The Latest

Its been a while since I've been on here as life continues to be busy and full.  

The latest:

A couple months ago I was relaxing during a free moment and I decided to see just what was on TV at 9:30am.  I happened upon a Christ-centered show called "Living the Life" that is geared towards women and mostly revolves around living your life for Christ.  Even though the women were a little annoying (I have to keep it real) I thought that it was awesome that this type of show was on and watched the whole thing.  

The next show to come on was the 700 Club, which I have always known existed but never watched.  I was cleaning the kitchen at this point and half listening when something caught my attention that made me sit back down on the couch.  They were doing a segment on the plight of orphans in the world and showed an orphanage that they support financially.  Then they spoke about adoption and I sat on the couch and cried as I heard about the huge need of these precious children.  I felt the Lord putting orphan care on my heart right then.  

Within the next 20 minutes I had committed to God to do whatever He was asking of me. We've always figured we'd have 3 kids and for the first time I was really seriously considering adoption.  I called my Mom, who I tend to bounce big stuff like this off of, to see what she thought.  She attends a great church in our hometown where a few couples have adopted, including the Pastor and his wife, and she has seen what a blessing adoption is.  She immediately supported the idea and only encouraged me.  

I prayer more about it throughout the day.  

Husband (Mark) came home and I was nervous to bring up my latest passion (if you know me, you know I have many) for fear that 1) he'd think I was making an emotional decision based on a segment of the 700 Club that I'd seen and 2) that he'd not be interested in walking this path with me, which would lead to me not walking this path at all.... at least not in the way I was hoping.  To my surprise, he was 100% receptive to the idea and wanted more info.  We spent the next month researching and researching, committing and backing down, willing to take the financial risk in faith, unwilling to take the financial risk with little faith....and on and on it went.  

We finally came to the conclusion that we will adopt.  We are unsure of God's timing or what that will look like, but we are certain that He has called us to love one of His as our own.  We also decided that meanwhile we'd love to provide foster care for a child or two.  This is something that I'd NEVER thought I'd do.  I was fearful of getting attached to a precious child only for it to be taken, fearful of how taking a child in would alter our comfy already -established family dynamic, fearful of my own personal time being interrupted by the needs of yet another child.  Then I took a step back and looked at the situation not through selfish Alison eyes, but through God's eyes and I saw something that could beautiful and restoring to a neglected soul.  And even if we were to have a child that we fall in love with leave after a short time, that time can be used to provide comfort from the chaos, fun, and to show that child the love of the Parent that will never harm or abandon - God our Father.

So now we are waiting...the thing I do worst than anything else.  

However, in the meantime, Mark and I are starting an Orphans Ministry at our church.  We attend a very large church (5,000+) and there is HUGE potential for this to have a substantial affect on the community.  I am continuously praying that God send us the right people to form this team so that we can get kiddos in Christian homes.  That is the ultimate goal.  I am so excited about what God is going to do.  I have seen Him work through other churches across the country and the results have been awesome.  There are over 300,000 churches in America; if each church committed to adopting one child from the foster care system, foster care would no longer exist as we know it today.  I believe with all my heart that orphans and waiting children need the church to step in and educate and inspire families to change lives for Christ.

So that is the latest...please pray for us. 

 For more info visit: www.icareaboutorphans.com