Guess what?!!

No, I'm not pregnant :) But just as exciting: Stephen and I are adopting!!! Adoption has been a part of our vision for our life together from early on in our relationship. For us, adoption is not a 2nd choice. It is our calling. While we have both always felt a pull toward the most vulnerable - and have long desired to bring children into our home who do not have a family - the more that we have come to know Christ, the more this desire has grown. We are both deeply moved by the Gospel - that when we were left out and alone, God adopted us into his family through Christ. We feel called to respond to this great love through adopting others into our own family, as God first adopted us.

Over the past couple years this passion has only increased, and the past few months we've felt God leading us to take the first steps toward adoption. Though we feel called to foster, as well as likely adopt internationally at some point, we've felt God leading us to domestic infant adoption for our first child. Through researching and talking to friends, we got connected with a great small agency in Florida and literally only a few days later were tentatively matched with a birth mother due at the end of January! This all happened so unusually quickly and providentially, we truly believe this could be the child God has for us. In order to move forward and bring him or her home though, we need to raise a good chunk of money quickly (specifically, we need to raise the initial costs of the homestudy and agency fees). If you feel led, we'd love for you to visit our site and consider partnering with us in this way. We're partnering with an amazing org called Adopt A Love Story to help us with our adoption, and all donations are tax-deductible. (You can also read more on the website about why we're adopting, our vision for our family, as well as details of the adoption process).

Though we still feel so unprepared in so many ways to be parents (which I've heard never really goes away...), and though many aspects of adoption are overwhelming, as we've learned so much in the past few years- God doesn't ask us to have everything together, or to know "the plan." It's actually the opposite: following Christ is about giving him our lives, giving up control, and living in the freedom that HE is the one who does more than we can ask or imagine. HE is the one who changes the world - and we get to be a small part of it. All he asks of us is that we be willing to love as he calls us. So we're moving forward in this call he has placed on our lives, knowing that he will do the heavy lifting :)

Finally: we know not everyone is called to adopt, and not everyone is called to support us financially. What we truly desire most of all is your prayers. Please pray for the baby's health; pray that God would continue to open doors and provide for us if this child is meant for our family; pray for wisdom and peace for Steve and me; pray for the well-being of the birth mother (one of the reasons we like this agency so much is because they purposefully take on a very small case load in order to help address all needs of the birth mother, to fully support her as she seeks healing in all areas of life. This is a passion of ours as well). Most of all, pray that this baby would be safe and would have the family that God desires for him/her.

And again, if you'd like to read more about why we're adopting, you can do that here. 

Love to you all!

I am on your side

As someone recently said on Twitter (can't remember who), I'm on the side of everyone who is both against police brutality and brutality against police. It's not a complicated position. I'm on the side of the vulnerable and hurting and broken, those who are overlooked and who don't have a voice. And I am on the side of justice, of pursuing truth and right, and I passionately stand with the brave men and women who are truly working to make our country more just. I hate, hate, hate evil. I pray daily for God's Kingdom to come, and until then, that he would use me and the rest of his Church to further his peace, his justice, his reconciliation, his redemption - fueled by our deep understanding of the Gospel. Our God is a God of fire and power and love and peace, and he IS at work. Let us pray and mourn and work with him.

"Perhaps God will use our mourning to crumble all our walls, and rebuild them into bridges." (Sharon Hodde Miller)

#BatonRouge #Dallas #‎PhilandoCastile‬ ‪#‎AltonSterling‬ ‪#‎Dallas‬ #BlackLivesMatter

What can we do NOW to bring about change for our African-American brothers and sisters?

I was on a very powerful call earlier today, organized by several faith and community leaders from all over the country. We lamented, prayed, and discussed very practical action steps we can ALL take NOW to actually bring about change in our country. As someone said on the call: Those who are satisfied w/ the status quo want us to think we are powerless. We're not. We live in a country where we DO have a voice, and things change when we SPEAK UP. So if you, like me, want to see our country become truly more just and equal, here are 3 very practical things you can do now:

Step 1: Visit openstates.org and find out who you are represented by in your state legislature.

Step 2: Call/email your State Senator and State Rep. and tell them police brutality and racism in law enforcement are voting issues for you, and you expect them to hold hearings on legislation and hold votes to address these issues.

Step 3: Tweet and post that you made these calls, using ‪#‎SolidarityIsPower‬, and encourage those who follow you to do the same.

And, if you aren't sure what to say when you call your state reps, here are 3 very needed things you can suggest (demand) for our law enforcement: 1) Wholesale shift to non-lethal force, 2) Every officer trained on understanding and reducing own bias, 3) A National Policy Summit convened by Department of Justice for Police Chiefs from every major city around these issues.

Finally, check out Campaign Zero for more policy suggestions - all SO needed. Feel free to mention as many as you want to your legislators...

Let's march with Christ for justice. On the front lines. Boldly. Now. When I stand before him someday, I want to be able to say I was with him the whole way.

#solidarityispower

#blacklivesmatter

#‎PhilandoCastile‬

‪#‎AltonSterling‬

...then I shall see fully...

