Adoption has always been a priority for our family. However, we didn’t realize how quickly the Lord would call us into action. In January 2010 we found ourselves with two beautiful biological children, our daughter was six months old and our son was two years old. We had what you would call “the perfect set.” God began to stir our hearts and remind us of our calling to adopt. Africa had always been in our hearts so we quickly began to research the adoption programs there. Ethiopia was a clear choice and we began the process immediately. We definitely had friends who thought we were crazy to start this journey with two young kids, but they quickly became our strongest supporters. We contracted with a great agency and we were approved to adopt a boy or girl 0-18 months old.
After a great rush of paperwork we settled in to wait, thinking our process would take about 10 months. A few weeks later the Ethiopia program changed drastically and we settled in for an unknown wait time. The Lord taught us so much about patience and how His plan was so much greater than what we could dream up. The extra wait time allowed us to gather funds by selling personal items, having garage sales, applying for grants and taking extra work. It would have been very difficult to keep paying the adoption bills had we not had some extra time. We are both in ministry as well and we saw God doing great things that we may have missed if we were otherwise occupied with bringing our child home. However, after an almost 2-year wait we were more than ready to see our child’s face. I remember praying, as Christmas approached, that the Lord would have compassion on us and allow us to know our third child before Christmas day. God was so gracious! On December 16th we received a call about a 3 and a half-month-old baby boy! He was absolutely beautiful! He had already experienced so many traumas in his little life but I had so much peace knowing we were going to be his family forever. God’s grace and bigness weighed so heavily on me as we began to see the full picture of how God had protected this little guy and designated him for us, to be our son. We were and are still amazed by this.
But God was not finished with his miracles. We were told to expect to wait about two months to travel for our court date. I work with orphanages in Haiti and Uganda and had a trip to Haiti planned for early January. Again, we were told it would be February before travel to Ethiopia, so I went to Haiti as planned. While in Haiti, I received a call from Calvin saying we had a court date in January and we would be headed to Ethiopia the very next week! I was so overwhelmed as I finished my work in Haiti and made plans to leave a day early. We were going to see our son!!
Meeting Liam was amazing. I knew him immediately. His caregivers handed him to us and we spent several days visiting with our little guy and just getting to know him. We had court on our last day in Ethiopia and passed without any hitches. Then came the goodbye. We cried over our son and rejoiced that he was ours and said goodbye not knowing when the embassy would approve our return.
The next 8 weeks were so incredibly difficult. Liam was sick with pneumonia, wasn’t gaining weight, and we were getting health notices from our agency every Monday. Things were just taking a very long time. We prayed that Liam would stay strong until we could get him home to good medical care. We prayed for God’s will to be done. One evening, in my desperation, I sent an email to the embassy pleading our case. Then I prayed in desperation, that God would show us favor and that our case would be cleared by the morning. Again God was gracious! That morning when I checked my email I found our clearance from the embassy! We could travel in just a few days to bring Liam home!!
The next few days were a whirlwind! Packing, buying really expensive plane tickets, buying last minute baby stuff. And then we were off! We arrived at Liam’s orphanage, scooped him up and we headed back to our guesthouse. Those days with Liam were so precious; getting to know him again, helping him feel safe with us, and trying to get him healthy. The plane ride home was hard; he was sick and the up and down of the plane just made matters worse. But our homecoming was sweet. Walking toward my children in the airport with their brother and watching them embrace him for the first time is one of the brightest moments in my life.
Five months later, I sit here writing this and it feels like a dream. It feels like we have never been without Liam but reflecting on the journey helps me to realize what a miracle he is. God is so good and He provides. We recently began paperwork to start another adoption. We are so excited to embark on a whole new journey as we seek to adopt a toddler from China. God has so many plans for us, and we trust him to form our family in whatever way he chooses!