Guest: Not Our Plan But His

Our adoption story begins with my own childhood and the day that I came to America as an adoptee from Korea. I was not brought into a Christian family, but looking back as a Christ Follower, I can see how God’s hand saved me not only spiritually but also physically through adoption. Feeling like I’d been given a second chance at life, my husband and I always hoped to adopt one day and provide the forever family that every child deserves. As the years went on and we had 2 boys by birth, we became comfortable with where our lives were and didn’t put much energy into pursuing adoption. I was blessed to be fulfilling what God had placed in my heart through developing an adoption ministry at our church and that passion seemed to be filling the desire I had to “give back”.

In February of 2010 I led a team to Ethiopia with the purpose of learning the process of adoption and to set up a partnership to bring orphans to our area for a summer hosting program with hopes of finding them forever families. We toured many orphanages over the 10 days we were there. It was at one in particular though that God would show me the plan He had all along for our own forever family. As Meskerem(14) and Zenash(6) walked in the room, so we could interview them for the hosting program, I felt something unexplainable in my heart. It was as if God was whispering to me, “these are your daughters”. I tried to tell myself I’d had too much coffee during the coffee ceremonies and that exhaustion was settling in, but all the reasoning in the world could not trump the Lord and His sovereign plan. As we finished the interview with the girls, we learned that they also had a brother, Worku(9), and that he was still living on the streets in Hawassa. I was so drawn to these girls that I couldn’t stop thinking about them the rest of our evening. When our team returned to our guest home, I was trying to process through the day and what I was feeling and what I sensed God had laid on my heart, which was that he had something in store for my family with this sibling group. I wrestled with so many thoughts wondering if the day had just all come to a head for me and if I had just felt overwhelmingly burdened for the orphans I came face to face with that day. That moment which was so unexplainable became the moment I chose to step into the throne room of God and be completely surrendered to Him and His plan. I knew He was asking me to tell my husband about them and so I emailed him and asked him to pray about these kids that I had met. I told him it was a sibling group of 3. It was way more than we had ever discussed previously when we spoke of adopting one day. We were thinking 1 little girl from an Asian country… this was 3 children from Ethiopia! As challenging as this was for me to fathom I had a peace that I didn’t understand.

I emailed my husband and asked him to pray about what God had laid on my heart. I expected this to be a conversation continued when I returned home, especially since it was not 1 child, but 3 and we were now in our 40’s with a 16yo and 12yo at home. But, again, as God’s plan is sovereign, I quickly received a reply from my husband saying “Yes!”. Once again God was showing us that He had been working this out in both our hearts without our realization.

The next day I received a call from the orphanage director indicating she had found Worku and he was now living at the orphanage with his sisters. Wow God, you don’t waste anytime do you? I had the immense privilege to spend a whole morning with all 3 of the kids on the last day we were in Ethiopia. It wasn’t an easy task as the director had to embark on a 4-hour ride from Hawassa to Addis where I was staying, but what a gift I had been given.

As I later sat on the deck of my guest home waiting to go to the airport, my heart ached and tears flowed uncontrollably with the thought that I was leaving a piece of me in Ethiopia. I didn’t know if the adoption of these children would actually happen, but we were going to say “Yes!” to God until He told us “No!”.

19 months later, we arrived home on September 11th, 2011 with our new forever family! It was a difficult process adopting older children as we encountered numerous roadblocks, doubts, faith rockers and challenges, but God’s plan reigned sovereign yet again, and we can now think upon 9.11 with gratitude and thanksgiving!

But the LORD’s plans stand firm forever; his intentions can never be shaken. Psalm 33:11

The challenges we encountered in the process are a whole other story, but you can catch them on my blog “Smore Stories”(named because our multi-cultural family resembles a smore): www.thebradfordadoption.wordpress.com. Now that we are home as a family, I use the site to share honestly, educate and stir people’s hearts in this beautiful, messy, God anointed love process called “Adoption”.