[ When God Speaks, We Listen ]*

Preface:

Deep inhale.

Even deeper exhale.

Let me set the stage for you.  I am sitting at my laptop, I hit New Post and I instantly start crying.

And we are not talking about a pretty cry.  Sobbing. Snot rivers flowing down my face. And I can't breathe.

So here I am, fingers have not even touched the keys and I'm already broken.

Hence starting off with a collective breathing exercise. Maybe there should be "lamaze for bloggers" classes?

I want to share what God has been doing in our hearts, but it has been much harder to bring myself to share than I ever thought.  There are a few reasons why.  We feel very, very humbled by what we believe God is calling us to do.   And we are even more humbled by how clearly He has spoken to us about it.  To know that the Creator of the Universe speaks to us is just too much to take in sometimes, you know?  Then throw in the fact that He allows us to join in HIS WORK is even more weighty. The last month or so has pretty much rendered us speechless, in awe of Him and His plans.  [Speechless, but definitely not dry-eyed.]

It's a lot to take in, but we are thankful.

And as we begin a long and complicated journey, we do so with confidence knowing that we are simply following His leading.

With that being said, [and my tears/snot being wiped from my keyboard], we'd like to ask you to join us in prayer.

We believe God is leading us to do everything that we can to be a mom and dad to 1-3 precious orphaned girls from India.

[The waterworks are flowing again.]

I'll share the full story, details and background on what led us to this point, but I did want to put it out there so that you can be praying for us and them.

We've already begun the process of trying to adopt Anjali, the 10-year-old (as of March 13th!) that David told you about while I was in Africa.  She is the third girl from the front in the photo below:

We are also praying for confirmation about adopting two more, whose names are Sangavi (7-years-old and is the first girl) and Mary (9-years-old and is the second girl).

Wait there is more.

In the meantime, we (us, Bear + Kristen) are going to build a home in India for them and the other 24 orphans they live with.  We are also going to raise money to meet their nutritional, medical and academic needs.

So, yeah, prayers would be incredible at this point.

And like I said, I will answer the million or so questions that I am sure this post will stir up shortly.  It is just that things began to move very quickly after we sat down with our parents and filled them in on what we are doing, and we wanted to let everyone else know the basics so that you would not be completely caught off guard.

Last thing: Can I just tell you . . . that the emails I received after the post about asking for prayer for direction were hilarious.

Almost every single one said the exact same thing, word for word:

"Just tell me. Are you and David moving to a third world country?!?!? Or are you adopting some kids from some third world country?!?!?!" 

So perhaps this post won't catch too many of you off-guard after all. :)