Psalm 68:5 Father to the fatherless, defender of widows--this is God, whose dwelling is holy.

Matt and I are in the very early stages of this, but I already feel like it's time to start talking about how God is working in our lives in the area of adoption.  It's something that we both had a heart for, even before we started dating.  We both wanted a large family, we both wanted that to include adopted children, and we both felt like we wanted to more-or-less begin adopting early on, as opposed to waiting until we were done "birthing."  Haha.  As always - we make our plans, but God is the one who is ultimately in control.  Here we are, a year into our marriage with no baby on the way.  This is not how we saw our story being written I don't think, but I've never looked back on my life and felt like God's timing wasn't perfect.  It often takes being far past a situation to be able to see how God was working, and I feel blessed to be able to see it in this circumstance while still being right in the middle of it.

It started with Matt and I being on the same page and having the same heart for adoption, but in the last six months things have progressed without any effort on our part.  I was laid off and got pregnant.  I thought my path was set.  It would be hard to get a job pregnant, and I wasn't sure I wanted a job anyway.  I was burned out on property management and didn't know what else I would do.  Of all the resumes I sent out and of all the jobs I applied for, it amounted to one interview that just so took place the same week I miscarried our first pregnancy.  I've already blogged on this, so I won't go into detail, but it was one more step toward the place we have found ourselves right now.  Not only did I land a job I'm excited about, but I landed a job that offers to reimburse up to 10k of adoption costs per child.  And the severance package I got when I was laid off will provide the money we will need to pay for the costs upfront.  Amazing.  In addition to the financial support, I work with two Christians (from my same church, no less) who both have hearts for adoption.  One has adopted twice in the past and one is set to bring home two babies in about 15 months.  Talk about support and encouragement.  The earliest you can adopt as a married couple is after one year of marriage (for Ethiopain adoptions) although for many countries - including domestic adoptions, a longer marriage is required.  The Tuesday following our one-year anniversary our church kicked off a new Orphan Care ministry that includes support and information on international and domestic adoption as well as foster care.  250 people showed up to the information meeting last night.  Now we have a church family that may be going through the process we are, asking the same questions we are, facing the same anxiety and excitement along the way. 

You can't deny when you're completely surrounded by a topic that God has already put on your heart.  We feel like he's left no opportunity for us to ignore what is right in front of us - all doors are open, all we need to do is step through.  We picked up the book Adopted for Life and read the first chapter last night and we're going to begin requesting information from agencies in the area to find out what each one requires and what their fees are and such.  Realistically speaking, I do not see us sending in an application for another 12 months.  One of the girls speaking last night about babies that she'll be adopting in over a year said, "We're kind of in that place where it's so early that you haven't told everyone you're pregnant yet."  I feel like that.  I'm hesitant to post this blog, because, knowing life, something (probably our own lack of diligence) will put a halt on this process and before we know it we'll be a couple of years down the road with no clear future of adoption.  In general I'm hesitant to talk about things that are still "just ideas" and don't necessarily have a solid chance of coming to fruition.  For me though, blogging is about where I am right now and this is an exciting place.  Already in the last six months God has lead me away from where I thought I'd be and in a new direction, and I'm not naive enough to think that I fully know what he has in store for us.  We just want to be open to wherever it is that he leads us.  We want Him to continue to break our hearts for what breaks his and we know that He is Father to the fatherless.