I Refuse

God has been gently tugging at Ryan and I's hearts over the last months. Our hearts ache for the babies with no one on this earth to love them as their own. The babies stuck in orphanages - abandoned, alone. Rows of cribs. No mommy or daddy to hold them just to cuddle and sing to them. No wrestling with daddies for little boys or reading books and putting pretties in hair for mommies and little girls. No cookies or treats snuck by daddy. Or kisses and snuggles from mommy.


So we are going to do something about it. We long to hold one of those children and love them as our very own gift from God. We are currently working on adopting a child from Russia. There are days when I'm tempted to feel that this is completely crazy. And I suppose to some people it is. The thought of loving a child you don't have to. Traveling all the way across the world several times to add a child to your family. Doing it not because it's the only way we can grow our family, but because we feel that's how the Lord is leading us. We could try the whole pregnancy thing again - chances of what happened with Addyson and Braden's preemie situation are just that - small chances and not likely. But even that would be a step of faith. Instead we're seeing a need for the millions of orphans that exist around the world aching for a home of their own. Did you know there are over 800,000 orphans in Russia alone!!! How the Father's arms must ache for them. So we're stepping out with crazy love praying that God blesses our journey to a child and that he allows us to join Him in loving one of His perfectly created children.


There were days, early on especially, when I thought it was easier to ignore the things he was laying on our hearts. I mean it's beautiful here and we don't have orphanages nextdoor. It's pretty easy to pretend that there are not babies without familes and that the tragedies in Japan and all the other horrible things happening in this world just don't exist. Our life is so easy to take for granted. But this song played on the radio once and grabbed me. The lyrics totally spoke to our situation. It's called I Refuse by Josh Wilson. (Make sure to go hit pause on the music playing on the left side of your screen before you listen to this.)




So, please pray with us as we continue on this journey! We'll post updates as we go along so you can know better how to pray for us. We mailed our application off today to the adoption agency we have chosen. This makes it all seem very real; we are excited but also know there are a lot of details that God needs to put together before any of this will actually happen. One step of many, many more to come!!