An Adoption Journey
2019 began a brand new journey for my family and I.
We began an adoption journey.
It wasn’t something we expected for 2019, it was something that held us and grabbed our hearts, not letting us go. In 2018 I’d constantly had the nagging feeling that we were supposed to take a step toward adoption. This was no big surprise since my husband Bodie and I had planned on adopting – in a few years.
One day while talking on the phone to a friend she brought up adoption stuff. “Do you think you’ll adopt internationally or domestically?” I explained that at one point I thought we were supposed to adopt from Romania (until I found out Romania doesn’t adopt to those who aren’t Romanian citizens). Bodie and I both had a heart for Eastern Europe, but while nothing stood out as a true calling, we chose to pursue adoption domestically. Kids right here in the United States need families to love them too.
Then my friend told me about a blog that had captured her heart for the last couple years. I looked into it and I was glued. I began to learn things about orphan needs that I never knew. I learned about the things families work through when adopting internationally that are often different than domestic adoption. I didn’t realize it but after learning more and more about these kids, my heart had shifted to advocate for them.
I still wasn’t planning on adopting internationally until the day I saw HER.
I’d been scrolling through profiles of international special needs children, praying for them, when a little girl stood out. A week later I was still thinking about her. I couldn’t get her eyes out of my mind.
Bodie, who’d been understandably hesitant to begin an adoption journey so soon, suddenly changed his mindset. He said it was seeing her face, the face of a real child. He began praying for her at night after he prayed for our boys. We talked about the financial implications of an adoption (>30k!) and the concerns for medical needs, family transitions and on and on.
So here we are in April. In some ways it’s like being pregnant. The preparations seem endless and the questions too! Easter is here and for the first time I get to experience the redemption story in a way that is playing out in our family’s adoption story. When I think of various Bible verses I think of that little girl’s face.
Isaiah 56:5
“To them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial, And a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off.”
John 14:18
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
I was adopted. We love because he first loved us.
It’s easy to wonder how one earth someone can be glued to a new family unit and have it work. It may not be perfect but it is beautiful.
And so the paperwork continues. I continue to feel way out of my element. I continue to yearn for the day we welcome our daughter home. My boys continue to ask if “today” is the day we bring her home. I continue to see new glimpses of God’s redemption in this journey.
Across the ocean a girl sits in an orphanage unaware of the family that is working to and hoping to make her their own.
-Krista
