Journey to Adopt Part 1

Everyday someone comes up to me and asks about my adoption. They want to know where I am in the process and some ask what led me to here. I find it so comforting and encouraging! God uses His people for so many good things. As you know, this journey is going to be long, so I will take all the encouragement that I can get. So here I go, I am going to tell my story about why I am adopting (this will be a 3 part story).....

Three years ago, my sweet sister Jill, asked me to go on a mission trip to Ethiopia. Jill and her husband were going to adopt from Ethiopia. Jill wanted to connect with her future child's country and asked if I wanted to go along. After some prayer and consideration I concluded that I also wanted to go to Ethiopia and learn about my future niece or nephew's home country. I was 35 and had never been on a mission trip. I don't think I ever imagined that my first trip would be to Africa. I immediately felt peace about my decision and off we went on a two week mission to Ethiopia.

My life was changed each step of the way. I learned that Africa is beautiful. I learned that Ethiopia is full of beautiful people and many lives there have been touched my tragic circumstances. I learned most about Ethiopia by loving on babies in orphanages, playing soccer with street boys in the rain, and by observing how God can use one person to make a difference in another person's life. I loved watching the nannies who cared for the children. In one AIDS orphanage, some of the nannies couldn't tell where they worked because it was taboo. Believe me, I was humbled by all that I saw and experienced. I was absolutely disturbed by seeing the infant room at one orphanage. It held nine newborn babies. They were swaddled and looked like sweet tootsie rolls, three to a bed, in a room the size of my walk-in closet. Ouch.

The experience that we had left me very tender and emotional. As we boarded the plane for home, we discovered that there were going to be 30 orphans on our plane. We learned that they were coming to America for a two week camp. They would be staying with church families and they were hoping that these connections would lead to adoptions. A boy sat across the aisle next to me. He was about 12 years old. I watched this sweet boy on a plane for the first time. There was such hope and light in his eyes as we took off. He was so brave. Everything was new to him. The fifteen hour flight was full of "firsts". He experienced his first take off, weird airplane food, and TV. As the flight went on, they turned off the lights and many people went to sleep. I watched this lovely boy carefully turn on his reading light and take out his English/Amharic book and begin to study. At that moment, with tears streaming down my face, I wanted to take care of him. I even told God that I would adopt him. But I knew that I couldn't. I was single and I wasn't ready to be a mom. I did the one thing I could for him. I prayed for him. He stayed in my prayers and I learned a few months later that he was adopted by the family in Texas that he stayed with. Wow! God is good! Meeting him was when I first thought about adopting.