"Follow Me!"

Allow me to tell a story to explain the title of this blog. Back in college I had the opportunity to go snow skiing. Being from the Texas coast and having gone water skiing many times, I figured how hard could this snow skiing be. Well, let's just say that snow and water ain't the same (5 years and a chemical engineering degree to come to that conclusion). I was at the top of the mountain standing with a couple of friends about to lead the way down and I said, "Follow me." The next second I was sliding down the mountain on my side listening to the laughter of my buddies at the top. This phrase became a battle cry of sorts from then on.

Little did I know at the time that this same phrase was spoken by Jesus to Peter. I am no Jesus, far from it...way far from it. Needless to say, I liked the message, so it stuck.

Now for the real reason behind a blog as I can barely stand to take notes, much less keep a diary. An organization "affiliated" with our new church brings orphans from the Ukraine to the states for 3 weeks in the summer. During that time they will stay with a host family and attend VBS at the church and basically be a member of the host family. In a nutshell, we are planning to be a host family. Though, that's only a fraction of what we feel moved to do. We have an overwhelming desire to adopt one of these children. Because of this, we want to keep a running dialog of what we are going through from hosting to the first steps off the plane as our child. This will be similar to a pregnancy in many ways. We won't know the sex for at least a few weeks (though odds are great it will be a boy). The process takes anywhere from 7-9 months with loads of uncertainty. The biggest difference this time around is I'll probably be the one who gets all emotional.

Lastly,there are families who went through this process last year and a few of them blogged their experience. From our perspective, it helps take some of the edge off the unknown. Really it gives us the sense that it can be done, just pray and wait. So for now, we pray and wait.