God works in mysterious ways. He often uses something simple to make big changes and so it was with us.
Our church pastor had tried for a few years to take my husband to Catalyst in Atlanta and it had never worked out. In October 2008, it finally worked out and he attended. He came home changed and different. He talked about the International Children’s Choir and the children who performed. As he told me about the children, I said, “Let’s adopt a girl!”
Now we were living the comfortable American dream. We had two boys, both of us had great jobs, a comfortable bank account, a dog – you know everything Americans “need.” He said ok and that’s about as far as it went. I would research adoption agencies off and on again but the cost of adoption made me uncomfortable. Uncomfortable because I wasn’t willing to use our bank account or sell our stuff to bring a little girl into our family.
Life went on. My husband kept talking about the conference and about social justice. I listened and we talked about adoption but that’s as far as it got.
Six months later and it is time for Catalyst West. We attend and I’m drawn to social justice booths. I’m drawn to Compassion. I repeatedly visit their booth and stare at the pictures of the children. Their empty eyes haunt me. On our last day there, I tell my husband that we need to sponsor a child. He says ok and we sign up. We chose a child based on a frightened, sweet girl with empty eyes. I think to myself, okay God we are doing something now, we’re good, you can leave us alone.
We return home to our comfortable life and God doesn’t leave us alone. We start talking about adoption again and we both decide after prayer and lots of talking that we should look for an agency. I research agencies and countries. We finally narrow it down to our agency and the country. We chose Ethiopia. It then dawns on me that our sponsor child is from Ethiopia. All of a sudden, Ethiopia is all that is on my mind. I read every fact I can about Ethiopia and orphans. I’m suddenly overwhelmed by the reality. I then turn to the Bible and study the scriptures to learn about orphans. I am convicted and ready to fight for my daughter. A daughter that we never had plans for. We had our lives planned with our two boys. We didn’t want any more children but God had other plans and we chose to follow His ways.
I quickly filled out every form I possibly could and requested every document we would need. We met with our social worker, we prepared our boys, we read books, we prayed, and finally we sent in our paperwork and were placed on our agency waitlist on 12/11/09.
During our wait, Ethiopia became a two-trip country. I was devastated and questioned the process and the direction from God. How were “we” going to pay for another trip? How were we going to be able to afford to take our oldest with us? How were “we” going to work this out? While pouring out all these issues to God and crying to Him, I finally heard Him say that we needed to place this process in His hands. He had asked us and we had obeyed and now we needed to watch Him work.
God used our amazing home group and church family to raise the additional funds in three months and were fully funded before we received our referral. Our church family stood beside us and rallied together to raise the needed funds.
We were “on-deck” and knew we could receive our referral call any day. I was in a meeting with our Advisory Board and the CEO of my company, when the “703” call came. I felt my heart leap out of my chest and I quickly moved out into the hallway. I answered the phone and was asked if we would consider lowering our age range to 0-18 months. I said absolutely and she told me that I would be hearing from her by the end of the week. Oh.my.gosh! How was I supposed to work?!? I called my husband and told him what had happened and told him that if his phone rang and the area code was 703 that he was to answer it regardless of what was happening at that moment. I tried to be calm when I walked back into the meeting but it didn’t work. Luckily I have a boss who understands, who is Christian and was in full support of our adoption. An hour and a half later, our referral call came – right before another meeting I was supposed to attend. We waited until we were all home to open the email with her sweet picture and at that moment, we knew she was ours. I will never forget my boys’ response as they saw Ella’s face. They said, “mom she has brown eyes just like us. She is ours.”
We received our referral about five-six weeks before courts would close. Our agency told us it could go either way with having court before the rainy season. I told my husband that we would be in Ethiopia before courts closed. He told me not to get my hopes up. We received a call telling us our court date would be October 1 but that they were going to try to get the judge to move it up. I still believed we would hold our daughter in a few short weeks. Two business days later, we received a call stating we had court before they closed. We had ONE.WEEK to get to Ethiopia! Needless to say, packing furiously began and we made it.
We traveled to Ethiopia with our oldest son to meet our daughter. As they brought Ella Woynshet out, I fell head over heels in love with her. She was so sweet and so chunky. Her big brother instantly loved her. It was amazing to see her with her daddy. I couldn’t wait to get her home and have all three of my children on the same continent. We spent a week with her and each day fell more and more in love with her. We passed court and she legally became ours.
We returned home and five weeks later were cleared to bring her home. Before we left Ethiopia, I told my husband that we would be back and have Embassy on 9/15. He again told me not to get my hopes up. I told him they weren’t but that God was going to take care of this. We returned for “Gotcha Day” on 9/14 and for Embassy on 9/15. Every once in a while, I like to tell him, “I told you so.” J
Remember our child we sponsor through Compassion, the child that God used to start this process? When we returned to pick up our daughter, we made arrangements with Compassion to meet her. Meeting her was amazing and beyond our wildest imagination. I’m so thankful that we were able to meet the little girl that God used to lead us to our daughter.
As we approach the end of our first year with Ella, I can tell you it has been the hardest thing we have done as a family but also the most rewarding. It has been filled with tears and adjustments from all five of us. I have seen Ella’s eyes change from fearful to joyful and I have seen her light up a room with her smile. When I see Ella run to her brothers and her brothers run to her after a long day at school, I see love that she wouldn’t have known. I see love that my boys wouldn’t have known. I see a daddy that wouldn’t be wrapped tightly around an Ethiopian girl’s finger. I see a baby who didn’t have a family. I see a Heavenly Father who is true to His promise when He says He sets the lonely in families. (Psalm 68:5-6).
As I rock her at night and hear her sweet voice sing, “Jesus Loves Me” I often think that we could have missed this if we wouldn’t have said yes.
What is God asking you to say yes to? What will you miss if you don’t say yes? I urge you to take that first step and let Him take care of the rest. He will because He is faithful.
