November is National Adoption Month!

In honor of National Adoption Month, I thought I would post a few of my thoughts about our adoption.

Before Raleigh and I got married, we had all of the important conversations you have when you are dating someone seriously...do you want kids, how many years to you want to wait before having kids, how will we handle finances, do you want pets, how will we share household responsibilities, etc.

We always agreed that we wanted children. A little over a year ago, when Raleigh and I started talking about children, we had plans to have our first child biologically.

And then God totally rocked our world. Through a series of events including the stroke of our 26 year old friend Katherine and the death of sweet Maria Sue Chapman, God broke our hearts for the needs of the world and taught us so much about prayer and interceding on behalf of others. I can specifically remember sitting in our tiny little guest house in Atlanta have hours of conversations about what it means to pray without ceasing.

Through that journey of God grabbing our hearts for the needs around us and teaching us how to pray without ceasing in many different ways, God broke our hearts for the orphans around the world. I read the book The Lost Daughters of China by Karin Evans and God began to confirm that it was His plan for us to adopt our first child.

We knew that we wanted children. We knew that we had the love to give a child. We knew that it would not always be easy. We knew we wanted to raise a child to love God deeply.

God's lavish love to us and through us compelled us to adoption.

Adoption is not our 2nd choice. Adoption is our 1st choice.

I am so humbled that God is allowing us to join Him on His mission to love orphans.

Will we adopt again? Who knows! (Well, actually God knows:) Will we have biological children? Not sure.

But, in honor of National Adoption Month, know that adoption is not a last resort or a 2nd choice. Adoption is a beautiful picture of God setting the lonely in families just like He adopted us as His children and brought us into His family!