Odds are... Who cares? God's in Control Anyways!

Rick and I knew that we desired more children after our loss of Michael. It had been suggested that we grieve his loss for a year before we entertained the idea of more children. God made it clear to us that we should permanently prevent any additional pregnancies as the chance of reoccurance of Michael's diagnosis was high. For as long as I can remember, adoption has been attractive to me. The month I got pregnant with Michael, I had started researching different adoption agencies and acquiring information about our options. When we learned that we were expecting again, I hung that dream up on the shelf. Little did I know the plan for our family would not be to bring our fourth baby home from the hospital. But we persevered with faith and joy. Michael's story is saturated with a faith that we have never experienced. To this, we are most grateful in our brokenness. We experienced God's ultimate plan for our family when we held Michael and he beheld God's glory that January 22 day two years ago. That next year was hard. It still can be at times. Grief is not linear. Some moments are still tough. But God does ask us to keep living and serving Him because He is so good. I can say that, because I have experienced his goodness in a way that many have not. If you are one of those, I dare you to try God. He WILL not fail you.

Spring of 2010, again, I started looking into agencies not having a clue where God would direct us. Rick wasn't there yet. I assured him that I was fine and that I wouldn't fill out any applications until we were unified with this life changing decision. I am not patient. Lesson number 1. (P. S. I haven't mastered this lesson yet either). In December of 2010, Rick came to me and shared that Honduras had recently opened up to adoption again. I found this interesting considering Rick hadn't really communicated to me that he was ready to entertain this idea. I also found it interesting that Honduras happened to be where Rick and I were blessed to serve for a week six months earlier on a medical missions trip. I was enamored with the people not to mention the sweet little children with those big brown eyes.Could this be where God was leading? I had researched the history of adoption in Honduras in years past. I didn't like what I read. The numbers of placements were very discouraging. Under 10 children had been placed into homes several years prior. Odds were not in our favor. It's a pretty darn good thing I have a God who is not the least bit concerned with odds!

The end of December, after a few emails to some contacts in Honduras (one of which is a lawyer), we felt confident that pursuing an adoption in Honduras would yes be lengthy and costly at many levels, but also that the country was in a state that for the first time in maybe ever, orphans would be placed into their forever families. The lawyer stressed though that we had to use an agency and he made a recommendation of one here in the states.

The first week of January, 2011, I looked into some of our old files and found an adoption informational folder that I had saved from seven years prior. This is hard to believe seeing as I do not save anything! I was at an adoption conference in Dallas and even then I was interested. Guess what the agency name was? America World! (www.awaa.org) The same one that I had just been referred to by the Honduran lawyer I had emailed with the week before!

CONFIRMATION yes!

In April 2011 we were accepted into the Honduras program. Our journey on paper had officially begun!