To our Friends and Family,

The idea to start a blog was given to us by Jolene’s mom. Actually she didn’t really give us a choice but told us we had to start one! So here we are ready to share our adoption journey with you. This is definitely not an easy journey and just like pregnancy it involves its share of “mourning sickness” and “labor pain”. However, we know every piece of paper work we chase and money we spend is for our little baby. We read on another couples blog who are about to go pick up their baby girl from Ethiopia that she was conceived in their hearts. Boy, that could not describe any better how we feel about our baby. This may not be a baby conceived from our own body but this baby has been conceived in our hearts! We are already in love with our child from Ethiopia and pray for him or her even now. Just as God created our inmost beings and knit us together in our mother’s wombs we know he has created this child for us to be so blessed to parent and raise!

Before we get into the details of where we are at in the adoption process we thought we would take this first post to tell you how it came to be. Here is something written by Jon several weeks ago explaining how we have been lead to do this. Hope you enjoy and take the time to read it so this will all make sense to you! Will post again soon!



Our Adoption Story

I wanted to take some time and tell you about how God has been working in our lives in the past few years. As we have probably told you by now, we have begun the process to adopt a child from Ethiopia through America World adoption agency. Now to preface this story I must say that when Jolene and I were married in June of 2006, adoption was, in my mind, something only a few select people were equipped to handle and Jolene and I were defiantly not part of that minority. Isn't it funny how God always tends to use our doubts and disbelief to bring Himself glory?

Soon after being married Jolene started working a grueling night shift in the maternity department of Portsmouth Regional Hospital. It was on this night shift that she met Becky, a fellow nurse and mother of six who had adopted her seventh child from Kazakhstan. One night while talking about her children, Becky said she believed that every Christian should adopt an orphan. Jolene responded saying, "I don't think I could love a child that wasn't 'my own'." Becky went on to tell Jolene about how much she loved her adopted daughter as well as all the other orphans around the world. With such a staunch advocate of adoption working with her every week, it only took a month or so for God to burden Jolene's heart for these orphans.

As time went on Jolene would occasionally bring up this topic in our conversations at home but I never paid too much attention. Now for the few who may not understand, my wife has always had compassion for the less fortunate. Before we were married she had sponsored a child from Honduras through World Vision and I think she was and is the best spokesperson on child sponsorship I have ever seen. Jolene helped teach me the importance of giving which led me to begin sponsoring a child from India around this same time. So at the time I thought this adoption obsession was just another instance of her wonderful compassion shining through. But surely God would not want us to adopt!

Beginning in May of 2007, Jolene started to spend some time researching adoption online. During one of her Google searches she found America World, an adoption agency endorsed by Steven Curtis Chapman. One night she printed out some basic information about what it meant to adopt a child and what the process involved. I, however, was still confident God would never call us to this. I had my own idea of what God had in store for our lives.

One night Jolene and I were discussing her favorite topic yet again and she explained to me her desire to adopt before we had children by birth, going completely against what I thought we would do. At this point I need to draw attention to the number of children we have had thus far. God has quite a sense of humor, does He not? She started to regularly pray for God to unite our hearts as one as we sought His perfect will for our lives. The burden on her heart grew more every day and I began to suspect God might be speaking to me through Jolene. During this period of time her desire started to focus on Africa, then more focused still towards Ethiopia. God started confirming this to Jolene and slowly to me again and again. Do you know how many times Ethiopia is mentioned in the bible? If you had asked me a year ago I would say zero but it is in fact mentioned more than 45 times by name! God was using all kinds of thing to speak to us. We started noticing other couples in our church who had adopted internationally. The bible study Jolene and I were doing together was having some very timely lessons about God's work around us. God was speaking to both of us though our prayer and quiet times with God. A friend of Jolene's who had also just completed an adoption showed us a copy of the new issue of Cooking Light. Ethiopian cuisine was their ethnic food story that month and the kicker was that the author was adopted! Jolene informed me that from the very beginning she prayed that God would unite our hearts in this desire for adoption. If He were to do this she would know that the burden was truly from God.

One particular night Jolene was telling me about James 1:27 which states: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." That was it for me. God's message to me finally rang true. In my mind it was no longer a matter of desire or burden but of obedience. God was commanding me to lead us in adopting a child from Ethiopia. At that point Jolene was a short time from her 25th birthday when we would both meet the age requirements to be adoptive parents. Only a few weeks later, on January 7th, we mailed our application to start this wonderful new chapter in our lives.

It is amazing to me how our Lord works in such subtle ways to mold us into new creations and bring His will to pass. God took Jolene and I, will all our sins and our own plans and aspirations and showed us that He always knows what is best and that He can use us if we simply let Him. He is always working in our lives. He wants to do "…immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us" Ephesians. 3:20 We ask that you pray for us in this time as we begin the foot-work now. The adoption process with take about 12 months or more and the amount of paperwork required would make an environmentalist cry. There is much to be done but we have faith that God will continue to provide all that is needed.

Thank you so much for your prayers, your love and your support. We are forever grateful for you. In the words of Paul: "I thank my God every time I remember you." Phil 1:3