How did this come to be?

That is often a question I hear now days when sharing our burden of adoption for a special needs child. I can answer that in 2 simple words, Jesus Christ. I want to give everyone an in depth view of our hearts concerning this matter, how it came to be, and where we are at now.

To start at the very beginning...

We knew of a couple here in SD, who a while back were in the middle of their first adoption. The Lord had blessed this family with children of their own, yet had placed a deep burden in their hearts for some special needs children in the Eastern Europe. That family has now moved from SD and went on to adopt 3 children total, all with special needs. We prayed for this family through their adoption journeys, followed their blog and watched as their family honored the Lord through adoption.

A couple weeks back I found myself on the site where our friends found their children. I looked at all the children on the site, they were all so precious, all so fearfully and wonderfully made and yet the Lord did not work in my heart until I saw this child. It was almost instant, as if the Lord said...Misty, here is your son, this is why I took Levi to be with me...you have another son here on this earth that needs you now. For those of you reading, who may not know....we lost our son, Levi Wesley in October of last year, he was stillborn. I sat in my recliner consumed with this beautiful boys picture. I continued to look at the other children and came across another little boy, this little boy had down syndrome..precious boy, reminded me alot of Luke and Chad. I showed the boys to Mike that night, we talked about them and prayed for them. I went to bed with those boys on my heart and woke up with them on my heart.

Mike and I talked and wondered if the Lord was calling us to adopt? We both knew this decision would forever change our family, we needed to be wise in our decision.....we started praying and praying and praying. One important thing is that we wanted to do all the research we could to make sure we would even qualify for an international adoption...from what we found, we did. We were seeking the Lord through His Word and he was speaking to our hearts. After a few days, I was very peaceful in knowing the Lord was calling us to this. Mike needed to pray and seek the Lord more, so I waited on him and waited and waited to hear what the Lord had shown him. We both needed to be in full agreement that the Lord was calling us to adoption. On Thursday April 21st we surrendered to the Lord our calling of adoption. This decision was very carefully prayed through. The Lord used his word mightily in those days of praying and seeking Him to direct our hearts. There was so much scripture pointing us down this path. Scripture that we had read many times before yet this time it sank in our hearts like never before...the Lord is so good, He is so kind.

We had these two boys on our hearts. The sweet boy with down syndrome and the 5 year old child, this precious boy born with only one eye and blind in that eye, who also has other medical conditions. We now believe the Lord is calling us to adopt, but who? How do you come to this decision knowing that one boy will be left behind? Mike instantly said, we will pursue this little boy with down syndrome...he will be easier. When I heard that, my heart sank. Oh I did like this little boy but oh how I loved this little blind boy. A few days went on and I felt as if I was loosing some of my joy...my heart was longing for the little blind boy. Anna had piano one Monday afternoon...I sat in the van and sought the Lord to shed some light, to close doors, to open doors, to change Mike's heart if this child was the one He had for us. Why was I feeling so "uneasy" since Mike had announced we were going after this other boy...I should be joyful, after all, just days before this is what I had prayed for, I was joyous of the thought days before.

We came home when piano lessons were over, about an hour later I checked my e mail. I got an e mail that in our eyes closed the door for this little boy with down syndrome. I could have shouted from excitement. The Lord had so kindly, so quickly answered my prayer. I really liked the one boy he was such a cutie and I believe the Lord has a wonderful family looking for him. I will continue to pray the Lord provides that home for him.

That evening I told Mike about the e mail...we agreed this was a closed door for the one boy and an open door for the other. We have given him our hearts, God has put that love there.