Our Unexpected Journey to Adoption

I thought I'd write out our adoption story. It's a little long, but feel free to read if you want....

If you knew Tom and I before we said, "We're going to adopt," you might not have believed us. Tom and I always "knew" what we wanted. We wanted to be married 5 years before having children and then we would have two children about 2-3 years apart. I knew from a child that I DID NOT want twins. We had it all planned out!! Adoption was something that we had talked about once in the time we had been married. I wasn't very open to the idea, but I knew that if I went to Africa or Haiti (when our church runs an orphanage), I would not be able to leave without wanting to take someone with me. Tom was not open to adoption for our family. He was thrilled for other people who chose this, but he did not see it as a something he would want to do. The decision about adoption for our family was "made" at least in our minds.

I always have to laugh at God's humor because our lives did not go down the path we had "planned" out for ourselves :). We did wait 6 years before having children, but that's about all that went according to plan. When I became pregnant, we were thrilled, but the unexpected happened. We went in at week 7 of being pregnant (I was having shooting pains and we thought it might be an ectopic pregnancy). As I was getting my ultrasound our Dr. informed us we were having twins!! Tom laughed; I cried for two weeks straight. This was completely unexpected and not in my "plan." But, good news - God knows what He's doing! I would never trade having my precious Lowa and Whittaker and the amazing experience of twins.

Life was going wonderful. We were DONE having kids. I didn't have to be pregnant again, we had our boy and girl, we could go about our merry lives. Little did we know that God had sent a series of events into motion that would change our lives...

This past summer, Tom decided to take up running. He decided to use his time wisely and listen to sermons that he had downloaded off the Internet. One sermon by a well known pastor in L.A., Erwin McManus spoke to the issue of “hearing God’s voice.” McManus stressed that when we hear God’s voice we have a choice to listen or ignore it. But if we ignore God’s voice, we harden our hearts and deafen our ears a little to Him. Eventually, we might not hear His voice at all. Tom shared this with me and we both tucked it away.

Later that summer, during the month of August, Tom attended The Leadership Summit, a live satellite conference put on by Willow Creek Church. Our home church is a host site and thus Tom was able to attend. The summit speaks to 80,000 + leaders around the world as to how to grow in their own leadership. They invite Christian and non-Christian leaders alike to speak during the summit. It is amazing and brings Tom to his knees every time he attends. One of the sessions was a taped interview between Bill Hybels (senior pastor of Willow Creek) and Richard Curtis (screenwriter of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones’ Diary, amongst others). Not only does Curtis write, he works tirelessly to raise funds to combat poverty around the world. Curtis started Comic Relief, and was the primary force behind Idol Gives Back. During the interview, Curtis stated, “I am not a politician, a social worker, what have you. I am a writer. But, I will do that one thing relentlessly well in order to raise money to combat the general injustice of poverty.” In that moment, Tom thought, “What do I do well? What do Kristin and I do well?” God spoke clearly to Tom in that moment. “Tom, you and Kristin have a solid marriage and desire to raise your children in a Godly way. You need to adopt a child or children.” Needless to say, this was one of those moments when God SPOKE and Tom had the choice to either listen or ignore. During his car ride home, Tom wrestled with whether or not to tell me. He knew that if he told me, it would be impossible to ignore God. Ultimately, he chose to listen – praise God!

Tom came home and shared his story with me. The moment before Tom spoke the words, “We need to adopt,” I knew in my heart God was leading our family on a new adventure. I immediately responded with, “Yes, we do!”

The story has just begun for us. We started the process pretty quickly after that and found AGCI through our close friends who are also adopting from Ethiopia. We are on the waiting list and in what my other friend calls "the calm between the storms" - that being the paperwork storm and the referral/picking up our child(ren) storm. This waiting phase has been so peaceful for me. I just know God already knows who will join our family and I'm simply trying to trust in His perfect timing. (That doesn't mean I still don't get a small voice in the back of my head when the phone rings, wondering if it's our case manager calling with a referral :) ).

I cannot express how deeply humbled we are by the calling God has laid upon our family. I am SO thrilled to be able to be part of this amazing experience. We're excited to see where our journey continues...