We have two beautiful girls from Uganda. My husband and I spent 12 years in Africa. We went over with 4 DC and came home with 6! I had NO plans of adoption what so ever, I never even thought about it. Our dear daughter who was 12 at the time said she was praying for us to have or adopt a baby. She prayed for three years. I told her NO WAY, I had four kids in five years and that was enough. (how foolish I was back then)!

Well we were volunteering at a local orphanage in Uganda where we lived and we had our favorite baby there. One day we went and she was dying. They had left her outside the orphanage covered in flies lying on the sidewalk. When I saw her I started to cry and knew that the Lord was speaking to my heart about this little girl. The orphanage had no money so if a child got sick they didn't have the ability to take care of their medical needs. I asked one of the sisters there if I could take this baby to the hospital and I would pay to treat her. They agreed but first I had to ask DH. I prayed all the way home that if this was from the Lord that DD would ask me how if went at the orphanage and then I would tell him about the sick baby. I didn't want this to be all my doing, I had to know from the Lord if He wanted us to do this. So I got home and DH was busy so I thought to myself OK Lord I will not go ahead of you. About an hour later DH asked me how it went at the orphanage I just cried and cried. He told me I could take her home and to the hospital for only ONE night and that I had to bring her back to the orphanage or I would get too attached. I said OK, I took her to the hospital and the (British) doctor said she would not make it through the night, I said OK I will stay the night with her and try to make her as comfortable as possible. We prayed over her all that night. In the morning she just turned the corner and started to respond. The doctor was shocked when he came in to see her still alive the next day. He said if we returned her to the orphanage she would for sure not make it there. So I had to go back to DH and ask if we could take care of her at home. He said OK but she HAD to go back when she was well. He had NO interest in keeping her. By this time the Lord was leading me to adopt this sweet baby, we were bonding every day. I asked DH about this idea and he said again NO WAY. He was done having kids and this isn't what he had planned for his life etc. I began a two week fast for this little girl. Knowing that if I had to return her to the orphanage then the Lord could take care of her even better than we ever could. I was becoming more and more convinced that this was to be our little girl and DH had no interest. He wouldn't even hold her when she was in our home and he gave her no attention. He didn't want to get attached. I asked him to pray about it and he agreed but knowing in his mind that it wasn't going to happen. After two weeks which seemed like forever to me, he said "I can't explain this but after praying about adopting this DC I feel the Lord leading us to do this even though it doesn't make sense in my mind. I was thrilled and gave praise to the Lord who spoke to my DH. BY the way praise God she never did have to go back to the orphanage!

That was eight years ago. The British doctors told us we were crazy for taking her because she was going to be behind and never "normal". She was only 11 pounds at 8 months when we got her. She had been surviving on cornmeal and water in her bottle for the first 8 months of her life. So they expected her to be mentally challenged. Today she is a healthy very smart wonderful little blessing in our lives. DH is head over heals in love with this little one. She brightens our days and we don't know what we would do without our little girl.

I know this is getting really long but two years later we went looking for another little girl from Uganda. I was scared to tell DH I was feeling led by the Lord to adopt another one. I prayed about it first and then when I told him, he said the Lord had been leading him in the same way. Wow what a turn around God did in our lives. I can't imagine life with out our little girls. They are such a blessing in this home. People will comment on how blessed our girls our to be in our home. I tell them that we feel that we have the greatest blessing in having them.

They are 8 and 6 now and I am loving homeschooling them. There is a 10 year gap between our youngest DD and our 4 oldest. They are well loved by their siblings as well and spoiled!

Adoption is an amazing journey. Even thought I didn't pursue this I am so glad the Lord gave us these DD. I would encourage all of you to pray for your DH and let the Lord speak to him. I believe if it is the Lords will He will make it come to be.

Be Encouraged!

Stacy

Stacy,

Thank you for sharing. That really touched my heart. I am so glad God wove all the pieces into place for your family and your precious adopted daughters! I feel Him working in our hearts and last night as we prayed as a family my husband prayed out loud about adoption and if it is God's will for us, to make it known. He is not much into voicing prayers outloud that are very personal and private but he did. So I know God is working in his heart. I am getting excited but also extremely nervous about all of it. Is that normal?

This post was edited on Oct 14, 2009 01:39 PM

These stories are awesome. It is our quiet time here. Keep them coming . . . I have coffee in one hand while the other hand is wiping away the tears. :)

I have written an adoption story but since this is so public I will give you the readers digest version. We adopted 4 children, three at once and one five months later. I had two toddlers about 2 1/2 years old and two babies 6 months and 10 moths at adoption. I also have two birth children so I have done it both ways. Our adoption was planned at our engagement. We never planned on adopting four but God stretched our heart.

