But not the same exact type of news we have shared the past two times. This news does announce that we are excited to become parents again, by way of adoption.
For the past couple of months, we have embarked on the exciting journey of international adoption, and are pursuing Korea as the home of our child. We are beyond excited to share this with you, our family and friends, and keep you updated along the journey with us!We are in the very early stages of our program, still waiting for documents, visits and evaluations to be completed. Our hearts (and minds) have been challenged greatly over the past several months as we have chosen to pursue this avenue of expanding our family.
Sometime late last year (among the other big decision we made to pack up and move our family to a new ministry endeavor), we began talking about adoption, again. I say 'again' because we have always approached the subject since the beginning of our marriage. It was something we hadn't necessarily said yes to immediately, but was always in the back of our minds. Through various experiences, we learned more and more about the adoption process; about its frustrations and its joys. We were elated for our friends who were in the midst of those adoptions and enjoyed sharing every moment with them! We welcomed their new precious children home, without a thought of what God was doing with those moments.
We continued building our family as God richly blessed us with two wonderfully amazing little boys, who make our life completely chaotic and joyful, all at once. (If you have little boys, you completely understand...chaos is no understatement!) But through the many changes God was bringing about in our lives, we couldn't help but feel this new burden. Sure, we ignored it for a while. (I mean, come on, God...you asked us to move and we did that already. You can't possibly be asking anything else right NOW, can you? I just figured out where the Wal-Mart was yesterday and now you're asking us to bring another child into our home???). Yes, folks, that's totally where my head was.
And then it hit me, in the midst of a Bible study I was doing with a sweet group of ladies from my church: It was all about experiencing a God who goes beyond our imaginations and creates for Himself glory by asking us to step out of our comfort zones to live a life that He has called us into...a life that challenges our comforts, but blesses His name greatly and lives out Scripture. I became broken before him and through much prayer and discussion, we said "Yes, Lord."
Now that we have said "yes," our burdens are that much stronger, but in a good way! We are excited to welcome a child of God into our homes, to teach him/her what an honor it is to serve Jesus and what it means to love and be loved. We pray that as we go through this journey, you, too, will be able to see our hearts, but most of all the power and precious grace of Christ through it all. It is by His plan that He has put this on our hearts and that He is already preparing the way for us to bring this child home.
We do not have a time frame for anything yet, other than we are anxiously hoping to complete our home study very soon and be ready for the call that will change our lives. As we begin this journey, we obviously share this news with you to share the goodness of God and His plan. But we also share with you, asking that you be in prayer for our family as we go through this process, that God will teach us and prepare us for what we are about to experience in not only the adoption, but also in integrating another culture into ours. We look forward to sharing this journey with you all.
In His Love,
The Hensleys
Josh, Heather, Aaron & Benjamin
