The Interesting Decision

As you may or may not have figured out, there is more to our adoption than meets the eye. If you look at the AHOPE website you will see why. For the longest time when people asked us if we planned to adopt, we didn't know what to say. When we first met, both of us had talked about wanting to adopt internationally at some point (of course this was assuming we would have one or two kids biologically first. So, one would think that the natural next step in our infertility journey would be adoption. The problem was that when I sat down to research adoption, I could find absolutely no peace in the situation. After our last failed IVF not only did we feel confused about what to do next (most would have suggested a second opinion or pursuing adoption), but no path gave us any peace and the more we cried out to God, the more distant he seemed.

Then, one day at church (which was a struggle to even go to), we did this prayer walk around the grounds where our church is (the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies). Around the campus were posted scriptures, names of God and just random thoughts. It was hard to participate when we felt like God was so very absent in our lives at the time. Then we came across the statement that by the year 2010 20 million kids will be orphaned to AIDS in Africa and it was like a small voice said "this is it". So, before we even knew if it was a possibility, we felt like God was leading us to adopt and HIV+ child. Within 24 hours, we had heard about an agency that specialized in international adoptions (AAI) and that many people on the island had used with good experiences. Come to find out, they are one of the only agencies (maybe even the only actual agency) that actually has a program set up to adopt HIV+ kids. This was unheard of a few years ago. They also run their own orphanages and one is dedicated specifically to caring for HIV+ kids (read more about it on the link for AHOPE and Full House, Full Hands, Full Hearts). Within days, the pieces had fallen together and it lead us to where we are now.

There are little things along the way that are just more of a reminder that God is in this situation. Did you know Jesse did his senior paper on the nursing care of the HIV+ child? My mom has felt this calling to work with orphans, particularly those that are difficult to place. I had really been feeling like I needed to be more global minded from being more active in the environment to becoming a vegetarian (a story for another day). Oh, and did I mention we are both nurses? There is more, but it has seemed at every step of the way, God has had his fingers guiding us.