What
a journey life truly is! For Jeff and I, that journey has not only been one in
the physical sense as we have moved from one continent to another--to yet
another--in just five years of marriage, but also a journey of the heart as the
idea of adoption went from a light-hearted conversation we once had to a
growing passion that we are living out everyday as we parent our adopted
daughter Grace. Thank you for taking the time to read a bit of our journey and
thank you for considering adoption as a plan for your precious child.
Because
of Jeff’s career in the military, we’ve made four significant moves in five
years of marriage. And what a gift each place we called “home” has been to us!
Moving is often difficult and stressful, but the opportunities we’ve had in our
travels far surpass any of the frustrations. Experiencing new cultures and
meeting people from so many different backgrounds has broadened our hearts and
minds to the needs of this world in a way we could not have anticipated. What a
privilege it is to share with you a bit of how God has used our experiences to
open our hearts (and others’) to His plan of adoption!
For
our first year and a half of marriage, Jeff and I lived near the small
Mississippi town where all my immediate family including my parents, my
grandparents, and several cousins still live. I grew up as an only child in the
house my dad built when he married my mom, and my parents still reside there
today. In contrast, my husband Jeff grew up in the military and lived in
several different homes both near and far from his extended family. When Jeff
was in sixth grade, his parents settled in Virginia and that is where his
parents and also his sister with her family still live today. Although Jeff and
I grew up quite differently in some ways, we both have fond memories of
childhood with a supportive and loving family who taught us values of faith in
Christ and loved us unconditionally. During our time in Mississippi, Jeff and I
had our first conversations about adoption and saw what a special calling
adoption is as we witnessed friends from our couples’ Bible Study go through an
international adoption process with joy and expectation.
In
the next 2 years of marriage, Jeff and I moved from Mississippi to Arizona and
then to South Korea for 15 months. We have many wonderful memories of travels
and experiences from both of these places including hikes from the Grand Canyon
to the Great Wall of China, Christian music concerts in Phoenix to the Korean
Folk Village dances, San Diego’s Sea World to the Korean Everland Amusement
Park, and finally vacation in Hawaii to a ski trip in the mountains of South
Korea. When not traveling, enjoying the outdoors, or working, Jeff and I love
to just relax at home with a good book and/or a great movie. Also, fellowship
with the body of Christ has always been important to us as Jeff and I have both
attended and even started various small group Bible studies in all of the
places we have called home. We’ve also joined and gotten involved in a local
church wherever we have lived and have both grown in our Christian walk through
serving in positions from preschool teacher to media helper to Bible Study
leader. Since I wasn’t able to work in my major as a graphic designer when we
started moving, I took the opportunity to volunteer both within the church and
within the community. One job I served at was as a trained counselor for a
local Arizona Crisis Pregnancy Center, a non-profit life-affirming ministry. As
a volunteer, I was privileged to sit and talk with women one-on-one facing a
crisis pregnancy. I was humbled by this unique opportunity to encourage these
ladies with resources and truth about all of their options when faced with a
crisis pregnancy. In Korea, I volunteered as an English teacher at a home for
unwed mothers, and Jeff and I were both able to visit a couple of local Korean
orphanages while living in this unique country. Furthermore, Jeff and I
continued to be inspired by others’ adoption stories during these two years,
and seriously began to wander if we would have our own adoption story one day.
There
were difficult times too in our journey to adoption. Also during those two
years in Arizona and Korea, Jeff and I went through the pain and disappointment
of discovering that we could not have biological children. This hard time
defined and shaped our heart for adoption on a deep and personal level as we
realized adoption, Lord willing, would be our only way of becoming parents
together. God’s grace was so abundant during those especially painful times as
our marriage grew stronger and as we learned more of what it meant to trust God
for the future.
We
moved from Korea to Italy this past year knowing we wanted to adopt. Within two
days of living in another new country, we got a call from my mother asking if
we would like to adopt a two-year-old little girl. How could we say no? Within
4 months from hearing her name, our beautiful red-headed daughter Grace
officially became ours through a private adoption within Mississippi. Grace has
an amazing adoption story as God seemed to confirm her as ours in even the
smallest details. We were honored to meet Grace’s birth mom and at her request,
have a semi-open adoption in which we send pictures and updates of Grace to her
through a local agency. It is our desire that Grace always know how much her
birth mom loves and cares for her. Grace also has an amazing foster family who
dotes on her as if she was their own child. And, then of course, there is our
family of which Grace made grandparents out of parents, greats out of grands,
and my sweet great-grandmother is now two times great! All of them absolutely
adore our little girl. (Nothing gets grandparents technologically trained like
a new granddaughter who happens to already be great at talking through a web
cam to her family far away!) Oh what an amazing gift from God it has been to
see how much Grace has been embraced by our families and by our military and
church family abroad.Although there was
obviously some adjustment and hard times in parenting a two-year-old, Jeff and
I have truly fallen in love with our “Gracie”, as she’s affectionately called.We treasure the way God has made Grace, and
our biggest hope is that her life and her joy will glorify God and that she
will always find her confidence in Christ and in nothing else this world has to
offer.
Jeff
and I are grateful for your time in reading a little of our adoption journey.
We would love to adopt again, and of course, we just know our Grace would be a
super great big sister! We pray that God’s wisdom and peace is with you as you
consider this most sacrificial and selfless decision.
