To the Praise of His Glorious Grace: He who began a good work...

It was in July of 2011 our youth minster and good friend Patrick encouraged us to travel to Santo Domingo, Ecuador with our church youth group to serve as chaperones. Little did we know how much the Lord would use this trip to begin to change our hearts and grow closer to Him. This trip radically changed our lives in many ways. Our hearts were transformed with this growing desire to love and care for others and to tell those who may not know or have not heard about Jesus Christ.

Over the next few months we continued to grow in our faith and were presented with an opportunity to travel with the same organization, NEXT Worldwide to Mombasa, Kenya. Of course we were excited and were definitely on board and began to prepare for the trip! We prayed often that God would somehow again use this trip to help guide us as we began to make decisions in our lives. We felt God was continuing to place different situations and events on our hearts and we weren't exactly sure what we were to do, how were we to act? Were we being called to be missionaries? To sell our house and move? Should we have children? We just continued to pray for clarity. During this preparation time for the trip we began to feel more of a desire to have children.

In June 2012 we traveled to Mombasa, Kenya. This again was such a wonderful experience. It is really hard for me to write and put into words to explain the clarity that God ended up giving us through these two mission trips. All that God has allowed us to see in two very different parts of the world including poverty, illness, misfortune, sadness, lostness has lead us to this strong desire to adopt.

The growing desire for us to have children and to start a family in my mind felt atypical. I seemed to always be surrounded with the idea of adoption. Throughout the day at work I would just randomly think about adoption, I would hear others adoption stories as I have four friends from high school that have adopted children. It just became this constant thought. Brent and I had discussed adoption earlier in our marriage and we were both open and willing, but felt we would like to try to have children biologically.

A few months went by, it was sometime after Christmas of this past year. I remember we were driving in the car and I told Brent I really felt the Lord was placing adoption on my heart. It was more of a feeling he was leading us to adopt NOW not later, and as PLAN A, not plan B. Brent tentatively listened, supported, and helped me talk through what I was feeling. We both felt like this was something we needed to pray together and separately about.

Less than 2 or 3 days went by and we were getting ready for church. I came into to the kitchen and Brent was standing there waiting for me and he said "Ok I feel the same. I am ready. Lets do this. Where do we start? We need to find an adoption agency soon. How do we do that?" What a wonderful affirmation!

Through several circumstances and events we have found an adoption agency and have applied to adopt a child from Ethiopia!! As of February 4, 2013 we have been accepted officially into their program. We are up into our eyeballs in paperwork. Every spare minute of our days are spent chasing down documents and gathering information. The entire process will be from beginning to end approximately 2 years. We would appreciate your prayers!!

We have come to realize over time the Lord has graciously allowed us to be a part of His plan and that this is only the beginning. "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." Philippians 1:6

Beth