Our adventure of starting a family and the realization that God has much bigger plans...
Adoption Dinner Fundraiser...A Reminder!
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Just a reminder that our Adoption Fundraiser is taking place next Saturday, December 10th at 5pm. We don't want you to miss this! Click on the picture below for more details:)
When I was about five years into being a Youth Pastor, I met a group of kids that changed my life. Many of you reading this, who know me personally, have probably heard me talk about them numerous times. Nate and I happened to live in the parsonage next door to the church I was serving at at the time, and would routinely come home to a group of boys that I would have described then as "rough around the edges." They dressed mostly in black, had long hair, and sometimes even had black painted fingernails. They loved to smoke, and they loved to skateboard. After a few days of watching them through our window, Nate and I went outside and brought them some sodas. We introduced ourselves, told them I was the Youth Pastor at the church, and invited them to come to youth group. While they politely declined our invitation, we continued to invite them over and over again, attempted to skate with them, and fill them with snacks. Until one day, ...
It was the night before we were ready to leave for Ethiopia that it dawned on me. We hadn’t given the necklace to Biruk yet. When we had exchanged necklaces with his birth mom ten years prior at the orphanage, we had no idea when we would give it to him. We just knew that we wanted him to be old enough to appreciate it, as it would be the only thing he would have from her. We had no idea if we would ever see her again. There have been several moments in our journey where I’ve had to pinch myself, because it has felt like I was dreaming. That night as we put our final things in our suitcases, took a deep breath, and came to the realization that we were not only taking our kids to Ethiopia, but that Biruk would in fact meet his birth mom…well, you had to pinch me, because it felt like I was dreaming. It also felt like the perfect moment to share this gift that we had been holding onto for 10 years. So we pulled out the necklace and gave it to Biruk. While words can be few and...
Yesterday, my family and I found ourselves at a local elementary school’s culture club, presenting about our trip to Ethiopia. Even as I write those words, it kind of blows my mind how God has continued to use our story in unexpected places. When the kids were old enough to understand, we began to talk about taking them back to their birth country when they turned 10. We figured at 10, they would be old enough to be pretty good travelers, but still approach the adventure with a childlike wonder. What we didn’t plan on, was that the year Biruk turned 10 would come on the heels of me taking a brand new job, our family moving to a new state, and buying our very first house, in an economy that felt as though it was tanking! I remember talking to my counselor one day and sharing with him that while we had always promised this trip to our kids, it just didn’t seem to make financial sense. After all, last time I checked, Southwest Airlines does not travel to Africa. He said someth...
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