the sign in table and there was no nametag on top... I guess I had just imagined all this was God but then was stopped in my tracks!!! I looked up and there in front of us walking to another class was a little boy with the nametag Gabriel on his back!! I just stood there crying....not only had God given us a sign, but we felt he had gone even further to show us a little boy. We knew it was time to act, because certainly our son must be waiting. We began immediately looking for an agency and through God's leading found our agency, Celebrate Children International.

We began our homestudy process in November and here we are again...waiting for yet another child to join our family. We feel so blessed and honored but frightened at times as well. We are always wondering what God is up to!!

As Chad shared we had been looking (I guess I should say I had been looking) at our agency's waiting children list. Both of us felt overwhelmed by the prospect of choosing a child when they ALL needed a family. We were shocked when Sue our director called us about two boys. We both knew this was from God so we began fervently praying for God to direct us to our son or sons. Through much prayer and further discussions with Sue we felt the younger one was to be our son. But we are amazingly open to another child if that is God's desire for us. Please pray we will hear God clearly on this!

Well, let me tell you about our precious new son. We have tons of pictures of him and he is adorable. We can't wait to share them at a later date when we we can. He has those bright eyes like Sarah Beth and a never-ending smile like Noah. We are in love!! He is quite a bit younger than we had anticipated. We think he is about 3 1/2 to 4. We are pretty sure he and Sarah Beth are not even a year apart. Wow, two preschoolers running around again but we love our crazy life!

When we heard his story we were heartbroken. He was given over by his mother about a year and a half ago as she was dying of AIDS. We thankfully have pictues of her and she is a lovely, dignified woman who loved her son dearly and wanted the best for him. I am so thankful we have pictures of her for Gabriel someday. He was actually adopted by another family in Florida but when they got to Ethiopia they changed their minds. We have no idea how anyone would could say no to him but rejoice that God saved him for us!!! We found out that the other couple are not Christians so we feel so thankful God would choose us to raise him in faith. We cannot wait to wrap our arms around him and welcome him into our family. Sarah Beth said last night, "brother's coming home." Yes he is, and soon we pray!