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Now that our family is complete,

we've officially moved.....our blog that is:

Please continue to follow our journey with 3 little ones and a teenager! There's never a dull moment!

http://www.deliveredfromheaven.blogspot.com

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jer. 29:11

As I safely tuck in our babies each night, I strongly feel that it is God's desire for us to share this story with many, not only to give Him all the glory, but to encourage others who have been struggling with the thoughts of how their families will be formed. It is through our trials and obstacles that we see how God is ever present in our lives and how His hands molded the journey to our son. I pray that you are blessed by our story and that God continue to use us as a tool to advocate and ensure that orphans worldwide find the hope and love that can only come from belonging to a forever family.

This is our story. The story of a 30 month pregnancy, one that didn't include morning sickness, cravings or labor pains, but did include incredible tests of patience, an amazing increase in faith, more paperwork than we ever imagined and the trip-of-a-lifetime across the world to be united with our child.

How do I begin to tell the story of a life that was conceived in my heart and not in my womb? Do I start with the three births of my own biological children? With each one my heart would swell with so much love and pride that I thought I would burst. Or do I start with the day I stood in my family room, after recently suffering the loss of a beautiful newborn nephew? As I stood amidst pictures of our family, ones with smiles and reminders of happy memories, that's when I subtlety heard the Holy Spirit whisper to me, “God has blessed you with so much, you should share it with a child.”

I, first would like to point out, that you will find that many times throughout this story I reference God's love and awesome powers, and that is because both Scott and I KNOW that we will have this child because of Him. We truly feel in our hearts that this child was created to be ours and we give Him all the glory for that!

That said, our journey started many, many, months ago, mid September 2003. I continuously felt the urging for another child in our lives. Scott and I had been married for two years and Amanda would once in a while ask, "Mommy, why don't you have another baby?" The question had been tossed to Scott a few times and each time it was brought up, the answer was always, "Our family is perfect. The kids are grown and when Amanda is gone we have our lives to ourselves." Yet, the feeling was getting stronger. Many nights and days I prayed and asked the Lord to help me with this urge. Each time I did, he gave me affirmations that I should follow my heart. So....the research began! I would sit hours on end at the computer doing research about each country that was a possibility to adopt from.

The prayers continued and the affirmations kept coming. I would continue to bring it up to Scott and then the issues went from spending time alone to "where would we get the money?" The money....oh yes, well, I didn't have the answer to that one, so I prayed....and prayed.....and prayed some more. Once again, I kept feeling the Lord would provide (and He did...throughout the ENTIRE adoption process). At that point, it was late September 2003. A friend of Scott's asked him to attend an Emmaus Retreat being sponsored by our church at the time. It was a 3 day retreat. I dropped Scott off with a kiss and a "Please think about it". He smiled and said, "I did....the answer is NO!"

Three days later, I picked Scott up from church and He was flying high filled with the Holy Spirit. The Lord has opened his eyes and his heart (and I must say to this day, my husband is still filled with that AWESOME Spirit!). He kissed me hello and told me "We're adopting!" I sat there driving the car in awe of the change in him during those three days, as the tears rolled down my face.

Shortly afterwards in mid October, we decided to adopt from The Republic of Belarus and on May 29, 2004, we received a referral for a beautiful 9 month old baby boy. The Lord never disappoints us and now together, with God as our pilot, we emerged into the journey of traveling across the world to bring home the child that we felt was intended to be ours, a child we would name Anatoliy Kai. He was going to be ours, or so we thought. God had different plans.

After almost being ready to travel, on October 4, 2004, (a year after being in the process) the President of Belarus stopped all adoptions. We waited and waited and were finally told, after 17 months in the process that they would only release children for international adoptions that were severely handicapped, Kai did not fit that category. Shortly afterwards, we learned that international adoptions had shut down completely. Through months of grieving and fearing the inevitable, we questioned ourselves about whether we should proceed with yet another adoption. The Lord continued to fill our hearts with the desire to adopt a child, and we felt peace about being obedient to what He was calling us to do.

In February 2005, our hearts were turned to The People's Republic of China. A country we had researched, but were under the impression that only little girls could be adopted from. Little did we know that we were wrong. Many boys sit in orphanages in China awaiting a forever family. We did further research and fell in love with the country and its children. On February 11, 2005, we started the process with Harrah's Family Services, an incredible agency that has been holding our hand through our second go-around at bringing home the child that God truly had created for us during those long months of waiting! We sometimes laugh and say that God had wanted us to adopt from China from the beginning, but because our baby was not born yet, we had to take the scenic route via Belarus, in Eastern Europe!

Thank you so much for sharing the joy in our journey to our Chinese blessing, our beautiful little Emperor, Adrian Wen Kai Bombardier!

On December 16, 2005, we received a phone call letting us know that we were being blessed

God's hands were all over our baby's life. We give Him all the glory for this blessing!

Join two excellent agencies' group of Waiting Children and you may just see the face of

Scripture shows us God’s concern and compassion for orphans. Adoption is the most loving and permanent way to care for these little ones. Psalm 68:5-6a says about God, “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families...” " We are called by God to look after widows and orphans in their time of distress." (James 1:27)