Sunday, August 29, 2010

Hot Off the Press!

The September issue of Metro Christian Living is in print!  I have about 10 copies for our family members and for Caroline Faith's baby book!


Here is the September issue!! Yay!



And here is the article...the story of how God called us to adopt our baby girl! I just pray that the words I wrote, first of all, glorify God!! All the honor, praise and glory belong to HIM alone. This is our story...but it is not really about us at all...it is all about HIM! And I also pray that He will use this article to encourage more Christian families in our area to pray about God's will for them regarding adoption and orphan care!


I took this picture of the full article and noticed Todd Smith, the lead singer of Selah. His face is on the left, right next to our story. Which I can't help but think is NOT coincidence. You see his wife Angie has an amazing blog, Bring the Rain, that I follow. One day, last fall, reading Angie's blog, I clicked on another blog linked to hers, then from there clicked on another blog, and then ended up on Kristi's blog, the family that adopted sweet Lucy Lane from Ethiopia...and well, the rest is history! :)

Without further ado, here is our story...

“A Baby Changes Everything”

Our family is on a journey. It is a faith journey with our heavenly Father that is going to change our lives and the life of a child…forever. This all began with a God-given season of "holy discontentment". I was no longer content to live a life of complacency, and I began to feel that God was about to call us to do something BIG! However, I was unsure of what His calling would be. During this time, God led me to the blog of a Tennessee family who had adopted a baby girl from Ethiopia. My first thought was, “They are so sweet to adopt, but we could never do that.”

Then I heard God ask, "Why not? What if I asked you to? Do you trust Me? Do you trust MY plan for your family?" And I sat at my computer and wept. He was breaking my heart for orphans, and I knew His calling was beginning to unfold. God had already chosen our fourth child...and she would have beautiful brown eyes, brown hair, and brown skin. But were we willing to take that big step of faith and trust His perfect plan?

At first, I was scared! I knew absolutely no one in our community, church, or the entire state of Mississippi that had adopted from Ethiopia! As I began to pray, I felt very alone and the doubts and uncertainties continued to creep in.

But God soon revealed something profound; we were supposed to be obedient to His calling to adopt from Ethiopia, no matter what! Whether or not our parents approved, our community accepted, our finances allowed, or another local family ever adopted an Ethiopian child...it really did not matter! God was leading us to this child, this was His will for our life, and that was the only thing that mattered!

As we continued praying, God began to blow us away. It was truly one of the most amazing times in our life. Confirmations from Him began to pour in, one right after another. As we started to move forward in obedience, all the fears and uncertainties were replaced with joy and excitement! With every step forward in the adoption process, we grew more confident in His calling. We claimed the following verse from Hebrews over our adoption journey: "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see."

We are putting all our faith in God, believing that adoption is a beautiful picture of His love and redemption. He sacrificed His only Son, so we could become His adopted sons and daughters. Psalm 68:6 says, “God sets the lonely in families”, and we know He will one day set our baby girl into our arms…and into her forever family. This baby changes everything. Our lives will never be the same, and we would not want it any other way!

As we now work on adoption paperwork, we are so thankful to be on this journey to bring our daughter home from Ethiopia! But we do not believe our journey ends when she is home. God wants us to encourage others to seek His will in adoption. My constant prayer is that God would continue to call Christian families to bring orphans from all around the world…home!

I am confident of this: God has a plan that is greater than ours, and it will bring Him glory! The question is, will we be obedient to His calling and be a part of what He is doing? Oh, how I pray we will all respond with a big “YES”!

"...once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act." Proverbs 24:12

19 comments:

Jenny said...

your article is GREAT! so exciting! praise the LORD for opportunities to advocate for orphans!

as for the baby book... we're getting this one. SO cute!

http://www.chroniclebooks.com/index/main,book-info/store,gifts/products_id,6497/title,My-Family-My-Journey/

Hannah said...

That is so exciting!! I hope and pray that your story will touch someone and more babies will find homes full of love.

Debb said...

How wonderful to be a vessel for God to help bring more children to their forever families! You are such a sweet blessing, and this post is beautiful! A true testimony to God's blessings for our obedience! I LOVE how I am "coming to know you" without even meeting you, Alison! You are a beautiful woman ~ not just on the outside, but the inside as well! Blessings to you and your family! :o)

Maggie Ethridge said...

Hi, Alison. We met many years (and a few children ago). My husband Phil and I were in the class below Jody at JA. I've been stalking your blog now for about a month- mostly to see where you are in your home study- we're right behind you!! Our baby will be coming from South Korea hopefully sometime in 2011. I was going to comment on the baby book- but someone beat me too it. We too have gotten My Family My Journey (got it at Barnes & Noble at renaissance). It's perfect- a page for every month of the first year, places for picture of people "that helped us find you", "adoption buddies", a big pocket in the back for some keepsakes. Can't wait to hear that she's done writing your home study- maybe ours won't be too far behind!! Looking forward to reading your article.

Sarah said...

Another idea instead of a baby book is a Life book. We will be making 2 or 3 throughout our daughter's life. It is an amazing thing!

Here are a couple links:
http://www.amazon.com/LifeBooks-Creating-Treasure-Adopted-Child/dp/0970183275/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1283127672&sr=8-1
http://www.adoptionlifebooks.com

Mama Mimi said...

What an amazing opportunity to share your story and God's heart. Praying MANY are touched by your step of faith.

Nicole said...

So glad you got to share your story. I am sure your family will inspire many more!

Kristi J said...

yayyyy, so exciting...See..you guys are celebrities...everyone knows you everywhere!! :) Ok, so the Bring the Rain girl LIVES here in Brentwood and I got to finally meet her at Target this summer...so fun...We were both blog stalked at the same time by the same person...funny huh? So we had chatted before about our "crazy stalker" but never met until Target...small world ..congrats on your article..so awesome, kristi

Kelly Jo said...

Great job Alison...God is using you in a mighty way!!

The Segrest Family said...

LOVE the article! Great job!
The baby book that we have for our boys has an option/addition packet for adoption. They sell the books at Smitten - They are called "The Story of ME" - I'm sure they could get you the adoption extra - if not, you can find it online! The books are beautiful - we love ours! I love that it is binder-style so you can add your own pages to it in an organized way - by punching holes! I also got page covers for mine!

Kelly Johnson said...

Loved your article--you are a great writer and I'm so glad you are able to share your story in that way. I also just bought the My Family My Journey and think it's a good one!

Amy said...

Love it!!!

Also, here is the baby book we got for Elijah. It is wonderful! http://www.amazon.com/My-Family-Journey-Adoptive-Families/dp/0811857379/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1283138327&sr=8-1

Blessings,
Amy

Kelli said...

Awesome story!

God is going to touch lives with this story!

kelli

Unknown said...

Awesome! I am so excited for you all! And at least your kids just played with the mints, Molly would have ate all of them!!

Joshua and Hilary said...

Uhm... how awesome?!?! i LOVE this and you did an incredible job!!!! well done friend!
i love how God burdened your heart- almost taking ya'll off guard. it was the same for us, I just love how God works in the hearts of His people to accomplish His plan!

Go and Tell said...

Great article Alison! That is really exciting!

Unknown said...

Thanks for all your encouraging comments on my blog! It means a lot to know that others are encouraged my what God is doing. So cool that you wrote an article too! To funny! I love your enthusiasm and boldness to following the Lord's calling for your life. That is definitely a step of faith in Mississippi! I am sure the Lord is and will use your family to bring more orphans home! The baby book that I just got is My Family, My Journey. It is only $19.99, and it is cute! Some of the others ones I like were around $100.00 so I decided to pick this one considering my blog will be a scrapbook for his first year home anyway! Love following your journey!

Amanda said...

Can't wait to get my copy! Do you mind if I link to you in my blog about this story?

Steph said...

Great post Alison! Thanks for sharing with us!

I decided to make my own baby book. I bought a scrapbook and found a review on Amazon for "My Family, My Journey." The review had a list of the pages in the book. I'm kind of following what was in the book, but there are things that I wanted to include that were not in the book.