Papa the Farmer and I have felt called to adopt for a long time…. 12 years, to be exact! Every time we get really serious about it and start moving forward I get pregnant. This has happened 4 times now. (And we only have 4 children, so you do the math…. lol). Over the past 12 years the Lord has clearly shut the door on this for us over and over and over again in different ways, and yet not taken the calling away either. It’s like He’s just been saying, “Not yet.” Well, our “baby” is now an active toddler and we believe the Lord is calling us to move forward with adoption. We had no idea if we were supposed to adopt out of foster care, international adoption, adopt a baby… (You’d think after all this time, we would have an inkling!, but we didn’t. Until last Friday. But more about that in a minute.)

Last month we took a road trip to Virginia. Satan really attacked and there was a lot of spiritual warfare going on in our house before this trip. Even the day before we left, I was in tears and just didn’t want to go. It was the kind of spiritual warfare where you know God is doing something amazing because Satan was so desperate to stop it. Papa the Farmer ended up making the executive decision that we were going on the trip anyway (and I was relieved that he made the final decision). So we went. We were supposed to be gone for a week and one thing led to another and another and another.  It was clear that God was doing something, but we didn’t know what. We ended up being gone for a month.

During our last week there, I met a man in a bookstore.  This man adopted a boy from Latvia last year and he was telling me his story.  Now here’s where it gets amazing.  I grew up in Canada and the man who was my pastor when I was a teenager later moved to California.  Last year he was posting Facebook updates about a single Dad who was adopting a little boy.  I had been praying for that man’s adoption.  The bookstore clerk had an adoption story that was very similar to the story I had been praying for.  As it turned out, the bookstore clerk was the same man I had been praying for!  Never in a million years would I have expected to meet him in Virginia!  But there he was.  God had put him in our path!

As we chatted, the bookstore clerk told me about a Christian program where you can host orphans over Christmas and during the summer.  Then he said words that will stay with me forever.

“Don’t let money be the thing that prevents you from adopting.”

That hit me hard.  Money was the only thing preventing us from adopting.  But of course, money should not stop us from following God’s call in our lives.  God has all the money in the world and He can provide it when we need it.

So we decided to move forward in faith, trusting that if the Lord wants us to host children, He will fill in and provide for all the details.  As I announced a few days ago, last Friday we agreed to host a sibling group of 4 children from Eastern Europe over the holidays.  We hope that this is a first step in the adoption process, but there are no guarantees.

When we signed up to host, we were sent a photo directory to look through.  Our assignment was to select which child or sibling group we wanted to host (knowing that we want to move forward with adoption). How do you choose a human being and say “We want this one, but not that one?” UGH. But we managed to narrow down our selection. One amazing thing that showed us that the Lord is leading Papa the Farmer and I both in the same direction is that when we went through the lists of children separately, we both felt drawn to the same children. (And we’re not the kind of couple who agrees on much…. We call our biological children “baby” for the first week of their lives because we are not good at agreeing on stuff and can never pick a name!) However, there was one sibling group in particular that we both really felt strongly about hosting. We listed that sibling group as our “top pick,” emailed our list to the coordinator last night and went to bed.

The next morning I woke up and immediately checked the photo listings. Our “top pick” was still listed as available, but there were also new listings where those same children had been split up. It looked like another home was hosting the girls but nobody was hosting the boys. These children already feel like OUR children and we do not want them to be split up, especially if the other family might be considering adopting just the girls!  (We had no idea if that was the case or not, but it seemed to be a possibility.)  So we had emergency family prayer and then I started making phone calls. I explained to the host organization that we would be willing to host all the children together and I was wanting to know if the children were or were not still available together.  (Remember, there were three separate listings:  girls only, boys only and all four together.)  The woman there said she would call the other family and find out whether or not they intended to adopt and see what would be best for the children. The other family had already paid a deposit and so they would be given priority over us if they decided to move forward with the hosting and/or adopting.  Papa the Farmer and I decided that whatever happened with the girls, we would move forward and host the boys.

There were several hours of waiting, but we got a call back later in the afternoon. They shared some wonderful news with us.  Last night I received an email from the mother of that other family.  Let me allow her to tell you her side of the story:

…Those siblings and their family had been strong on my heart for a while and I thought the Lord meant for us to adopt all of them.  It’s like I kept feeling such a strong tug, yet a pause.  So I finally asked God that if we weren’t meant to adopt them then please have someone step forward to host that group of four.  I waited and still they were listed so thought it best to move forward so we applied to host the 2 girls.  Imagine my surprise when we learned of your desires!

 

It’s pretty rare for someone to agree to host specific children and then those children end up in somebody else’s home.  This is confirmation from the Lord that we have been chosen to host these children, and this sweet, wonderful family has been chosen to host a different group of siblings.  Now we have a new brother and sister in Christ who are covering our family in amazing pray support!

 

Pray, Pray, PRAY!

It’s wonderful to have the extra prayer support because in order for this hosting/possible adoption to happen, we are going to need a ton of miracles over the next several months.  Because there are 4 children, everything that a typical adoption entails will be multiplied by 4.  We are asking you to stand in prayer with us, knowing that the Lord will provide for His children.  We don’t even know yet what our exact prayer requests are… we just know that all 10 of us are going to need lots of prayer!

Here’s some ways you can help:

• We have a Facebook Group called Dubois Adoption Prayer Warriors you can join to hear daily updates and specific prayer requests.
• We have an email newsletter about the adoption that you can sign up for here.
• We have a You Caring Fundraising page for that purpose.  We have 12 days to raise $12,000.  (Any donations are tax-deductible and go directly to the hosting agency, not to our family.)  Update:  The Lord provided the funds we needed to bring the children here!  We are not fundraising at this time.

Please, please share our story and help get the word out.  In our world, $12,000 is a year’s worth of mortgage payments.  That is so much money needed in such a short time that we feel there’s no point in asking people for it.  This money is going to have to come from God and when the money is provided, God will get ALL THE GLORY.  Please help me spread the word so that we have as many people storming the gates of Heaven with these prayers as possible!  God doesn’t need us to pray of course, but it’s good for our souls to be actively praying for other people.  He says “Ask and it shall be given unto you.”  So let’s ask!

(Thank you for understanding that due to privacy and child trafficking laws, there will be details about the children that I can’t share.  But I can – and do –  share Praise Reports!)