Behind Our Exciting News!

On September 24th, I shared our exciting news to you in a video. I am thrilled to finally express the 'behind-the-scenes' of our news.

It's a flutter in my heart.

            A desire stronger than any I've experienced.

It's a need to protect, provide, and simply, love.

            A love like the Father loves us.

It's a passion to study, to grow.

            And a heart to learn, and pray.

It's taking risks.

            A trust so deep, faith abounds.

It's asking God to break our hearts for what breaks His.

            He provides.

Colin lived in Washington. I lived in Wisconsin. We connected online through Christian Cafe on December 11, 2003. And God slowly revealed to us our story that He planned before we were even born.

Through handwritten letters and nightly phone conversations, we 'knew'. After a few plane flights, Colin proposed on December 25, 2004. Colin moved to Wisconsin the summer of 2006 and we married January 6, 2007.

We've always been the best of friends. Together, we've wanted nothing more than to start a family together. That desire has only grown over the years.

While infertility sometimes rips families apart, I think it has brought us closer together. When it gets rough for one of us, the other is there to provide comfort. When we are hurting, we pray.

From the beginning of our relationship, God laid adoption on our hearts separately. Specifically, I have always felt led to the orphans in Ethiopia. There has never been a question in my mind that we are meant to adopt from there.

On Sunday, August 21 of this year, driving through Appleton, Colin said, "It is time." I think I asked him a few too many times if he was sure. I knew that if we were in this, we needed to be in this whole-heartedly. God has only confirmed this decision since then.

I broke down, suddenly filled with a hope that infertility never gave me. I have never been one to cry happy tears. Now I know them well. It's an emotion God reserves for extra-special moments.

It is difficult to express in words the need for us to adopt from Ethiopia. We have recieved many questions from others, and often they revolve around conceiving a biological child. We would love to someday bear a biological child. But for now? Our focus is adoption. Our hearts are for the orphans, and that will never change.

We are head over heels in love with this baby girl from Ethiopia that isn't even born yet! God arranged this beautiful love story. He is the master of it. He adopted us--now we are going to adopt for Him.

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." ~James 1:27