TO AFRICA AND BACK

Precious Memories by Amanda Fund Raiser for our Boys

2009-02-02T17:38:00.007-06:00

Caroline, before and after

2009-01-04T23:34:00.001-06:00

Caroline is my fearless child. C1 was and is always pretty conservative and cautious when it comes to things of the unknown.

Not my Caroline, my sweet Caroline. New Year's Eve she found a new hobby. The fearless face plant on the bed.

Which by the way is soft...super soft compared to.....

The hardwood floors from the 2nd from the bottom stairs. Thomas said that by the time he had turned around, she was face first on the floors and blood was already spouting from her lip. So off to the dentist we go in the morning, cause I don't already have enough to do tomorrow.

2009-01-03T02:25:00.000-06:00

I wanted to share with all of you the wonderful birthday present my mom gave to me this year. The necklace was made for me and is the shape of Africa with a heart cut out. also it has Samuel and Noah's names on it. This is one of my most precious material gifts that I own right now. Every time I feel it or see it I am reminded again of how blessed I am to be given to baby boys.

Thomas and the girls gave me this shirt for Christmas. He actually designed the whole thing and had it printed. Our adoption agency's logo is on the back and it looks wonderful. I love wearing it and pray to have them both home soon.

New Pictureof Samuel

2008-12-29T00:38:00.003-06:00

I was thrilled to get to see new pictures of our babies right before Christmas. The girls and I had bought some clothes and toys to send to them with our Director. The 18month outfit we bought Samuel is huge on him. He seems to be so small. Also, Thomas and the girls gave me a wonderful gift for my birthday...they sent money so that the boys could have a crib in Liberia. HollyAnn was kind enough to snap a few shots of Noah in his crib. Now my baby has a safe place to lay his little sweet head at night. So here are some of the pictures of them.

When the girls pray at night and before their naps, they NEVER fail to pray for Samuel and Noah. It used to be that they would say the pray that is our standard for our family..."dear Jesus, thank you for today, thank you for Mommy, Daddy, Campbell and Caroline...thank you for your Son that you sent to save us from our sins" then they are able to pray to Jesus how they want and would usually pray that He would keep SAmuel and Noah safe and healthy. Now they pray as normal, but after "Mommy, Daddy, Campbell, Caroline..they add Samuel and Noah and thank you for your Son that You sent" It is almost like they finally realize that they are really truly going to be part of our family forever and it is so precious.

Thank my sweet Saviour for my family and for my soon to be larger family. Thank you for giving us sons. I started thinking about how God must have felt when He sent His only begotten Son to us and was apart from Him for 33 years. I ache inside for my boys that I have never even met and it has only been almost 2 months. For God to have sent Him to bear the weight of our sin on His shoulders...He truly is most gracious Father to us all.

Christmas Early

2008-12-22T21:11:00.000-06:00

Can you tell I am trying to catch up on posts that I have not had time to update? We went to Mimi and Poppy's Sat morning and had Christmas a tad bit early. The girls absolutely loved their gifts. Caroline got the cutest peppermint dress and striped tights and had to put it on immediately and refused to take it off till she had to change clothes for bed some 13 hrs later. Campbell got a ballerina out fit which she put on and commenced to show us her ballet techniques. It was really sweet. They loved that Mimi had all kinds of goodies out on her fine china with punch in her glass tea cups and real linen Christmas napkins. Mommy on the other hand had small strokes every time that they attempted to eat. The picture in my mind's eye was of the glass shattering everywhere, shards sticking in the carpet and the girls getting cut, bleeding all over the white carpet, us getting kicked out because we broke something, you get the picture. So to my relief, nothing was broken, everything was cleaned and placed where it belonged before we left and cookies were even sent home with us....all in all a great start to the Christmas holiday.
We were able to spend a few hours with my grandarents and as I know only too well, how blessed I am to still be
able to do this. I miss my other grandparents so badly as well as Thomas' grandparents. I would love to show them the girls for only a moment so that they could see how much they have grown or to see which ones look like them or act like them.

Merry Christmas!!!

2008-12-22T20:47:00.002-06:00

So Thomas had surgery a week ago Friday and was in great spirits right before the proceedure (without any meds, mind you).

Trying to be funny!

So this is just after surgery and the fun has worn off a little, even with the pain meds.

