A Table for Six

In 1996, God broke our hearts for children in the world who needed a family. We were on a mission trip to the People's Republic of China. When we got home we started looking into adopting from China, but we did not qualify because neither of us was old enough. You had to be 35 at the time. We new we wanted to adopt, so we turned our efforts to South Korea. God has so richly blessed our lives with three wonderful children. Caleb came home in 1998. Jacob joined us in 2000. Allyson burst onto the scene in 2007. Since Ally came home we have talked off and on about adopting again but not with a lot of earnestness. We knew that if we were to adopt again, perhaps we would consider a child with special needs. Things never went past random discussions, that is until Friday, May 21st.

That night Shelly came downstairs and informed me that she may have found a little girl she would like to adopt. We've started down this path twice before to no avail so I didn't get overly excited. She showed me her information online, we talked about it, and decided to request additional information. By Monday our hearts were in full swing. "God, is this what You want us to do?" We believe the answer is yes.

Grace was born in February 2007, less than a month after Allyson came to our home. It breaks my heart to think about her living without a family for that long. I look at Allyson and think of how much love and how much time Grace has missed. I vow to make up for it. She was born with Down's Syndrome. We can't know the fullness of what we are getting ourselves into, but when the Father moves your heart and says, "This is your child," you proceed.

We are currently in a flurry of paperwork. Mailing here and there. Faxing this and that. Requesting all kinds of things. Filling out one thing after the next in an attempt to complete this process as soon as possible. It's not like the first three times we adopted, where we weren't even on the list until we got everything in. We have already received pre-approval from China. This little girl is our waiting child. Every day is another day she doesn't know her family who already loves her. There is still much to be done. Please join us in praying for this process to complete in a timeframe that can only be explained by the hand of God.

Before we were even married we talked about wanting 4 children. It has always been our dream. I don't know why 4, but that was always the number of children we talked about. Perhaps God placed this number in our hearts. I'm praying that it is brought to completion by the end of this year. I'm praying for God to fill up our table for six.

Brad