we're pregnant...

okay, okay, so probably not what y'all are thinking.  but we are paper pregnant!  this post has been on my heart for so many months, i am surprised it's finally time to actually try and type it out.  after months or maybe years of praying and having a heart for orphans, our prayers are coming to fruition.  we've decided to pursue an international adoption.  i can tell you that since i was in high school, my heart has been to "work with orphans."  i always assumed that meant working in an orphanage on a mission trip at some point in my life.  i knew it wasn't really a possibility to work with orphans here in texas.  i mean, i did try and follow that desire through my work with birthmom's at an adoption agency and through working with lower income children who were developmentally delayed.  however, life got busy.  college, marriage, work, kids, home school, etc.  but, after we had our third child, the doctor confirmed for us, that due to my history of premature labor and the fact that our second and third babies spent some time in the nicu that it was probably a good idea to not have any more children.  at the time we were told this it seemed natural and fine.  we had three perfectly healthy babies under the age of 3.  we were busy.  we were full.  we had 2 boys and a girl and life was good.  however, our hearts began to stir a little about 2 years ago.  we talked about how we wish we could just have one more.  or maybe we should have just taken some time off from having babies.  or maybe it was just too many babies too quickly.  lots of "what ifs" occurred.  i think we probably tossed the word "adoption" around here and there, but would ultimately decide "we can't afford that."  which is true, we can't.  we aren't rich, we don't have a ton of savings, all the typical responses that you hear and think.  but, i kept researching it.  we'd talk, allan would be on board with the discussions for sure, but then it would get put on the back burner for some reason.  i'm not quite sure when it actually happened, but i think it was on a date night.  they come around about every 3 months. :) i think allan said something along the lines of "so, are we gonna adopt or what?"  i was shocked, not because he hadn't acted interested, but mostly because he rarely brought the discussion up.  so, we started talking more about it.  domestic, international, foster?  the decision seemed overwhelming initially.  after much prayer, we began focusing our attention on international.  one is not better than the other.  you pray about it and decide what is right for your family.  and for our family, international felt right.  the country choices seemed overwhelming.  however, when you sit down and look at all the options on paper and what the requirements are for each country, it tends to pick itself out for you.  so, we chose ethiopia or rather ethiopia chose us.   so here we go, we can't wait to share the ups and downs along the way.  as of now, the next step will be the home study which is already scheduled for the middle of december.  we would appreciate any prayers along the way when you think about it.  

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27