New Year, New Blog, Our Adoption Journey

"I will not leave you as orphans; 

I will come to you." John 14:18

We've had several friends ask if we have a blog to follow our adoption journey, and sadly I have found myself to be less than savvy in the blog world. Nevertheless, here's the blog, and here's to hoping I can keep it interesting for you!  

Why We're Adopting

On September 27, 2013, we took the plunge and applied to adopt a little boy or girl from Ethiopia! Before we ever married, we had already had conversations about our desire to adopt whether or not we ever have children biologically. Of course, we desire to grow our family biologically and by adopting.  We naturally felt that our life circumstances would prevent us from adopting any time soon, mostly because of finances, and so we began trying to grow our family by getting pregnant. After almost a year of struggling to get pregnant, we finally had a positive pregnancy test! Sadly, we lost our baby a few days later in miscarriage. In a matter of days, we had experienced the highest of joys and the lowest of sorrows: life and death.

As we grieved, we continued to be confronted with the question, “Why are you waiting to adopt?” We still felt that there were obstacles in our way that we just couldn’t get around. But God, who is rich in mercy (Ephesians 2:4), has poured out encouragement and support through our family and our community of faith, reminding us that He is the One who makes straight the crooked paths, who makes the rough places into level ground (Isaiah 42:16), and when there seemed to be no way for man to be reconciled to God, He made a way through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, so that we might be adopted into His family and made co-heirs with Christ (Galatians 4:6-7)! When faced with these truths, we could no longer shrink back from the call to adopt.

We are elated with joy, overwhelmed with excitement, and hopeful for the future! We are stepping out in faith, trusting the Lord will meet our needs along the way as we walk in obedience. In sharing our story, we desire that you will trust in the promise that Jesus has made; “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you" (John 14:18). We've been approved to adopt, already done a significant amount of paperwork, and now we're getting ready to begin our home study.

Homestudy?

The homestudy will consist of a few at-home interviews with our social worker, completing the education requirements for our agency, and of course, more paperwork! I give thanks to God for the grueling task of paperwork - our little Thigpen is worth it! 

We'll keep you updated throughout the process, highs and lows, joys and sorrows, completed tasks and what comes next. Stay tuned!

Happy New Year!!

The Thigpens