From the beginning...

We are very excited about the journey that God has allowed us to be apart of. We have created this blog to allow our family, friends, and those interested in our call to adoption to follow the journey.

I am Sheila and I have been married to my husband Marty for almost 2 years! I knew even before meeting Marty that adoption held a place in my heart...When I envisioned my life as a wife and a mom it always included adoption. At the age of 18 I was allowed the amazing opportunity to go on a mission trip to Romania where I worked at a Christian children's camp and assisted in medical clincs. After my first trip to Romania I knew that God had placed the calling to adopt in my heart. A few years later I met my husband; we both knew that we wanted to start a family not long after we were married. But Marty and I did not share the same calling for adoption. He thought it was wonderful..but he thought it was for those who could not have biological children or after we started our "own" family. We had discussed the idea of adopting a few times but had decided that we would allow God to show us His plan for our family.

9 months after being married I received a terrible phone call... Marty had been in an accident on the way to work and they asked if I would come and identify his body! While on my way to the scene I was notified that he had been airlifted to LSU medical center and would not make it through the night. I spent several weeks visiting Marty in the ICU not knowing if he would ever wake, or remember me, or if I would have MY husband. God daily reminded me that He would not give me more than I could handle.GOD IS FAITHFUL-Marty not only woke up but he was able to come home months before the DR's expected.

A couple of months after Marty came home I was invited and encouraged to leave his side and attend a Women of Faith conference. It was a great weekend but what spoke to my heart most was a testimony by Steven Curtis Chapman. He told his adoption story..and God began to remind me of the calling He had placed on my heart. Several times.. I told God NO! I thought, "how can Marty & I prepare for an adoption, we are going through so much. Besides, Marty is not even interested in adoption..." God said, "I will not give you more than you can handle...and He then asked how do you know he is not interested?!" When I returned from the conference I revisited the idea of adoption with Marty. Little did I know God had been preparing his heart for adoption!!!! The accident had forced Marty to slow down and take in all of the blessings that God had given him. He knew that God allowed him the opportunity to survive the accident to serve HIM in a mighty way! What better way to share God's love?! We began daily seeking and praying that if adoption was God's plan for our family that he would show us what agency, what country, when to begin, and most importantly who!

After a few months God confirmed in our hearts that adoption was His plan for our family, and what agency we were to use. So we began looking to see when/if they would be having a seminar in our area. We were amazed to see that they would be having a seminar in our area in just a few weeks!(God is good!) We anxiously registered with the intent of exploring China adoptions. A few days before the seminar I told Marty "God said NO to China." He said "Ok..where did he say?" I said "Im not sure..maybe Russia area. but not exactly Russia!" Im sure he thought I was crazy! When we arrived at the seminar God immediately confirmed China was not where he was leading us.. BUT it wasn't until the end of the seminar that God told us where! We listened to a couple share about their adoption, it was while they were speaking that God spoke to us BOTH and said thats it-Kazakhstan! We were both eager to answer His calling but "God, where in the world is Kazakhstan?" Kazakhstan is located between China and Russia!!! It all began to make sense!!! God has confirmed what agency and where...but we still did not know when and who.

We continued to pray about when our journey would begin. Marty was asked to share with our church family his testimony about the accident and his life since. God told him to share with them about the plan to adopt. We had committed to God but we were scared to make our commitment public not knowing when we would begin the adoption process. God said "have Faith in ME and I will show you." So, in faith, Marty shared our GOOD news with our church family! Almost immediately after sharing our commitment God told us to begin NOW!