Our Story

April 29

We were at the end of a Sunday evening series on missions. Jason was working with the evening children's ministry, but Kim finished up her brief part in time to be part of the adult meeting. As a part of the sermon, the speaker read an article based on a sermon by a missionary from West i Africa. The writer told of how, in a certain village there, it rains for 4 months a year and then there is no more for the entire year. The rain comes in May, June, July, and August. During this time, they plant and harvest their crops. He spoke of how wonderful September can be there. Everyone is celebrating the harvest and enjoying two generous meals a day. He then progressed through the rest of the year. Gradually, they cut down to 1 meal a day, and then even less and people get sick as their bodies weaken. By April life is a sad affair; people are dying. Generally, every year about this time, a child will find a bag of grain that has been hidden away. They will excitedly bring it to the rest of the family with visions of grinding it and cooking food for the starving family. The parents have the sad job of telling the child that the grain cannot be ground up and baked because it is the seed grain for the next year's harvest. Without it, they cannot eat at all the next year. When the rains come again in the spring, it's time for the father to sow the grain. As he does so, he is literally sowing in tears. His family is starving, and he is throwing the last bit of grain that they have onto the ground. The author's point was that to be able to sow in tears like this, you must truly believe in the harvest. Kim was struck with the thought that if we truly believed in the harvest of souls for Christ and the importance of it, then we would be giving sacrificially to help it happen. The sermon took on a whole new light to me the next day.

April 30

Bethany Christian Services publishes a magazine quarterly with news and articles about adoption. We received our first issue in December and then received a second issue in April. Each month, they include a section called Children Of Promise which shows pictures of children who are waiting for families to adopt them. Kim noticed the picture of Tatiana, Nataly, and Jhon (the one on our homepage now) She immediately thought back to the sermon from the day before about sowing in tears and reaping in joy. She saw a whole new way of looking at the story. Rather than being more generous financially in supporting missions work or signing up to move to a third world country, perhaps God wanted us to expand our horizons and make sacrifices in a much more personal way. What better way to share God's love than by opening our hearts and home for a lifetime.

When Kim showed the picture to Jason he first thought she was joking but as she began sharing the sermon he realized that not only was she serious but that he agreed with her.

April 30

We decided to call about the children to find out more about their situation. We called and talked to a social worker from Bethany. She told us that another family had already started the process but promised to let us know more if there was a change in their availability.

May 8

A little over a week went by without hearing anything and we began to think that nothing would come of the whole situation. We still felt that God was trying to get our attention and that we need to stretch our faith a little bit.

One day, while driving, Jason prayed a quick prayer, asking God to find a good home for these children and to help us know what he wanted us to do. About thirty minutes later the social worker from Bethany called him to tell him that the first family had fallen through and that they were looking for other families.

She asked if we wanted to see their medical information and we asked her to fax it to us since we were going out of town. She mentioned that they also had a video of the children if we were interested. We received the medical information, read it, and called back the next morning to ask for the video.

May 9

We left around noon to go to Kim's grandparent's house on Harker's Island, NC for a family vacation. As we were driving, we started to talk about how we could know whether or not this was really from God--it seemed so completely irrational. As we were driving, Kim mentioned, halfway jokingly, that maybe we should pray for a sign. A short while later, before we could decide whether to ask for wet fleece or dry fleece, we came around a curve near Kinston. We looked up and on the side of the road was a large billboard, completely black except for large white letters that said "Is this the sign you are looking for? --God". We know that there are other signs like this one around but it was too funny not to tell people.

May 13

We came home, and on the way to Jason's parents, we stopped at our house to check the mail. On our front porch was the video from Bethany. We took it to the Stewart's house and decided to watch it with them. Everyone was very confused at first but once they figured out what the video was about began to ask questions. Jason's mother declared that it was not fair using video tapes like that.

While we were explaining everything to Jason's parents and other family members we started thinking of all the barriers that were in the way. The two largest ones seemed to be the extended stay in Colombia, since neither of us felt we could leave our current children that long; and our septic tank, which had been refusing to drain properly for about 6 months. We asked our family to pray about these items.

May 14

We felt that we needed to clear the first hurdle before proceeding, namely, the extended stay in Colombia. We did not feel that we could have one of us leave for that long so we decided that we would take the entire family or not do it.

That left time off for Jason. Eight weeks is way more time than he had left and we knew that we could not go that long without a paycheck. Jason called his boss and shared the situation. Following a common theme, his boss thought he was crazy. However, as they talked he mentioned several ways to work things out including building up comp-time and working part-time from Colombia. In closing he said he was supportive of our decision.

May 15

After praying about things on Monday, we decided to fill out the preliminary application on Tuesday. We were told that the children would be held for us after preliminary approval from Colombia, pending the results of our formal application and homestudy.

We were not convinced that God was going to bring this to fruition but felt led to take the next step. As we mailed our application, we developed a serious case of cold feet. We asked God to close the doors between us and the children if it was not his will for us to adopt them.

June 7

As mentioned before, we felt that our septic tank would have to be fixed before we could do this adoption. The city had come out to inspect it and recommended that we connect to the city sewer but the sewer line would not be extended to our house for at least a year, maybe longer. We asked the man that pumped the tank last what we could do and he recommended trying to find where the blockage was and fixing it. A crew came out on the seventh and within an hour had found the problem and fixed it. In addition to fixing it, they said the drain field was in great shape and should last for years.

June 11

We finally became impatient waiting to hear if we had received preliminary approval and called Bethany. They seemed suprised that we had not received our approval notice and formal application and that it should be on the way. They also suggested that we begin the INS process necessary for adopting orphans from another country.

July 14

We had been praying and looking for bunk beds for the boys. We called about a set advertised in the paper and went to see it. We liked it and felt it was a very good price so we bought them. Micah was so disappointed when we did not take them home with us right then but his spirits were definitely revived when he came home later that night to find them set up in his room. Anyone who has visited us since then can testify to the excitement the boys have about their new beds. Caleb moved to Micah's old car bed and will tell you that the third bed is Jhon's.

July 26

As we sit here tonight, updating our web page, we marvel at how God has changed our hearts and attitudes. When we mailed our application, we were very scared and were praying that God would close the doors if this was not his will. Instead, we have seen doors opened and now feel complete peace about stepping through the doors and bringing our new children home.