Another step in my adoption journey

I am about to embark on yet another step in my adoption journey. One that I never imagined, but I'm excited about it anyways.

I think I mentioned a while back that I am on the steering committee for an orphan care ministry that was started earlier this year. It is really getting legs and I can see great things starting to come about in this group. I know that God is involved and I believe that He will use this group to get "hard-to-place" children out of the foster care system and into permanent, loving homes.

Ok, now to get to the point of this post. A few weeks back I received an email from the owner of a local adoption agency. She sent the email to myself and the others that are on the orphan care ministry steering committee. The email basically stated that she received a grant to set up a Board of Directors and she was interested in having someone from our orphan care group on the board.

Now instantly when I read this post, I was interested. However, I have a habit of getting myself signed up for too many things and spreading myself too thin. So, I emailed her letting her know that I am interested, but wanted to pray about it to make sure that it was Gods plan for me to be involved, not just my own.

She was on vacation for a week and a half and then when she returned I emailed her letting her know that I would like more info (time commitment, responsibilities, etc.) She called me today to say that she was hoping and praying that I would respond. She figured I would fit into the Board for a couple of reasons. First, she wanted to have an adoptive parent on the board...check! Second, she wanted someone from the orphan care ministry group on the board....check! So, as of this afternoon I agreed to be on the board of directors for this agency.

Now, on a side note about this agency...they are NOT the agency that we used to adopt Lil Princess. They are almost the complete opposite in many ways. First, they are extremely interested in setting up parenting plans for expectant moms. Second, they are only interested in doing what is right for ALL parties involved...not what is right for their pocketbook (which generally means only doing what is right for the adoptive parents since they are the ones paying the bills). Third, they are all about educating prospective adoptive parents about what adoption really looks like and feels like...not just the sunshine and puppy dogs version.

We probably would have used this agency when we adopted had we known it existed. I only learned about it 1/2 way through our wait and although I contacted her at that point, we were not going to switch out of the program we were currently in (but we were extremely tempted!) The owner, Cathy, is a Christian and acts as such. She doesn't have "christian" in the name of her agency, but she acts much more christian than the adoption agency we used which does have "christian" in their name.

So, I have no idea what is in store for me, but I look forward to it. I'll keep you in the loop of what it looks like to be on the board of an adoption agency. :)