How did we decide to adopt?
About 7 months ago, Josiah and I began researching adoption. Through stories of friends and our own prayer time, we sensed God’s pull in our hearts towards adoption. We both always felt we wanted to adopt as a way to be obedient to God’s commands in Scripture to care for orphans (James 1:27). We just always assumed that the time would be “later” and “not now” and “after bio kids.”
After continued prayer, talking with adoptive parents, and reading Adopted for Life by Russell Moore, it was clear that God was drawing us toward adoption now. After a few months of researching agencies and lots of thought and prayer over domestic vs. international, we applied for domestic infant adoption with Bethany Christian services in April. We were put on the wait list, and we thought that was it. We would wait until we were moved on to the active list, start our home study, create our profile, and pray fervently while waiting for a birthmother to choose us.
How did we end up choosing international adoption?
About a month ago (June 2013) after talking with the domestic director for our program, it became clear that domestic adoption could very possibly take just as long as international adoption. Our hearts had always been leaning towards international because there are hundreds of prospective parents sitting at home waiting for infants domestically as the number of birthmothers choosing adoption in the U.S. seems to grow smaller while thousands upon thousands of orphans are sitting in orphanages and foster homes all over the world (and in the U.S. foster care system) waiting for homes. Even writing that sentence makes me break out in tears, and that is why we are all the more excited to be making the switch to international adoption. Domestic adoption is still a wonderful picture of God’s redeeming love for infants and their birthmothers, but we are so excited to begin to pray for a child who may already be waiting in an orphanage in Ethiopia as we move forward. Though we know that our adoption will come out of a situation of pain and abandonment for our child, we are trusting God to give us strength and pour out his redeeming love on this child. We were once also fatherless, and now He has adopted us into his family. We can’t wait to show His great love by adopting a precious child into ours.
Why Ethiopia?
As we researched countries, I (Jackie) was drawn to smaller agencies that focused on a few countries and had a record of success in country and good communication with clients. One such agency that I stumbled upon after reading adoption packet after adoption packet was West Sands Adoption out of Utah. They have had a program in Ethiopia since 2003, have relationships with 7 orphanages throughout Ethiopia, and placed over 70 children through their program last year. After speaking with the agency, we also found out that nearly 44% of the population on Ethiopia is under 17 years of age. I can only imagine how many of that 44% are orphans. We are excited to continue to learn about Ethiopia, the culture, and the history as we move through our adoption process.
The Grayt Adventure 