Not so joyful, huh?

Gingerbread anyone?

2008-12-22T20:05:00.001-06:00

The girls decided that we needed to build a gingerbread house. I looked everywhere for one, online that is, and finally had to ask a friend where to get one in town that didn't cost $200. Since I try not to frequent Wal-Mart if at all possible guess where these came from...WAL_MART. But, I didn't have to go...hehehe. Called Nana and she left work to go to her Wal-mart in Alex City and then sent them to me. Now that is what a mother's love (well, grandmother's love) is all about. So we decided this morning was when we were going to decorate our house.

Caroline really is a funny little ham!!

owner

2008-12-21T21:49:00.002-06:00

We have news!!!

2008-12-03T15:26:00.005-06:00

As I was sitting in Chick-fil-A watching C2 play in the play area I was thinking about the vote I had just cast for my president of choice....and praying that God's will be done. Then I get a phone call from a strange area code and actually answered it...who does that these days??? It was HollyAnn asking if I had a moment, of course!! I have a couple of them every day it seems. Anyway, am I sitting down?? Yes! 2 sibling boys just came into the home, would we consider them??? Silence on my end. I am really trying not to have a total break down in front of a couple of moms who are already looking at me strangely and the kids who are yelling with glee sliding down the curvy slide. Yes! Yes! Yes!!!!! They will get their bloodtest results in 2-3 days and then we will have 48 hrs to accept them. OH MY GOODNESS!!!! I am going to be a mommy of 4. And 2 of them BOYS! Thank you God!

I call Thomas and he is elated to say the least. Almost like when I told him we were pregnant, but htis time we are having 2!!! I gather up C2 and head out the door and C1 and her friend and Mommy were just sitting down to eat there too. I go over and tell her about the boys and start crying, again. (for those of you who know me well, I hate crying...ha!)

So over the past several weeks and after many many tears that have fallen, we are very proud to introduce to you 2 new Torgerson's: SAmuel Thomas and Noah. Samuel is 18 months old and Noah is 2 months old. My director is in Liberia now and she has been holding them both and rocking them to sleep which brings joy to a mother's heart. Knowing that they are being well cared for and loved and prayed over is more than enough for now.

Thank my sweet Jehovah for asking us on this journey. Thank you for giving us patience thus far. Thank you for all the blessings you have in store for us.

2008-08-08T08:38:00.000-05:00

Not liking this vest too much

Daddy and Mommy (C1's becoming quiet the photographer)

Nanny just enjoying the ride

The End!!

2008-08-08T08:36:00.000-05:00

Campbell manning the stern

Catching some zzzzz's

Daddy O and his girls

A'hoy there, mates

Our Boat Ride on Lake Martin

2008-08-08T08:31:00.002-05:00

We had a great afternoon on the lake with Nanny and Mr Big July 4th weekend.

Caroline, Mr Big and Campbell

'My best buddy'

Giving him kisses

Gazing at the waves

Orphanage Project Liberia

2008-05-14T17:00:00.002-05:00

Hey guys,
Sorry it has been so long since I have written. I wanted to share a site that is raising money for Greater Love Orphanage (our orphanage).

http://www.futurefororphans.com/

They are trying to raise money to build a pre-fabricated building to sleep 100 children and school 150 students. They have some great totes that have Addy's Hope and GLO logo as well as the Malawi people who make the bags. These are great to take into the grocery or any store and not use one of their bags...all about recycling.

They also have cute shirts for kids and adults and baby onesies for sale. So , please take a peek around the site.

Also, we are waiting on our fingerprints from Homeland Security to come back and then our dossier will be ready. Continue to pray for adoptions and the process in Africa. Pastor Wesley was contacted and asked to testify about adoption along with all the other agency directors before the House of Representatives on May 21. The new guidelines have already been sent to the house, and this hearing will be part of the process to put them into place. This is good news!!

Love to you all!!

Garage Sale

2008-03-24T15:11:00.003-05:00

So we had our garage sale fundraiser on March 8th thinking this would be the very best time to have one. Spring is in full bloom, it has been in the low 70's, should be perfect. We wake up Sat morning to SNOW...yes snow in March in Alabama!!! Go figure. We rarely get snow ever and it just so happens on my garage sale day.

