A Life Update: We're Adopting Again

People would ask me if we were ever going to adopt again. My response would always vary.

“I don’t know. Maybe someday.”

“No, probably not.”

“I think maybe God has another way for us to carry out our call to care for orphans.”

Last Spring, I felt peace about letting go of the idea that our family would adopt again.

We had been open to adopting again but God didn’t seem to be moving us in that direction. Adopting from China had changed drastically over the past few years and that door seemed to be shrinking for our family. After another prayer session about adoption, I told God that if He wanted us to adopt that He would have to make it abundantly clear. I was done asking because I was tired of not knowing if we were called to adopt or not.

After that day, I left it completely in his hands without another thought. I started to look for ways to love on adoptive and foster families around me and dream about how our family could still be involved in loving kids without a family, locally or around the world.

I was determined to find a way to stay involved in the adoption community and what better way to start than to love on the people right in front of me. I needed to be brave enough to fully surrender so that it wouldn’t be my planning and striving that made things happen.

The days flew by and I freely let go of any inkling to pursue adoption. Summer came and one day I had a few moments of alone time in the one and only place a mother can ever find any alone time.

The bathroom.

I was processing some new developments in our family and I began to realize that God was giving me an answer to that final prayer I prayed about adopting again.

I hadn’t thought of that prayer since the day I prayed it nor had I realized that the events unfolding in my family’s life were pointing us to a concrete answer.

Two months after that prayer of relinquishment, in the quiet of my bathroom, I remembered the prayer clearly and I knew…

God was calling us to adopt again.

Even when I had given up, God knew the desires of my family's heart. He knew where He would lead us. He knew how badly I wanted Him to show up.

In His perfect timing, He did.

In August, we submitted our application to Holt International to adopt a toddler from South Korea.

Most people automatically think we will be adopting from China again. In the beginning, I was China or nothing. Scott was open to South Korea, but I wanted nothing to do with it. It's difficult when spouses aren't on the same page with adoption.

I wanted Brielle to have a sibling that she could share Chinese culture with. I wanted a familiar adoption process. (That's laughable. Is there such a thing?) I had to decide if my motive to adopt was to provide a culture sibling for Brielle or provide a home for a child that desperately needs a family.

That was an easy answer and doors immediately began to swing open for us to adopt from South Korea.

This is round two. It’s scarier than round one. Last time we planned for years. This time, we take it as it comes. We know the realities. We know all the twists and turns that lay ahead of us.

We also know that God is already in the moments to come. We know that through adoption God refines us and restores us. And I’m not just talking about the child. I know that our family will be refined and restored as we walk this road of adoption.

It will be sometimes painful, but always beautiful, redemption.

"But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons." Galatians 4:4-5 (NKJV)

We’ve already completed our home study. Hallelujah! (We completed it in two months! Is that a record? Please say yes.) Currently, we are waiting for the paperwork to apply for immigration pre-approval to adopt internationally. After that, we wait for the phone call that we have a child on the other side of the world. I smile just typing that. It’s gonna be beautiful, friends.

Although my plan is not to continuously give adoption updates on my website, subscribe here if you'd like to receive other blog content and book updates. (Yep! If you're still reading this, you deserve to know that I signed a contract with a self-publishing company last week. More to come VERY soon!)

#adoption #internationaladoption