Why Adopt?

To be perfectly honest, we were not looking for this.  When we discussed having a family, before we were married and in the early years, we agreed that we were both generally "open" to the idea of adoption.  I think at the time we thought of it as a contingency plan if we could not have "our own."  Once we had our girls, adoption was no longer a consideration.  Our family was complete.  We were content.

Until January 2008.  That is when our oldest daughter shared with us a dream.

In her dream, the angel Gabriel came to her and told her that God wanted us to adopt a child.  I will never forget what she said when I asked her why she thought God wanted us to adopt.  "Because we need to share our loving family with a child who needs a loving family."  {tears in eyes, lump in throat}

When I regained my composure, we also talked about how big a decision it is to adopt a child.  I told her that Daddy and I would need to talk about it and pray about it to confirm that expanding our family through adoption is really what we need to do.

Over the next year and a half, we looked first into domestic adoption and then into international adoption.  As we learned more, thought more and prayed more, we realized that adoption IS in our future.

Through that time, Emma was patient but quite persistent.  She prayed about "the adoption thingy" almost every night and remained insistent that this was the course that God wanted.

And now we agree.

So, why adopt?  Because we choose to share our loving family with a child who needs a loving family.