Monday January 16, 2012

Today was a very exciting day as we finally shared for the first time what God had been doing in our hearts! Mike and Martha came over after dinner and we basically picked their brains for 2 hours. It was so crazy to hear how God had laid Dana on all of our hearts. This was the first time that we started to piece together our separate stories. We also got to hear more details about their experience with adopting their little girl from Ukraine two years ago. As their daughter is hearing impaired, Martha and Mike were huge resources for helping us understand what treatment would be like for Dana. We already knew that Dana would need therapy for hearing and speech as well as possible cochlear implants (permanent hearing aids) and facial reconstructive surgery. Martha informed us that UNC Chapel Hill had some of the best auditory doctors/surgeons/therapy in the country and that Duke had one of the best programs for craniofacial issues. We were pumped to hear this and considered it just another confirmation that the Lord chose for us to adopt this little girl for a reason. We are situated in perhaps the best place in the entire country for her to get the type of medical attention she needs! So amazing!!!

While the entire evening chatting with Mike and Martha was encouraging and informative, one of the biggest things I took away from the evening was when Martha talked about Hebrews 11. She told us that there was a particular time in their adoption process that some doubt had set in. That night, her Bible study was divinely appointed to be Hebrews 11, which many people refer to as the “Faith Hall of Fame.” The layout of the chapter is basically, “BY FAITH someone did _____.” Paul just goes on and on about various people who acted out their faith! They didn’t know what was ahead but they had faith in a God who does. That’s exactly where we were. We don’t currently have any kids yet, we’re sort of still like newlyweds, we’re pretty selfish in a lot of ways, and God wants us to adopt a 5 year old little girl? The only way that anyone could really do something like this is BY FAITH! We have no idea what we’ve got coming for us, but we are resting in the assurance that God knows best and we are following his lead.