Since you asked...

I thought I'd use this lull in adoption process to answer one of the most frequent questions we are asked regarding our adoption..."So when/how did all this start for you?"

If you are one of the few people that know this answer...or maybe the greater number who don't really care...HAHA...wait...you all care, right?!?...you may choose to wait for another post full of quick witted banter and engaging stories.  Hmmm...better just stay put.

As always, I'll attempt to tell the short version...as always, there never is.

It really goes back to the birth of our 4th child, Ty. Post-delivery, our doctor said that due to all the trauma of 4 births in 5 years, multiple car accidents, and, the biggest culprit of all, large amounts of scar tissue from old injuries (specifically that stinkin collision between myself and that football player...if you don't know THAT story, it's definitely a story for another day!!!) it would seem that my body would not be bouncing back next time! She cautioned greatly about having anymore kids...and while we couldn't imagine it at the time (Landry was still 4 when Ty was born!), we definitely threw around adoption as a possibility should we ever feel like our family of 6 should grow.

SO...when Ty was 2, and I would typically have already had another baby, we discussed it. As each day was a true test of survival for this stay-at-home mom, we quickly moved on to the "divide-and-conquer" discussion as it was much more in demand.

When Ty was approximately 4-5, it was brought up again.  I can honestly tell you it was pure selfishness on my part that tabled that discussion.  We were finally out of diaper bags, sippy cups, and all the trappings that follow around parents of toddlers everywhere they go. All of our kids were in school, and I just wasn't ready to trade that in to start over again.

Another year or so went by, and my parents moved in with us.  We bought a new house with them and moved them from their home of 30 years to a different state, church, everything.  We had a whole new kind of chaos! :)

A few months after that, I woke up one morning with a severe pain in my left shoulder blade.  That pain began what I can only describe as the most horrific series of health and pain obstacles I could've imagined (also for another post)...that lasted until the month before moving to Iowa...approximately 2 years.

It seemed, though, that God had been patient enough with us on this issue because around almost every corner was another adoption story brought into our lives. He continued to put it on our doorstep time and time again until He had our attention. We began to talk about it with our kids, pray hard for guidance, and look and listen for opportunities to follow His call. All along, I think we both thought someone might present a need to us...or that we'd find out about a little one that needed a home...and we were ready and willing to provide. We weren't actively pursuing adoption...just waiting to see what God would do.

And there's where we found ourselves in March of this year when we saw that first picture of sweet "C" on Facebook! Actually most people don't realize that we each separately sent messages to the Kolanowski's asking what we could do to help....I sent one to Laura...Chris emailed Kenney...without ever discussing it.  We both just felt so strongly that God dropped that little girl right in our laps...right into our family...and we've been pursuing His calling ever since.

We all feel like both "C" and "J" are already part of our family.  That might sound crazy if you've never experienced the process of adoption, but from the moment we began pursuing them, they became our family members, and we can't wait to tell them what's been going on at home while they've been living abroad these past 2 years! :)