While we've been waiting...

Soon after beginning our adoption journey, we realized we needed additional support from the adoption community.  We really didn't know anyone who had adopted so we weren't sure where to turn.  Our agency has a great support system but we weren't always able to make the drive to where they held their meetings.  I think it's extremely important to surround yourself with people who support adoption and we wanted to provide that opportunity to others as well.  The church we had recently joined had a membership of about 8,000 so we KNEW there had to be lots of folks there who could be of support to those adopting.  We started the ADOPT (ADoptions Of His Perfect Timing) Ministry with the full support of our church family and the 40+ families in our church who had been blessed by adoption.  We don't facilitate adoptions, but simply provide support to families before, during and after the completion of their adoption.  We have seen about 10 children come home to their forever families so far.  We have even seen one of those children come to accept Christ since they've been home.  That's what it's all about!!!!
Our family has also grown since we began our adoption journey.  We weren't sure what to do about expanding our family during our wait time (which at the time was supposed to be 15 months) because China will not let you adopt if you become pregnant during your wait time.  We decided that God knew what He was doing so we would simply leave it up to Him.  Each month the wait time from China got longer and longer and longer and we weren't getting pregnant either.  It seemed like we would be a one child family forever!!  Well, 5 years and 2 weeks after the birth of our first daughter, our beautiful second child was born.  Thankfully, China had just changed their policy to allow for pregnancy during the wait time.  The new policy now says that your biological child must be one year old before you can accept a referral from China.  (You may also pursue another adoption during your wait as long as your child is in your home for one year before accepting a referral from China.)  It seemed like forever waiting to be pregnant again, but God knew what He was doing.  If I had become pregnant much sooner we would have been "kicked out" of the China program.  It has been so neat to watch God orchestrate so many things for His glory during all of this.  Even if our adoption NEVER happens, we have learned so much and hopefully shown others the love of Christ through our journey.