why?

I've been asked the same question many times. It isn't always asked in the same way. With the same words or the same heart behind the question.  But, in essence, the question is the same.

"Why did you choose to adopt from a country in the middle of Africa?"

And my answer varies, depending on how I'm holding up at that particular moment. More times than I'd like to admit, I can barely get out a few words before the tears come and I can no longer articulate anything of value. Which is why I thought I'd write down a little more on the topic of why.

First and foremost, we are walking in obedience. I am confident that God led us here. God asked us to go. He asked us to care for the fatherless. He asked us to serve the orphaned and the oppressed. And, in our family's case, He moved in our hearts and revealed the great need for millions of children left alone due to illness and extreme poverty in Ethiopia. We fell in love with a country that we had never visited. We learned about the history and the culture and read books and blogs about this country and absorbed every detail we could. That is God. He stirred our hearts. We didn't wake up one day and decide to start loving on African orphans. But, we did. We woke up one day and felt an unquenchable desire to bring hope and love to these children. God had moved.

And, then, God moved again.

He stirred our hearts for another African country. And, He used a little girl to do it.

We could have read the statistics. We could have read that this country is widely considered the worst in the world {in the whole entire world} for women due to the violence against them. We could have read that this country is the 4th poorest country in the world. We could have read that the rate of children born in this country that will die before their first birthday is the highest in the world.

We could have read and read and read. Instead, we heard God's voice asking us to GO. He clearly expressed His sovereignty and affirmed His path for us.

And, He showed us her face. The face of the daughter He asked us to love. The face of the little girl that He tenderly knit together in the womb of another. The face of the precious one whose days He ordained before one of them came to be. The face of the blessed one who has been named an heir by the Almighty One.

The face of our daughter.

An answered prayer...my S was rocked to sleep in the arms of another adoptive momma last week. This photo is such a treasure for my heart. 

She is not a statistic or a number.

We are not under the misbelief that we can change this broken, evil world. We are simply moving in love and shaping our family in the way our Abba Father has asked of us.

My ah-mazing friend, Lauren, wrote these words yesterday and I think they sum up this adoption path so beautifully and eloquently...

"The truth is that adoption is not natural. It is not something that is "so great" or "should be commended". It is borne out of brokenness. It is redemption. It is a holy experience."

I have come to the end of me in this wait. I can not hold on any longer on my own. And, yet, I have peace and confidence in the One who called us here. I am surrounded by His presence and feel blessed to have been asked to accept the great honor of loving this precious one who currently resides halfway around the world. It is an honor that I chose to accept through faith. And, I am the blessed one because of it.