Our adoption, a testimony

I've told the story before about how I traveled to Russia last year and later became interested in adopting a child from Russia - but, for those of you who may have wondered, here is our testimony of how God called us into action on this......

First of all, when I originally had the idea of adopting from Russia, I discussed it with Melissa and she was less than enthusiastic. I didn't press her on it, but I prayed and asked the Lord if this was from Him, that He would change Melissa's heart. Then, overnight, she had a one hundred percent change of heart -so that she was strongly desiring to do this- that is so uncharacteristic of her and was obviously from the Lord.

After we finished our homestudy, and it was time to choose an agency, we had the opportunity to go with an agency that would pay %100 of the cost (except travel) if we would adopt an older sibling group (boy & girl, two girls, etc.) This seemed like an obvious choice for us and the only way we could afford to make this happen. I communicated with agency several times and even gave them a credit card number for the application fee - but they drug their feet and never even charged my card.

At this point, I decided that we should not move forward until we had confirmation from the Lord that we were supposed to adopt from Russia. So, even though our homestudy was done, and the "ball was in our court", we decided to wait. We prayed, we waited, we prayed and waited some more, and even fasted for a week (something I never do!). While we were waiting and praying, God spoke to me with verses like Habakkuk 2:3 "For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry." and Isaiah 30:21 "Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “ This is the way, walk in it,” Whenever you turn to the right hand Or whenever you turn to the left." Still, I kept waiting because I was not willing to step out in something this huge until God said "GO". About six weeks went by and we still had not heard anything. Then, one Wednesday night at church, a man began to pray for our adoption (we had not even asked for prayer for this recently). He prayed passionately, earnestly, intently that God would bless our adoption and open the doors for us to do it. Then, the pastor was moved to pray for us. He began to pray for us, and for the plight of the Russian orphans. He was moved to tears in praying for us. The whole evening essentially became a prayer meeting about our adoption. This was the confirmation we had been waiting and praying for. Some people in the church have even called that night "the mighty rushing wind prayer meeting" because of how clearly God spoke to us there.

The next day, I e-mailed the agency and told them to move forward with our application. I was then told that their program had changed, and they could no longer pay for %100 of the cost of the adoption. In fact, their funding was down so much that they could only pay a small portion of the cost - and we'd have to agree to accept much older children than we were prepared to adopt. It was clear that God was closing the door to go with that agency. So, we knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God had given us the go ahead to move forward, but he had closed the door for that agency.

So, we prayed and waited some more. We started to get a little discouraged - so we attended an informational meeting about foster parenting (with the ultimate goal of adoption) through the state of Texas - it was interesting but we did not have the clarity and agreement on this that we had on Russia. After this meeting, we went to Austin, San Antonio, and Houston for a week. When we got back, we were still trying to make a decision. We were leaning toward becoming a "foster home" - but we both believed that the calling from God to adopt was specifically from Russia. Prayerfully, I went back online and started sifting through the adoption agencies and we found the agency that we are now using ("Alaska International Adoptions"). I had not seen this agency before, and so I e-mailed them and she responded back immediately and answered all of my questions in a favorable way. I had not received any response like this from any of the other agencies we had contacted. The next day at church someone handed us a check for the exact amount we needed to apply to this agency. It was clear that this was the kind of guidance that God had promised us in Isaiah 30:21. We were supposed to adopt from Russia.

Each step of the way, God has provided everything we have needed. Certainly, it has not been easy to trust Him since the cost of this is far beyond anything I could hope to accomplish on my own. I am constantly becoming discouraged when I consider the cost of this - and the limited resources that we have and the limited resources of our church. However, each time I become discouraged, my wife prays that God would encourage and confirm this to me, and He is faithful to do it. Last month, on a weekend when I was particularly discouraged about the finances, Melissa prayed that I would be encouraged at church. And, that morning, one of the other deacons was teaching and he stopped in the middle of the message he was giving and looked straight at me and said "God is going to provide the money for this child to be adopted from Russia". I have been told by more than one brother in the Lord that "they would have to be blind not see that God's hand is in this."

So, all of that to say that this was not a whimsical, impulsive decision that we made based on our feelings. Honestly, there have been many times that my "feelings" have told me that I'm crazy for doing this and that we should quit now. However, I know this decision to be rock solid, grounded in scripture, prayer, waiting on God, fasting, confirmation from many other believers, and in my mind, the most compelling, that God has provided our every need at each step in the process.