(We’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Dianne and her husband in “real-life” as they prayed for us and lent an ear during our own process of foster-adoption, and they continue to inspire me!)

Adoption is something that has always been on my husband’s heart. He mentioned it even when we were dating. However, I married him anyways, thinking, “He’ll get over that!” Instead, God changed me and gave us both a heart for orphans around the world.

So, three biological children later, my husband launched his own business, and I was busy caring for three children under the age of three! Our lives were full. However, we continued to discuss adoption many times through the years.

We finally felt a peace that the time was right… it was time to begin our adoption journey.

We have a niece adopted from China so international adoption seemed to be a natural fit for our family. We spent months compiling our dossier, completing our homestudy, and submitting our papers to China. Months later, we realized that the China adoption program was at a standstill. Was this the path that God had chosen for us? We knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God had called us to adopt. . . we just weren’t sure exactly what that would look like for our family.

We again began to research international adoption. However, in the midst of our research, we began to hear about foster children, and the foster/adopt program. My husband had gone to a foster parenting meeting years earlier. When he came home from the meeting and announced he didn’t think that was a good fit for our family, I was immensely relieved. I just couldn’t fathom fostering. . . that would stretch me further than I could stretch, I was sure of that.

However, in the fall of 2007, it seemed clear that the Lord continued to put this in front of us. Ignoring our fears, we decided to follow God’s leading. Through a series of miracles, we were able to get into a foster parent training class immediately, and had our home study completed (again) months later. Now it was time to wait and see what the Lord had for us.

A few months later we received a call about a three-month-old boy who needed a home. He was on a heart monitor, and had been in way too many places, homes, and circumstances in his three months of life. I’ll never forget that drive to DFCS (Department of Family and Children’s Services), nor seeing him for the first time. I won’t forget the moment I walked in the door and my husband and children clamored around him. While the road between that day and our adoption was long and rocky, our son is as much a part of our family as my biological children, and the love we feel for him is no different.

As I look back at our journey, I know God had Andrew picked out for us all along. He just had to take us on baby steps to prepare us! I also know that if you had told me what the first year would be like with Andrew, I would have told you I couldn’t do it. I already have three children. I’m too busy. You see, Andrew came with a host of medical and developmental problems that continue to show up even now. But, we did do it! God knew what we could handle, and he also knew that having a mom, a dad, a brother, and two sisters would help Andrew grow and develop into the person God wants him to be.

My other children could not possibly love Andrew any more. They know that he was supposed to be part of our family, and have embraced him wholeheartedly. And he them.

Today, we are again walking down the foster/adopt path where nothing is certain. We currently have in our home a precious four-month-old baby who came to our home at three-days-old. We know that we are in the very beginnings of our journey with her, and we trust that God has a beautiful plan for her life. We are glad to be part of His plan right now. Yes, it will hurt if she leaves. We will cry buckets of tears. But we know we are making a difference and we savor every day with her.

We have trusted God to build our family, and what He has built far exceeds anything we could have asked or imagined. There are so many children out there like Andrew and our little baby girl. . . they just need a Mom and a Dad and a family to love them.

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Do you have a positive adoption story of your own to share? If so, contact me!