The Archibald Project: an amazing non-profit and new friends who will be traveling with us!

Sometimes a lot of the time I try to tell God my plans instead of waiting on His.

When will I learn that God's plans are not only better but more wonderful and wild than my imagination could fathom?

Fifteen months ago, I heard about a family who was trying to adopt a young fellow with Down syndrome from Russia. I blogged about them. I prayed for them. I encouraged you to join me. And in the process, not only did I get to rejoice when Kirill came home, but I also become friends with Tesney, Kirill's momma.

As we prayed for Kirill and the Davis family, God began pulling our hearts toward the international adoption of a child with special needs. Before that, we thought we would adopt a sibling group domestically. (We still haven't ruled that out.) Before Kirill, we thought the list of special needs we would consider was short; as we prayed and as we serve in special needs ministry, that list grew.

As we posted on the blog and Facebook about these plans, a friend of mine read those posts. Georgeanna had been in Bible study with me a couple years ago, and because she had read about our desire to adopt internationally, she knew we might be open to being Zoe's family. She is the one who messaged me back in January about the three-month-old baby girl who is now our daughter and who we will meet next week.

After we started the process to be Zoe's family, Tesney - remember, she's Kirill's momma - posted on Facebook and her blog about this amazing, young non-profit called The Archibald Project. Their mission is "to save lives through adoption, primarily through the use of photographing & filming families as they meet and finalize their adoptions, domestically & internationally. The Archibald Project uses their media to promote & educate the general public on the needs of adoption and accurately portray the adoption process." 

I began emailing with Whitney to see if they could travel with us and document our adoption, but we didn't think it would work. They couldn't travel with any families until July, and we thought we would be in Taiwan by the end of June.

As you know, weather delays and other obstacles changed our schedule to July. Which means... well, how about you just read the words below that they posted this week on their Facebook page:

Yep, we're that family.

I'm in awe of this story God has weaved together in a way that I never would have imagined. 

Thankful that none of my original plans have worked out, because this is waaaaaaaay better.