Overwhelmed

   So, where do I begin? I'm am trying my best to keep everyone up to date because I want you to be on this journey with us, to see what we will be doing and going through to adopt a child from Ethiopia. To be honest, I had no idea there would be this much involved! We received an e-mail about  a week ago with a lot of attachments to print out out; we used an entire ink cartridge printing everything! This information is very detailed and I have to say completely overwhelming when you look at it because everything has to be done exactly how it is stated. We have to get current birth certificates and marriage licenses, apply for passports, take pictures of ourselves with family and by ourselves posed in our favorite activities, get references to fill out paper work, doctors to exam us and give detailed descriptions of our health and have it notarized, detailed description of my running a stop sign 6+ years ago, questions on how we will raise this child up to know about their background and many more pages of things, each being notarized and exactly right. Crazy, huh? Yeah, I am overwhelmed but we will be taking it one step at a time and know we will get it done!
   I posted in the last blog that we'd be sending out letters to our families and friends explaining we were adopting and asking for their help. Well, so far we have had pretty negative feedback and I have to say it can be pretty discouraging. A few comments have been made that we should e-mail Angelina Jolie and ask her to give us pointers on adopting and others have questioned Why would we want to do this? Why do we want a black child? Why don't we adopt from the US? Lots of questions and negative responses but we had kind of expected it from one side of the family anyways. To be honest when I first got these responses, it did make me question our decision and I tried to give them answers but I keep going back to this: The Lord has laid this on our hearts and we might not understand it and others might not either but we are going to continue moving forward. There is a child who needs us out there, a child that God has picked out just for us.
   When I was younger, people's opinions matter way too much to me and if they would have said it was a bad idea then I wouldn't be doing it because it wasn't considered "cool." Not this time! This time we will be going against the grain! We will be the outcast, the crazies, the whatever you want to call us. As the world sees this as an impossible task, I see the Lord moving in ways I have never seen before. I don't understand why people question us adopting a Child?! Does it really matter that much about the child's skin color? Apparently in the world around us, it does, it is socially acceptable to adopt a child from China or Russia but to adopt from Ethiopia is unheard of. I don't see the difference, they are all children desperately needing a family, a home, love, food and shelter.
     We are clinging to the love and support from those around us. We are blessed to have so many great people in our lives! We continue to move forward, trusting in the Lord every step of the way! Thanks for walking this journey with us! :) God is AWESOME!
                                 Elizabeth