A Step

Why adopt? Because seeds that God planted in my heart for another child had begun to grow. Change didn't occur in my heart until I realized that adoption isn't exclusively for people who can'’t have children naturally. We have wonderful Dodger. After a year of trying for #2, God began to take us down a different road. We started searching our hearts and asking Him a lot of questions. Troy wasn't verbal about his desire to adopt, but it was there. He has always wanted a little girl from China. I thought, maybe someday. In May I began to pray over and over for two things: One, that God would show me how to actively obey Him. And two, that He would give us road signs if we were to adopt. I thought I needed more than just "“Hey, that'’s a great idea, and lots of people we know are doing it"”. So I meditated on these two requests (obedience and signs) to the Lord for a month. God answered both prayers and showed up in a soft whisper that "“You don'’t need signs, Aim. You need a heart completely and 100% on board. When your heart is ready, you'll do it because you WANT to."” I said "Okay, change my heart then". I didn'’t think it would happen, but once my heart was turned upside down, there was no turning back. In fact it was then that I realized that God planned from the beginning to bring us babies from near and far. And even though I didn't need "signs" they kept coming anyway. I realized that adoption is never plan B for anybody- not parent or child. Just two weeks after my heart was being flooded with this new truth, I went to a Family Life adoption conference at our church. I wondered if the teachers at the conference had read my journal first. And better than having all of these signs show up on a map, the intentionality of God to want to show us and love on us in this way is so humbling. Every step of the way, we've been asking Him to help us follow His lead. We know this is just the first step. But it is a step.