We are Expecting... from India

Ahhhh even typing this out gets me so crazy excited!!! Allow me to explain a bit...

So, lets rewind all the way back to 2005. My sister Sarah was teaching a computer animation course in Madras Southern India and I tagged along as her side kick. I spent the first week doing ministry side by side with the YWAM group there (three native Indians). We tutored children, traveled to the middle of nowhere to bring gypsies toiletries and pray with them, visited the poor…etc. It was really wonderful (and so hot!). Then Sarah and I traveled North. Though the county was so beautiful I found myself becoming paralyzed as I saw the need around me. My heart longed to help, heal and rescue the beggars and children I saw living in poverty around me in large cities like Mumbai & New Delhi. But as two young girls traveling alone there was not much we could do- or not much we knew how to do at least.

That trip as I spent time with the Lord, He continually gave me a song: “Ask and I’ll give the nations to you, Oh Lord, that’s the cry of my heart…” it was from Psalm 2:8 “Ask of Me and I will make the nations your heritage…”. Well, I tried to make it very clear to the Lord that my heart was in China. Didn’t He remember that that was the country He had burdened me for since high school and, in fact, He was taking me there later that year? How could He forget that? I did not want to do ministry in India, I wanted China. And as you all know, China has been a huge part of my life and my heart until today! But India- not so much.

Well fast forward to 2018; I have had so many overseas adventures in China, I became a nurse, God allowed me to adopt from Africa and get married. So much has happened since my India trip, and honestly I have never really thought about returning.  But, as Mike and I would talk about where we wanted to adopt from once our two year anniversary hit, neither one of us had a specific pull to a certain place. *the two year wedding anniversary is significant because most countries want couples to have been married for two years before they can start the adoption process.

So we prayed.

One evening, Mike mentioned adopting from India. I told him I would look in to it, but after some conflicting information I did not think much of it. Then he mentioned it again. I was pretty certain I wanted to adopt from Africa again and I would bring up other places… then he mentioned it again. One day I really thought I found the country we were going to start the process with and came home very excited only to discover that we needed to be married for five years to adopt from that specific African country I had been so sure about…

So then I thought “what if we are suppose to adopt from India?” Once I started an open dialog between myself and Jesus about India, He brought Psalm 2 to my heart… AND HE BLEW MY MIND!!!!! My heritage, my inheritance… what if He meant my child/children? What if so many years ago He was giving me a promise that one of my children would be from that very country? And then He sent me a husband who is not only excited to adopt and rescue children, but one who would be persistent in how the Lord was pulling on his heart until I would sit and listen to God myself…Wow Lord!!! Really?! Talk about a God who puts all the pieces in to place at the right time. When I was in India with my sister I wasn’t thinking about adoption. I was young and had orphan care ministries on my heart and mind. But now at this stage in my life I see the promise that was given to me as such a young girl. Though I didn’t understand it, He was faithful to speak it in to my heart so that one day I would look back and glorify Him!  How and why is He so good to us? Though we may be the “least of these” He has so much joy giving us these glimpses of His omniscience. I stand in awe each time I think of this!

So yes, we are excited to tell you all we are adopting from India. And even more excited to tell you all that God is alive and well- He reaches down to our lives and interjects Himself into this mundane world and makes it so beautiful. I am so thankful we are His.

WHY aren’t you having your own?

I thought I would address this question because, to be honest every time I tell someone that we are adopting, they ask if we are going to have any biological children.

 If I am completely honest, I silently assumed Mike and I would get married, get pregnant and then adopt once we hit the 2 or 3 year mark in our marriage. But God had other plans. I have not gotten pregnant. But God has placed this path in front of us. I will be blunt- I was annoyed I did not get pregnant these last two years. I kept waiting and waiting and it did not happen. I was a little bit frustrated for a bit. But, there are four things He has reminded me of:

1)     He loves me. His love for me is so perfect and so deep and so intimate. I am not being punished by not getting pregnant. God has something far better than I can imagine going on and I need to trust him.

2)      I have a tattoo on my right ankle that states “I am not my own”. Bottom line, I was purchased with the blood of Jesus Christ which is invaluable- I am His. He has full rule, reign and authority in my life. I would be lying if I had that tattoo on my body yet lived as my own, following my own desires or whims. I can abandon myself and my desires to Him because He knows what is best for me. Being His is much better than being my own.

3)     There are children all over the world who are beaten, crying, going to bed hungry, hurting, scared, mistreated, abused… and the Lord has given my husband and I a united heart to help them. So how can I be upset with that? Praise God He finds us worthy to love a child in need. What a privilege and gift to be their safety and to introduce them to Jesus as healer and redeemer!

4)     Shadow Step. The song the Lord gave me at the start of this year. As we start this journey towards the child that the Lord has given us we proclaim, “Light up the way of Your heart. Move me like You do the mountains, move me like You do the wind. And I’ll chase Your voice through the dark. Fix my eyes on the unexpected. In the wonder of Your shadow step, so take another step…”

So the simple answer is -we do not know if we will have biological children. We are taking the path that is in front of us, one step at at time! I do know right now we are pursuing our child (or children) in India and that is beautiful! The adventures after that are known only by the One who knows us best.

Thank you all for being on this journey with us. We covet your prayers and the strength that comes from the body of Christ! We know this to be a big undertaking, but as a child sits and waits for us scared, crying, hungry and in need of the love of Christ-  we are compelled to move. So take another step…