We had grand plans when we got married in March 2008.  The plan was for Joyce to teach for 2 more years until we were ready to have kids. Then she would quit teaching and stay home with them.  God let us go along in that blissfully ignorant plan for all of 3 months.   In June, God called Nathan to the ministry, and we quickly realized that our plans were not the ones that God had in mind for us.

Almost a year and a half after we got married, we began a new "adventure" when we moved to Abilene, so that Nathan could go back to school.  At that point, the idea of having children took a back burner for a while.  Somewhere around our 3rd anniversary, we decided it was time.  We have now been married for 7 years, and God has not yet blessed our home with children. 

The topic of adoption came up when we were still dating when Nathan said that he’d always thought he’d like to adopt at some point.  Joyce had always looked at adoption as the last possible option. In the summer of 2013, God began to do a work in Joyce regarding adoption when she read two articles (see links below), written by her friend Marv Knox, dealing with what the Christian response should be to the newly passed abortion laws in TX.  Among many other things, God used those articles to drive home the point that as Christians, we need be like Jesus, who is pro-life and not just pro-birth.  That means we need to help women (and men) who find themselves in a difficult situation with an unplanned pregnancy.  That help goes beyond encouraging them to give birth, and it can come in many forms. One of those ways is to provide a loving family, through adoption, to children whose biological parents chose life for their child but can’t or don’t want to raise them.  Is there a better picture of the gospel than bringing a child, born into less than a hopeful situation, into your home as a part of your family forever?

We spent the next year and a half praying and researching different options.  We feel that God is calling us to adopt, even if a biological child comes along someday.   Nathan’s seminary degree is in Family Ministry, and that ministry is to start in our own family through adoption.

Where are we now?  We picked Christian Homes and Family Services in Abilene as our agency and have begun the process of filling out papers.  We went to orientation in April, where God confirmed again that this is the path for us, but our faith will definitely be stretched!  Before we can get on the “waiting” list that is given to birth parents, there is a mountain of paperwork, a home study and the not-so-small chore of coming up with $13,000.  When birthparents choose us, we will need at least that much more to complete the process.

As our friends and family, we urgently need your help and support in these areas:

1)    Most importantly, pray for the child, the birth parents, and us. 

2)    Share our story!

3)    Please donate to our adoption fund.

Get Ready For All Those Babies and Revisiting All Those Babies are the two articles mentioned above.  They are worth the time it takes to read.  In addition to adopting, there are other ways to help, which are mentioned in the article.  God is a life-giver, and He wants you to join Him.  How will you get involved?