Monday, February 6, 2012

Why are we adopting?

In 2010, we were blessed with the spunkiest, goofiest little comedian Juliet. We've loved being her parents and are so thankful that God has given her to us! Up until the beginning of 2012, Ashley and I didn’t know what we were going to do next as far as kids go. We knew we wanted more one day, but we didn't know when that would be. As many of you know, Ashley has Multiple Sclerosis and after having Juliet, it took a long time for her body to recover. We knew that we wanted to wait a while to have another kid so that Ashley could recuperate and be steady for a good amount of time before she got pregnant again.

That is not why we are adopting though.

In fact, we had talked about possibly trying to get pregnant again near the end of 2012 if Ashley was healthy. That was not God's plan.

At the beginning of this year, I (Micah) was at the Passion Conference in Atlanta with LifePoint's college students. During the first night I was there, the Watoto children’s choir, from Uganda, sang with Chris Tomlin. Chris introduced them and the camera panned over the kids. They had the biggest smiles on their face and right then, God spoke to me very clearly. "You are supposed to adopt a kid from Uganda." What? Huh? I was pretty caught off guard. I didn't know if adopting from Uganda was even possible and are we even eligible? I immediately got on my phone and began researching and saw that yes, it was possible and we did meet the basic requirements.

Little did I know that at the same time Ashley was on her way with Juliet to go eat with a friend. At a red light, she turned around and was playing with Juliet. She was thinking about how much she loves Juliet and all of the sudden she began to feel a huge burden for orphans that she never felt before. She was tearing up thinking about kids who have no one to love them as much as we love Juliet. We shared this with each other that night, and it was just confirmation that this was from God. How amazing that God spoke to each of us separately on the same night and led us both in the same direction! We continued to pray about this decision over the next few days and God kept giving us signs that this is what He wants us to do.

We searched for the right adoption agency for us and as of last week, we were approved to begin the process with them. We know it's going to be a long, tough journey. We'll have to raise thousands of dollars, do TONS of paperwork, homestudies, and get ready to add another kid to our family.

We are so excited though! We know that God has a child in Uganda for us and He will provide. While we were praying for confirmation, God led us to Jeremiah 42:3- "that the Lord your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing that we should do." That is our prayer and our desire. That we would be what we are calling a 423 Family. A family that goes where God wants us to go and does what He wants us to do. In this case, being a 423 Family for us means going from 3 2 4!

Thank you ahead of time for your prayers and support as we work to bring our Ugandan child home!

-Micah

6 comments:

  1. Yay!!! You cannot even fathom my excitement over this news. I am so glad the whole world can finally know!!!

    And, we got your backs, now get ready for the ride of your life!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Congrats on starting the journey to bring your child home! Love hearing these announcements!
    Kelly

    ReplyDelete
  3. Congrats on this news! I started following Heidi's blog and had no idea she was related to you Micah. What a small world! We are waiting on our child through domestic adoption. Although our journey to adoption was from infertility, it's exciting to know someone else going through the process. Blessings!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Amazing story! So excited to hear how your adoption goes. We're in the middle of a Uganda adoption too!

    Derek

    ReplyDelete
  5. Praying for your family!!! It's an amazing journey with bumps, hills, mountains and valleys....but you NEVER walk it alone. Blessings!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Praying that God would bless you beyond your wildest dreams!

    ReplyDelete