Coincidence? I don’t think so!

Justin and I have always had many blessings in our lives, and I have always felt like good things happen to me. I used to chalk those good things up to being coincidence, hard work, or good luck. Well I know now that there is no way humanly possible for me to control all of life’s situations. I now believe that God has plans for me and my family. We always have choices, but He puts opportunities in front of us to embrace to fulfill His will. That is part of what makes this adoption journey so important. This will be the first time for Justin and I that we have made a life decision based on prayer. We have recently asked how people knew God was leading them down a certain path. How was it that they KNEW this? Was it just their own wishful thinking? Well we have had a few things happen to us that have finally helped us to understand…

As we continued to really think this decision through, I of course began to read and do internet research to see what the process involved and what to expect. For reasons that I won’t go into on the blog, we knew without a doubt that international adoption is what we were being lead to pursue. So then came the monumental task of making the big decision as to what country would we want to adopt from. You really have to make that decision very early on. This impacts which agency you work with, what paper work is required, how much money is involved, etc… This was an agonizing process for us. How do you make a decision like this? After much contemplation, we decided that we would like to adopt from Russia. I began researching different agencies that have accreditation in Russia and we sent out an email to Children’s Hope International to get some information. While waiting on this information Justin and I struggled big time! Were we sure that Russia was the program for us? The theme for Russian adoptions is the only thing you can be sure of is that things are always changing. It is a very costly program, and Russia requires two trips to the county to finalize the adoption. Doubt began to sink in. One night, we really were struggling. We prayed and asked God that if Russia was the right decision for us then please give us a sign of some sort to let us know that we are heading down the path He has chosen for us. The very next day in the mail we received our first correspondence with Children’s Hope International and it was their Winter 2007 newsletter. As the mail flopped open on the counter this little Russian face was staring right back at me. Coincidence? I don’t think so!