Our Adoption Story

Just thought we'd share with you our adoption story. It all began about 7 years ago when we went on an African safari to celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary. We traveled to East Africa and went to Tanzania and the Serengeti area. We had a wonderful experience and fell in love with the people and the country.

This is me(Mindy), Abed(our cook), Simon(our guide/driver), and Marc.

We visited a Masai village and they sang and danced for us.

When we returned home, we discussed starting a family and having children. We decided that if for some reason we could not have children we would adopt. We both thought about it and had it in our hearts that adoption was something we wanted to do at some point in our lives. Our trip to Africa had changed us. We saw so much need and poverty, yet the people were so happy.
We quickly got pregnant with our first child only a few months after our trip to Africa. We had two boys in two and a half years and were so happy. We knew that our family was not complete however and we went back and forth deciding whether to adopt or have another child. We kept being led to adopt, but the timing never seemed right. We were so busy with our two young boys and felt overwhelmed at bringing another child into our family. After some prayer and time, we finally made the decision to adopt in August 2009.

Since we had visited Tanzania and loved it, we thought it would try to adopt from there. After a little bit of time and research, Marc soon found out that there was no organized agencies there and it would be pretty much impossible to adopt from Tanzania. We knew a friend from church who had adopted from Ethiopia and said it was a fairly smooth process and loved the agency. We sought out the agency All God's Children and decided to use them. So began our adoption process!! We are now on the waiting list for a little boy age 2-4 from Ethiopia. We can't wait to make our family of four-FIVE!!

There are really not enough words to describe how we're feeling about our adoption. Elated, scared, excited, nervous, passionate, overwhelmed...Adoption is a very emotional journey that comes with its ups and downs. Children, in their very simple way, often say things with more grace, beauty, and love then adults can even imagine. At dinner one night our 5 year old said this prayer which left us all in tears. Here it goes:

Dear God,

Even if Ethiopia(EE-FEE-O-PEE-A) is far away and

Even if we don't know what he looks like and

Even if we don't know how old he is and

Even if we don't know his name

He's my brother

None of that other stuff matters

I know in my heart

He's my brother
Amen

Have more beautiful words ever been spoken? Isn't it really that simple?