Our story begins where the trailhead ends.
A rocky marriage.
Life pressures.
Infertility.
The deep, dark woods. We've all been there.
Good stories, though, always contain a moment of grace. A moment where the narrative arc takes a surprising twist, and bends toward hope.
For us, that exquisite moment of grace took place in an orphanage in Africa where we met and fell in love with a baby boy named Tesfamariam.
Adoption was our awakening. It's where we discovered a world within our world made up of 4.4 million orphans. As a result, we know we can't go back to life as normal. Instead we feel summoned to a lifestyle of involvement with the "least of these."
My friend Julie gave me this book to read because she thought that I would enjoy it after struggling with infertility and going through an adoption ourselves. It's a short book and it was so good! I don't think I have read a book that I can relate to more. I felt like most of what they wrote was eerily similar to how I felt during some of my darkest days and how we felt as we heard God's call to adopt a little boy from Ukraine. It has renewed my heart for adoption and for loving on orphans. My heart beats so strongly for "the least of these". I am so thankful that God called us to adopt and gave us such a blessing after the immense pain of infertility.
Reading this book has renewed my heart to tell our story.
Samuel's story. God's story.
You see, this isn't my first blog. I started a blog way back in 2005 to share the journey of our adoption. That blog is long gone and there have been 2-3 subsequent ones. Of course, this one is my favorite! I have so many new readers and friends through the blogging community who don't know Samuel's miraculous story. I have a few links over to the left that tell a short version of it. However, I really want to share more of it. So, my hope is over the next few weeks to have posts sharing Samuel's story amidst pictures of our Colorado adventures and daily life.
My hope is that all would see the awesomeness of God....so stay tuned (and keep me accountable if I get lazy with it)!
6 comments:
Looking so forward to reading his story!!
Can't wait! I love adoption stories - each one is so unique and special.
And I'm going to look up that book - it sounds great. :)
Zoe
Hey Rach, I am ready to redo my blog look... I have high speed now. I want to be creative so can you help. I know you mentioned some sites way back when. I want to do a banner too. Do you have time to share some sources again?
Looks like ya'll are having fun! haley
Can't wait to hear Samuel's story.
Oh! I can't wait - it's something I've always wondered - those few years in between when I knew you and saw you all the time...and then didn't...until NOW!!!! and Samuel's miraculous story! God is so good to use our hardships and pain for good!
Rachel, thanks for your sweet comment about the VSD. would love to hear more about Samuel's surgery and everything involved, like where it was done, how old he was, recovery time. Thanks again, Jennifer
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