The Beginning of the "YES"

5/14/09 (backdating posts to catch up) Well, I (Michelle) am starting here to let you know about how this came to be. My husband (Mark, or Diester as I refer to him) and I have been married for 16 years and we have 2 beautiful daughters, Hannah and Mallory, whom have extremely blessed our lives. Because we have been unable to conceive to full term since our second child Mallory was born, I have always wanted to adopt. God knew it wasn't time yet, and so over the last 8 or so years when I would ask Diester 5 or 6 times (total that is), he always told me "No." I would walk away and convince myself that I probably wouldn't be a good "adoptive" mom anyway. Well, amazing how God works! Not only has he been blessing our marriage beyond my wildest dreams and working on our hearts in our marriage, but we also recently followed the blog of some friends of ours. They were adopting 3 children from the Ukraine, and through their blog we continually saw how God was working miracles in their adoption process. Diester also became inquisitive as to the happening of their adoption through this time. So, as they are in the process of adopting these children and bringing them home, I spoke with the mom and shared with her my ceaseless desire to adopt. She encouraged me to pray about adoption, and for a change of Diester's heart if that is what God wanted for us. Strangely, after we hung up, Diester wouldn't let up on knowing why she had called. After trying to put him off, I finally explained about how she was encouraging me to start praying about adoption, and I also told him that I totally understood that it was not what he wanted. Then he says to me, "It's not that I am opposed to adoption. It's just that we cannot afford it." WHAT!?!? Am I hearing this for real? So, my response to him is: "You don't think that if God wants us to do this, that he will provide!", thinking that whole time in that little bubble above my head, (And so when did you change your mind? Were you going to tell me at some point?) And as the man of Christ that he is growing into, he responds in resolution that we are called as Christ followers to take care of the widows and orphans. Am I really hearing this? My husband finally saying yes to adoption? My fears about being an 'adoptive' mom just melted away, and God even brought to mind the many people who over the years, and even recently, have so blessed us by their wonderful compliments about our daughters, when they had no idea we were looking to adopt. Then his next comment was: "I don't mind adopting domestically, but I don't want to adopt internationally." :-) It didn't really matter to me where God calls us to adopt. I just want to add to our family, which he has also wanted, but it just did not happen. Then we talked about wanting to adopt a boy. I have always wanted boys~~didn't think this would be how I would get them, but thats OKAY! Anyway that God wants this to happen is fine with me. So, that is the beginning of the "YES!" from God. He has brought forth and seen the restoration in our marriage, and is now blessing my desires to adopt with a 'YES', and my husband's desires for more children with a 'YES'. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!