"I am never doing that again!"

That's what Christy said immediately after "we" delivered our wonderful third child, Tommy. I believed her too. Although there had never been any serious complications, each of Christy's pregnancies was more painful and troublesome than the previous. So on that day in May of 2004 we believed our family was complete. It seems that God had other plans...

I had never seriously considered adoption or even another child until we heard that choir of orphans in September of 2005. Christy is right, when she came home and said she wanted to adopt I thought she had lost her mind. Three children were challenging, four would be insane. Over the next year I realized that Christy was both very sane and very serious. So I took it seriously as well and began to pray. I prayed that God would show us what he intended next for our family.

Three children are indeed challenging. Much of the stress, cost, anger, fear, tears and noise in our house can be traced back to one of those three little pairs of hands. But here's the secret, almost all of the true laughter and joy comes from them as well. As each of our children has entered our life a part of me has been scared to death by the changes and new responsibilities that were coming along. Today I can't imagine our family without each of their faces and I have no idea why I was so worried.

As I prayed I realized we had been given more than enough energy, love and time for four children. (Christy is the one who spends all of her time with the kids. If she can handle it, I sure can!) What's more, I eventually had to admit that God had placed a burden on my heart for orphans like those in the choir ever since we had seen them perform. A couple of brief pregnancy "scares" showed me something else as well. I wasn't just becoming willing to raise another child, I truly wanted one! Eventually after some evenings of prayer together I realized what Christy had already embraced. There was room in our hearts and home for another child; a child that needed a family.

As excuses melted away, we knew what we wanted for our family, and we believed it was what God wanted as well. It was time to stop being scared and just get started. So here we are many months later. We have filled out all of our forms and are now waiting to hear from the People's Republic of China of a little girl who needs to find a family. We will keep you posted!