Help bring home baby Castenir!

The other night as we sat on the couch with our girls running circles around the house one dog nipping at their heels and the other in the back yard howling we looked at each other and said “we have a zoo.” Even though there are two of them and two of us most nights we feel out numbered yet at the same time we know that our family is incomplete. When we first started talking about marriage and what our family would look like we knew from the beginning that God was calling us to adopt and that’s where our journey to adoption began…with a calling.

Scripture tells us that children are a blessing from the Lord and when we picture our children we picture our outgoing and fun-loving Hadley, our sweet and cuddly Harper, and our youngest child who may look a little different but will be loved just the same. Children are a blessing from the Lord, although a blessing can sometimes feel like a burden because they are both heavy. Being a parent is a weighty responsibility, but we look forward to the blessing that will come as our family grows through adoption.

We are NOT special because we are ok with doing this. We are the first to admit that it scares us to adopt a special needs child from China. We have prayed that if this is not God’s will that He would take this from us, but the desire grows stronger and stronger with each passing day. Do we want to go through the surgeries and the therapy and the doctor appointments? No. Does our child? No. Does she need someone to fight for her? Yes. Can we be those people? Absolutely!

There are 100 reasons why we shouldn’t do this (as so many people have and will point out to us along the way) but there is one reason why we should that trumps them all – GOD SAID SO – and that is all the reason we need. For us the journey began with a calling. For our child the journey begins with tragedy, loss, and brokenness. For our family the journey will end with the privilege of welcoming our 3rd child into our home.

We invite you to join us on this journey. We know that the journey will be stressful, scary, sad, happy, exciting, and everything in between, but we move forward in the hope that God “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).