A Mother's Heart.....

This weekend my mom and I (Zack had to stay in London for a youth event), along with our friends Karen and Chad Bowman had the great opportunity to attend an America World Adoption Seminar just outside of Frankfort, Kentucky. These seminars are intended to provide more information about adoption and American World to prospective adoptive parents, and I and the Bowmans attended to share our adoption experiences with the prospective parents...so cool!

I have talked a countless number of times with family and friends about our adoption, and even after receiving our referral, I have not gotten very emotional while talking about our precious little guy! Well, maybe I should rephrase that...I have shown emotion...joy, excitement, anticipation, love...but I have never cried. That is what I am getting at. So, I had no reason to think that I would have trouble talking to the small group of prospective parents at the seminar. Well, I was wrong. Karen and Chad shared first, and did a great job explaining how the Lord led them to adopt, how the paperwork process worked, how the wait has been, etc. Great job Bowmans! Then it is my turn. When I started out, my voice was a little shaky, no big deal, maybe just a little nerves. Well, the more I spoke, the worse it got, until finally, I could not even talk! AHH! I was thinking to myself, "What is going on here! You are a blubbering mess!" I mean, I wasn't sobbing or anything, but I did have to stop for 15 seconds or so (it felt like forever) to regain my composure, as I couldn't keep talking through the tears.

The part that was the hardest for me was when I tried to talk about Caleb, and when I tried to talk about God's faithfulness to us through the entire process, and when I tried to talk about the miracle of adoption. It was just too overwhelming! I think, somehow, maybe for the first time since we received our referral, I came to a more complete realization of our journey over the last 14 months..... the understanding that God had given us this precious child, the understanding of just how much He has provided for us, the understanding of what a beautiful picture adoption is of .... It just kind of hit me like never before, right in front of everyone...great timing :)

I am very excited to say that two couples indicated they were interested in adopting from Ethiopia! And one of those couples was interested in adopting siblings! Praise God! Prayerfully, that will mean more children being united with more parents. Beautiful!