More On Our Decision To ADOPT!

So here is a little more on how we came to this huge new exciting decision! This is an excerpt from our “Statement of Motivation” for our adoption agency…More on that to come too! :)

“I have always been interested in adoption and have always wondered if the Lord was calling us to adopt. Several years ago Barry and I first began to discuss the issue of adoption and we decided to pray about pursuing adoption in the future. I told him at that time that as soon as he was ready – I was on board, but he has always been a little bit more hesitant. He had never really given adoption much serious thought, and he felt like he might be open to it in the future but preferred to have a biological child first.

We started trying to conceive in May of 2008 and went through three years of infertility, including infertility treatments and two miscarriages and only occasionally discussed the possibility of adoption. Neither one of us ever wanted adoption to be Plan B and didn’t ever want a child to feel like we adopted them just because we couldn’t have a biological child. If we ever adopted we wanted it to be for the right reasons, because we felt like the Lord was calling us to do so, not just because we couldn’t have a biological child.

In 2009, I read a book called “Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families” by Russell Moore. It reinforced to me the importance of having Christian families adopting the 147+ million orphans in the world and I felt an even stronger desire to adopt one day. I sent Barry an article about the book and continued to pray that the Lord would open his heart to the idea. I still had some concerns about adopting internationally, such as the cost, not being able to bring home a newborn, and problems with brain development due to life in an orphanage, but knew if Barry ever felt like the Lord was leading us in that direction, then we would do so.

In February of this year we decided to take a break from infertility treatments and really focus our prayers on the next step that the Lord wanted us to take. We have always prayed before each new test or infertility treatment, but this time we felt strongly that we needed to take a break for a little while. It was during this break that on a drive to Montgomery I felt the Lord lay heavily on my heart the idea of adopting internationally. All of the previous concerns I had about adopting just melted away. I could actually SEE us adopting for the first time! I called one of my best friends and told her what the Lord was telling me that day and asked her to specifically pray that the Lord would change Barry’s heart if this was His will. The very next day I was speaking at an Orphan Advocacy Group for work and asked Barry to come with me. At the meeting, the leader was discussing why the Lord had a heart for orphans and made a statement that I would later find out really impacted Barry. He said, “God does not only have a heart for the fatherless because He wants them to have an earthly mother and father. He has a heart for the fatherless because without Christian families adopting these children, they may never come to know their Heavenly Father!”

After we left the meeting we got in the car and I simply asked Barry, “So...what are you thinking?” I had not mentioned to him about my experience in the car the previous day because I wanted it to be the Lord changing Barry’s heart not Lisa changing Barry’s heart. He told me that he had been thinking about adoption a lot more recently and had been praying about it a lot. He said that the Lord was beginning to change his heart and he was beginning to feel more and more comfortable with the idea!! At that point I shared what I felt in the car the previous day and we decided that I could begin looking into adoption agencies. Barry began reading the “Adopted for Life” book and throughout the next two months we prayed about it constantly.

The book was able to answer many of the questions and concerns that Barry had and every time we discussed adoption he said he was feeling more and more led in that direction. When he finished reading the book he told me that it was time! He knew that the Lord was leading us on the path of adoption and he was ready! It was so neat seeing the Lord change both of our hearts and to bring us such an amazing peace about this upcoming journey. God is good!”