Why?

Corey here....When you tell people that you are adopting, you start getting all of the "why's."  It makes sense because people are curious and want to know your motivations and your decision process.  Well, the reality for us is that we don't have any complex or lengthy answers to all of these questions.  We didn't sit down and debate the merits of adopting domestically versus internationally.  We didn't have lengthy discussions about  what it would be like to bring another girl into our house compared to bringing in a boy.  We didn't do a lot of research on transracial adoptions and families before making a decision.  The truth of the matter is that we really believe that through the circumstances of our lives, that have no doubt been orchestrated by God, the One that gave us this calling spoke specifically about all of these things.  From the moment we began talking about adoption, both Julia and I knew that if we were going to do this it would be a baby girl from Africa.  We never even discussed anything else - we were both in perfect agreement on these things.  It really is pretty amazing when you think about how God has worked to bring both of us to the exact same place on such huge and difficult decisions to be made about who would join our family.  (Maybe a later post will describe more in detail some of the ways that we can look back now and see how he led us to the exact same place)

Ethiopia was about the only thing that we really discussed and not really even that.  When we began looking at where to adopt from in Africa, all that I recall seeing on any agency websites was Rwanda and Ethiopia.  Well, about the time we started looking was the same time that Rwanda was closing all of their adoptions to re-work their system/processes.  So, we really didn't have much of a choice other than Ethiopia if we were going to adopt from Africa.  Once again, God was working to bring our daughter home to us.

So, I write all of this to answer the questions of why.  The simple (yet complex) answer is that God called us to all of it very specifically.  I have seen various debates about adopting one child versus another.  We, and I imagine most of you, don't think that adopting any child from any country of any age or sex or race is a "better" choice than another.  There may be different callings or different reasonings, but each of these children was made by the Creator and are worth so much to Him.  Jesus' sacrifice proves it.

Our new daughter is already a precious gift to our family just like our other girls are.  I sat with Emma and Addie individually today and prayed over their new sister.  I love that they are so sweet and love to pray that she won't be sick, that she'll have food to eat, that she'll sleep well and that she won't cry too much.  She may not even be born yet and she is changing me already.  I can hardly make it through a worship service without tearing up thinking about her.  We just finished up our home study interviews this weekend and we're thankful that they went well and we're one step closer.  We continue to ask that you pray for us - specifically that this time that we are waiting be a time of preparing our hearts and our minds for bringing her into our family.  There is so much to consider from the huge things like transracial issues and attachment down to smaller things like how to help her transition from the jet lag when we come home and whether I should shave my goatee off so she won't be scared of me at first.  We're longing for her and trust God's timing in the process it takes to get her home.