I remember sitting in my social studies class at the age of 12 and hearing the teacher talk about China and how full their orphanages were. At that moment, I knew that I either wanted to teach in orphanages when I grew up, or I wanted to adopt at least a dozen orphans of my own.
Those thoughts contined with me through adolescence, and when God pointed me in very specific directions in college, He confirmed that I was to be a teacher. However, His call and direction kept me in the United States. One of my best friends recently reminded me, though, that when we would all sit around and talk about what our families might one day be, my answer was always, "I'm going to adopt a little girl named Lily from an orphanage in China."
Interestingly enough, in an effort to fulfill that childhood desire to serve at an orphanage, I did eventually get to go on a mission trip to an orphanage in the Ukraine. And that was when I started realizing that my call was more region-specific. For as much as I enjoyed the trip and felt that I was doing good work, I left feeling a little empty....like I hadn't quite gotten it right. When I envisioned myself serving orphans, I still thought of that little girl with the dark pigtails.
I met R when I was 25, and on our second date he looked me right in the eyes and said, "So how do you feel about adoption? It's something that I've always felt God wanted me to do." Praise God for the ways that He brings two people together and gives them a vision for their future. In 2007 we married, and on September 20, 2010, we sent in our first application. For those of you who are counting, that is a little over 18 months ago. What a journey it has been! There have been so many delays and mistakes that were beyond our control, that our social worker finally said, "God must have some kind of huge plan for you guys because this is just ridiculous."
And that's where we are now. Somewhere in the middle of the journey, hopefully closer to the end than the beginning. Learning that when God calls, there might be some things He needs you to learn before He fulfills that calling. Learning that it can take years to fulfill a calling. And learning that faith is more about following Him during the "middle" times - those times when you're hoping that you got the call right and you are waiting for Him to see you through to the fulfillment.
