How did we get here?

Dear family and friends,

 

As some of you already know, Randy and I are in process to adopt a little boy from Ethiopia.  We expect to have a new member of the family within a year or so. We are excited about including you all in our process as much as possible. 

  

God has been preparing us for a while, and this may be the first you’ve heard of it.  Now, I’m going to try my best to catch you up!

 

From 2005 through the beginning of 2007, we talked a lot about trying to have another baby, but we never had a peace about it at the same time.  That is a whole ‘nother story that we’ll gladly share with you at some point.  When we moved back to Nashville last April, we joined a church neighborhood group, and two of the families in the group were beginning the process of adoption.   In June of 2007, the first family brought home their little boy from Atlanta, and the second family (with 2 kids already) will go to Ethiopia and get their child sometime this fall.  We were deeply impacted by these families’ stories, and God began to crack open our hearts to the idea of growing our family through adoption, though we hardly knew it.  In hindsight, we see how he had been softening our hearts for years.  Randy and I have both experienced orphanages all over the world, from Kenya and Zimbabwe to India, Honduras and Ecuador.  Secretly, last summer, I began researching international adoption.  After a month of having sifted through a gazillion websites and receiving multiple adoption information packets through the mail, I told Randy during a road trip in September of last year that I thought we were going to adopt a little boy from India.  Yikes! It was a frightening and exciting conversation.  Randy had been the one who was a little more open to adoption from the beginning, so I think he was both excited and surprised that I was now ready.

 

We researched adoption from India, and it was not a viable option for us.  We were not drawn toward a special needs child, and from what we could gather, it seemed that India has traditionally only allowed special needs children to be adopted by non-Indians (that may be changing).  However, the seed God had planted in our hearts had taken root, and we began to search for information about adoption from other countries.  China, Russia, The Ukraine, Guatamala, El Salvador, and Ethiopia.  We were both wary of the domestic system and not inclined to adopt from the US. Who knows why God bends us like he does?

 

We began to (secretly!) meet with our friends that were adopting from Ethiopia, and in many ways, we look back and see God directing us there.  One example – Randy and I have a good friend who moved there with his wife (Barrett and Rachel Ward) in January, to work at a transitional home for orphans for the agency we are using.   They may meet our boy before we do! 

 

In December, we were almost certain we were going to adopt, and we were already leaning heavily toward Ethiopia when we went to an adoption seminar.   One of the speakers was a 38-year-old guy who had been called at the last minute because his wife got stuck somewhere and asked him to fill in for her.   He and his wife have 4 biological kids and had just brought home two children from Ethiopia 9 months earlier.  He had to bring the ‘new additions’ to the meeting because he was watching them during the day while the others were at school.  They sat in his lap the entire time he spoke. 

 

Randy followed him out when he was through, before the seminar was over, and they talked for about 30 minutes.  He was frank about the hard things, and eager to tell about the great blessings, many of which were wrapped up in the hard things – just like all relationships.  

 

There are too many marks in the journey to recount, but I’ll share one more.  Randy and I both read “There Is No Me Without You,” by Melissa Fay Greene.  Mrs. Greene has biological and children by adoption, and her story was powerfully moving and significant for us as we grew into the plans God had for us.  We highly recommend it.

 

OK – that’s a lot for now.  There is much more to share.  We are so thankful for the friends we have and look forward to sharing this journey with you. Right now there is a little boy with no family, sitting in an orphanage in Addis Ababa, or with his grandmother who won’t be able to care for him much longer, or some other unimaginable circumstance, and soon he will become a Goodgame. 

 

At the very core, this journey is a response to the Gospel – the Good News that is so unbelievable, that it must be true.  We are forever changed – and changing – by the working of Jesus in our lives, and the amazing grace that called us into God’s family. 

 

Amy & Randy (Olivia & Jonah)