James 1:27

*At the moment my munchkins are knee deep in dressup and going back and forth between playing dance class, maning battle stations, and apparently Capt. America is somewhere in Wyatt's room! So, we'll see if I can get this out before the Capt. is done entertaining and has to go home for the day! :)*

Here's a little more serious post from our family. These pictures were taken early this summer in Leavenworth. That in itself is not that big of a deal, but the reason why we ended up in Leavenworth this day is......
One evening over dinner (a grown up only dinner after the monkeys were in bed), Mike looked at me and said "we're going to adopt." My eyes got a few sizes bigger and my heart started beating considerably faster. This was something we had talked about, even in recent days, but had made no plans about. We have several friends who have adopted in various ways and have seen the amazing difference they are making in their children's lives. Of course we admired, respected and loved the idea of being able to do that also but at that point though, it had just been discussion for the future. He told me that adoption had been on his heart a lot lately, a lot. He knew that most importantly we have the love in our hearts and if that is what God wants of us, He will make the room in our home and the in checkbook.
So that's where the process began, in the days that followed we talked with friends about various adoption related things, did some online research and mostly just attempted to wrap our heads around this idea of adding to our family, but not through a pregnancy. We heard about a place called Antioch Adoptions, a Christian no fee adoption agency, based on the Westside. After a bit more digging, we discovered they have a branch in Wenatchee too. So we made an appointment to go talk with the guy in charge, get some more info, and get the ball rolling. (That's why we were in Leavenworth - we'd been to Wenatchee that morning.)
His name was also Mike, his office was at a CMA church and he's former law enforcement (even good friends with some of the guys in Mike's department), too many coincidences for it to be a mistake for us to be there that day. We'd talked to the kids and took them with us, they had an idea of why were were going and what we'd be talking about, afterall it is a family decision. Mike (the adoption agent) told us about the different avenues for adoption, all about their agency and what they could/ would do for us, and the steps for the whole process.
We don't know of anyone looking for a private adoption (especially with no money exchanging hands for medical care, gifts, etc.), we don't have the financial resources to do an over seas adoption, so the best path for us is to do the foster to adopt program through either WA state and/ or in combination with a Christian Adoption agency.
That realisation sparked a whole new batch of worries and fears for me especially, Mike's just been a rock of confidence since the word "go". I talked with friends who have done and are in this same process, prayed a lot, and over and over again God kept putting to rest my worries and confiming over and over again that we were on the right path. In reading my Bible, in a book I was reading, through friends, ministries at church, etc.
Next step was to get things rolling with the state. We went to our orientation class and got more questions answered, learned about the next steps to be taking, etc. Then it hit....not a week or 2 later we were knee deep in decisions about Mike promoting, moving, and changing every plan we had made for the coming year. In the midst of all of it (and for us it seemed like it happenned so fast) we didn't know how or where all this adoption stuff fit in. How were we supposed to complete all that training, should we really be leaving when a close friend had just started a ministry for adoptive families? Both things were coming from God but seemed to be contradicing.
Obviously we pushed on with the move, which we firmly believe we were supposed to do. So now we're here, with less support, no one to watch the kids while we take the training, less room for more kids and at the moment less money (getting some paycheck issues sorted out!). After we first got here it seemed nearly impossible to make it happen, but we just keep remembering that it's all in God's time and that doesn't necessarily mean "right now". He planted a seed in our hearts this summer and he will keep growing it and cause it to bloom when He's ready. Who knows, maybe some little child who needs a family is part of the reason He called us here, or maybe He has work for us here before He feels were even ready to adopt. We certainly haven't abandoned the idea of adopting, far from it, we're just continuing to learn to be patient, listen for God's leading and enjoy this season of life we're in right now, which these day is being "the 4 Muskateers."
This is a picture that Cora drew right before we moved, and in the weeks leading up to moving we hadn't talked with them about other kids being in our family someday. I love how God speaks through the kids........

Miss Cora drew our family and then 2 extra people and when she told Mike about it she said "sister and brother are kids in our family that we don't know yet", how precious! Notice it's autographed "Ocra"!