We heard a couple speak on international adoption in church when I felt a God-ordained passion to adopt from Africa. My husband didn't catch the passion until he prayed about it for several months. After studying as much as we could on the orphan crisis we initially ventured out in the Rwanda program. We requested a healthy infant, as we didn't want to deal with social, emotional, or health issues.
All of a sudden we had a turn of events. Our adoption agency advised us to get out of the newly established Rwanda program. At this crossroads, we considered getting out of the adoption journey. After all, there were so many unknowns, frustrations, and pitfalls on this long road. And, we already had four children.
We prayerfully realized that we were "called" to adopt and His ways are not our ways. 'It's not about us' became our mantra. We switched to the Ethiopia program and found two precious biological sisters on the Waiting Child List (ages 6 and 3 yrs). Our older daughter is HIV+. God had totally different plans for us on this adoption journey and we couldn't be happier!! I am even a stay-at-home mom now which would have been completely out of the question had we not trusted in Him. God takes situations that seem impossible and makes them possible. That way He gets all the credit.
While in Ethiopia we were able to meet the biological parents of the girls, who are both HIV+ and unable to care for them. They told us that we were the answers to their prayers!"
