Sometimes love wins.

There are so many things to say, and I've been having ALL THE FEELS lately, but let's just sum it up and start at the beginning, shall we? 

Three years ago, we answered God's call to adopt a little girl from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We knew this process wouldn't be easy, but we NEVER imagined it would be this hard...or this good.

In September of 2013, we saw the face of a beautiful little girl, and we just knew that she was ours. We accepted her referral and began the court process for our Emily. And in January of 2015, I went and spent ten days with her. Loving Emily was so easy, and we were blessed to call her our daughter for eighteen months. 

On May 19th of that same year,  we lost our beloved Emily when she was reunited with her birth family. That phone call knocked the wind out of our chests. It was so unexpected. It was so out of the blue. It was so painful. And it was so good.

Good, you say?

Yes.

Good.

On May 19th,2015, in the same minute that we lost Emily, our agency told us about another little girl in desperate need of a family.

Another little girl?

What?

Another little girl. 

Even though this certainly wasn't our plan, it wasn't really a question of IF as much as WHEN.

God didn't call us to adoption because of Emily;

God called us to adoption because there is a little girl out there in need of a family.

We still have room in our home; we still have room in our hearts; we still have room in our family.

And there is still a little girl in need of a home. None of those things have changed. 

We  aren't going to lie or sugarcoat it; saying yes to Evie was HARD. While we felt so blessed at the opportunity to say yes, it would have been so much easier to say no. What if someone heard our story and was too scared to yes to adoption? What if we couldn't love Evie the same way we loved Emily? What if she NEVER comes home? What if we lose her too? It was, to put it mildly, a lot. 

We had a choice to make. And in August of 2015, after taking some time to pray and seek God's direction for our family, we said yes to Evie and accepted her referral. Evie wasn't our original plan, but God has confirmed time and time again that she was ALWAYS His plan. And we know without a doubt that His plans are ALWAYS better than anything we can attempt to come up with. During these past twelve months, we have fallen so in love with our Evie. Her name, Evelyn, means 'longed for child', and that is nothing short of true.

During the past three years, a lot of people have told us how admirable we are or how wonderful we are. They've thrown around words like brave and bold and awesome. While those words are very nice, and we recognize that they are coming from a place of love, we have simply been obedient. We turned away from what would have been easy and safe and said yes to Jesus instead. 

We don't feel brave. We don't feel awesome. We certainly don't feel like heroes. We feel BLESSED. We get to be a part of God's beautiful story of redemption for this beautiful daughter of His. We get to be her mother, father, and sisters. We get to call her OURS. WHAT A GIFT IS THAT! 

God is so much bigger and better and mightier than we can even begin to understand. And we have seen His goodness in all things. Even in the loss of time and energy, even through all the tears and frustration, even through the heart-ache of losing one daughter to gain another, He was there. He is so immensely good. But please hear us when we say that even if our story never has a happy ending, HE IS STILL THAT GOOD.

And it's with the biggest smiles on our faces and hearts FULL of joy that we can say that God has made a way through what has seemed like an impossible situation for so so long; OUR DAUGHTER IS COMING HOME....SOON!  He has moved mountains to get her here, and her coming home is nothing short of a miracle.

We literally went from wondering if she would ever come home and thinking that our adoption journey might never have the happy ending we so long for to be packed and ready for a call to travel in three weeks time. 

Needless to say, it's been a little crazy around here---in literally the best way possible.

MY DAUGHTER IS COMING HOME!!!!!!