Getting Started...

I don't really know where to start with this blog... I have had so many friends ask me questions about Max and about how we came to the decision to add him to our family. It began many many years ago even before Noah was born (and he just turned 13! My how time flies!) ... I started praying about God's plan for our family... I always wanted kids ... but not only those I had given birth to ... I wanted to add to our family through adoption! Greg had always agreed with this plan and we have been praying about it for years ... just when??... and who??... there are so many children in the world that need loving homes... where do you start???

My son, Noah, informed me last fall that if we were going to adopt a child, it better be soon... "I'll be off to college, Mom, by the time you do it!" he said. We have discussed it with our kids for a long time..." should we adopt a boy or a girl?" they would say. And I would tell them that we don't have a choice ... If God wants us to adopt a child, He already has one picked out! But how do we find that child??

So I was sitting on the beach one day, reading my e-mail on my iPhone (its hard to get away sometimes) and my friend Ginger sent me Max's picture. The moment I saw him, there was no question in my mind... That is the child!!! I forwarded it to my husband, "What about Max?"
Then my friend Maria sent me the same picture the next day! They knew that it had been on my heart for a very long time... In fact, I had just told my friend Ann the week before of my dilemma... I told her that God needed to either take the desire to adopt away from me (it was all I could think about) or He needed to make the path clear for us and make it happen! So He answered my prayer and there was Max!

I have prayed for this child for many years and we are so excited as a family... Greg and I and our kids! My youngest daugher, Sarah (7 years old), wrote in her journal that it was the "happiest day of her life" when we told her! My daughter Hannah (10 years old) jumped (and screamed) for joy! My kids even threw a bake sale to raise money for Max's adoption fund --- and they made $47! My son mowed the lawn today and donated the money for Max... You see, they want to be part of the process... They want to know that they contributed to bringing him home! I am so proud of them... Max doesn't know how much he is loved ALREADY!