We had selected a baby boy and a little girl. The little girl we selected died ten days before we traveled. It was heart breaking and we really had no time to grieve it before we left for our son that was waiting. God used the heart break to stretch our hearts beyond our fears (and yes fear is normal) and we adopted three on that trip, two babies and one toddler. Five months later we went back for our oldest daughter's best friend that had special needs. We knew at the time she had special needs but it was undiagnosed. American doctors said anything from Polio to a degenerative neurological condition that would soon have her in a wheel chair to it could be "fixed by surgery" (which was way off) by looking at video of her. This was something the country asked us to do prior to adopting her to get a doctor that would be "willing to treat her". Other countries do not always understand how America works. But bottom line we adopted her blindly on her special needs which is not something I would recommend except for in the case where you hear clearly God telling you to do that as we did. Then all wisdom is out the door and if you hear a call, you go.

Anyway in truth our dd's special needs turned out to be the best case which was cerebral palsy and very common in low birth weight preemies which she was. In fact two of the children we adopted are really miracles and by all logic for the conditions born under should not be alive. But God had a plan for them and they are beautiful children.

Highly recommend adoption. We had some bumps in the road some pretty huge ones. I would do it again in a heart beat. It was worth it. Pregnancy is very risky as well. And adoption is about the same some people have easy adoptions and some people have harder adoptions. I recommend you consider young under three or three and under unless you feel called to older children and are ready to deal with the challenges that may bring. And if so educate yourself well so you can be prepared.

As far as agencies get referrals from people who have recently used the agency and ask very specific questions. Try to get them on your own if you can. Ask about the care of the children, if the money was all on the level or if more was required once you got in country, and in general everything you can think of to ask about their experience. Make sure they are not connected to the agency and again current in their use. The agency we used changed dramatically since we used them so it is important to make sure it is current. I think babycenter.com has a chat board for adoption and there are many more.

This is all of course for international adoption and I know nothing about domestic adoption except for friends that have done it and it ended up in the end being as if not more expensive through private agencies. Foster adopting of course is something different. The bottom line is wherever you feel God leading you is where you are meant to go. I honestly believe that.

Hope something here helps. I always tell people having a child changes your life and it changes your heart but adopting a child changes your soul forever. You will never be the same person after you adopt and I mean that in a good way. You just can't really understand until you have done it.

Stacy,

I loved your story. We adopted one that was sick as well. Had RSV which was how the first baby died. We actually hid her after we got her out of the orphanage and gave her antibiotics we had brought with us from her future pediatrician. When we left the orphanage the "head doctor" thanked us for taking her and said she would have died if she was left. Man makes plans but God makes our paths straight and changes our hearts on things to His will. Never in a million years would I have said while we were leaving that we would even be willing to look at the children in the hospital but she was there and the very last baby we saw. I knew she was mine.

I am a strong believer that God does not give us more than we can handle and He does make a way for the choices He has for us. Fear is good because it causes us to think but anything worth having in life means you have to overcome your fears and let God lead. Anyway loved your story because I could see that in it.

This post was edited on Oct 14, 2009 06:52 PM

Oh my heart is full! I just love reading all these stories.

Water2wine- thank you so much for your story. It is amazing to see such faithfulness when God calls. And I do believe he is calling us. I feel like it is international adoption but I am open to any plans God places before us. My heart is being drawn to Africa. We'll see what happens in the near future. :-)

Africa is a great place to have your heart drawn too. It was the first place I looked and then after that Mexico. We had not been married long enough at the time for what I could find at the time for Africa and Mexico was not well established. Finally God led me to a place I had never heard of in the end. If you start poking around you will find where you are meant to go and where God has your child or children. It could very well be simply what you feel in your heart is where you are meant to go. Praying for your journey!

When I went to the hospital to meet and pick up our son, I had no idea what to expect. I had only found out about him the day before (foster care). He was a preemie that could not go home w/his Mommy. Turns out, he DID go home w/ her ~ Me!! He was so tiny, needed heart and lung monitors, and his aunt told me, "that baby is going home to die"
He was going home to thrive. God knew exactly what he was doing. He is a wonderful child that truly belongs in our family. Everyone says, "he is so lucky" They are wrong ~ WE are the lucky ones. Adoption is a blessing.