Anthony and I were married on September 6th, 2002 in Charleston, SC. He is my best friend, we have been through so much together. Heartaches, the birth of our daughter, moving, building two homes, countless Clemson games and so many fun times.
Maria is 12 and the most amazing young lady. She is smart, fun and loves the Lord. She is going to make the most incredible big sister! We knew it was truly God putting adoption on our hearts because He changed her heart to want to be a big sister! Before then she was perfectly content with being the only child.
July 2013 Anthony traveled on a mission trip with our church
along with 410 Bridge to Kenya, Africa.
There he met the most incredible people that had such joy and love for
God and others. The children there were
as happy as can be. One particular
little boy had a special bond with Anthony.
It was as if God had woven their hearts together prior to them ever
meeting. We heard that on a mission trip
you think you are going to help or change the people in that country but really
they end up changing you and that was so true.
That experience opened his eyes to the world beyond our little bubble and
after that every scripture seemed to scream go and be a family for an
orphan. When Anthony returned he told me
how he thought adoption was our next step.
I was a little more on the fence.
I mean we were content with just the three of us. Our daughter was old enough now she could do
a lot of things for herself. Did I
really want to start all over again? And
then in my quiet time with the Lord I was reading about Peter walking on the water
with Jesus. Peter had to step out of the
boat to experience the miracle; if he had not moved then he would have never
had that blessing. So the question the
Lord had for me was, “Are you not willing to do the work to receive the
blessing that this child will be?”. That
did it for me, after that day I was completely on board. One other thing was the Lord would have to
change our daughter’s heart. She had
been completely fine with being the only child.
The moment we told her about us adopting she was thrilled and has prayed
for her brother ever since. We prayed for a year
and a half about the adoption, for our son’s protection, and that the Lord prepare
our hearts to help him heal when he comes home.
Then last October God stirred in our hearts to begin praying about where
in Africa our son is and what agency to use.
God has moved way faster than we ever imagined since then and we give
God all the glory for bringing us here.
Adoption is not a second choice for us.
God asked us to do this and that’s what we are doing. (“…Because you say so I will…” Luke 5:5) We
know God will provide and we will work our hardest to bring our
son home.
It seemed like it was going to go so much slower than it has! We had no idea how fast God was going to move in all of this! It seems so surreal to be making actual steps to bringing our child home!
"God sets the lonely in families" Psalms 68:6a
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