If you’re on our blog and you see ‘Big News’ you most likely have a good idea what it is (and the new design/header/etc kinda gives it away as well) but here we go…. :)
Over a year ago, we hosted a boy in a children’s orphan choir. We had done this before (when we were in process of waiting for Saylor), so we knew what to expect. The boy we hosted, ‘A’, was a sweet boy and he and Silas played together well. The choir moved on to their next location, we said goodbye and kept in touch with the choir. We were actually able to see them a couple more times and were able to host “A” again.
In late summer, Amber constantly had this boy on her mind for some reason – especially at church. It got to the point of her becoming emotional thinking about “A”. She shared this with me and the first time, I honestly didn’t think much of it besides her compassion for him – the Proverbs 31 girl I married. Skip ahead a month or two and she still has him on her mind and through some concrete God confirmations, we contacted the adoption agency about him. He had just returned back to Ethiopia from the choir tour and the agency was compiling families that showed interest to the children in the choir. If we were wanting to pursue him, there was no guarantee from the agency. We would have to build a dossier as quickly as we could. So, we did the only thing we knew to do … PRAY! We had a few others praying with us and I still remember us taking a weekend where both Amber and I went out individually for a run to spend time with God. I came back from this run with clarity that He was asking us to pursue this boy. If I believed ‘A’ was my son, why was I holding back? As Eric Ludy says in Depraved Indifference, I should be clawing through a concrete wall to get to him.
So, there it was. We decided to talk to the agency and after a few conversations and understanding that if we did pursue him, we may not be his family. Well, in early October we chose to dive completely in! We knew God was leading us this way. We filled out the application, contracts, paid the contract fees and started working on our home study and dossier. We got almost much of our paperwork done prior to me leaving for Ethiopia in November. I had planned for almost a year to go over to do mission work with my friend Belay who I had met through His Little Feet. The amazing thing that God allowed on this trip was for me to see “A” a couple times while in country. That was just more God confirmation for us that we were on the path He was calling us to.
I got back from Ethiopia, we finished up our paperwork, got our home study approved and were about to send in the documents to USCIS when we got a call from the agency a week before Christmas telling us that they had referred “A” to another family. Even knowing that we may not be his family, there was definite loss/grieving that occurred. We were happy that “A” had a family … we really were. But were we really hearing from God right before? What was His plan in all this? Why would He send us down this path if this wasn’t the answer?! The answer we got was that He wasn’t finished walking down the path with us. That He still had a plan in all this and we needed to trust. Listen, be quiet, step back, and trust.
So, that’s what we did. In the midst of that, a mutual friend had posted in early January about siblings from Ethiopia that needed a family. (Sidenote - we had talked about siblings prior to pursuing “A”). Amber told me about them but we both knew we were not ready to even think about that yet. Amber chose to individually pray for these children and for their family. A month or so goes by and she sees new pictures of these children posted and she emails me late one night after I went to bed asking if I would pray for them and the potential for us to be their family. I learned a long time ago that God speaks through Amber in how He wants to build our family (reference back to Proverbs 31). I’ve learned to listen the first time (usually) :). So I do spend time praying for them/us and the LORD’s direction in that … I remember taking a lunch hour at work and sitting at a table with their pictures out just seeking direction from the LORD. What came was peace. Not really a trumpet sound of this is the exact direction but a peace in moving forward. A friend had shared a similar peace when they were walking through a waiting child adoption as well. So Amber and I agree to start asking questions. Over the next month, we talked to the agency multiple times, our social worker multiple times and other professionals. Again, that same peace remained true.
In early March, we said YES! We had to update our homestudy (current status: we’ve been waiting on a document from another state for weeks that just came through this week). A draft of our homestudy is complete and we’re hoping to have the approved homestudy next week so that we can accept the “official” referral and begin the next steps in bringing our children home.
We can’t show their faces until they are home but it is evident they are Lucht’s and they are part of our family!
We ask for your prayers as we walk this path God is leading us on. I PROMISE to blog more to keep you up to date on our family and our adoption process!
