Tears In Our Eyes...

We wanted to say a big HELLO to all of you that are stopping in from The Lettered Cottage and tell you a little more about us! 

First of all, how do I even start?

We are completely humbled/blessed/undeserving by this opportunity. God is SO VERY GOOD. And Layla? She is a special treasure. She is beautiful in every way. Her heart LOVES so big and so well and we just feel so special that God laid US on HER heart. Amazing. Do you have no idea what we are talking about? 

Go check out her latest post. You may just see OUR faces gracing her beautiful blog. We will be receiving a portion of the proceeds from her new t-shirt business. I have been cheering from the sidelines and praying that she would continue her t-shirt business (she did a trial run a few months ago). I LOVE watching people follow their daydreams and I am so happy that she decided to pursue hers. You must check them out, they are so beautifully designed! We are just so humbled to be a part of this. 

 

So for those of you who don't know us, here is a little bit more about who we are.

We are Joshua, Mallory, Eden, Israel and Bella (the dog). We love Jesus. Last year we moved to a little farm town and we fell in love even more. We love adventures and spending every moment together. We desire to live a life of less stuff so we can have a life that is free to serve God more. Our journey has been full of so many lessons, in which we learned a whole lot about grace and redemption, and we are so thankful for each and every one.

Why adoption? Adoption has been on my heart since I was 4 years old. I am not even kidding. It was never a doubt that I would adopt. In fact, I never even knew I wanted biological kids. But, God knew better. When I met Josh, I immediately asked him about his desire for children. I knew adoption was too important to me and I wanted to know that if we were to be married (which I was pretty sure we were going to be on day 10) I needed a husband who shared that desire. I'll just let you in on a secret, he was definitely on board. As years have past, our hearts for adoption have only grown. We waited patiently until we were able to begin the process. This year, God clearly opened the doors up big and wide, but not where we thought. We always thought we were adopting from Africa and then BAM. He threw Haiti right in front of us. So, July 1, we started our journey! 

Now, I want to give you a little background here. I have been following the Lettered Cottage since the near beginning. But, I am the worlds worst at commenting so I have just secretly been reading and loving everything Kevin and Layla post. I remember when they first announced their adoption. I was SO excited for them (I even commented! I know, right?!). And then they shared about Haiti and I was even more excited for them. I had NO idea how our stories would end up intertwining because, we were adopting from Africa remember? Once we started pursuing Haiti we looked into ALL the agencies we could find. We actually believed we settled on one. We qualified, they seemed good, so we were set to go as soon as I reached the right age (you have to be 30 to adopt from Haiti). But, it never felt right. They were a great agency, but we have a serious passion for reunifying families when possible and we didn't feel that they were as passionate about it as we were. One day I was just mindlessly clicking around the Three Angels page after Layla had posted an update. My eyes widened. Somehow I had missed how many amazing things Three Angels does. You should take a look, they work so hard to reunify families and I am so thankful for all that they do. Anyway, long story short, we realized we needed to be with an agency that worked with orphanages that LOVED their children and LOVED their birth families. And, here we are. So at peace with where God lead us. And so thankful that Kevin and Layla have openly shared their journey and that God lead us to their story to then begin our own story. He is so in the details. 

So, that is us. As best as I can describe without writing a longer novel. I should have mentioned that I LOVE to write. I may love simplicity, but not with words. I like lots of words.

So, back to sitting here. Eyes filled with tears. Completely awed at the way God works. And so very thankful for this community of friends He has put in our path. 

Feel free to ask questions! We love to share the beautiful journey God has given us!