Why us?

Our decision to adopt Ana is very recent. The question we get often is, "Why?" Why do we need to do this right now? Why do it at all? You can always do this later when you don't have such young children and when you have more money. There are so many answers to this question...

My first answer is, would you rather us leave her there to be transferred to an institution and likely die within the next year? In other countries it is common at the fourth birthday for a child with Down Syndrome to be sent to an institution where 85% of them die within a year of that transfer. Even if they do live, it is not a healthy or happy life at all.

Second, God called us to her. We felt like God was going to grow our family a short time before we found Ana. At first we thought it would be the good old fashioned way, but then we realized that we were being asked to adopt. I landed upon a site called Reece's Rainbow during my normal online activities one day. It was right after I had been praying for our unknown children. Right away, I knew that this was the place we would be adopting from. I was nervous about my husband's agreement, after all, we had not been talking about a child with special needs. Adoption was a big enough jump in itself. He was supportive and in agreement very quickly.

We were led to Ana after a middle of the night burden to pray. I had seen her face before and been drawn to her, but we didn't think that she fit our search. (I felt, and still feel that there are two little girls for our family. We don't know if we will bring two home right now, or if it will be another child that is in our future.) She was the first face that I saw on the site at that time and immediately I knew that she was our daughter.

The day after that we had our first appointment with a social worker scheduled for just one week later and a lot of work to do. It's all been going very quickly and we hope this continues to be the case for Ana's sake. We cannot be guaranteed that she will not be transferred to an institution while waiting for us, we have to work quickly. We have to pray that God will prevent this imminent transfer.

Why us? Why now? Because we have seen the need and cannot close our eyes to it. We have felt God's call and cannot deny Him. Christ tells us to take care of the fatherless, to open our doors to the needy. We cannot leave this little girl and think someone else will take her, someone else will save her. She is ours to save and she has blessed our lives already.

We do not see our decision as a burden, but as a blessing. We have already been blessed greatly by Ana and we have not even met her. Our lives will change when she joins our family and we believe that it will be a wonderful blessing from God. Thank you Lord for the opportunity to add Ana to our lives. Your blessings are abundant and beyond what we deserve!