My amazing friend Brooke went home to be with her Savior a couple weeks ago. I'm not able to fly to either of the memorial services held for her, so I wanted to share a little tribute to her here:

"For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." (1 Cor. 13:12)

Brooke and I connected instantly when we met at church in DC five years ago. She was even more passionate, even more of a visionary, even more of a big thinker than me...she affirmed how God made me, encouraged it, spurred it on. She encouraged me when I was broken up by the dark things of the world, when we weren't able to change our city in a day like I thought we would :) ,when the biggest injustices in our world and the smaller heartbreaks in my personal life caused me to doubt the love of our God. She was a co-conspirator, launching several different outreach ministries at our church, giving me advice and guidance that I desperately needed at that time. She boldly plunged in to some of the darkest areas of our city, leading an anti-trafficking group through our church that addressed head-on some of the biggest evils we'll see in this world.

All this while having walked through more darkness than I've ever experienced, and while beginning to enter it again. I was constantly humbled and inspired by her selflessness, by her focus on others, by her passionate love for the hurting and commitment to give all she had to this world while she was here. I was always so humbled by the fact that you wouldn't know she had fought cancer, or was fighting it again, unless you looked closely - Brooke continued to fight darkness, destroy evil, and serve her Savior with every second she had. I remember driving her up to NYC when she had to get her skin cancer removed - which resulted in a huge hole in her forehead, something that would have caused anger and embarrassment and frustration from most other women I know (including myself). And while I know Brooke wrestled with those emotions for sure, my memories from that trip are almost completely ones of laughter, deep conversations, and dreaming about changing the world...she was funny, sarcastic, laughing about her face, asking about me....while also engaging at points in some serious theological questions, that always ended at the same place of deep trust in her Maker.

And when the cancer re-appeared last year....sadness, anger, frustration also appeared, yes. But again - anytime I went to see her, it was this combination of frank questions with deep faith, of sadness with joy, of laughter with sorrow. Brooke never stopped asking about ME, never stopped planning how she would address the bigger systemic injustices all around us in our city, never stopped engaging the hard questions about our God while openly professing her trust in his love for her.

I have yet to meet someone else who was as selfless, as fierce, as brave, as wise, as hilarious in the face of such pain and tragedy. And just in general. Selfishly, I am so, so sad - I will miss this friend, my co-conspirator, a mentor and world-changer. But like Brooke, I BELIEVE in the beautiful plans of our God, and know he used her to change this world powerfully while she was here - she truly did not waste a minute. She is an example for all of us....she saw the face of Christ "in part," and ran wholeheartedly after him and all he had for her. And now, I know she is standing in his presence, seeing him "in full, even as she is fully known." And I know she is still running wholeheartedly after him, making her Savior laugh and passionately joining with him in his work in the Kingdom.

"I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life...The dream is ended; this is the morning..." (CS Lewis, The Last Battle)

If you want to read more about my amazing friend, take a minute to read this beautifully written blog by another friend of Brooke's - it expresses so well who she was. Who she IS:

"Brooke wanted to change the world. Literally. Not just as a cliche platitude. So she did. She changed everyone she came in contact with...She made you think. She made you laugh. She made you feel loved...She was so tender. But so fierce. This world wasn’t meant to stay the same if you lived in it. That was her mindset. Let’s make a plan. Let’s go. Let’s shift things and get uncomfortable. She was so rich in thought, and so antsy to make things better, more efficient, more thriving.

... She understood suffering. And out of her suffering, she was raw and scathingly honest. But she believed. She believed He did what He did. Didn’t like it, but didn’t deny it. And God was not thwarted by her volume. He loved her through it. Adored her. Understood her pain. Grieved with her. Remained by her side. And welcomed her, His sweet feisty world-shoving beloved, by holding her and wiping every tear from her eyes."

"What if 'brave' is more about surrender than bravado? ...what’s more brave than hoping against odds? In choosing beauty amidst ashes, don’t we bring resurrection into our death shadow days?" (Brooke)

How long, O LORD?

How long, O Lord?

My heart is heavy, heavy again today as I hear details of Alton Sterling's murder. Friends, we MUST recognize that racial injustice is very alive and very real in our country. This doesn't mean we are negating all the good things about our country, or ignoring all the wonderful cops who are just and brave and doing their jobs well. It means we recognize that injustice ALSO DOES EXIST when a white man gets 6 months (likely less) for a brutal rape because it would "be too hard on him"....and countless black men (and women) are gunned down for selling CDs and gum. To my white brother and sisters: it is time to WAKE UP. Nothing will change if we are silent on this. We can be thankful for the wonderful things about our country while recognizing that since we live in a broken world, our systems and structures are not perfect. As followers of Christ especially, we are called to further Christ's justice and redemption, making things a little more the way he intended them, knowing that one day he will return and finish the work, making ALL things new and perfectly just. Until then, he has called US to not be silent in the face of something that goes against his very heart. He calls us to be righteously ANGRY about the things that are not the way he intends - and to ACT within the power he has given us to further his vision of justice.

It makes my heart burn thinking about the young men I know and love whose lives are in more danger than mine, simply because their skin is darker. It makes me burn with anger to think about the children Stephen and I will adopt, our children, who I will worry about more, simply because they will look different than me. For those of us who are white: let's be ANGRY about the reality we live in, be thankful for what God has given us, and then use all that we've been given to join Him in making our reality different. (This is, after all, why He has given us so much. Not to make sure our white existence continues comfortably, but to join Him in beating evil back, standing up to injustice, and making this world more the way he intended.)

To my African-American brothers and sisters: my heart mourns with you today, and every day, until true justice and equality is realized. I am here to walk with you, fight for justice with you, learn from you.