8,568 Miles: Adopting After Three Biological Children is a Journey of Faith

globeA year and a half ago, I delivered our 3rd child into the world and I said I was done. After 2 c-sections, I did not want to have more children, but God had other plans. Doesn’t he always? You see, that same month that I delivered, struggled to recover and tried my best to tend to my 3 kids (3 and under), God started planting a little seed in my heart. He planted something so crazy that I tried to ignore it. He started pressing the issue of adopting a child onto my heart. Now I know God has a history of calling people to do some crazy things in his time, but this was just insane to me! Why would he put this desire on me now? Life was crazy and hectic already. I couldn’t even make a trip to Target for diapers without spit up in my hair and a child not screaming and throwing her cheerios onto the floor. Let’s be honest, there wasn’t even room in the cart for the diapers. Adoption was never even something I considered, not part of my plan and certainly now was not the time.

But, over the course of 10 months, that little seed grew into something beautiful, an ache, a love, a calling. I truly felt like our family was being called to step up and to step out of our comfort zone in order to bring a child into our family through adoption. I approached my husband with this revelation and asked him to pray about it, as this was something we had never even discussed. Aside from the fact that we were already in over our heads with 3 littles at home, he thought I was a little nuts and he told me he was not on board. As a respectful wife, I simply asked him to please consider it more and pray earnestly about it. Like a faithful spiritual leader, he did just that. Through prayer, quiet time and accountability he sought and wrestled with this idea of adoption. I could hardly wait for an answer from him as I was bursting at the seams with wanting to move forward with this. My husband did not take this lightly, as he shouldn’t. Three months later, he came to me and said that he was confident that we should move forward with the adoption process. I cried tears of joy. It felt like Christmas morning, as I knew that the God given desire of my heart was being granted.mcgintyprayercard

As soon as we said “yes” to God, every fear crept in. How will we handle 4 kids so young? Where will we get $30,000 from to complete an adoption? How will we fit in our 1,200 square foot house? What will our family and friends think? What agency do we use? Where do we adopt from? How will this affect our biological children? Will we easily attach to this child? Will he attach to us? What about his past? Have we completely lost our minds?

The list of questions, concerns and fears went on and on, but one thing remained true. We knew that God has a heart for orphans and commands us to care for them (James 1:27). We truly felt like he had called us to this and we knew we served a BIG God, for whom NOTHING is impossible. So, in February of 2013, we took that huge leap of faith and started the adoption process. We have been tirelessly working on paperwork and fundraising for the last 10 months. We are hoping to have the paperwork portion completed and approved by December of 2013.

We started out with the desire to adopt a little boy ages 0-3 from Ethiopia (we currently have 2 girls and 1 boy). However, over the course of this journey, God has continued to challenge us in our faith and our reliance on him. We recently upped our age bracket to 0-6 years. This adoption process has drawn us into such a sacred and more intimate ethiopiarelationship with God because it requires an abundance of faith, trust and refining. We have learned more about ourselves, our hearts and our willingness to lay down what we think is “best” for us as opposed to what God knows is best. We have reflected more on our spiritual adoption through Christ and just how much God demonstrated his love for us on that cross by giving us a new life. It is our desire to share that love with others, and especially with a child.

This road has not been easy so far, but God has proven himself faithful time and time again. He continues to move us, challenge us and stretch us when we think we cannot be stretched anymore. Just when we think we are in a good place, he asks us to go a little farther. It is a beautiful mess, but we are so humbled to be his hands and feet through adoption. We are walking this journey out one day at a time, trusting that God will connect us with our son in his timing, in his way. 8,568 miles…that is how far away he is. One day he will be here with us in Madisonville, Louisiana. Until then, we hope you will join alongside us on this adventure to bringing him home.

You can keep up with our journey on our Facebook Page; our blog; or in this video by Harmonic Films about our story.

National Adoption Day I New Orleans Moms Blog

Angie McGinty

IMG_0836Angie McGinty is a lifelong Louisiana resident and currently resides in Madisonville with her husband Evan and three children. She graduated from SLU with a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education. After teaching Kindergarten for 4 years, she became a mom and now stays home with her precious kids, whom she plans to homeschool. Angie is very involved at her church, where she serves on the Lead Team, Creative Team and Kids Team. She has a passion for hospitality and party planning. It is her hope that her life is a reflection of her redemption through Christ.

 

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