Our Answer is...

Have you ever been so caught up in the busy-ness of life that you forget your dreams or maybe you delay them for just the “right time?” We were recently awakened to a God-sized dream that began before we were married, when our love was brand new. As mentioned before, Nathan was hit hard with the question several Sundays back:

“What would you do if you knew that you could not fail?”

Only one answer came to Nathan’s mind, but he chose not to share his answer right away(out of fear!). This answer to that burning question camped out in the forefront of his mind for three days. By chance (yeah right), Nathan called Becca on his way home (on Wednesday after the sermon on Sunday) and they spotted each other in an improbable way seconds later while driving. They were overjoyed to share a rare, impromptu lunch date. During lunch, Nathan decides to not let fear continue winning any longer and shares his one answer to that one burning question… ADOPTION!

“What would I do if I knew that I could not fail?”

“I would adopt!” Nathan tells Becca.

And Team Daniel couldn’t be more excited!

So many things and events that we like to call “God-winks” or “divine appointments” occurred leading up to this one answer. For years we have witnessed friends unconditionally love and fight for their adopted child -- Ryan and Janna Beth Hunt, you amaze us! Thank you for your walk, your compassion, and bold spirit. Becca’s mom has encouraged us to think about adoption – Thank you Mom for your boldness, encouragement, and love. More recently, just a day after hearing the sermon in which the burning question was raised, we had dinner with some friends we absolutely adore. And these weren’t just regular dinner plans. They were those kind where it is obvious God wants you to get together. Becca texted Nathan about getting together with them on Monday night (yes, the day after this sermon) but had not had the chance to invite them yet. Moments before she was going to send the text she received a text from that friend inviting us over! Becca immediately texted Nathan saying “God must want us to get together with them. He must have something planned.” These last minute dinner plans turned into an incredible night of them sharing their adoption story with us along with their adoption video that of course had us in tears -- Thank you Johnson Family for a great dinner and conversation that changed our life! 

Another “God-wink” was finding out that we had friends that had adopted who had been praying that God would open our hearts to this for quite some time -- Turner Family, your prayers were answered! And last but not least, friends of ours who had adopted two babies in the last year, just happened to be in town this same week. No way, right!? We were able to have dinner with them and receive confirmation that this is truly something we wanted to do as well as get some answers to some tough questions we had -- Sweet Eller Family, thank you for answering our questions—your love and compassion are truly contagious. Do you see a pattern here? We have been surrounded by such a great community of believers who have displayed this sacrifice and now have challenged us! And we just love the way God packed all these events into one week! After we decided to dive into this, God started revealing to us old conversations we had when we were dating. “Remember when we were dating and we talked about wanting to adopt?” God knows how to get our attention, pulling at our heart and soul. He wakes us up and loves reminding us of things. God-sized dreams, remembered and rediscovered! How Great is our God!  

But then, what would Fenley think?! We knew her heart had been open to adoption for quite some time. Yet, we still wanted to receive confirmation from her that she was prepared and really on board with us. We asked her a couple of times, “Are you sure?” and finally Fenley says, “Stop asking me already, of course it’s okay, of course we should do it. I want to be a sister. Y’all want another kid. And there are babies who need families. Why wouldn’t we adopt!?” After hearing and seeing Fenley’s faith, we knew there was no going back… we were all in. Her faith was so unshakable in that moment and it made us think about Jesus saying “unless you become like little children…” So powerful!

“Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth.

Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!” Psalm 127: 4-5

This scripture has been playing on repeat in our hearts and minds. For a few months Nathan has talked about wanting a full quiver. We aren’t sure what God has willed down the road for Team D, but we believe to add to our quiver right now we are going to do that through adoption. We have officially put in our application with an agency in Tampa, FL and are starting the process of a domestic adoption. We are beyond excited! We will be sharing more details later this week about how you can be involved in this process with us. For now we need your prayers! Many of you have let us know you are praying at 10:23 for us daily and that is such a blessing. Thank you! We love that there’s a community of our friends and family joining in prayer at that special time each morning. As you are praying for us, yourself and others at 10:23, we ask that you join us in praying for our birth mom and our future son. Yes, we said son! We are adding a boy to Team D! We aren’t sure when but we know God has this all planned out in His perfect time. Thanks for praying for us. Thanks for walking with us this far and thanks for joining us in this adventure through adoption. We love thinking about how God adopted us as His sons and daughters. His love is great. May we all rest in His love this week. Praying. Hoping. Dreaming. And waiting!