365 days of learning to open my eyes.

Picture by Esther Havens of Haiti orphans seeing a tray of food coming down the hall. 

Today last year, Scott and I submitted our application to adopt from Ethiopia to our dynamite adoption agency Gladney. What a journey! I was giddy with excitement when I pushed that "sent" button that emailed the adoption application.  We were finally on our way to becoming parents, and to bringing home children that needed a family. What a thrill to do what Scott and I had imagined doing 3 years ago when we were still dating. That first month I had problems sleeping because I kept wondering what they looked like at 2 am. Were they born yet? Was their family going through something heartbreaking? 

Now that we're on the wait list, those 1st-month questions have come back. I'm antsy to see the faces of our children, to get that call that say's we've been matched with our children. But I wouldn't wish away the 365 days of our journey.

It continues to open my eyes. Like Bono reminded me this week, God is always with the vulnerable, and with the poor. And I'm starting to see it. 

Last year, the main reason I wanted to adopt was because I wanted it.  But the journey continues to change me. This journey has had so many of God's fingerprints all over it that it's been overwhelming. I am not just reading a verse that says God cares about orphans, I am seeing through our story, our friends story, my job at Glimmer, and all those people popping into my life along this path that God is moving to change people's hearts to help the over 140 million orphans in the world.  Moving people to act. 

People like Esther Havens -- a talented photographer who is using brilliant photos to spread the word and tell the stories of some of the most vulnerable of children. Check out her fabulous photos in a recent exhibit called "telling stories that change stories." You can purchase a print.  Here is one of my favorites photos and stories about a young man named David who was forced to be a child solider when he was young, and has found forgiveness and peace from God. 


I continue to run into people like Esther that are living a crazy life to help these children. And it's inspiring. And addicting.

Its been a wild, crazy, frustrating ride to get my heart, and feet to go to a place where God has been all along. I started on this journey thinking I was the one doing it. And I'm coming to see that God is the Great Mover. And the Father to all these fatherless little ones. Instead of the being the one that saves a child through adoption, I'm beginning to see how adopting a child may in the end save me instead. 

 “if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in the darkness and your gloom will become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places” Isaiah 58:9-11