When it all started is a bit blurry . . .

I marvel that it seemed we alone were given a dream in our hearts by God to adopt. We felt like Noah building the ark in our little town. Well, that's not quite true. Our friends Bill and Faith have adopted domestically and from China, and are in the middle of the process to adopt two daughters. What I'm trying to say, though, is, until we entered the process and discovered the internet as it relates to adoption, we never knew that God was sweeping this dream into the hearts of many, many families, most of them devoted Christians! That was such a pleasant surprise to me because these unmet people have quickly become a strong support system for us. They understand, they get it, they don't think we're crazy!

The dream seemed to come out of nowhere until I traced little threads back through the years to see God's handiwork. My daughter Brittany and I went to Romania in 2005 on a short term mission trip to ring handbells and work in an orphanage (not necessarily in that order). That trip changed both of us forever, and yet I felt so useless! All those sweet children and none could be adopted! In the same year God had prompted my yet unknown husband to pick up and move back from Florida to Pennsylvania to rent a house sight unseen, right around the corner from Brittany and I. We never met until the following January when his mother slyly (yes "slyly" not "shyly") seated us side by side at a church tureen dinner she begged him to attend. I was the worship leader there and he attended another church, and boy were we mad! But I guess she knew what she was doing because we have been married now for just shy of five years, a feat which she takes credit for but ultimately it was God! We live in that house around the corner, and my mom lives in the house Britt and I used to live in.

The early marriage was very hard on Brittany - I did not know at the time that she was so unhappy about our life then. Let's just say that even though Rick does not have any children of his own that these next few years gave him some really good experience that might be useful when our daughters, ages 7 and 11, come home from China! We rejoice to say that Brittany, although she now lives a few blocks away with her dad, has come through this difficult time in her life with a strong faith in Christ.

We believe in God's timing. So even though I feel sad that Brittany will be off to college (close by) and I wish that she would be here at least one more year so that we could all bond as a family, I can look back and see that this is when all of this was supposed to happen! It couldn't have happened sooner, and frankly we would be too old if it happened too much later!!!

I know that I never expected to marry again, I never expected the joy of motherhood again, and here I am with a husband whose heart belongs first to God and then to me and then to the daughters that he already loves. His heart is very special. He has this uncanny depth of loyal love for his family. He never gave up on Brittany even when she was really unkind to him and difficult to be around. I give God praise for orchestrating all of this and I cannot thank him enough!

OK - so this is my very first blog. Considering that we did not get email until November 2010, and that I had never heard of the word "blog", I hope this is sufficient. Maybe when I don't have to catch up on five years of history in a few paragraphs it will get easier!

Next time I"ll tell you about lambie hats and the name of our blog . . .