Choosing the Birthplace of our Child

In this initial step of the process, I was inspired by a friend who posted about her adoption story. When she went to an orphanage in Haiti to "choose" a child, she described it as "finding her son". To her, the Lord had already chosen him to be their child,and it was a matter of finding the little boy who was already chosen by God. I loved that picture, and I believe it is Biblical. Acts 17:26 tells us that the boundaries of our dwelling place were decided long before we even existed (If I were a saavy enough blogger, I would send a link to her post, but I am not). Narrowing down the location from where you will adopt is a daunting task, especially if you are looking at international adoption, which we are. I have always had an overwhelming love and ache for the continent of Africa. After talking with some fellow adoptive parents, I decided to go with that ache, and through my research, the Democratic Republic of Congo just jumped off the page at me. Perhaps it was the beautiful faces of waiting children in that country. They stole my heart, and the heart of my sweet, once-reluctant husband. A few weeks after we decided to pursue adoption through the DRC, Philip and I were watching TV (something we do once a month or so). And what was on? A 60 Minutes special on a symphony orchestra in the capital city of the DRC, Kinshasa. How wonderful to see that country and to know that we will be forever linked to it and the people therein.