mother’s day one

We were very happy to share our adoption story with our church on Mother’s Day. Below is the transcript of what we said.

Ren Starts:

We’d like to share with you the story of how God built our family through adoption. After about 6 years of marriage, Zach and I were ready to have children. We changed our whole lives in this pursuit. We got new jobs, moved from Texas to Ohio because we wanted to be surrounded by a network of family in order to raise our kids. We bought a house, tried to get pregnant, then found out we couldn’t.

That was the first time we realized that we may have certain plans in mind for our lives, but sometimes God has a different idea, and the steps we take to get where we think we want to go might look very different.

For us, it was a fairly easy decision to adopt. We did research, chose international adoption, went through the mountain of paperwork and thought, “We’ll be family of four in two years.”

And that was the second time we realized that God might have different plans for us, because Colombia approved us to adopt 2 children, ages 0 to 4, when we had requested 2 children ages 0 to 6. While we were thrilled at the thought of having younger children, our 0 to 4 waiting list did not move for two years, while the 0 to 6 waiting list did. It looked like it was going to be a five year wait. Mothers day 1 went by, mother’s day 2 went by and they were very hard because I didn’t know when I was going to be a mother. I wanted something over which I had no control.

Over and over I was reminded of the verse Proverbs 16:9 – In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.

Zach continues:

Last year, a few weeks after that difficult mother’s day, we got a call from our agency. They had a special circumstance. A sibling group of 6 kids was up for adoption. We would have to commit to Colombia to keep all 6 siblings in contact by building a relationship with two other families, but were we interested in the two youngest sisters, age 3 and 5?

Of course! (Heck yes). What an answer to prayers.

Again, this was not the family tree we imagined. Now we’d have “adoptee-in-law” extensions. Might be a bit complicated to explain to your kids! But we also knew and felt that God was presenting us with a blessing.

So, in January, we traveled to Colombia to bring Monica Tatiana and Kelly Johana home to Cincinnati. Here are pictures of the first day we met them.

Monica is six. She’s spunky, athletic, loves all animals, and has a fascination with the US Postal service (mail carriers, mail boxes, etc). She struggles with speech, is a hard worker, and is learning that there is middle ground (not just extremes).

Kelly is four. A chatterbox, she has a vivid imagination, and easy to get along with. She’s so affectionate. She struggles with paying attention and following directions. But learns with laughter.

Adoption is not an easy road for any of us, but it’s a commitment to family that we’ve made to Monica and Kelly. And we’ve experienced a good dose of God’s grace throughout this journey.

We would ask that you keep our family in prayers. The girls are bonding well, but it takes time for the concept of permanent family to sink in. It’s a long process.

We’d also ask that you keep our brother and sister-in-law in your prayers. Their paperwork is currently in Colombia. If or when they’re approved, they’ll head down to adopt Monica and Kelly’s older brothers.

Thank you!