Dear Family & Friends
We are writing this letter with much excitement and expectation of two wonderful gifts from God. As God works through all of us we will see the manifestation of His promise.
Robbe and I started trying to conceive about four years ago. I remember being so excited, we painted a room in our home; in faith, that it would soon be filled with children. Six months went by and still not pregnant. We chalked our failure to conceive up to my tour schedule. People kept saying, “don’t worry about it, as soon as you settle down and are home for good amount of time you’ll get pregnant. So we were not concerned and just kept trying and waiting for my schedule to slow down. Another year came and went and my faith was grabbing its’ knees but we still held on to our faith. We figured it was only a matter of time.
The summer of the third year Robbe decided to exercise and work his faith. He surprised me with a fully furnished and decorated nursery; everything from crib to diapers. I was overwhelmed by his seemingly; limitless fountain of faith. The nursery was evidence of my husbands’ faith (Hebrews 11:1) but for me it was evidence of my failure to conceive. I cried not for joy but in agony; “why me God, I cried; what have I done, why are you denying me the ability to bless my husband with children?” I begged God to do this for my husband’s sake. He was trusting God without wavering, without pause, without doubt; standing on his promise from God.
In the fall of 2009 we went to a fertility specialist that told us that we had only a 1% chance of conceiving without medical intervention and only a 20% chance with medical help. The IVF procedure was quite expensive so we decided to keep trying. God could work a miracle with 1% and what a testimony that would be to other couples suffering with infertility. Six months later and still not pregnant. I did all kinds of research looking for other options with better odds but found nothing that we felt lead to pursue. So we consulted another fertility specialist that told us that getting pregnant with our own eggs was no longer an option. Having to use donor eggs meant that it would cost us at least $40 thousand dollars for the chance to possibly conceive. I was devastated; so I started to really seek God’s face to get some “right now answers.”
What was the purpose of all this heartache; why would God have us go into debt to start our family? I jokingly told Robbe that we would have to make monthly payments on our children. I went on to say that if our kids ever acted badly, we could threaten to return them to the fertility clinic and dispute the charges with our credit card company. Robbe did not think that was too funny but at this point I had to laugh because I had run out of tears. I was praying one day and heard God say that we would not go into debt to fulfill the promise that he made to us. So, I decided to stop grieving and start working to build our family.
I started to research IVF procedures in other countries and discovered the cost was more affordable. I had decided that we would go to Africa to pursue fertility treatments but God had other plans. While doing more research I stumbled across an article about orphans in Ethiopia and my heart began to ache for these children. I knew then that God was moving to fulfill his promise. My faith was restored; knowing that our children were waiting and whether they were to be birth or found we would be blessed with children. I found out that there were millions of children in Ethiopia that had been orphaned by sickness, lack of health care or clean water, and many other issues that were claiming the lives of parents and children as well. I talked to Robbe and found out that he always wanted to adopt. So we were ready to move forward to build our family. Thus begins our adoption journey:
