UPDATE: March 5, 2011- Please click HERE for our latest update.
Matt and I were married in 2003 and had our first daughter, Lola, 2 short years later. It was just 9 short months after having Lola that we were sitting in church at ‘The Branch’ when one of the members gave her testimony about mission work she had done at an orphanage in Haiti. It was at that very moment that our journey began. God laid it on my heart that we were to grow our family through adoption. I felt that God had blessed us so much, that we could in turn bless others.
So the journey began… We started the adoption process and in November of 2007 we stepped off a plane in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to bring home our sweet baby girl, Kia Saraah. We had an amazing opportunity while in Ethiopia to meet Kia’s birth-mother. Looking at this sweet, beautiful, scared woman, we both realized that had we met her just a few months sooner we could have helped her keep her baby girl.
How can it be that mothers across the world are left in such financial despair that they have to make the choice to give up their children. Kia’s birth mom loved her so very much that she wanted her to have so much more than she was able to give. She made the choice out of love to bring Kia to the orphanage in hopes of her being able to live a life where she would have all that she needs. God brought us to Ethiopia not only to bring home our baby, but also to open our eyes to the need around the world. That trip to Ethiopia changed us, and we could not deny it.
Once we arrived back in the states we tried to continue with our lives as they were. We had our 2 sweet girls, Matt had a great job, and I had a successful photography business. It didn’t take long before the calling of God became apparent.
I can remember it like it was yesterday- Matt and I were standing in the kitchen after he arrived home from work. Matt looked at me and said ‘I think we have it all wrong.’ We were living our lives for ourselves. We wanted better jobs, more money, bigger houses, better vacations and THAT was wrong. So… we started looking into what God had in mind for us, and how we could help the children that are already orphans, and help to prevent more children from becoming parent-less.
God had plan for us and it became obvious, very quickly. I had contacted a missionary in Tanzania and explained to him our situation and asked for some advice. He then put us in contact with another missionary who works with orphans. That missionary just so happened to be home for a few weeks and was living just a few miles from us. I met for lunch with that wonderful lady (yeah lynn!!) and I knew it then. Matt and I were called to work with missionaries. I wasn’t aware at that point that God was going to call us to MOVE to Tanzania… but hey, you just never know what surprises God has in store. So… after a series of events and meetings that could only be explained as the path of God, Matt and I turned in our appliactions to be missionaries. Could we do it?? Could we be missionaries? I am happy to report that after our trip to Tanzania I realized that missionaries are much different than the picture I had in my mind. We don’t have to dress in our sunday best every day. I don’t have to grow my hair long and let it go all grey. And we don’t have to go door to door handing out tracts. Yes, I’ll admit it. That’s what I thought missionaries did.
We are so excited for what God has planned in Tanzania. We know that we can not do anything by our own power, but we are confident that with God’s help and guidance we will be able to accomplish great things in His name.
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