My sister is adopting!!!!!

I just talked with my sister today and heard some very exciting news! It looks like they will be adopting not just one but two daughters possibly here in the near future! My sister and her husband have 3 biological children but early on in their marriage God laid on their hearts the least of these and to do foster care. So they've had many children through their home and even though not all of them have stayed permanently God has used them for that period of time in those children's life to share His light and love with them! Here is a picture below of my sister Monica and her husband Nick at Isaac's adoption finalization party, holding Isaac!

I'm so excited for them because we just heard good news that hopefully sometime this year they will be able to officially adopt Katie, my niece! She has been with them for a 1-2 years now and well to us she is already their daughter and she is already my niece but it will be great for them to make it official this year! She is 12 and is very artsy and loves to create things. She is sweet, quiet most of the time and loves to hang with her soon to be sister Sarah, my other niece who is 11.  We are SO excited to make her part of our family like we just did Isaac!

My sister shared with me just recently that they feel God is calling them to take in more children. So they've been praying about it and just found out about a precious young 15 year-old girl who's been through some rough times in her life but she herself is a wonderful young lady who just longs for a family. She is all ready for a "forever family" and so Monica and Nick are going to start the process of getting to know her and hopefully adopting her, Lord willing! They have not even meant her yet but after hearing her story and talking it over and praying about it, they just feel like this is what they should do! I love how obedient their hearts are to our awesome God!

So after getting off the phone today, I wanted to cry! I wanted to cry tears of sadness for what this precious girl and so many other millions of foster care children or orphans around the world have had to go through in their short lives but I also cried tears of joy knowing that God loves her so much and has plans for her and they might include placing her into our family!

There is one BIG need my sister and her family are praying for and asked us to pray for and that is a big passenger van, like a 12 seater or so if I remember correctly. Their van right now is living on a prayer! ;0) It's running for them and they are grateful for that but really they don't know how long this van will last and the most important thing is because they feel like God is calling them to bring in more children they truly need a bigger van that will hold more children. So I wanted to share this with you all who read this because I know so many of you are faithful in praying for things and I would GREATLY appreciate it if you all could pray for my sister and her family, for God to continue to show them and guide them where He wants them and who He wants them to bring in their home but also PLEASE pray for provision, that God would provide a van and all the things they will need in the future as they follow Him!

Here is a picture from this past summer of my nieces and nephews holding Isaac, they LOVE him so much and have such big hearts! When Monica told them about this possible new sister that they might be adopting, they were excited and said how they are happy they can help someone else have a family and are excited to have a big sister! My niece Sarah who is 11 already talks about wanting to do mission work and travel to Uganda...what a beautiful heart she has. It brings tears to her aunts eyes as I cannot wait to see what the Lord will do in her life with that heart of hers! My dream would be to travel in a few years with her to Uganda to love the orphans together over there!

Adoption changes lives, I'm not just talking about the lives of the children being adopted. It changes everyone's life who is involved one way or another in adoption. Through my family being involved in adoption, it has opened my eyes more than I could have ever imagined to things that I truly believe I would never had cared about or developed a passion for, before. It opened my eyes up to the things that matter so deeply to our Creator, it drew me close to Him in a whole new way. As I learned more about horizontal adoption (adoption of orphans here on earth), He helped me learn more and more about my vertical adoption in Him (us being adopted as children of God after Christ died for us). God is ALL about adoption and I am SOOOO thankful that His plans for my life included not only my adoption in Him but for Jim and I to adopt here on earth! I truly am so thankful that my life didn't turn out the way I had originally dreamed or planned ....because it's SO much better!


Jim and I are SO excited to adopt again but we don't know how, when, where exactly or who BUT God does so I am starting to pray just this one prayer...God, if you have more children out there for us, lead us to them! I don't want to be specific, I don't want to plan it, I want to give it to Him and have Him lead us to them, whether they are a baby or a toddler or special needs...He knows the plans He has for THEM and He knows the plans He has for US!