No, I'm not pregnant - but we are expecting! Gabe and I, along with our girls, are excited to announce that we are currently in the middle of the adoption process down here in the Dominican Republic!! This is a dream that the Lord placed on our hearts over 6 years ago, shortly before we felt the call to join the Freedom Team and move to the DR. (If you want to read a little more about it, check out this blog post from 2014!) With the move to the DR, our dreams of adoption were put on the back burner. We spent the next year raising support, and the following 3 adjusting to our new life in a new culture. In January of 2018, I again felt a tug on my heart towards adoption. I didn't say anything to Gabe at the time. I prayed that if he was feeling the same, the Lord would also place that same tug on his heart. A few weeks later, Gabe told me that he was again feeling the call to adopt! So we began praying and seeking a direction. We weren't sure if it was possible for us to go through the process here, but the Lord opened up the doors. We officially started the process at the end of last year. We are 11 months in and as of a few weeks ago, we officially have a case #!
There's More!
I recently shared with a few of you about 2 little boys in our school - Estaylin and Eliangel. A little over 2 years ago, their father was killed in a farming accident. Just last month, their mother passed away from poor health. When we were given the news about their mother, Juliana, my heart just broke. Estaylin is in Ava's grade and I first met him when we came down on our vision trip in 2014!
When I heard the news about their mom, I immediately went looking for Gabe. Gabe and I both felt a tug on our hearts for these boys. We decided to talk with the president of Freedom, Jason Hilgeman. Before we could even bring it up, Jason approached Gabe and asked him what our thoughts would be of having these boys live with us for awhile. This would provide them with a stable home and the ability to still attend school at Freedom! After talking with the girls, we all decided that we would love to welcome them into our home! A few weeks later, the extended family of the boys agreed that it would be best for the boys to be in our home and they moved in! While at this moment it's a temporary living situation, we have fallen in love with these boys! Our desire and intent is to make them a permanent part of our family! There's a lot of paperwork and a few unknowns that go into that. But we know that God is in control and he already knows what our future family looks like! We hope that it will include these two boys - we are trusting God and are laying it at His feet!
Our current tribe!
Pray for patience for Gabe and I as we adjust to having 5 kids in the house
Prayers appreciated as we learn to raise boys :)
Please pray for the boys as they have been through a lot over the past several years
Prayers as they learn the rules of the house and are learning to fit into our family as well
Prayers for the adoption process as we continue to seek God's guidance in this process. Our hearts desires are to make these boys an official part of our family!
With a growing family, our support also needs to grow with us. If you are interested in joining our team as a monthly partner and walking this journey with us, click the button below!
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