Friend, no matter what stage of the adoption process you find yourself in – welcome. 

It seems like an eternity ago that I sat on a hill on a hot July day and was first challenged to pray about adoption. Nothing could have been FURTHER from my mind, or my plans. I had never actively considered adoption as an option to grow our family, but there it was. God speaking through a college-aged friend to stir our hearts towards His children. 

We were about a year into starting our own family when our plans were gloriously ruined. I truly used to believe the lie that adoption was for “super special Christians” but that could not be further from the truth.

When God broke our hearts for adoption, it was because we saw HIS heart for us. We adopt because we were adopted. We love because we have been loved. This kind of love is a pouring out from the places that we’ve been poured into. You get what I’m saying? 

We aren’t special, we didn’t “rescue” our kids... we followed a call to bring in the orphan and make them son and daughter.

The journey to adopt Camp and Asher changed us to our core. We truly aren’t the same people we were in 2010. Our eyes and hearts are open to so much more than our little bubble ever allowed before. Our walks with Christ have deepened, our faith has grown, our circle of friends is bigger, and we are closer as a couple.  

I will never forget what it was like to walk into a bright green colored room in a home in Ethiopia and become a mom for the first time. It made the two years of waiting, longing, hoping, preparing, fundraising, and praying our guts out so so worth it.  

Adoption is beautiful but often starts with loss. 

If you are in the mourning stage of your adoption journey, know that as alone as you may feel, you are anything but. I hope that this can be a community for you. Maybe a glimpse into what is coming. 

If adoption is a part of your story, you are so so blessed. Just like I heard a fellow adoptive dad say right before we said yes to adoption, “I feel sorry for people who don’t get to experience this.” It’s an experience like none other.  

So whatever part of your journey you are on, know that you aren’t alone. There are others who have gone before you, there are others going with you, and there are others coming behind you. I pray our stories, too, go before you, with you, and behind you and give you hope for the hard days.