We have BIG news!

We are adopting a child!

We are beyond excited and are doing everything we can to be prepared to welcome a beautiful new life into our home. As part of our adoption process, we have started a crowdfunding campaign. It may surprise you to hear that adoption related costs can easily total up to $35,000 or more. This is why we have set a goal of $45,000 to help ease the financial burden that often overwhelms adoptive parents.

We hope that by inviting you into this process, you will see yourself as part of the community we hope to build around our child as she grows up.

Our story starts here:

The Lord put adoption on my heart about a year and a half ago. I was completely taken by surprise, this was not in MY plan. We already have THREE children that we have been so unbelievably blessed to raise, and truth be told, somedays I have trouble managing that many. WHY would the Lord choose our family? I sat on this for a couple of days before I decided to tell Josh. I knew that I had to pick the right moment to tell him. So, one night after we put the kids to bed, Josh was sitting on the back porch, probably listening to Hootie and the Blowfish, He looked super relaxed, so I decided that would be the perfect time to drop this on him. 😊  I sat down beside him and just came right out with it, “Babe, I think the Lord is calling us to adopt a child from Haiti”. It went as expected. He looked at me like I had four heads, and he asked me what I was thinking. He said, “WHAT? We have three healthy children, that’s nonsense.” * Side note: I think he thought that I was having some sort of crisis. Everyone in my inner circle was and still is having babies. Let’s face it, statistically homeschoolers have a minimum of 5/6 children and all drive a mini bus. Just sayin’. * After Josh dismissed the idea, I continued “We are the hands and feet of Jesus, we are supposed to take His message to the ends of the earth. If we don’t do it, who will?” (Cue the tears.) He just looked at me and said, “Someone. I just wish my heart was as big as yours.” It was then that I knew this was not even on Josh’s radar, so I just pushed the idea away. At the time, Rhett was really getting into the “terrible twos” so it was easy to forget the idea of having another child. Fast forward to Mother’s Day 2018, the emotions of “we HAVE to do this’ came back. This time much stronger than the first time. I could not push it away, trust me, I tried. When the Lord is calling you to something, he is not going to take no for an answer. I know this now. Once again, I had to bring this to Josh’s attention. I am not going to lie, I was not looking forward to it. I didn’t search for the perfect moment. He came home from work, I did not even give him time to take his shoes off before I said, “The Lord is telling me that we need to adopt and he is not taking NO for an answer. Here, look at this adoption agency that I found” His facial expression still makes me laugh. Surprisingly enough, he did not say no but he also did not say yes. We spent all week talking about it and had a long car ride the following weekend just the two of us to talk. We decided that we would do the pre- application to determine if we were even eligible to do this. There is no reason to talk about something until we know if its even a possibility. That quieted me down for the weekend and we enjoyed our time together at, you guessed it, a homeschool convention. We are those people now. * This is only funny because we used to enjoy food and wine festivals and now we enjoy getting together with a bunch of people that love homeschool and use essential oils for everything. Some people would call us “Crunchy” * We followed through with the pre-application and the next day the sweetest girl named Jennifer called to inform me that we were indeed approved for the following countries, Haiti and China. She sent us a ton of information on both countries, including price breakdown. WOW. That was eye opening. All the orphans in the world (between 147-153 MILLION) and it cost 5 figures to give them a loving home. It does not make any sense. We did not know how to navigate all this new information, so I did the only thing that I knew. I got on my knees and prayed. Through sobs, when I didn’t even know how to pray, I prayed. I prayed boldly. I prayed for something tangible that I could hold on to so that I would know that this is God’s will for our family. During quiet time one morning, before the kids were awake, it was just me and God. I prayed for guidance and immediately opened my bible to Psalm 127, verse 3-5 says “Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior’s hands. How joyful is the man whose quiver is full of them!” I took that as confirmation that we are on the right path. At the homeschool convention that we attended I met Heidi St. John, the author of Mom Strong. She signed a copy of her book for me but at the time I did not read what she wrote. After my quiet time the morning of my confirmation from the Lord, I opened her book to start reading. On the inside cover she wrote “Megan, Be BOLD!! You were born for this!!” What a timely word of encouragement. The Lord spoke to me through her book in more ways than I can even count. I took her advice to be bold! From that point forward, I knew that this was our mission. We have a child in Haiti or China that is waiting on US. At this point, Josh was still processing everything, being very analytical and very logical about everything. He needed a plan. I get that, but I also know that I react on my feelings a lot and he is the brain to my heart. I had to have patience. I do not do patient well. I had to pray about that. One day while driving to get groceries we were listening to a local Christian radio station and the verse of the day was Hebrew 10:36 “Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised”. Wow. That was a timely word. The same day a precious friend called me and asked if she could pray with me. She had no idea what was going on, so I shared with her what we were being called to do. She prayed for me, over the phone, through tears. She prayed for me when I didn’t have the words. I still remember her praying “Lord, help Megan be bold when she needs to be but help her to be silent when she needs to be”. That stuck with me, especially when talking with Josh about everything. For a while I was silent. I let Josh process everything and seek counsel through our pastor and his mentor. I was also seeking counsel from some Godly women in my life. Learning how to be patient. Have I mentioned that I do not do patient well?! One night, several months ago, we decided to talk about countries. I always have had a pull towards Haiti, but we were approved for China also. The truth of the matter is that China is less expensive and it’s a quicker process. We talked about the pros and cons of both. Haiti is the tougher choice. Haiti is the most expensive place in the world that you can adopt from and it can take upwards of 3 years. It is a long heartbreaking process with a miraculous outcome. The next morning during my quiet time, I prayed for guidance. I am not going to lie, I am a signs and wonders kind of girl, I prayed for a burning bush. LORD, GIVE ME A BURNING BUSH! I have never prayed so boldly, I almost felt like I was yelling at God, like it would make Him hear me better. I’m learning. I have been growing in my prayer life through this journey. The next day, as I was washing dishes, Josh walked up behind me and was tucking in my shirt tag but stopped short and said “Well. That’s weird” *I thought that I had a bug on me so I screamed* Josh continued “Your shirt tag says “Made in Haiti” umm. WHAT!? I may or may not have lost it. I ugly cried and Josh once again thought that I was losing my mind. I didn’t tell him that I prayed for this the previous morning. I told him everything and immediately went to check everyone’s clothing tags to see if anyone else in my household had clothes that were made in Haiti. Nope. Just me. Fast forward a couple of months to July 2018, at this point in our journey Josh and I are both praying and seeking. I am praying for the Lord to show Josh everything that He has shown me. He did, you guys. God showed up. Between a message that our pastor spoke on and a devotional that Josh read one morning during his own quiet time. God showed up and gave him confirmation. We are now on our adoption journey. There are still so many unknowns, we do not know how we are going to do this, but we KNOW that God has us and that he is going to do big things. I don’t know why He chose our family, but I am honored that he did. What an amazing task to be able to take God’s message to Haiti, to rescue a child and raise them to be a disciple of Christ.

“No, I will not abandon you as orphans- I will come to you.” John 14:18