We are Adopting!

Michael and I have started a very exciting process of adopting a baby from South Africa. Many of you know our journey through infertility and childlessness. Over the years people have asked us whether we ever considered adopting. Our answer has always been that we are open to it if it is the Lord’s will for us but we didn’t know if this was part of God’s plan for us. 

We considered that perhaps it was God’s will for us to remain childless.  Perhaps God had plans to use us in places where having children would be an obstacle to the work we had to do. Perhaps we were going to serve God in dangerous and difficult places. We didn’t want to be like Abraham with Hagar and try to make our own plans without the Lord.

Michael was confident that we would know it’s God’s will when the right situation presented itself. What would be the right situation? Well, perhaps we opened our front door one day and found a baby in a basket on our doorstep or someone we knew found themselves in a difficult situation and asks us to adopt their child. These would be obvious signs to us that this was God’s plan for us. But as time went on and no clear sign presented itself, we made peace with the fact that this was how God intended us to be. We were content. 

The Right Situation

A few weeks ago, something changed. One of those “right situations” presented itself and we just knew that it was from the Lord. Someone we know in South Africa is expecting and would like us to adopt her baby. In our hearts we just knew that this was what we had been waiting for. As this was going to be a direct placement from the mother, we thought it would be simple. Boy were we wrong!

Inter-country Adopting is a Complicated Process

It turned out to be so much more complicated than we thought.  As residents in Zambia, our screening as adoptive parents must take place in the country where we are habitually residing. This means that this will be processed as an inter-country adoption. Every adoption agency we talked to in South Africa said it couldn’t be done because there wasn’t any established relationship between South Africa and Zambia. Then we had a break-through!

We set up a meeting with someone from the Zambian Ministry of Community Development and Social Work and they were so helpful and encouraging. They told us that we were the second couple from Zambia adopting from South Africa. This meant that there was now an established relationship between South Africa and Zambia and we shouldn’t have any issues. She gave us a very helpful checklist and we are happily working our way through the checklist to submit everything they require for our screening. We left their feeling encouraged because it was evident that the Lord was going before us even in this small detail. 

Please pray for us as we navigate these unknown waters. Pray that God will continue to go before us in this process. There are many factors to consider and we are grateful for the many wise people God has placed in our lives to guide and advise us.