In 1994, when I was 17 years old, I went on my first mission trip to another country. I remember thinking that I was going to go change peoples' lives. I was in Romania for 7 days that summer. Those seven days completely changed the trajectory of my life. I doubt my week there changed the lives of any Romanians, but, it forever changed mine.
I came home from that trip, a broken teenager. My worldview had been rocked, crushed, and simply destroyed. I knew at that point that I was only an itsy bitsy teeny tiny part of something really really big. I knew that if people truly were made in the image of the God who I grew up believing in, then my picture and idea of God had been too simple and too small.
That summer birthed in my heart a desire to learn about other people, other cultures, and other ways of living. I desired to not only learn about them but to understand them- to be a part of them and for them to be a part of me.
I don't know if it was from visits to orphanages in Romania or just a taste of another part of the world, but I knew-- at 17 years old-- that if I ever could give up my independence and have a family--it would include international adoption.
Why Congo? Honestly two months ago I didn't know much about DRC or Congo. We started exploring international adoption. Through talking to agencies, we started to learn about DRC. We learned that, according to UNICEF, there are 5.5 million orphans in central Africa. 3 million of those are in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They are in an orphan crisis.
Basically, through this process, there have been doors opened and doors shut. We are following the path where we are being led. We are excited! We are nervous! We can't wait to see what our family looks like in a couple years.
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