My other issue is that I cracked my ankle bone the week before and am in a boot to my shin. No kidding. Someone said that God might be trying to tell me to slow down. My reply...."He knows I have a garage sale to raise money for the adoption HE called us to, so I can't slow down right now." So, some of my best friends have been coming over at all hours of the day/night to help me sort and price. Thank you God for sending them to me.

We have been collecting donations from family and friends for months...literally, since October. My basement is so full that I can barely get into it to park my car. By the middle of the week of the garage sale I couldn't get into it at all...we are over flowing with goodies to sale.

So back to Sat morning. Thomas wakes me up, we look out the window and see the snow and I promptly say, "I am going back to bed!" Then I forget the we have the Roberts coming over to help sale and I make myself get up. Once they arrive we all decided that we will just go ahead and finish pricing and setting up then they can go home. We will just have it the next week. While we are pricing I pray that even though it has snowed, please Lord just wake people up and send them to my house. Please!!!

We never put the signs out, snow has covered all the cars and ground and the garage doors are closed, BUT at 8:15 am people start showing up in droves. It was amazing!! People just kept coming and coming and buying and buying. We ended up selling right at $1000 and we still have about 2/3 left of our stuff. Crazy! So God, we give you ALL the glory and praise for providing once again for our adoption funds.

The next Sat we have Garage Sale Part 2 . This time it rained and rained and rained some more. But once again, God sent us some more people. We sold $600 that day.

Our total....$1600 after expenses (ads, signage, etc.).

We have so many items left that our friends, the Maxwell's, are getting everything for a sale in May for their adoption funds for a little girl in China. Will let you know the date so you all can go and spend some more $$ there :)

Thank you all who so graciously helped us! Words aren't enough for the appreciation we have for you. Also, thank you all who came and bought things. Your money is going to one of the most precious gifts we will ever receive.

GUESS WHAT!!!!!

2008-02-29T16:47:00.003-06:00

I officially got my FBI fingerprint approval letter today. Thank you LORD!
I turned it in, what 5 months ago and Thomas had his back in lightening fast time, me it was not to be. BUT, I now have it in my hand and what a blessing to be 1 step closer to finalizing our homestudy.
So, thank you all who have been praying and those of you who have called the higher ups that I don't have contact with in the FBI. It all worked, in HIS timing, of course. The next step is to finalize our homestudy and make sure everything in it is correct and also wait on an appointment with CIS for, yes, dare I say, more fingerprinting. This time I will know that I need to inform them that I don't fingerprint very well. Could come in handy one of these days...hehehe....just kidding, don't freak out because I said that.
Till next time.
S

Caroline's Smile :)

2008-02-20T00:02:00.001-06:00

Mommy's 29th Birthday...snicker

2008-02-19T23:57:00.000-06:00

Better late than never, I say

2008-02-19T23:54:00.000-06:00

"I really didn't sneeze on that one cookie"

Feeding my new baby while wearing my new shoes and helmet

Christmas Pictures I never posted :)

2008-02-19T23:45:00.001-06:00

Chloe, Sierra, Haley, Caroline and Campbell

Nana and Grandy with the grandGIRLS

Preparing cookies with daddy for Santa and the reindeer

Fundraising Yard Sale

2008-02-16T09:24:00.004-06:00

Fundraising Yard Sale

March 1st we are scheduled to have a huge yard sale to raise money for our adoption fees. We have had so many items donated that it is a little overwhelming. Our basement is overflowing with wooden display units, a washing machine, furniture, lawn mower, computers and monitors, sporting equipment, toys, clothes...it just goes on and on. Our faith family has been so encouraging to us and even people that we haven't met but are still wanting to help raise money for us. God is truly showing us how He is providing for this adoption.

I got an email from a friend yesterday that said they had so much stuff at their house for the yard sale that they just decided to have their own yard sale and donate the proceeds to us. WOW! That truly brought me to my knees. If some of you have never had a yard sale, then you don't know all the work that goes into having one. Collecting all the 'stuff', organizing it, pricing each item, putting ads in the newspaper, putting signs out every where the night before the event, getting up at the crack of dawn and moving everything outside while people are trying to go through everything. It really is a lot of work and for someone to say that are willing to do all that for us is hard to take in. But it makes me realize that my Heavenly Father loves us so much more than that and goes to so much more effort for us.

