Where do we even start?

For all of the bloggers out there who have disowned us for our lack of focus on blogging, we apologize. Our original intent has been to blog from the beginning of our second adoption process, but we just did not feel ready. Over the next several blogs Melissa and I will update this blog to share with you where we are with the process (keep reading for some very important news!) and to share our hearts with you about what God has been doing in us and for us in this adoption journey.

I'll (Chad) start...

For me, there has just not been a connection to this process. I clearly knew that God was calling our family to adopt (God was speaking to all of us, not just Melissa and me) and that He had impressed upon us that we were to go to Ethiopia, but every time Melissa wanted to scan the pictures of children on our agency's site I could not connect. It's not that I was resistant to the adoption, but I just did not feel that that would be the way we would find our son.

We were working through all the various things that must be done (Home Study, I-600A stuff, and dossier prep), but not with a clear focus toward a timeline. Then it happened--God moved!

We received a call from the head of our agency to tell about two boys that she felt led to share with us from her recent trip. As we prayed through whether this was how God would reveal our son, I had to come to grips with whether I would let God be God. Melissa can tell you that when people would ask me about the adoption, I was emphatic that I was prepared to adopt one son, but no more.

In our prayer time I had to commit to God that if he brought both boys to us to adopt, then I would follow Him in faith. In my mind I was thinking, "God, you are killing me!", and you know what? He was. It was about dying to self. In Luke 9:23 and 24 it says, "Then he said to them all: 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.'"

At this point, He has led us to the younger one and we have completed the paperwork with our agency to adopt him, but we have also updated all of our paperwork to reflect that we will adopt another child if God leads in that direction.

With this direction at last, we have moved in earnest to complete the dossier and as I type, it is in Washington, DC with a courier who will shepherd it through the US Department of State and The Embassy of Ethiopia. The dossier should reach Ethiopia in May and be heard by the courts in July. If we pass court, we will travel in August. I will let Melissa with her mother's heart share more with you about our son (who we will name Gabriel).

I will blog later about some of the many ways that God has spoken to us through books, Scriptures, and songs during the last several months. The song that you are probably hearing right now is "Mighty to Save" by Hillsong--I will write about this more later, but this song continues to speak to me about what God is doing through this adoption. Another one that is powerful is "Salvation is Here", also by Hillsong.