“I’ve always had a passion for international adoption.” I heard these words come from the lips of my fiancé of about six weeks while we were having the conversation about kids that many engaged couples have… How many? When? How many years apart? Of course, these were only rough estimates of what we might look forward to in our future together as man and wife, but it was a conversation that had to happen for us because we are planners. Read’s little bomb shell of wanting to adopt took me slightly off guard, but then I thought to myself, “Well of course he has a passion for that. He’s got it together spiritually, he wants to do everything for God’s glory, and he’s probably only seen the happy adoption stories.” I felt I had a much more realistic view of adoption, I did not feel called to do that, and I was suddenly faced with the need to tactfully let the man of my dreams know that I did not share his passion, without ending our relationship right then and there.
I can’t remember exactly how the conversation went after that. I think I muttered something about not being completely opposed to the idea of adoption, but I didn’t share his passion. I then went on to explain why I didn’t think adoption was a good idea for me. Looking back, I think what it boiled down to was that I had put in my time sacrificing for God. I had waited a long time for the right guy to come along. I had sacrificed and suffered for Jesus by going on mission trips and using my career for His glory. Wasn’t it time for me to live my happily ever after?
God is so good. He loves me so much that He gently leads me through hard times so I can learn to be more like Him. I won’t go into all the details right now of my journey to come around to the idea of adoption, but I did, and I am really excited! If you’ve read any of my other blog posts or followed me on social media, you know that my happily ever after did not turn out like I expected. You know that Read and I have been through a lot of hard stuff and loss to get to where we are today, but we have always come out on the other side of that hard and loss closer to God and each other. I’m a better wife and mother because of it. Now we’re ready to jump into the next big adventure God has for us to add to our growing family. The Walls are expanding by two more feet!
Here’s where we are now: we have applied to adopt from Taiwan. It is a 2-3 year process. It is an expensive and exhausting undertaking, but we wouldn’t know any other way to bring Wall children home. We know God already has all the details worked out.
Want to help? PRAY for us. We covet your prayer support. And if you feel called to do more, we have a link where you can donate.