My journey to adoption is quite different than my wife's. Growing up as the baby of my family, I never had the opportunity to be exposed to younger children.. Even thinking back to the majority of my high school friends, we were all the youngest of our families and I don't remember any younger siblings around. I have always enjoyed high school aged kids, but even the thought of starting my own family with young children was a bit scary.
I began my career in education right out of college and started teaching and coaching middle and high school students. I developed lasting relationships with students who came from both stable and unstable homes. For the first time, I began to see how adults can be role models and have a lasting impact on children and how much children need those adult role models in their life.
When I was 26 years old I had my first opportunity to visit an orphanage. I went with a fellow educator on a trip to Honduras where we drove a truck from there to Guatemala. He had lived in Honduras for 2 years and wanted to donate his truck to the same orphanage where my wife had spent her years going on mission trips. For the first time I was exposed to a different kind of need that I had never seen before.
Fast forward a few years to when I was 29 and courting Dabney. She boldly confronted me on the topic of a future adoption. From the tone of her question, I knew that this was a passion that she had, but God had not yet laid on my heart. I did say that I would be open to, but it was not a driving issue for me.
Over the past 11 years of our marriage, we have talked about this subject from time to time. Though we have been busy with the raising of our 5 children, we have never stopped and taken the time to pursue adoption until 2 months ago. I was still a bit reluctant since we have much training to do with our current children, but God revealed himself to me through the sell of our home in such a way that now I am the eager one to begin this journey. I am excited beyond anything I can explain or understand to open our hearts and our home to a child through adoption.
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