Pat and I met at Mountain View Community Church when we were in high school. I (Sarah) knew fairly immediately that I was going to marry him...it took Pat a little longer to come around ;) We went to several high school dances together, and were very good friends, but didn't start dating until I went away to college. Once we were "official" things got serious pretty quick, and we were engaged in May of 2006. I graduated college an entire year early so that we could get married sooner. June 10, 2007 was our beautiful, perfect wedding. We settled into married life easily and just loved being together every day. We always knew we wanted kids, but weren't sure exactly when or exactly how many. We didn't wait long before we started trying and found out that I was pregnant on March 1, 2008. Tragically I miscarried that baby on April 13, 2008. We named her Macy and long for the day that we will meet her again in heaven. It was a very sorrowful season of life for us as we grieved the loss of our baby, but the Lord never left us, and we didn't know then how He had planned to bless us beyond our wildest dreams. I gave birth to Weston James on July 29, 2009, Nellie Joy on January 25, 2011, and Trevor Luke on July 15, 2012. Three beautiful, healthy, sweet babies to fill my arms :)
As our family has grown, so have our hearts. After each baby was born, we would pray and ask the Lord to reveal to us if we should have another child and when. Always our hearts have been opened to joyfully accept the blessing of another child and we are so grateful for how the Lord has answered our prayers.
After Trevor was born, I found myself for the first time in a place of not feeling sure if I wanted to do this again. Three back-to-back pregnancies and 4 1/2 years straight of being pregnant or nursing had really taken a toll on me physically and emotionally. Caring for 3 children under 3 is not for the faint of heart...to say that I am tired most days would be an understatement. And yet I look at my life, and I look into the eyes of my children each morning and feel so confident that I am just where the Lord wants me to be. He has called me to motherhood, a noble profession in His eyes, and I desire to serve Him in all things. In my heart I felt a deep desire to be a Mommy again and continue to grow our family, while at the same time my body was shouting to me "NO, PLEASE, DO NOT GET PREGNANT AGAIN!"
On the evening of February 27th we attended a Concert of Prayer at our church. The Lord spoke to my heart in a new way on this night. Pastor Tim Nester while leading us in prayer for our world said something like "If you have a passion for orphans, pray about that..." and so I did. And suddenly it was so clear to me. We were going to have another baby. But I was not going to be pregnant. The Lord was calling us to adopt. Pat and I had talked about adoption before, but always in a far off sense, as something we would do "later", when we had "more money", when we were "done" having our own babies. Suddenly it felt to me that none of those reasons were good enough to put it off. Why not now? We have room now! I shared my heart change with Pat the next day and he didn't share my feelings immediately...but then two days later he went off to pray alone in the woods and he too felt the call to adopt. He read in James 1:27: Religion that God our Fatehr accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
And so here we are, starting the journey to adoption! We have chosen an agency, filled out the application, and made the decision to adopt an infant girl from Ethiopia. We didn't feel any particular call to that country, but given our ages, the ages of our biological children and our current living situation, Ethiopia was the best fit for us. We have two boys and one girl currently, so it made sense for us to adopt another girl. I am pretty thrilled to have another daughter- though someone will have to teach me how to do her hair :)
I know this journey will be difficult and will stretch and grow our family in ways that may not always feel good. But the Lord has spoken, and we must obey. We have room for one more baby. We have room in our home, in our hearts and in our family. We share our story with you, our family and dear friends, in the hopes that you will join us through your support, encouragement and prayers.
