Meet the Longstreets

Kevin and I met in college.  We worked together and became friends years before we began dating.  When we married 3 years after our first date, we didn't plan on having children.  We enjoyed spending time together biking, camping, playing tennis, spending time with friends, and traveling.  About 3 years ago, God began to reveal to us that we would grow our family through adoption.  We started the journey by sponsoring a beautiful baby girl from Albania.  She was, in fact, an orphan.  We were unsure how to proceed, so we inquired as to whether we would be able to adopt her.  In that time, we discovered that adopting her would be beyond a long shot and, as it turns out, she has since been reunited with her mother.  Praise God!  We began to pray and seek God's guidance on where he would lead us in our adoption journey.  He lead us to Ethiopia.  With excitement, we completed our homestudy and filed all the paperwork.  We sent our dossier to Ethiopia in November 2010.  Then, the wait portion of "hurry-up-and-wait" hit us.  We have been waiting 20 months to be matched with our little angel from Ethiopia.  At times, it has been difficult to understand why it has taken so long, and why so many roadblocks have been placed in our path.  Here and there, God shows us a piece of His plan.  In the last 20 months, we have become increasingly involved in the life of our church.  We have built amazing relationships with fellow Christians and adoptive families who continue to walk alongside us through every step of this journey.  I have had the blessing to move from a chaotic retail management schedule to a regular Monday-through-Friday, family-conducive schedule. When I look back on the last 20 months, God has been there every step of the way.

A few months ago, God revealed another piece of His plan to us.  As I was looking at the beautiful faces of the waiting children available through our agency, God spoke to me concerning an adorable little 7 year old boy from South Africa.  Adopting older children had also not been a part of our plan.  It seems backwards to start with an older child, right?  I shared this message I received with Kevin.  After discussing it, we talked to our social worker to learn more.  At the time we thought that he was from Ethiopia and that we might be able to process the adoptions together.  The fact that he was from South Africa meant starting everything over again, in every aspect.  New paperwork, new fingerprints, and a new financial burden.  Coincidentally enough, as all this is racing through our minds, God was speaking to us through our sermon series "Faith Is...".  Our pastor said "God will not bless you until you after you step out in faith" and that was exactly what he was asking us to do.

In a whirlwind of events, God has rocked our world once again, and we couldn't be more excited!  Hebrews 11:1 says "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see".  We have faith that God will enable us to bring these children into our family, even though we cannot see the path before us.  We face a tight deadline to come up with the funds to bring him home, but desire to travel as soon as possible (Hopefully we will leave for South Africa in October) so that he can experience the love, compassion, happiness, chaos, struggles, and pure joy of having a forever family.

We are not able to share pictures of "N" until he's home, but come see us at church!  He's a real cutie!!!