Our Journey Begins...

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27

Somewhere, in another country, in the next few weeks or maybe even days, a woman is going to find out she is expecting a baby. She may be happy or she may be sad....but she knows she cannot keep this baby. She will carry this baby for 9 months and then be forced to give her daughter up.....MY daughter up. Somewhere in another country, a woman will be carrying MY daughter in her womb. My daughter wont look like me, and it will be obvious to everyone around us, that i did not give birth to her. but she will be MY DAUGHTER.

For as long as I can remember, adoption has been on Brian's heart. We had always talked about having 2 children and then adopting 1. So, here we are! We have 2 sweet, amazing boys and are ready to open our home to a baby girl who does not have a family. Who does not have a mommy and daddy to love her, to be there to wipe away her tears when she cries, or to cheer on her latest milestone. We are starting this journey, and have been researching and praying hard about where the Lord would have us adopt from. I have been spending every spare minute I have on the computer doing research. I'm really not exaggerating when I say every spare minute. I would love to know how many hours I have spent just reading about adoption. In all of this reading, research, and prayer, Adoption has quickly become MY heart! Our plan has always been to adopt....but I had always thought that this was Brian's thing, not mine. I was fine with it, I didn't have a problem with it, but if I hadn't been married to Brian, its probably not something that i would have considered. I now see, though, why people who have adopted are so passionate about it. Its hard to even explain to people how my heart feels about it now. My heart is already SO full of love for this sweet little girl, who isn't even born yet, and who is completely different than me.

We have been sharing with Brody for months about how there are little boys and girls, that don't have families, who live in countries where their water isn't clean, and who don't have enough food to eat. He prays for them every night and we have told him that one day we are going to give one of them a home. Brian told Brody a story the other night, about when he visited an orphanage in Costa Rica a few years ago. There was a little boy who fell down and got hurt, he cried and cried, but nobody was there to go pick him up, hug him, and wipe his tears away. I think at that point, Brody really understood how sad these kids must be. He has asked numerous times, why we cant give them ALL a home:) There are so many orphans....somewhere around 143 million of them! It seems like accepting one child into our home won't make a huge difference when you look at how many kids are without homes. BUT we are going to make a HUGE difference in that one little girl's life. We are going to give her a home with a family who is going to love her unconditionally and a home where she will hear about Jesus! Which is an opportunity she may not have had otherwise!

When I first started researching different countries, I was overwhelmed at the list. Slowly the list dwindled. Some countries were crossed off the list quickly due to age restrictions (where both parents have to be over a certain age). Other countries were crossed off because of the length of stay required in the country during the adoption. With 2 little boys at home, staying in another country for a month (or longer) to complete the adoption is just not possible. Other countries only allow adoption of kids who are older. And we really would love a child under 1 year old. So the list has been narrowed and at this point, we are heading in the direction of adopting from Ethiopia. Why Ethiopia?

~In sub-Saharan Africa, 1 out of every 8 children is an orphan.
~Of the 143 million orphans worldwide, more live in Ethiopia than any other country in the world. Just twice the size of Texas,
it is home to five million orphaned children.
~ At the current rate of adoption it would take 5 million families, $125 billion, and 2,500 yrs to solve the Ethiopian orphan crisis
~Ethiopia is ranked by the UN as one of the four poorest countries in the world.
~The average annual income is less than $160.
~In Ethiopia, 1 out of every 10 children is an orphan.
~In 2008, 650,000 children were orphaned by AIDS alone.
~In 2007, 197 people died per day due to AIDS (71,902 annual).
~The average Ethiopian woman gives birth to 5.9 children.
~1 in 10 children die before their first birthday; 1 in 6 die before age five.
~More than half of those deaths are attributed to malnutrition.
~There is 1 physician for every 34,988 people.
~Girls age 15-19 are seven times more likely to be infected by AIDS than boys of the same age.

Pray for us as we begin this journey. This is a long and expensive process and there will almost certainly be bumps in the road along the way. But we are trusting the Lord, that he has chosen the perfect little girl for our family!

There are new links at the top of the page to update everyone where we are at in the process!

Thank you in advance for your prayers and support,
~Brian, Jana, Brody, and Levi~