How It All Began

Our adventure actually began a couple years ago when Kate and Abby started asking us to adopt again. It was quite easy at the time to quickly say, "no." I was still recovering from chemo, still wondering if I would live in fear of cancer's return, getting too close to the big 5-0. So many reasons to say no.

Then late August of 2008 we went up to UPBC for a few days. Kevin Dyer was there as a speaker and had written a book entitled The God Who Makes Things Happen. I read it of course...I think in one night. I decided that we were not going to live the rest of our lives just trying to preserve our lives. What a waste! (We also read Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper).

In my prayer journal on August 26, 2008, I wrote "HIV-positive Ethiopian orphan -- girl." With a huge question mark. This was before the email with a picture of Trey and Tessa.

Some verses starting jumping out at me...

"On your clothes is found the lifeblood of the innocent poor..." (Jeremiah 2:34)

"They do not promote the cause of the fatherless; they do not defend the just cause of the poor..." (Jeremiah 5:28)

"Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream." (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

"Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God..." (Micah 6:8)

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter -- when you see the naked to clothe him, and to not turn away from your own flesh and blood?" (Isaiah 58:1-3, 5-7)

Phil also had prayed about this. His only question was: "Why not two kids?"
WHAT?!

Phil: "I also was reading this summer (!) and I encountered the book Red Letters by Tom Davis which began outlining the huge problems of disease and malnutrition in Africa. It is overwhelming to think about, but that stupid starfish story is actually a valid metaphor for what we need to do. We may not be able to change the world, but we can help change a life (or two). God help us...Here we go."