This video challenged and inspired me today. It really hit home. If you follow our blog, you know that it has taken an army of friends and family to help us financially in this adoption journey. We are forever grateful for these friends…and they are forever a part of our daughters story. 

Everyday miracles really do happen. Today marks the 1 year anniversary of when God first nudged our hearts towards adoption. Bryson came home from work and began talking to me about how God had put some questions on his heart that morning during his quiet time that he just couldn’t answer and couldn’t shake. Questions like…

“Do you really believe that I am the designer of your family?”

“Why are you waiting to adopt? Why not now?”

“What’s keeping you from adopting?” 

Our answers were weak. Yes, we believed God was and is the designer of our family, but surely he didn’t want us to adopt NOW? We are both healthy and able to have children biologically…Emily loves being pregnant! Don’t people usually wait to adopt until after they are done having kids? Plus, adoption is expensive! There is no way we could pay for the adoption on our own…and it would be way to humbling to ask people to help us. God kept saying, “Trust Me.”

We prayed about it for a month. Every time I sat down to pray about adoption I knew what God was saying before I even bowed my head! He was calling us to adopt. There was no writing on the wall, no fireworks or the voice of God coming through a loud speaker. It was just a continued whisper in our hearts. Adoption was God’s plan and design of our family in this season. A baby girl was waiting for her forever family and we would have the honor of calling her our own. Then the miracles started happening…reminders that God was in this! Confirmation came from friends and family. A college student wrote us a check for $1000, another sent a couple wadded up twenties and note that brought tears to my eyes. A random couple we had never met heard our story and dropped off a check for $1,500, a working mother felt called to give towards our adoption and tithed off her paycheck right down to the penny and gave to our journey, old friends I hadn’t spoken to in years saw a status update on Facebook about our journey and felt called to give.  An amazing army of friends, family, and complete strangers cheering us on as we chased this calling that Lord had set before us. This journey has stretched our faith and brought us closer to our Father in heaven. To date we have raised nearly $25,000 for our adoption fees! That my friends, is a miracle! Each day we get a little closer to our Ethiopian daughter that we believe God has chosen for us since the beginning of time. We can not wait to holder her and bring her home! She truly is a little miracle!