Why Adopt Again???



Many have asked us why we are adopting again.  Here it is. 

God: So, you have a special room just for junk?

Me: Yes, I do.  It's so awesome.  I have room for my plastic Easter egg collection, fabric scraps for future projects, decorative boxes to wrap presents in, bridesmaids dresses from numerous weddings, and .....oh....wait, You didn't really want me to answer that.

  hm.  awkward.

And that is pretty much how the conversation went.  A simple question was asked and a pathetic answer was given.  I could not believe that here we were, an adoptive family whose eyes had been opened to the needs of orphans, and I had a special room for junk.  I felt selfish and foolish.  Mostly selfish.  I knew something was going to change, but did it require me giving up my junk room?  I am pretty attached to that room.  SO we started praying to God.  We asked Him to open the door we should go through and slam shut all other doors.

While this conversation was going on, three other major things were happening in Ethiopia and in our lives.

#1-Ethiopia adoption programs started closing all over the place.  First we heard of agencies that friends had used, then some agencies that friends of friends had used and then the agency we had used, closed. closed. closed.  Every where we looked Ethiopia was shutting down and it was heartbreaking.  We took that as a sign that adoption was not in our future, even though we always thought it was. 

#2-We started looking into foster care.  We requested information and looked into classes to become certified foster parents.  This seemed like something we could do and there is such a need for foster families.  But everytime we signed up to go to a class, it was cancelled due to bad weather.

#3-We started attending a new church.  A completely awesome church. 

Our new church is very mission based, both in our own community and globally.  They are especially active in Haiti and send multiple mission teams there every year.  We started hearing about Haiti everytime we entered the church doors.  We started thinking "maybe God was telling us Haiti is where we should be looking" but we felt so attached to Ethiopia that it felt like we were betraying our sons' country by even thinking of another country.  But we contacted agencies anyway and started warming up to the idea of adopting from Haiti. 

We found 3 reputable agencies that we liked and started inquiring about their programs in Haiti.  One of them had like 14 countries they worked with and every page was updated with current requirements,etc.  While skimming through the pages I noticed that their Ethiopia program said "Open".  I assumed it hadn't been updated and sent off our request for Haiti info, while at the same time asking them if they knew their Ethiopia page was outdated.  Almost instantly I got this response, "Our Ethiopia program IS open."  That was not the sound of a slamming door to me.

I called Chuck and we both started crying.  That is when God finished what He had been trying to tell me earlier.  We were going to be adopting from Ethiopia again.  I just hadn't let Him finish what He was going to say.