Adoption Dreams

When we first got married in 1996, we knew we both wanted children.  We had talked about adoption.  After our frst baby was born, I thought, "Oh my gosh!  How can anyone go through this twice?!" 

After we had our second child, in 1999, we went to a open house about adoption from China.  We had heard about the one child rule imposed by their government and felt called to check into adopting a lttle girl.  We soon realized that we were over the age limit to adopt from China.

We moved to Montana in the fall of 2003.  Our son Ben was almost 4.  He began praying for a baby brother.  I began to have this burning desire to adopt a child.  I remembered the last dream I had, about the little boy and the little girl with dark skin and dark hair.  I called a local agency and began to seriously look into adoption.  But it was very expensive and we were just building a home and it kind of got pushed to the back burner. 

In 2005, Charlie went on a mission trip to Guatemala.  While he was there, he fell in love with 2 little boys.  He talked to the director while he was there about the possibilitiy of adopting them.  When he came home, we were on a mission to adopt those 2 little guys.  We started a fundraiser, only to raise $150.  We were very discouraged and gave up.  The boys were later adopted by another family.  Ben kept on praying.

In 2007, Charlie and I became foster parents for the first time.  We would foster with hopes of adopting.  We fostered a teeny little girl who had many health issues.  We had her for only three months.  She was recently adopted by a wonderful woman named Connie who was experienced with all of her medical needs.  Connie said she had always known that she would adopt another little girl and felt that it was totally God's will. 

All the while this burning desire to adopt children kept growing.  I would scan the photolistings looking for my 2 children.  I would cry over all the pictures of these children who so desperately needed a family.  I spent a lot of time on my face before the Lord.  Crying out to Him.  Telling Him that if I would never have more children, then to take this desire away from me!

Then last summer, 2008, I came to my husband one last time.  I told him, we HAVE to look into adoption one more time.  He agreed.  In July, I was at a county fair with my farmer's market business, Wild Prairie Farms, and the gal in the booth next to me told me about her 2 adopted children.  That was it.  I began saving my money that day for our adoption.