The beginning . . .

Adoption is something I always knew that I wanted to do.  As a young teen I always said that I was going to adopt.  At that time my vision was of a daughter from China.  Then life happened. I met my husband and got married.  The Lord blessed us with 4 beautiful children.  I then became a surrogate for a wonderful couple.  Still adoption was on my mind and heart. My husband wasn't completely on board at this time. My husband and I attended a conference for orphans, Know More Orphans.   The conference opened his eyes to the need and the Lord changed his heart.  By this time I was interested in adopting from Africa.  He specifically felt we were called to adopt form Uganda.  We were finally in agreement.  We decided to wait until we were in a better place finanically and with more room in our home. As we wanted to adopt two children at once.  I immediatley began researching all I could about Uganda and international adoption.  I joined several groups on Facebook.  Day in and day out I would see chilren's faces that needed a family.  I would pray for them but I never really "saw" them.  Because in my mind they weren't my children.  The Lord had led us on our path, we knew where we were going.  We had a plan.  And God laughed.  I was scrolling through one of the adoption pages when a little boy caught my eye and captured my heart.  I was immediately in love.  And then I had a panic attack.  I was confused how can this be my child Lord if you have called both my husband and I to adopt from Uganda.  Never the less I tried to show my husband the picture when he came home form work.  He was not interested at all.  This child has special needs.  This child is facing an institution is a matter of months.  This isn't what we had agreed on.  We weren't going to adopt right now, it was years down the road.  And again God laughed.  I went to bed upset and angry.  How could God place this random child on my heart.  We had a plan, I couldn't even get my husband to look at his picture.  The next day after work Josh came home and told me we had to talk.  We sat down and he told me that we would do whatever it took to bring this little boy home.  He said that the Lord had kept him up all night.  That he was in tears for this little boy.  This from the man who wouldn't even look at a picture.  So we began looking into how we could bring our son home.  It is a long, draining process.  We aren't in a place financially that we can just make this happen.  Our home is not complete.  We can't do any of it.  But God can.  We are stepping out in faith.  We are being obedient.