Also, I am now cleaning houses to raise money for the adoption. I had my first 'job' Monday and it wore me out. But I enjoyed it and put the check on my fridge so that I could look at it all week.

A little closer to our goal :)

Please continue to pray that my prints come back soon. Yes, that means we are still waiting on them. It seems that the FBI are backed up.

Love you all.

Update

2008-01-26T09:42:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to give everyone a quick update. We are still waiting on my fingerprint clearance with FBI. We have to have this completed in order to get an appointment with CIS. So, please pray that they will clear quickly. I am trying to not be impateint, but several families are in Liberia right now picking up their children and I am getting excited to be ther also. (see 'my blogs' addy's hope families)

My brother and his family boarded a plane Fri morning and landed in China Sat morning to pick up their son, Caleb!!! My nephew. I am so excited for them and just ready for the process to be over for us and on the plane to Africa. But I know that it is all in God's timing, not mine.

love to you all!!!

2007-12-08T19:48:00.000-06:00

Santa, I really don't think I deserve any gifts.

Ha... just kidding!

I didn't think I pinched her THAT hard.

Smile sissy, we both really want that 4 door Rubicon Jeep.

2007-12-07T09:39:00.000-06:00

PLEASE PRAY!!

Please pray for my friends little girl, Lydia. She is now 13 weeks and has been daignoised with ALL (leukemia). I am posting her blog so that you can read her exact diagnoisis and know how to lift this family up in prayer. Love to you all.
http://littleleaps.wordpress.com/

2007-11-30T22:44:00.000-06:00

Can I Get A Hallelujah, Praise the Lord?

I have been trying not to worry and fret over not having the 'fastest' dossier in history. You all know how controlling I am ;) So when Thomas' approval letter came back over a month ago and mine had not, but had to be resubmitted, I simply gave it to God...and then gritted my teeth.

I truly have tried to forget about paperwork and concentrate on praying for our child/ren, their families, the orphanage, Addy's Hope and Pastor Wesley instead. During this time Thomas, being the supportive hubby he is, made the comment that he was wondering what was really lurking in my criminal files...hehehe. Well, worry no more!! I received my approval letter from DHR Thursday night. Whoop, whoop!

Now we wait for my prints back from the FBI and then our homestudy os FINISHED. It will then go to Addy's Hope and CIS where we will be given an appt for our biometric fingerprinting. Hopefully within 3 weeks.

Cute story, our church had World Hope visiting last Sunday and there were a group of 14 kids from around the world performing (Uganda, Phillipines) My 3 year old daughter, Campbell, saw one of the orphans on the screen they were profiling and yelled from the front row, "That looks like my brother, Noah!" as if I didn't know this already...snicker. Thomas and I just had this huge, silly grin on our faces. LOVED it! Love her loving him already....even though we don't know if we are getting a 'him'. God is good, God is real, God shows himself so vividly from a child's eye.

2007-11-15T15:05:00.001-06:00

Adoption Statistics for National Adoption Month

November is National Adoption Month, and since I found these eye opening statistics on a fellow blogger's site (Angel) I thought it would be a good time to share them.

In America, there are more than half a million children in the U.S. foster system, a 90% increase since 1987.

12-18 months after aging out of the foster care system:

27% of males and 10% of females had been incarcerated

33% were receiving public assistance

37% had not finished high school

50% were unemployed

Children in foster care are 11 times more likely to be abused in a foster home than they are in their own home.80% of prison inmates have spent time in the foster care system.

Now, here are some statistics from overseas:

Every 15 seconds, another child becomes an AIDS orphan in Africa.

Every day 5,760 more children become orphans in Africa!

Every YEAR 2,102,400 more children become orphans in Africa alone!

143,000,000 orphans in the world spend an average of 10 years in an orphanage or foster home.

In the Ukraine and Russia, 10-15% of children who age out of an orphanage commit suicide before age 18.

60% of the girls are lured into prostitution.

70% of the boys become hardened criminals.Many of these children accept job offers that sell them into slavery.Millions become sex slaves, simply because they were unfortunate enough to grow up as orphans.

