His Ways

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8,9  Today I read this passage in my Bible study and thought how significantly it plays out in our adoption process.  My way...quickly...His timing...perfect!  My way...smooth (and painless)....His way....teaching me to trust Him in all things!  I feel like we have been going at this adoption for a while without the progress I would like to have made, but I know He has a purpose for all of it.  My oldest child came home yesterday and told me that she was ready to go to Ghana tomorrow (me too!).  Unfortunately, she hasn't been vaccinated appropriately and doesn't even have a passport yet.  I think many times God is telling me something similar, "Not yet, my child."  As we wait, I feel privileged to see pictures of our children as several people have been to Ghana recently.  They seem to be doing well and have fun personalities.  God is good and His ways are higher than my ways and His thoughts are higher than my thoughts!  I will rest in that peace!

The Comfort Zone

I bet your wondering about the name of our blog.  As I (Debbie) was thinking about writing our Christmas letter this year, I was thinking about all the things Joe and I have been through in our years of marriage.  I remember telling Joe that God has pulled us outside our "comfort zone" for so long that being outside the "comfort zone" IS the true comfort zone.  When we are in His will in our lives (even though many times it doesn't make any sense), only then do we truly feel comfort in our lives.  In my times of trying to pull away or most often do things my way, I do not sense the same comfort in my life from Him.  Yes, sometimes it may be more physically comfortable but in reality I don't have that stream of living water flowing in my life quenching my thirst.  Is God tugging you out of your "comfort zone"?  Right now--we have been tugged into international adoption and all that it involves, but we are not all tugged and called in the same ways.  God has a perfect plan and we can't wait to see His perfect plan come together!

How It All Started

A couple of years ago, we were both touched by the sermon series at our church relating to adoption.  We discussed it and felt that God may be calling us to adopt.  Then we received a book about adoption from a pastor we know (that we didn’t even order) and felt that this was one way God was telling us to move forward.  His families’ story about adoption was very moving.  We thought adoption could be a possibility for our future, but soon thereafter our brother-in-law found out he had cancer.  We sensed a great need to be available for Joe’s family, so the adoption calling went on the “back burner”.  However, early last year separately we were feeling led to adopt again. When we mentioned the idea to each other, it confirmed our desire and leading to adopt.  From the beginning we felt like we should adopt siblings, hopefully a boy and a girl.  We thought about adopting older children but were told we had to adopt children younger than our youngest.  After praying and talking, we felt adopting internationally was the best fit for our family.  We originally wanted to adopt from Haiti, but they had just had the earthquake and we weren’t sure we would even qualify based on their regulations.  We researched many countries including Russia, China, Romania, Guatemala, and Ethiopia, etc.  We ended up feeling like God was calling us to Africa and specifically Ghana, Africa.  We knew that we had who were in the process of adopting from Ghana, and hoped we would have support process of adoption.  We started the process in June 2010.  We completed our homestudy November 2010 and have been working on our dossier paperwork ever since.  On our shirts is the verse "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." John 14:18 which has become our theme especially since we now have actual children we are pursuing.  More to come  in subsequent posts!  Stay tuned!!!