We Are Adopting Again!

Three years ago I wrote this blog post on the topic of “Why Adopt?” That was during our first adoption journey. I don’t blog, like EVER. But for some reason adoption brings out the blogging spirit in me. Now that we are adopting again, and now after being three years beyond the first time we adopted with the perspective I now have, I thought I should dust off the keyboard and write another post. And, if the past is any indication, I will continue to blog like crazy until we get this precious one home and then I’ll undoubtedly cease the blogging. I guess if I did it all the time it wouldn't be special, right? ;-)

You heard right. We are adopting again! After the first adoption for many months as life was complicated and chaotic, Keyanna and I started to think, “Well maybe 3 is all we can handle.” But in the back of our hearts, I think we knew #4 would come...eventually. God has a way of not letting you give up so easily on his plan for your life. That’s exactly what it is…HIS plan. Isaiah 25:1 says, 

“O LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; For You have worked wonders, Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.”

We can look at our situation from the human perspective, from the financial advisor perspective, from the starting-to-run-out-of-space-for-more-kids-in-this-house perspective, and it really doesn’t make much sense for us to adopt. BUT when we look at it through God’s eyes, we can’t think of a reason NOT to adopt. The question changes based on the point of view. “Why would we adopt again?” becomes “Why would we not?”

Don’t get me wrong. Adoption is no walk in the park. There is risk. There are trials. There are obstacles (our own fear and selfishness being the biggest). Ever since soon after Keyanna and I got married we felt the pull on our hearts for orphans. We knew God was preparing us for something huge, where God would be glorified in a big way. Ever since then He has been gradually stretching us, providing just what we needed at the right time and revealing just enough to strengthen our faith while we realized again and again our need for Him. With adoption #1 we started out pursuing a domestic adoption. We both thought, “We can’t handle going to another country, being parents to a child of another race.” But God clearly broke that barrier. So we went to China and brought home Nathanael. We thought, “This is it. This is the huge thing God has prepared us for.” Nathanael is wonderful and has been an amazing blessing. But we still felt down deep somewhere that God wasn’t finished yet. That feeling was right.

God has led us to where we are now. We are certain of it. We are just as certain that He will carry us through this. We must rely on God’s strength and the help of a strong community of Christ as we go to our daughter. As Jesus said in John 14:18,

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."

God won’t turn his back on us. We are his. We won’t turn our backs on our daughter. She is ours.