Something Far Better

As many of you know, Emily and I have been on this journey of adoption for almost two years now. It has been an experience of patience, with lots of ups and downs. We signed up with South Carolina DSS to adopt a child from birth to three years, and have worked hard through all of their adoption requirements to get to that final point. There aren’t many other things that we would cause us to hang a fire extinguisher in our kitchen and childproof all our cabinet doors. What we didn’t expect, was that somewhere along the way, God would begin to change our heart in some pretty significant ways.

We really believe in adoption of all kinds, but for us, we really felt like God was pushing us in the direction of adopting locally. Specifically, we wanted to be able to help put a small dent in the amount of kids in our foster care system. No child should be without a forever family, and we want to be a part of that solution.

As our journey continued, we began to hear from DSS that there was a great need for something that we weren’t even considering: adopting an older child. We wanted younger kids, to be able to walk through the whole experience of parenthood and to not miss out on the cute kid phase. But some of the stats that we began to hear really shook us. Things like:
1. There are 500 families in the state of South Carolina waiting for kids 3 years and younger.
2. There are 1,100 kids older than that sitting in foster care that are available and waiting to be adopted that no one is adopting.
3. In the US every year, 20,000 kids age out of the foster care system, setting them up to be without a family for the rest of their lives.

So God changed our heart. While we were desiring one thing for ourselves, God was desiring something else, something even better. Ultimately like marriage, adoption is a picture of the gospel. It’s one of selflessness, sacrifice, and love. Looking into our hearts, we understood God was taking us somewhere far better than just filling an empty spot in our lives. He wanted to use our family to be a glimpse of His love.

Emily and I have changed our age range and are now focused on adopting an older child, and we would love it if you and your family would pray for us as God continues to work to bring His best to our lives. We are really excited, specifically as we realize more and more that God has prepared us for this. Through Emily teaching middle school, and my involvement in student ministry, God has been getting us ready for this and building a strong desire in our hearts. Thanks for all the thoughts, prayers, and support that we continue to receive along the way. We love you all!