We’ve been waiting for weeks to share our big news, and the time has finally come. After tons of prayer and thought, and sharing and praying with the people closest to us, we have decided to adopt a baby boy from Ethiopia.

Ever since I went with my parents to adopt my little sister from Romania when I was eighteen, I have known that I wanted to adopt someday. When we visited the baby orphanage in Romania I was overwhelmed by the rooms full of babies, rocking themselves because there was no one to rock them. Many of them no longer cried, because they knew no one would answer. It breaks my heart to know that my little sister was once one of those babies. At the older orphanage, the children ran to us the moment they saw us; the littlest ones climbed into my arms, clung to my legs, and called me “Momma.” I have never forgotten this. It is staggering to realize that there are over 143 million orphans in the world just like this.

We know that God has a heart for the fatherless; His word is full of instruction to care for the abandoned. In Deuteronomy, He continually reminds His people to provide food for the fatherless; Psalm 82 says, “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and destitute. Rescue the weak and needy . . .” and James tells us that “pure and undefiled” religion is to care for the widows and orphans. We have felt God tug at our hearts, and we are finally answering.

Since we have decided to adopt from Ethiopia, we have been overwhelmed by the incredible need we see there. In 2005, the Federal Ministry of Health reported that Ethiopia has 4.8 million orphans. These children have lost their parents because of sickness and disease and because of the terrible famine that Ethiopia has suffered for so many years. Our adoption agency estimates that in Ethiopia three out of four people do not have enough to eat. It is overwhelming to think of how easily we could change a child’s life simply by bringing him into our home and giving him three meals a day.

Of course, we believe that we have much more to offer a child than proper nutrition. Our primary goal in raising this child, just as it is as we raise our son, Caleb, will be to share with him the love of Christ and to help him grow into a faithful man of God. We believe that one of the greatest resources we have to share with our new child will be our beautiful family and friends. Can you imagine the overwhelming love and joy that are waiting to greet this lonely child? It can only be compared to the overflowing grace and mercy that, because of Christ’s love and sacrifice, surround us, who were also once so lonely. In fact, we believe that there is no better metaphor for the gospel of Christ than adoption. When we had absolutely nothing to offer Him, Christ gave up everything to bring us into His family. As Ephesians reminds us, through Jesus Christ, God has adopted each of us as His sons.

Please pray for us as we begin this process. We are told that it will probably take 12-18 months for us to get our baby boy, and we will be traveling to Ethiopia to get him at that time. Pray for safety and health for our little boy, who is probably not even born yet. And please pray for Ethiopia; there is so much suffering there, and our hearts have been burdened by their pain.

We will have so much more to share as we travel this journey, so expect many more posts to come. We thank God that we have such wonderful friends to share our news with.