Welcome to the adventure.....

    James 1:27 reads "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." (NIV)  Isaiah 1:17 tells us "Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." (NIV)

    At some point in my early teenage years I read those verses or heard some sunday school lesson or sermon about them....I dont remember the specifics.  But those verses had a profound impact on my young heart.  
    My parents love the Lord and made every effort to be sure I grew to know the Lord as well. We didnt just go to church on Sunday, and say we were Christians.  My parents made sure it was REAL....we served. We worked. We gave. We prayed. We went.  
    At four years old I tagged along on my first missions trip to France.  There were many trips to France, then Peru, as well as serving in our own neighborhood.  I saw faces.....faces of different colors, words in different languages, cultures that were beautiful but so different from mine. I also saw children....children with serious needs...needs for food and water, clothing needs, a need for a shower!  But what hit me hardest in seeing the faces of those children was knowing that they needed LOVE and the Savior who IS love.
    So God started quietly working on my heart....I wanted to help, to love people who had needs.  (I guess thats why I'm a nurse today!)  As my teenage years carried on, I thought about the need for family, and how wonderful mine was.  I knew there were millions of children without love or family- or Jesus. It broke my heart as I read book after book after article about orphans waiting for a family.
    And I thought.......I could help them. Well, certainly not ALL of them, but if I could love one forever, that would make a difference.  There were so many in need- already waiting.  So that's how it started.....at 13 years old I was already feeling God tugging me toward adopting a child one day.  

    Fast forward 20 years and I had been on more missions trips (including a truly powerful trip to an orphanage in Kenya), and sponsored several children overseas.....but it wasnt enough....I still knew God wanted me to give more.  I was happy to give money to sponsor, or give a coat to a child in winter, or pray with a hurting child, but God was still telling me, "There is more you can do.  Give your whole self- give them ME, give them a family, give them love."
    I was willing to take that adventure...so God moved.....He moved in huge ways in the heart of my husband (who had never even considered adoption when we met!).  He moved Dave's heart to the point of willingness too....and we were ready to take the adventure together!

    So here we are....a less than perfect, but willing, family who wants to honor God by not only saying we are Christians, but by following in ways that show His love to others.  We are willing to love and accept the child that God wants to be part of our family!  
    We are excited to see how God will continue to direct us through the adoption process, but we ask that if you are willing- would you please pray for us?  We need patience for the wait, wisdom for decisions that need to be made, faith that God will provide the means to complete the process......
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    Thank you for coming on this adventure with us .....only God holds the map, but we are ready to go!

                                                                                                                 - Nifer