If you haven’t been to Catalyst, you need to. It truly is an experience and not just an event. This year’s theme is “Tension is Good” and I love the idea of tension. I’ve always found the greatest depth of faith when there is tension.
You may be thinking that this event is “too much production” and “not enough spirituality” but let me push back and say that perhaps you aren’t very teachable. This is an experience where it will make you think whether you agree with what is said or not. It will challenge your theology. The experience will stretch you.
You really never know how things will turn out when you are faithful to what God wants you to do. But in the end, it’s always worth it.
Last October Laura and I officially submitted our paperwork to start our adoption process. We felt that God was calling us to adopt a child for a long time, but finally we felt that the time had come to actually start the main process. We really felt that it was a calling rather than a response to not having children of our own yet. Shortly after we completed our home study where a social worker basically does an interview of us and evaluates whether the way we live is consistent to being an adoptive family. We got through the initial process very quickly since Laura already knew the ins-and-outs since that’s what she does at Bethany Christian Services.
Once the home study was done and we got approval from Korea we started to think about how we would ease into telling our families about it. Of course we had mentioned to our families that we were interested and we got those general responses like “oh, that’s a good thing to do” and expected comments like “you should have your own children first.” From the time a home study is completed, families usually have at least a year before receiving a referral (when you are matched with a child and they provide detailed information of the child) so we planned on breaking our families in over the course of the year.
Now I must admit that we did get pressure from our families to have our own children first and both parents started pushing us to get tested to make sure there aren’t issues with getting pregnant. So to appease them we were in the process of going through those tests. We never really thought that there was anything wrong with us, but thought that it just wasn’t time for us since we felt that we were to adopt first. Nevertheless, my tests came back fine and we were in the process of getting Laura tested.
Instead of lavish gifts or restaurant dinners for my 31st birthday, I want to make a difference for 31 families. I want to protect the children of those 31 families from becoming orphans due to extreme poverty and treatable diseases. We can protect them by simply providing them with clean water! The goal is for people [...]
There are over 145 million orphans in the world. Over 2 million more are orphaned each year because of HIV/AIDS. You read those numbers and you can’t help but be taken back. And that’s where it usually ends. Sure you may even think that there’s something you can do about it, but what have you [...]
I’ve noticed something about my own faith. I’ve noticed that I’ve found faith where there was tension. I found faith in the unanswered questions. I found faith in the face of conflict. I found faith when things didn’t go my way. I found faith in the uncertain future. I found faith struggling with God. I [...]
It’s the freedom that we have in this country that I’m thankful for. That freedom that I enjoy demands my respect for those who fought to make it possible. It’s freedom that all faiths must fight to keep in this country. For what is faith without freedom to choose? My utmost respect and gratitude go [...]
We are nearly done with our home study portion of the adoption process and it feels like we’ve been in the process for a very long time! There’s been lots of paperwork and talking with people to say the least. There’s lots of “white space” too. There’s plenty of time to wait for things to [...]
