Pieces to the Puzzle

Our decision to adopt was not one we came to easily. It was a process and some of that process I believe must remain within our family but I also want to be as transparent as possible through this journey. I want to share how God worked in our hearts and brought us to this place. This big place. A place of a lot of unknowns and a lot of leaping but a place I believe He wants us. I'm not sure when the first seeds were planted but it was this past September that the all out tug-o-war on my heart started when I read The Hole in Our Gospel by Rich Stearns. My heart broke over and over for the widow, the poor, the needy and the orphan. To be perfectly honest I was digusted with myself and disgusted with our lives. It's not like we weren't aware of the terrible need in this world. We go to church, we read our World Vision flyers, we sponsor children in Swaziland....there's no denying we were aware and to some degree cared. But how deeply? How much did we make this a focus in our family? Did we really grasp how weatlhy we are compared to the rest of the world? Over and over I felt conviction and my heart hurt. It hurt bad. I started reading more....Fields of the Fatherless, The Red Letters, Crazy Love, There is no Me without You and of course dug deeper in the Bible. I also began to pray for how God wanted to use our family. Not my plan for how I thought we could be used but what He really desired for us. Up until this point I had never considered myself  a "missions" person. Our church is very missions minded and supports numerous full-time missionaries and sends out many short-term mission groups and I always considered prayer and financial support my role. I'm a homebody and quite honestly love to play it safe. So when God started pressing Africa on my heart I was sure He either had the wrong girl or the wrong continent. But I kept praying and I tried to keep my heart open to whatever God had in store. Then one night I was perusing through some of my favorite blogs and I was led to a video that I believe was one of those moments in life when you see so clearly the direction your supposed to move....yet it seems so incredibly impossible. There is so much more to this story and how we got to this place but for now I want to leave you with the video that not only changed the life for one sweet baby girl but is changing the lives of so many around the world....including ours.



I highly recommend you visit their blog too. Lucy Lane has been home almost a year now and her family is doing amazing things advocating for those left behind still in need of loving families.