Six years ago, Kevin and I attended a Third Day/Steven Curtis Chapman concert for my birthday courtesy of some very sweet friends of ours, who blessed us with the tickets. While at that concert, we had no idea that God would speak to us so clearly about orphans and adoption. By the end of the night, we walked away from that concert believing that God had spoken to both of us about adopting two more children. This was so not on our radar. You have to understand something, we were DONE having children. We had the perfect family – two girls, two boys. Life was good and well-balanced. So adding to our family was not part of our master plan. So, both us hearing the number two from God was a little on the scary side not to mention just a little on the crazy side. I know, most of you are probably laughing at that statement. Go ahead, but I bet if you’re honest, you thought the same way at some point in your life.
We would go home and share just with a few selected friends about that night and what we believe God was saying to us. Then we dropped it. We didn’t mention it again. Just a few months later, some dear friends of ours would start the journey to their first child. He would come home just a few months after we had moved back to Texas. We would be happy for them and keep moving on with life as the thought of adoption slowly fizzled for us and became more about supporting others during their process and having the thought of, “It’s for other people and not us.” After being in Texas for two years, the army would move us up to Lawton, Ok. The smallest town I’d ever lived in and had no idea why God would bring a city family through and through to a small town. One of my bffs would send and emergency email asking me to pray for one of her bloggy friends daughter. Most of you will probably remember Chrissie “Jewelry” Patterson. if you don’t know her story, you need to head over to my friend Lorraine’s blog (This is just the start of her story. Please read all the way through May to see how God worked miracles) and read the story of how God has used this little girl to draw her readers to himself. I would also find another famous blog that many of you probably know called, Building the Blocks! That God would also use to speak to me. During this time, God would start moving on my heart once again to adopt. Kevin would attend a DART Conference through SWI that summer which would spark something in him that only God could ignite. His passion for helping others in disaster areas and preparedness training. I would talk to him briefly about it but he just wasn’t interested. Then I started to learn about a conference called T4A or Together for Adoption. (I highly recommend attending a conference when you can. So eye-opening! and the people you meet- AMAZING!) It was going to be in Austin that year. I started reading about it, learning about it and praying about going. I talked with Kevin about me attending and he thought it was a good idea to go. To be honest, I wasn’t going for the adoption aspect. I know! I was going to go learn more about girls and boys who were becoming slaves in every manner a person could dream up. I had my agenda as to why I was going and God would just laugh and shake his head. He would have so much more in store for me. For us.
To be continued…..
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