Where to start?

As I ended in the last post, the biggest question we had was, "Where do we start?". So, if it was up to me I would have researched and researched and tried to figure out what was the best way for us to adopt. I would have looked at blogs on adoption and gone from there. I would have undoubtedly become overwhelmed to the point that I'm sure there would have been tears. But praise God for knowing more than me. Let me elaborate on that last sentence there for a moment. This past Sunday our Pastor preached an amazing message on being a church for the city. One of the main points of the message was that we are all here in the place/position we are because God appointed us to be here at this time. Acts 17:26 tells us 'and he made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation.' I really want you to keep that last part of that verse in your mind when I tell you where we started.

So, we began to pray and ask God where to start. And seriously, about a month or so after we first got our sweet girl, Anna, an agency that places children in homes for foster care and adoption, held an information meeting at one of our church campuses. This wasn't the first time we heard about foster care or even the first time we considered it. But it was the first time that not only would we able to attend the meeting to learn more, but we were also being supported by our missional community. All of us went to this meeting to hear and learn more about what all foster care entailed. But God had a plan for Elias and I  that only He could play out. Remember, He has already determined our appointed times and places!

That night as we sat in that information meeting learning more about foster care we saw faces. We saw precious little faces of children who were without a home. Some for just a little while, while they waited on their mom or dad to get the help they needed to be reunited with them once again. Some for some time already and still more time to go. They showed us kids who had been in foster care, taking a picture that would go on a website for prospective parents to look at. And we were broken. Because some of these kids were 5 years old when they took their first picture to put on the website. Did you catch that? FIRST PICTURE. Then they were older, taking new pictures every year or so to put on the website in hopes that someone would see them and want them. Elias and I knew that night that God wasn't just calling us to adopt, He was specifically calling us to adopt kids in the foster care system and to even do just plain ole foster care for kids so they would know they have a place to call home, if and when they needed.

So we grabbed the applications that night and got home and immediately began filling them out. We turned them in and began the training for foster care in January of 2011. So, that my friends is how we started the process for foster care. Do you see now how Acts 17:26 is so amazingly profound in light of everything? I mean, the fact that God knew that we would be around adoption growing up and know it's for us in the future and when that future became the present God, the Almighty, Creator of all things, would put us EXACTLY where where we needed to be to get started? I can't help but think of the Apostle Paul's words when I think of this whole process "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgements and unfathomable His ways!" Romans 11:33! 

*Disclaimer* I'm not, in any way at all, saying that adoption of babies or kids from other nations is not an option for us or even that it's not a good option for anyone. In fact, Elias and I would love to adopt every single orphan in this world. But being that there are 147 million orphans in the world, I don't think we have a house big enough. Good thing is, I know Someone who does.