Our "Were Adopting!" announcement letter

" Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after the orphans and the widows in their distress and to keep one's self unspotted from the world." James 1:27

"And whosoever welcomes a little child in My name, welcomes Me." Matthew 18:5

For several months now God has been growing us, teaching us, and leading us down a very unexpected path. Now WE ( Britton, Kristy, Carter and Brysen ) have an announcement to make:


WE ARE ADOPTING FROM ETHIOPIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


We have applied for a little girl aged 1/2 year to 5 years using Christian Word Adoption Agency, and we expect in approximately 18 months we will be traveling to Ethiopia to pick her up. We are very, very excited and we are looking forward to the day when we can hold her in our arms.

Adopting a child is a dream that we never really imagined we would be doing. But we have learned that this is often how God works. We make plans for our life based on what sounds logical to us. We keep God in mind, of course, but we also give alot of thought on what seems fulfilling to us. That is when God steps in and says, "No child. Your life is NOT for your own fulfillment, it is a sacrifice to Me. Follow Me, and I will show you how to have an abundant life. Trust Me. Obey Me, and you will never be sorry you did.

And so here we are. We believe with all our of our hearts that God is leading us to do this. We now we will be faced with many difficulties as a mulit-racial family.We know that we will encounter many stares and questions. But we know that God will go before us in this and He will provide for us in every stage. He will grow us in ways that we can't even imagine right now. We believe that and want that with all of our hearts.

The question came to us lately that if the hospital called and said that they had mistakenly sent us home with the wrong child, and they wondered if we wanted to trade our son with our real biological child. We both realized, that without a doubt, the answer would be, no. We realized that we do not love our boys because they have our genes. We love them because we spend day and night with them, investing in them, and constantly praying for them. We love them so much and that is what makes us their parents.

Suddenly it seemed that everywhere we turned we were learning more about adoption. Friends that we knew were adopting, newspaper articles about the need for adoption, blogs online filled with families that have and were adopting. So we searched The Word for every scripture we could find about adoption. We encountered many passages in the Old Testament describing the special love and protection God gives to the fatherless. He commanded His people to provide for them through prayer and giving. And He promises judgment if people ever mistreat them. He promises to be a Father to the fatherless and makes it clear He will set the lonely in families (Psalm 68:5-6) He also holds close those that are abandoned by father and mother. (Psalm 27:10) It has been our prayer to have a heart more like God's and to love what He loves and to desire what He desires. God has a special love for the orphan and He desires that they be set in families. And what better way can WE love who He loves then to adopt a precious child.

As soon as we said "yes" to God's calling for our family, we decided that so many things in our life made sense. We have often wondered why we have been given such abundance spiritually, physically and materially, when so many people in the world don't have food, shelter, or the medical care they need just to survive. We have felt restless, knowing that WE were certainly made for more that quietly living out our average American lives of abundance. How were WE going to make a difference? We want to live out the words of Jesus the best that we know how and obey him with all of our hearts.

So here we go! Please, please pray for our family. We have no idea what we are getting ourselves into! The process has only begun and we know we will haft to have alot of patience. We read somewhere that "Adoption is not for the faint of heart" and already we believe that. Most days we are excited and some days were wondering if were making a huge mistake. We don't want to make it seem like it was an easy clear cut decision. Even before we were married we talked about someday adopting but it only seemed like a dream. And after casual comments over the last five years and two precious boys later we think now is as good a time as ever. We are SO excited to hold our little girl in our arms and tell her we love her! Carter is even excited and we say many prayers for his sister that wherever she is to let her know that he loves her to!

We know for some of you this will be a very big adjustment. We hope God will open your eyes to see beyond her skin color to her heart. All we ask is that you support our family by praying for us and still loving us and also that you would find a special place in your heart for our little girl and treat her the same as our boys. Please pray for our family! We need courage and wisdom from God. We love you all very much.

" If thou sayest, behold, we knew it not; doth He that pondereth the heart consider it? And He that keepeth thy soul , doth He not know it? And shall not He render every man according to His works? So shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul: when thou hast found it, then there shall be a reward, and the expectation shall not be cut off." Proverbs 24:12&14

*There are 5 million orphans in Ethiopia
*Ethiopia is less then twice the size of Texas
*Between 60-150 million children in the world live on the streets
*There are 147 Million orphans worldwide
*In Ethiopia only 24% of households have access to clean water
*In Ethiopia half of the children never attend school
*In Ethiopia 1 in 10 children die before there first birthday

147 MILLION ORPHANS - minus ONE!!!!!!

"I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will refuse to do the one thing I can do." -Helen Keller