The sad reality is that there are so many children in such desperate conditions. Here are some verses that apply to the orphan situation:

And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. Matt. 18:5

But you, O God, do see trouble and grief;you consider it to take it in hand.The victim commits himself to you;you are the helper of the fatherless.Psalm 10:14

Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless;maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.Rescue the weak and needy;deliver them from the hand of the wicked.Psalm 82:3

Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case for the widow. Isaiah 1:17

He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. Deuteronomy 10:18

When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. Deuteronomy 24:19

When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied. Deuteronomy 26:12

When God first began to put adoption on my heart, I thought, "Why would I adopt? I'm able to have children biologically. We've already had two children, and our family is comfortable the way it is. Why would I adopt?"

And then the Lord began to point me to these scriptures, and He began to show me the over abundance of resources and relationships I was surrounded with every day, and He spoke gently to me, "You are asking the wrong question. Don't ask, 'Why would I adopt?' Ask, 'Why wouldn't I adopt?'"

Have you ever asked yourself this question, "Why wouldn't I adopt?" If you're like me, there are lots of immediate answers that come to mind. It costs too much money. My biological children would have to sacrifice too much. I'm too busy already. What if I adopted a child who had problems I couldn't handle? I wouldn't know where to begin. What if I couldn't love a child I adopted as much as my biological children? Aren't we too old to bring another child into our family? We don't have a big enough house.

It makes me think of the story of Moses in Exodus 3:1-4:15. When God came to Moses in the burning bush and told Moses He wanted him to lead His people out of Egypt...Moses had a lot of questions. He really thought God had the wrong man for the job. But God didn't mind Moses' questions. One by one, the Lord patiently answered them, so that Moses was left without any excuses. It was only when Moses said, ""O Lord, please send someone else to do it," that God's anger burned against him. I want to be a person that God can call upon to do His will, and I want to be comfortable enough with my Father to ask him the hard questions, like, "How is that going to work because I sure don't get it?" But I don't want to be a person who says, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it." I want to learn from Moses and choose a different path...a path into the Promised Land.

Thanks Angel for your words :)

2007-11-05T15:09:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to shoot you all a post on what has been happening since our last post. We had our final meeting with our social worker at our home, well not final...but for a while anyway, last Monday. It went to smoothly and the girls slept through most of the discussions that they didn't need to be a part of anyway. Campbell took Ms L on a tour of our house and made sure she saw Campbell's blue ceiling in her room.

Thomas received his approval for adoption through DHR. I, on the other hand, have not :( My fingerprints were not of good enough quality so they had to send new ones in. Once that has cleared it will all go to Atlanta CIS and then we will be document ready.

I just learned too that we are 1 of 7 families waiting on children under 3 ( I am pretty sure we are #7 in the line up) and that there are no children in the orphange under 3 that are adoptable right now. BUt that is ok. I keep reminding myself that it is not my timing but HIS. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end and every where in between. If God is ready for us to have a child then He we make way a path for this to happen. I truly have a peace about all of this...for now. That is not to say that after we have a referral and know our children's names and see their beautiful faces that I will want to speed up the process. But for now, I am at peace.

We are trying to learn as much about the Liberian culture and way of life as we can. We are hoping to infuse Liberia and America in our home so that our children won't feel to lost when they come home. Here is a short video/slide show to introduce some of the Liberian landscape, faces and facts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCNNYG57wpo

2007-10-11T16:00:00.000-05:00

Official Addy's Hope Family

We got notice on Monday that we are officially an Addy's Hope family. I can't begin to tell you how this feels. It is similar to looking at a pregnancy test and seeing 2 lines instead of just one.

Just another confirmation that we are walking in obedience, as soon as we turned in all of our paperwork, Addy's Hope temporarily stopped accepting applications for families wishing to adopt children 0-3 yrs of age. This is the age group that we are in. Also, the price of the adoptions has gone up but not for us. We are one of the last if not the last family to be accepted. God is good and He keeps opening doors for us that we need to walk through.

Thomas and I have a huge praise too. We both FINALLY finished our autobiographies. It is a hard thing to do, sit down and write everything you can remember about your life from your earliest childhood memory to now. Especially try doing it with 2 little ones running around. But it is finished, our sw has them and we both had our 1 on 1 interviews with her this week. We now have a million books to read in the next 2 weeks before our home visit.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we walk this road. Also, please pray that God will protect our child (whomever he/she/they may be) as well as their parents/family.
We love you all. Thank youfor your comments. We love reading them.

