Here we go

This is a story of our adoption. As we begin, it is our prayer that you will be touched as much as we have by the ability of the Lord to make all things happen in His time. We are in the process of adopting two little blessings that God has given us.

Here is our story:

We are very passionate about adoption. We see adoption as both a means for children to have a loving family and also for parents to open their hearts and home to love someone unconditionally. We feel children and family are the greatest gifts you can receive. We have both been blessed and grieved to have spent time overseas at various orphanages and have witnessed first hand the poverty and desperation of the homeless. We would leave every time with an increased sense of hopelessness and frustration. Our hearts would break a little more as we would see a fatherless child, someone so precious, without a home and love. We were glad we could visit and help for a couple of weeks, but knew that would not make a lasting change.

It was then, through our desperation, that we began to embrace the idea of adoption. We were ready to start a family and take on the challenge and open our hearts to a child needing love and a Christ-centered home. We stopped asking “Why adopt?” and started to ask “Why not adopt?” When we had no answer to that question we started the homestudy process, and after a failed domestic adoption, we started looking internationally. Shortly after we picked our international adoption agency, we came in contact with the waiting children list. We thought that we would be adopting a baby, but as soon as we heard about and saw a picture of Mateo, we changed our minds. We immediately began the paperwork to make him our son. Mateo just turned two on November 4 and has special needs due to hearing loss in both ears. We are uncertain to the severity of his hearing problems, but are prepared to take on whatever they may be. Shortly after we accepted the referral for Mateo, we were able to go to Guatemala to visit him. It was an amazing trip that further confirmed that we are in God’s will. While doing our paperwork and homestudy we applied for the approval of two children, just in case. Well that just in case came to be a necessity and reality when we returned from Guatemala and our adoption caseworker informed us that they were receiving too many babies for referral, and did not have enough families ready to take them. We had been praying about a second adoption and had a peace that this was God’s way of nudging us toward a decision. We are now welcoming Elisabeth into our family as well.

We are in the beginning of the process to bring them home. We would love to have you join us as we experience both the joys and the struggles that international adoption can sometimes bring. Please be in prayer for us.