Faith, Hope & Love-Pending

In 2006, after being married two years, Jonathan and I decided we were ready to begin growing our family.  After a three year journey of trying to get pregnant, much prayer and heartache of still having a family consisting of only Jonathan and myself...we accepted the fact that maybe God had other plans to grow our family!  

We prayed God would use us as parents to either our own biological child or to a child in need of a forever family!  We made a promise that even if God should bless us with our own biological child, we would still show the same love of adoption that Christ did for each of us and welcome an adoptive child into our family as well.  After accepting God's plan was bigger and better than anything we could plan ourselves and giving everything up to Him...low and behold...I became pregnant with Sophia Faith!  Every day she grew within my belly was the realization of how great our God is and a reminder that His plans our perfect!  

We were thrilled to become her parents and cherish each moment we have with her (well most of them...there are a few tantrum moments we're not so grateful for)!  She truly is a blessing and God proved that "One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much..." Luke 16:10.  After being a family of 3 for a little over a year the question from family and friends of "When will you have another baby?" was repeatedly asked and in our minds.  After it taking so long to get pregnant with Sophia we were still thankful just to have her and were fine with having only one biological child.  We knew God could use us as parents to a child in need.  Well, let's just say it did NOT take three years to get pregnant the second time.  In fact we were very surprised at what little time it did take for the Lord to use us as His vessels to create Lydia Hope!  

We were a little nervous at the thought of our girls being only 2 years and 2 weeks apart in age, but continued to place our HOPE in Jesus Christ and His PERFECT plan for our lives!  "Now FAITH is being sure of what we HOPE for and certain of what we do not see." Hebrews 11:1  So, there you have it...we have our Sophia FAITH and Lydia HOPE and couldn't be more thankful to be called their mommy and daddy!  

While cruisin' along each day with our family of four, Jonathan and I have always had in the back of our minds the promise we made to our Heavenly Father about adopting.  We knew we were open to the idea of it, but unsure of when or how His plans would unfold.   We knew I felt called to go back into the classroom to teach once the girls were in school but didn't really want me to go back for only a short time only to take off again (Lord willing) to be home with another child.  We prayed for the child God would possibly bring to us, guidance of which area of the world (international or domestic) to adopt from and that God would prick at our hearts so strongly that we couldn't deny it was His timing to adopt!  Well folks...all of those questions have been answered in the last month!  

God has led us to adopt from China! We have applied and been accepted to adopt through an agency called American World Adoption Agency.   Our hearts are filled with joy at the idea of God using our family to become a forever family to a child in need!  Both of our families, church family and friends join us in this journey and we ask each of you reading this blog to pray for us...  

• Please pray for guidance in this long, emotional, yet rewarding  endeavor and that God's hand would be in every decision along the path to bringing our future son or daughter into our home!  
• Please pray He prepares Jonathan and I as parents to love and guide them in a way that depicts the Father's love!  
• Please pray for Sophia and Lydia to be accepting of another child that might not have grown in "mommy's belly" but has grown in all of our hearts.  That they would love and welcome this brother/sister into our family forever! 
• Pray for our community and families to accept this little one and love them just the same and realize what an awesome opportunity is before each of us...showing a child love and providing him/her the opportunity for a family full of love from one another and from their Creator!  

Thank you in advance and we will keep you posted on our journey of Sophia FAITH, Lydia HOPE and LOVE...pending!  We love you all!