I am so excited [do I say that every time?] Ok, I”m so honored that my first internet bff-turned real life bff, Lauren is sharing with us today!  Yall, she has an incredible story of love and loss and her road to be a mama.  We met on this crazy world wide web during both of our first adoptions, and have since spent sweet moments together celebrating all God has done!  Lauren, thank you for sharing your heart and your story today!  You are changing the world!

I’ve never thought of myself as a world-changer. When I look back over the last decade of my life what I see are a series of events that happened to me … that changed my world. But I also see decisions and choices and new directions – the things that I had to actively be involved in. You see, when the bottom falls out and the life you had planned is no longer possible, you have to make some choices. You can dig in your heels and stubbornly refuse to give up what you can’t have, you can grab a blanket and settle in for a long term pity party, or you can look ahead and see if there might be a stepping stone to guide you onto a new path. I chose the latter.

I was 23 years old when my plans fell apart. Just days before Christmas a phone call from the doctor’s office delivered the crushing news – we couldn’t have children. That was that. I won’t sugar coat my reaction … it wasn’t pretty. I spent a few weeks in denial and several weeks paralyzed by grief before my husband gently suggested there might be something better out there. Something we never could have imagined. Three months later twin boys found themselves in our living room. We were foster parents.

Foster parenting opened my eyes to a whole new world that I knew existed but chose not to think about. I knew there were children who needed parents but I didn’t know what on earth I could do about it. Sometimes when problems seem too enormous to solve the natural response is to pretend they don’t exist. But when “those problems” materialized in my home as two green eyed toddlers with empty bellies and hollow eyes, well I just couldn’t ignore them anymore. I still didn’t know what to do, for them or the other millions of children needing safe place to live, but I did know how to love. So we loved them for three beautiful months.

When the twins went home they left a huge void in our lives. We had all this love and no one to give it to. I suddenly had awareness for the motherless children in the world and didn’t know how to help. But I’d be lying if I told you that we chose to adopt to help meet a need in the world. The truth is we decided to adopt because we had a need, and we wanted a sweet little baby to fill it. So in 2009 we started the adoption process.

Four years later finds us home with our two children. Mareto came home from Ethiopia in 2011 and Arsema followed in 2012. As much as people like to point out that we changed the world for these two precious children we know the truth. The truth is that they changed our world. Without them life would be so very dull.

How very gracious of God to look across oceans and continents to see four of his children in need … and choosing to bring them together. Four needs met in one beautiful word. Adoption. A father needing children, a mother needing babies, two babies needing a home and love … and one word changed four lives forever.

I don’t think I’m a world changer, I think God is. And every so often he invites us to be a part of it. All it takes looking for the next stepping stone, and moving forward one timid step at a time. We do the walking and He does the changing.

So will you take that next step?  All it takes is taking ONE step at a time.