Next Steps

We have officially hit a new phase in our adoption journey! We have submitted many initial forms and as we prepare for our home study, it is time to start fundraising. We would love to be able to simply fund it all ourselves, but we know that God has placed us in community and calls us to rely on others to walk this journey with us. He is teaching us humility and dependence through this process. When God calls any of His children to something big, He never intends for us to walk it alone. He has shown us many things in Scripture about how to live this life for Christ, but this one is continually before us in this season:

"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." James 1:27

We want to ask you to be a part of our community of support in bringing our little boy home. In doing this, you are caring for the orphan in distress.

Tomorrow we will launch our online fundraiser for this first phase of fees with onemission.fund. This is a wonderful organization that helps many people fundraise for different causes. It will allow you to donate directly to us, purchase one of our custom t-shirts, or buy other awesome products while 40% of your purchase goes to our fund!

I will update here as we fundraise, but watch Facebook starting tomorrow for more details!

We can't do this without you, so we hope that you know how grateful our hearts are for each one who supports us in this and is used by God to build our family!

The Making of a Family

This story used to be something only in dreams. Its beginning was unknown to me, but the Author always knew what was coming. Like a breathtaking mountain view that you see more clearly with each step you climb toward the peak, this journey has come into focus over years and miles and twisted paths.

Long before there was a marriage or struggles with infertility or our little miracle baby, my heart believed in adoption. I believed in its power as a tool in the hand of the Creator to redeem a life that so often seemed utterly helpless. I believed in it as a display of the Gospel for the world to see. I believed that the longing in my heart was from the Lord and that one day he would make a family of people, not all biologically linked, but heavenly bonded. 

I had my ideas for how this thing called family would take shape, and never once has my plan held a candle to the story that is now unfolding. I couldn't have written it, and for that I am very thankful! If my husband weren't from Rwanda and we weren't invested in ministry there, would we know this little one even existed? If we were able to have children of our own at a pace we determined, would we be in a position to seek after him? If we hadn't lost his mother, would she still have decided this was best for him? I don't know these answers, and I don't need to. 

What I know is that through the brokenness of this world and the loss that it brings, God has led us to a baby boy. He has captured our hearts, and we are going after him. Right now there are mountains between us that God has to move. We will meet financial hurdles, wade through immigration processes again, make emotional transitions, and deal with our ever present companion- waiting. Through it all, I can see the mountaintop coming into view. 

Hold on little one- God is making a family, and it has always included you!

The Risk of Loving

I originally wrote this article for Outreach North America, sharing an impactful missions experience. It has since become much more than just an experience. I want it to be here to represent our family's story with Rwanda and those we love there. In many ways this is just the beginning...

She was 16. Our relationship was both longstanding and newfound. Longstanding because I first met her years earlier as a child in the ministry I had worked with, and newfound because God knit our hearts together as I stood with her in the greatest struggle of her life. She had become pregnant through no fault or choice of her own. Nothing but a bleak future stood before her and her unborn child. It was in this time that God called me to her side. Never before have I been given such love and compassion for someone who had essentially been a stranger. What could I do for her? How could anything I did make a difference when I was in Rwanda for under three weeks? To that, God said “Feed the hungry.” It was within my means to meet some very immediate physical needs so my husband and I did just that. It so happened in God’s great sovereignty that my brother was sponsoring this precious one. So as we delivered food, we also got to bring words of hope and encouragement from her sponsor across the world. It was not until I stood in her home with her in my arms and my husband relayed these words through tears that God said, “Bring hope to the hopeless.” My heart was forever lost to her that day. The Lord allowed me to be the vessel of His intense, pursuing love of her. Through simply listening to her story, acknowledging her wounds, and committing to a continued relationship, she felt like someone truly loved her for the first time in her life. She began to believe that the God she had prayed to saw her even in her shame. Christ’s hope started to be a light in her smile. While my intention was always to support her in every way possible from home, what I didn’t know was that hugging her before I left would be the last time I would get that opportunity this side of heaven. Disease took her from us only three months later, but not before she delivered and loved on her beautiful baby boy. I wrestled with my God over this loss. I mourned for the life that could have been. I cried for her son who was without the one person he had in this life. And I wondered. I wondered why God connected me to her with so much love to pour out but for such a short season. Why did I have to mourn this? Why did I have to feel so immensely for someone just to lose her? While I knew that I would never regret showing her His love and seeing the change in her heart, I just felt so let down that this was the end. It wasn’t happy. It wasn’t what I hoped for. I can’t say I have all the answers I have wanted from God, but moving forward He says to me, “Care for the orphan.” Before she died, she got to know that we were committed to her and this little life she bore. She knew that we intended to do all we could to help provide for her son. In the end, he was her greatest concern, and God allowed me to be used to bring her peace. 

Does God need us to accomplish His plans? No. Does He use us? Absolutely! We are the privileged when He does. So as you follow Christ, spend yourself in loving in His name and for the sake of the gospel. Allow Him to pour into you a love for others that is beyond your understanding. It will require sacrifice. It may leave you with aches and tears you didn’t ask for. You will never regret it!

"We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

"I saw what I saw, and I can't forget it.

I heard what I heard, and I can't go back. 

I know what I know and I can't deny it.

Something along the road, cut me to the soul.

Your pain has changed me.

Your dreams inspire,

Your face a memory,

Your hope a fire,

Your courage asks me what I'm afraid of 

And what I know of love."