The Scott's Adopt

And you, who were branches from a wild olive tree, have been grafted in.     

- Romans 11:17

The Scott's are adopting?? Whaaaaaa?!

Yep, it's true! Let me catch you up.

Adoption has been on our hearts for a long time, since before we were even married. Even during our premarital class, we discussed what we wanted our family to look like and talked about how we both knew that we wanted want to adopt someday. We weren't sure what that would look like but we were sure that once we had a few biological children, we would revisit the issue. Looking back, I can see how the Lord used foundational conversations like this to prepare us for decisions we would make 4 years later. Being a mom has always been a dream and Blaine was basically built to be the perfect dad, so it made sense that shortly before our first anniversary we decide to start trying to have a baby. We quickly found out that things would not go the way we thought....or planned. Isn't life funny like that? After a confusing few months I arrived at a diagnosis of PCOS and we realized that our path to a baby would NOT look like everyone else’s. We quickly made appointments to my OB, an infertility doctor, and then later another infertility doctor.

After months of medicine, shots, blood draws, hot flashes, mood swings, negative pregnancy tests, tears and 3 failed IUIs. We were faced with the realization that IVF would have to be our "next step" in the journey for a baby. We dug deep and researched the best way to do this ethically, talked to friends who had gone this route and sought their advice. After arriving at a decision with our doctor that we felt really good about, a "split" cycle IVF, we told her that we would be back to do IVF when we could afford it, after all 20K is just a tad bit of money. Fast forward nearly a YEAR and a half later... and let me tell you that was a particularly agonizing year of being constantly reminded that I'm still walking around with baby-less arms, and my desire to do IVF was completely gone. In fact IVF was the absolute last thing I wanted to do. I literally could. not. do. it. I hated being the crazy person I was on all the meds and didn't think I could handle the emotional mood swings and hot flashes again. Plus, I wasn't sure that my faith could handle the possibility of 20K down the drain and still not having a baby. Reminding myself that the Lord is a GOOD Father, has been the biggest test of my faith through this season and I have had to say "no" to things that leave me feeling/thinking otherwise.

This past summer, the Lord slowly began to soften my heart towards adoption starting with a Facebook post of all things. Seeing the FACE of a child across the ocean who was family-less broke my heart. A quote from the book Longing for Motherhood, also wrung through my head more and more frequently. "It's not important that my child looks like me but looks like Christ." Ouch! My selfishness was right in front my face. I was so wrapped up in ME (trying to have a baby that looked like me and wanting me to get to experience pregnancy) that I wasn't able to see a great need around me. Step by step the Lord began to bring both Blaine and I to a place where we were consistently broken hearted for children without families. The Lord began to clearly show us that adoption is at the heart of the gospel. Through Christ we are ALL adopted as sons and daughters of the King. The Lord took us, who were not a part of His family and made us His own. Through Christ's great sacrifice, we are now co-heirs with Him and receive the full benefit of being his children. We have been grafted into His family tree and are no longer orphans! Hallelujah!  So we decide to graft in a baby from 6,821 miles away (yes, I Googled that) into our own family tree and make them our very own! 

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. -Eph 1:5

 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.[a] And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.  - Rom 8:14-17

Moving forward in obedience, we took the first step and did some research and chose an adoption agency. Next was choosing a country to adopt from. Like the Lord always does, he had been placing a country in our hearts long, long ago.  My sweet friend and college roommate is adopted from Korea and the Lord used that to stir affection in our hearts for Asia. Soooo (drum roll please!)....

Our sweet new addition will be KOREAN! We are SO excited to walk through this process and are ready to watch the Lord do a miracle and trust me, this whole thing (the paperwork, money, emotions, waiting) will be a miracle. But guess what?! Our God is BIG and "owns cattle on a thousand hills" (Psalms 50:7-15). He has more than enough resources to make this happen. The international adoption process is a long one and we're prepared to be on this journey for the next 18-24 months. We also predict that our sweet baby will be about 18 months old by the time they are officially ours! Bring on the toddler fun, right?!

I know some of you are wondering how you can help! First, we would simply covet your prayers! Please pray for the Lord to continue to confirm this decision in our hearts and to make us strong enough to face whatever issues may arise in the process. Please pray for our sweet baby to be in the best care possible until we can get our hands on them! Please pray that the Lord would provide the funds that we need to take each next step in the process. Please pray that we would be bold in sharing the gospel each time we get to share the news of our adoption. If you want to help us in other ways we are planning LOTS of fundraisers in the near future, did I mention it's around 50K to adopt from Korea?! My sweet sister, Aly, has set up a Go Fund Me page and we are planning to do a t-shirt fundraiser and an online silent auction in the near future. So keep your ears open for more info these coming up events! Thank to you all of our family and friends who have walked with us through the past few years of this rocky road. We are beginning to see how the Lord truly is turning our ashes to beauty. 

We love you guys, thanks for joining us on this journey!

                                                                                           

                                                                                                        -Nat & Blaine
                                                                                       XOXO