S

2007-09-27T10:57:00.000-05:00

A lot of you have asked what the time frame is for the adoption, so I wanted to try and break it down for you.
From what I understand, our homestudy will take from 4-6 months.
After that is completed, it will go to DHR in Montgomery and will be reviewed which takes about 3-6 weeks.
They will then send it to Atlanta CIS (this is the international part of it) and that will take about 30 days.
Finally, it will be sent to Liberia and I don't know how long that will take. Hopefully, somwhere between 5-7 months until we get our date to travel and pick up our children.
So, hopefully, 15-16 months in total.

We are hoping for 2 siblings, relatives, best friends, etc and are open to 3. We know that God has already chosen children for us, regardless if they have been born yet or not so we haven't specified about the sex of the children. We already love them so much.

I was picking up Campbell from school the week I got back from my mission trip when she asked me the craziest question. There is a huge map of the world on the wall outside her classroom and she stopped me at it and asked, "show me where Noah is". You could have knocked me over with a feather. We have only talked a little bit in front of her about adoption and that we are adopting from Africa. She has named a brother 'Noah' already and she really wanted to know where he was and when we could go get him. It amazes me what little ones pick up on and how they know things we parents do not. It will not surprise me at all if we are referred to a child named Noah. God works in crazy ways like that.
We love you all. Keep us in your prayers.
S

2007-09-26T13:32:00.000-05:00

Wow!! We had our first interview with our social worker through Lifeline Children's Services. I was starting to stress about it because our 1 year old came down with a fever on Sunday and our 3 year old had it on Tuesday and we still had paper work to fill out and fingerprinting to get completed...all on no sleep. Our wonderful neighbors were kind enough to watch our little ones while we had physicals at our internist and then made it to our interview. All in all it went great. God was so in control and I felt a peace and happiness at being there and not the anxiety that I thought I would have.

Now we have about 10 days to write our autobiography of our entire life. What a joy that will be to bring up all those past experiences I buried long ago...hehehe.

Thanks for your prayers. They were truly felt this morning.

This is a link to this past Easter message from our pastor, Dr David Platt on adoption. If you are considering adoption, please take time to watch this. It will change your view on adoption and how our heavenly Father has adopted us.

2007-09-25T16:05:00.001-05:00

2007-09-25T09:03:00.000-05:00

First let me introduce myself. My name is Staci and I am a 35 year old SAHM. I have an awesome husband of 5 years, Thomas, who works so hard to allow me to stay home with our girls. We have 2 little ones, age 3 years and 1 year. They are the best gifts that God has given us after our salvation.

Let me tell you about our journey so far.

Several years ago I saw on a tv show a town in NC that had adopted 16 boys from an orphange in Africa. They were here in the US on tour for their boys choir. Unable to go home because of war conflict, they stayed in NC a little longer. The town indeede up adopting the boys. This obviously was the seed that was planted in my heart all those years ago., I was just unaware of it.

Fast forward to last year. After our 2nd daughter was born, I knew, that I knew, that I knew we were we to have another child and I was ready. After talking to Thomas over serveral months he kept telling me that he wasn't real game for us having another pregnancy. My past two had caused some complications resulting in several surgeries. But I wouldn't hear of it. I knew in my heart that I was to get pregnant again. So I started praying that God would change Thomas' heart and he would be open to us having number 3.

Back up 15 years. When I first started dating Thomas, he had told me of his desire to adopt children at some point in his life. He has volunteered at schools, coached a girls soccer team and volunteered when orphans came from the Ukraine with our church. It really shouldn't have been a surprise to me.

Well all that praying really worked........on ME. Christ totally took away my desires for a bio child and put in it's place a stronger desire for adopting. The seed that was planted 2 years ago started to grow in my heart. I asked Thomas if he was up for adopting and boy was he excited. After a couple of weeks I told him that the Lord had put Africa on my heart and I thought this was where our child/children were. It took him some time of prayer before he too was on board.

So the journey begins!

"Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments." 1John 5:1-2

We have heard God's call on us to be obedient and care for His children and we are following. We know that if He calls us to something that He will provide for us and the resources. And we are trusting in that.

"to look after orphans and widows in their distress" James 1:27