Wow! It has been
way too long since I (Ryan) have made a blog post. I hope everyone is doing well and having a great 2015 so far......Megan and I definitely are! However, it has been incredibly busy and lots of changes have been happening, hence the lack of blog posts.
The reason we started this blog was to fill everyone in on our adoption journey - what we are doing, where we are in the process, how the Lord is working, etc. We also started it to fill you guys in on some deeper, more personal things that the Lord is doing in our lives.
Well, here goes....
As many of you know, we started a 6-8 month paperwork process last March for our Ethiopian adoption. We FINALLY completed our dossier this past November. It was a lot of work with many frustrating days, but we saw the Lord working through it all. As much as we learned through the paperwork process, we couldn't wait to be through with it all. It took up a lot of time, patience, & money, but we knew that finishing it meant we were one step closer to being parents. We were so relieved when we heard that our dossier had made it safely all the way to Ethiopia. At that point, we simply began what was a predicted 36-48 month waiting process. The only thing left to do was pray for our children and wait for a referral. We faithfully did that.
Then came the month of December. Our adoption agency (
America World) sent Megan an email regarding children in India that needed to be adopted. Megan brought this to my attention and mentioned that maybe the Lord was trying to tell us something. I laughed it off "knowing" Ethiopia was where we were supposed to adopt from. I thought nothing more about it (although I said from the get-go that I was willing to go and do whatever the Lord asked of me no matter how hard it was).
Well, a couple weeks later Megan mentioned that she received another email from our agency about the children in India desperately needing homes with no families in line to take them. To be a little transparent, my response was not at all Christ-like. I was frustrated that Megan would even bring it up again. However, she insisted that she felt the Lord tugging at her heart. She reminded me that we both said from the beginning that we would follow the Lord's lead. So, we agreed to pray about it and not discuss it the rest of the night (I am thankful for a faithful wife). In my head I wasn't buying it, though. Why? My mind was set on Ethiopia. It was what
I wanted, not necessarily what the Lord wanted. I was simply being selfish. While I was frustrated, I knew I needed the Lord's help. I was scared and did not know why He would call us to Ethiopia only to lead us to India a year later!?
Well, here's the funny thing, and here's how amazing the Lord works. As I prayed about it that night, somehow, that very night my heart began warming up to the idea of India. It was very comforting, yet very confusing. Our agency had to have a decision by mid-January. Megan and I decided to pray daily about what we were supposed to do. We were faithful in that, yet as the month of January began, we had no idea. We loved both countries!
As the deadline approached, still no answers! In my spiritual journey, I am not sure I had ever been more confused. The night before we had to make a decision, we still had not made a decision. We prayed so hard and so honestly that night. The next morning (deadline day)......we still did not know, haha. Megan then called me at lunch, and the conversation was an emotional one. We both said our gut told us India even though it made no sense. We, then, laid everything out.........why India or why Ethiopia?
And this is the thought Christ put in my heart:
The adoption process is a comparison of our relationship with Christ. We were completely and utterly helpless in our sins, yet Christ gave up everything He had in Heaven and adopted us into His family and considers us His children.
But here's the awesome thing - it doesn't matter who you are, where you came from, what color you are, what you have done, how bad you might have been, etc. Christ accepts you regardless. These emails were being sent to Megan because there was a desperate need for children to be adopted in India. While there is a major need for adoption in ALL countries, there was a need being met in Ethiopia with over 600 families currently in the program. The waiting list was, is, and will continue to be very long according to America World. However, the need for India was huge! No one is adopting these children.
So I thought about Christ adopting us. He has no preferences. He takes us in no matter what. I realized I needed to lay aside my prejudices and go with where the Lord was leading me. The more we talked, I could almost hear the Lord shouting, "INDIA! INDIA! INDIA!" Megan agreed, and she felt the Lord was telling her similar things along with some more personal reasons as to why she felt led to India. As the day went on, it was almost hilarious how the Lord started working. He confirmed our decision with several practical circumstances that arose.
With that being said - As of January 15, 2015, we are now officially in the India program! We still are requesting 2 siblings, age 0-6.
My mentor reminded me of the story of Joseph in how the Lord can take you in all sorts of directions to get you where He wants you. That is so true. You may ask, what now? Haha, well, we get to do our paperwork all over (fun stuff), as well as updating our home study, holding more fundraisers, and raising more funds! We know this may seem crazy and unrealistic, but we truly ask for your prayers as we get go through this transition. We trust the Lord led us to this point, and we trust He will provide for us. And when we weighed the pros and cons for switching, one of the cons was certainly a financial burden. Another one was repeating the paperwork. But the Lord led me back to the cross, and He said, "Remember what I did for you? I died for you." I have to pay more money? I have to do more paperwork? I am willing to "suffer" for my children. And please don't take this as me being "holier than thou." I take credit for none of this. It was clearly the Lord's doing.
We are now two months into the India process. But because there is such a great need for orphans to be adopted in India, the process is predicted to be much faster. Once we have an updated home study, we will be elligible for a referral and this could happen almost immediately with little-to-no wait time. We may know who our children are in India within the next few months!!! However, we may be looking at 8-14 months all-in-all for approval from the Indian government and travel time.
The Lord can do what He wants, and we trust His timing. Again, we just want to ask for your prayers. God is always good. His plan doesn't always make sense to us, but we know that His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways.
Sorry for the lengthy post. Clearly just a lot of information. Love you guys.
To donate towards our adoption fund, please visit our fundraiser link
here.
