Our Story Part 1 (by Kristin

This is our post of our story from our original blog so it was written right around Christmas:

Sorry it is taken us so long to post this. It has been really busy with the homestudy and of course the holidays.

We have wanted to have children for 4 or 5 years. Through some infertility testing and procedures we discovered that the possiblilty of having biological children was very slim. To continue would require some procedures that were not only very expensive but also something we were not comfortable with ethically.

Adoption is something in which I was always interested, and we were planning on seriously considering adopting in addition to having biological children. So throughout the infertility process this was always an option. The decision to stop pursuing infertility was actually a relatively easy one for us. At that point it was a relief to have a clear path on what was next for us.

We took some time to grieve for the loss of having biological children. Adoption is not a replacement, it is a different path. To be fair to our future adoptive children we had to be at peace.

We feel we have been ready for a while, but were completly overwhelmed by the cost of international adoption. It was something, at that point, we had pushed to the back of our minds in the interest of protecting ourselves.

We have recently started attending a church that we had stepped away from for a while. We have recieved an amazing welcome and support from brothers and sisters in Christ. The growth I have been able to make after finally trusting in Jesus (I have believed for many years but was unable to submit to fully trust)has been such a true blessing from God. We were led back to the church on the cusp of a new ministry that is focused on adoption and orphan care. We were also introduced to an amazing couple who have 6 children, 2 adopted from Uganda. They took the time in thier busy lives to spend an evening with us sharing thier story and listening to ours. Chris and I left there with an excitement that had been missing for a while. However we quickly discarded the idea of Uganda due to the length of time we would have to spend there. Don't you love how God works!

At the same time this was occuring we were attending a small group through our church. One aspect we were focusing on was praying expectantly. We prayed knowing that God could get anything done, but with the thoughts that he wouldn't do it for us. A defense mechanism to protect ourselves from the hurt and disappointment. We realized how important it is to pray with complete faith in God that he will work amazing things in your life.

After that, came the turning point that has been the whirlwind of the last few weeks!!