As many of you know, Aaron and I have wanted to adopt for a long time. God has impressed on our hearts that now is the time and Ethiopia is the country. Our application to an agency was accepted in February and we are now in the thick of paperwork, home study, and preparation.
Gospel Motivation
There are an estimated 4.3 million orphans in Ethiopia. The children are primarily orphaned due to poverty, and live in both government-run and privately established orphanages. There is much tragedy and sadness and a need for families to open their homes to these children. The paperwork we are filling out focuses on motivation, asking “Why do you want to Adopt?”. We love Africa, we love the idea of having a beautiful colorful family, and we love living an exciting story. On a much deeper level we see that adoption is a powerful illustration of the Gospel. God adopted us into His family through the ultimate sacrifice of His Son. This is key for us, we are rooting our motivation here. Obligation, duty, guilt, or emotion would never suffice. Out of the overflow of what God has done and continues doing for us, is our motivation for giving ourselves to a child in need.
“We are not the solution to the orphan crisis, the cross is. It is the solution to our crisis.” -Dr. Russell Moore, author of Adopted for Life.
Please be praying with us as we are just beginning in this wonderful journey of adoption. There are many unknowns and obstacles ahead, but as we rely on Christ, we are confident that everything will work out how it supposed to.
COMMON QUESTIONS
How long will it take?
There are many variables, so it is tough to say. We have 2-3 months of a paperwork left to do, and then approximately 3-10 months to receive a referral.
Are you trying to adopt a boy or girl?
We decided to leave it open and have it be a surprise. We also are willing to accept siblings so there could be a burst of new Marshalls on the scene.
How much does it cost? How will you get that money?
It is a pretty expensive process $25k-$30K. Currently we are paying for everything out of pocket. Once we get past the home study there are small grants and loans that we can apply for. There are also programs that will match donations of our friends and family, so we will be fundraising soon. At the beginning of this year we were not sure how we would be able to afford this. God showed up. We will be fundraising very little for this adoption.
What agency are you working with?
America World Adoption Agency and so far they are doing a stellar job.
What can people be praying for?
The baby (or babies)
The mother (she may be pregnant right now)
Our marriage, our patience, and for a speedy process
Success in our fundraising
For God to prepare us to be parents
Did we miss anything? Feel free to ask questions in the comments!
Our time in Africa was powerful. It really opened our eyes and directed our hearts. We learned so much about the African landscape, with its massive spiritual and social needs. Some of the experiences we like to describe as “the best worst thing that have ever happened to us”. In the end though, we were convinced that South Africa is where we should be. We truly fell in love with the people and our hearts ache to be back with them.
Disappointment, Decompression and Refined Vision
While in South Africa we were acquainted with several really great organizations; Traditional churches, house churches, and mission teams focused on the un-reached. Our plan is to stay connected and serve these organizations. We had previously decided to work with a church plant in Cape Town, but after further investigation, we learned that it wasn’t going to be a good fit for our us. This was disappointing because it left us with no immediate clear path back to South Africa. But as we talked with our mentors, decompressed from the year and really had a chance to meditate on what we learned it became clearer what our next steps should be.
Returning to South Africa: Inspiration, Preparation and Immigration…
We saw so much opportunity for the Gospel, and met many African leaders we really want to invest in and serve. We are certain that Cape Town, South Africa is where we want to be, long term… That being said we have decided to take some time (a year or so) to prepare before we return. There is MUCH work to do. The first hurdle is visas. It is logistically difficult to live in South Africa on volunteer visas. Volunteer visas last a limited period of time and are restrictive. We have decided to attempt immigrating to South Africa. This does not mean that we will revoke our US citizenship, rather we will pursue dual citizenship. The first step towards citizenship is finding jobs in south africa, or starting businesses. We are really excited at the prospect of starting businesses. The entrepreneurial spirit is a huge need in South Africa. People who can create jobs, develop markets and stimulate economy are in high demand (especially in regards to web technology).
Discipleship & Entrepreneurship
Nichole and I believe our gifting in business may be something that He wants to bless Africa with. Along with simply loving Africans and seeking to bless their communities, we could potentially earn access and influence that would otherwise be unobtainable. We also feel that working and doing business in South Africa puts us in an ideal place to learn the culture. When we first started thinking of going to Africa this was our vision, it has been neat to watch things come full circle and see the vision be more defined. We recently started calling it Gospel Entrepreneurship… Starting businesses with a “double bottom-line”.
This kind of mission work will allow us to create unique community and offer holistic discipleship/development to Africans that we are working with. It would also allow us to be a valuable resource to the ministry organizations that we will be partnering with. If you would like to learn more about this kind of ministry checkout this book On Kingdom Business: Transforming Missions Through Entrepreneurial Strategies
This Year: Working, Learning, Preparing and Adopting
2010 will be a big year. We will be solidifying relationships with sending churches. We are both resuming our jobs; Nichole will be doing dental hygiene and making sure I don’t break something, and I am doing social media consulting in higher education along with launching a new business that creates mobile applications. Sojourn, our church in Louisville, has a pastors school that I will be attending to get further training. To top this all off we feel strongly about trying to adopt a child from Africa this year. We are signing a lease for a little home in Germantown, Louisville, and hope that it will be the last lease we sign in the US for a long time. Needless to say, we need your prayers for all of these endeavors.
Your prayers and support this year have been invaluable. 2009 was a hard year, and we really couldn’t imagine having done it without all of you. The letters, notes, comments, phone calls, emails, twitters, facebooks and messages have truly blessed us.
As always, we love to get comments from you! Feel free to ask any questions too, and from the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU.
I have been doing short term contract work for Southern Seminary and had an opportunity to speak on Social Media and the Gospel.
Social Media is Powerful, Dangerous & Necessary
The seminary has been so welcoming and incredibly receptive to the use of social media for the advancement of the Gospel. It has really been a pleasure.
This video should give you a better flavor of the environment we are living in. The voice you hear is Stephen Murray. He is one of the local leaders of the church plant.
This is a general post to begin casting the vision of where we are and where we are going. There is so much to say here, but I will try to keep it concise. I would love to chat with anyone individually if they would like to know more or if you would like to [...]
Amazing, difficult, profound, adventurous, turbulent, challenging, awesome, character-building, revealing, educational, radical, enlightening, frustrating, life-giving and eye-opening. Thats a decent stack of adjectives to describe the last 6 months of our lives in Africa. The first 3 months we were in Cape Town, South Africa with a missions organization called All Nations. We worked in an [...]
There are 10 christian tv channels and an infantry of churches and cults in Vic Falls, so the environment is very “religious”. Strangely though there is a huge shortage of bibles here. That being said there is much heresy and false doctrine floating around. It was very discouraging at first, especially at bible studies when [...]
This is a guest post from our team member Danielle Kittinger.
I was in the midst of falling into a deep sleep when my dreams became influenced by outside noises. Dogs were barking, followed by a heavy scuffling and blowing, joined by the sounds of running, clapping and calling. Suddenly reality broke through the [...]
