In the Beginning

In the beginning... we read a book. Well, that is as near to the beginning as I can guess. I give this as an answer to the most asked question we have received when telling those we know that we wanted to adopt internationally, the question of "why?". Now no one really asks it that way though. It usually comes across in other forms like, "What made you decide to do that?" or "How do you know this is what you are supposed to do?" or "Have you thought about (fill in the blank)?". What they really all want to ask is, "Are you crazy?". And the answer to all of these is simply, yes. So how did it happen? What happened to us that made us snap, go off the deep end, and do something so, well, crazy?
That is where I want to begin here. To begin at the beginning and tell our story, well God's story really, of how He is working His miracle and purpose in our lives. I wanted to be able to share this with our friends, family, and also to share a story with anyone else who is being called to crazy. We had and have more questions than answers, but I can't think of a better way to share ideas than to share our story.
Why adopt, and then why international?
The adopt part is simple, we were challenged by the book, "Radical" by David Platt and by James 1:27. We wanted to find pure religion, and begin to step away from the pursuit of the American dream. I began to ask, why am I working so hard, to earn more money, to have more stuff that I just don't need? Or to put it one way, "We buy things we don't need, with money we don't have, to impress people we don't like" -- Dave Ramsey. We were firmly on that path and we had to ask ourselves, why? Or as Platt put it, I doubt seriously that when I reach the end of my life I probably won't say, "I wish I would have gotten more stuff".
So we began to think of the stuff we were good at and what God have gifted us with, and the first thing we came back with was family. We have a great family. And we came to realize that one way that we could impact a small part of the world was by inviting more people into it-- adoption.
So why international? Well, that is a great story and I will answer that next week in the second post here. Thanks for reading/sharing and most of all thanks for your prayers and support.

Brian