In the beginning....

 Blogging is scary to me because it requires sharing your thoughts and feelings and putting yourself out there, which I am not good at.  But, at the suggestion of a dear friend who is also an adoptive mom, I am starting a blog that will follow the Hoekstra family's journey through the adoption process.  


Bear with me as we back up to the beginning.  It was August 2011 in Green Lake, WI.  We were spending the week at Northern Pines Family Camp which we do every summer together.  This year the worship leader, Peder Eide, shared his testimony regarding his family's decision to adopt and how it had blessed his family.  It was a very moving testimony and looking back, we know that God used that to soften our hearts towards adoption.  While neither David or I discussed it at camp that week, we later admitted to have been thinking about it constantly throughout the week.  


After we left camp and came home, God still worked on our hearts.  We were prompted by a separate conversation to bring up the option of another child.  We have 2 incredibly awesome boys and didn't have any regrets but I've always had adoption on my heart and David's heart was never quite there.  This night, while walking, he told me that maybe we should revisit the idea of adopting.  In his words, "He had been wrestling with God, and God won.".  woot woot! 


That's where our journey began.  We immediately began the application process.  We weighed all of our options regarding possible countries to adopt from and without consulting each other first, came up with the same list of 3.  After further narrowing it down, we decided on The Philippines.    It was not our original plan as we went in hoping to request a girl under 2 years of age and the Philippines does not let you specifiy gender or guarantee a child under 2.  Nonetheless, we felt like God placed this country on our hearts. 


To be continued....