I grew up in Crawfordville, FL where I was involved with my church from a very young age. It was not until age 15 while at a summer camp that I realized my personal need for a Savior and accepted what Christ did on the cross as the offering for my sin. My perspective completely changed and instead of my selfish desires, I wanted to give my all to serve God in whatever he wanted for my life.

Since that time, God began to develop two major passions in my life: orphans and foreign missions.  One of my favorite verses says, "pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world." (James 1:27 HSBC) When I began to date it was very important to me that I not only find a man who was a Christian, but also someone who had the same passion and calling in their life for missions and orphans.

I was so blessed to have met my husband who shared the same passions. We have both always wanted to adopt, but assumed we would have one or two biological children and then adopt. Soon after we got married, we visited the Florida Baptist Children's Home's open house and learned about their Visiting Sponsor Program. We knew right away that was something we could do. We had a 15-year-old female who came to our house for one weekend every month for about a year before she was adopted and moved away. It was during that year that we began going to Haiti.

Soon after the earthquake, my husband and I started leading trips to Haiti to work in an orphanage, build homes, provide medical care, and share the gospel with those who were in such great need. It was on our first trip that we feel in love with Keles. He was a four-year-old boy who was abandoned (tied to a post in the middle of a field) at around six months of age. We didn't realize at that time how difficult it was to adopt from Haiti. After about a year of struggling to complete the adoption, we realized it would probably take a couple of years for the process to be completed.

At that point, we already had a room ready for Keles and we were prepared to have a child running around our house.  It was at the going away party we threw for our Visiting Sponsor child where we were approached about foster care. We felt like it was perfect timing and that we could help out as many children in the Tallahassee area as possible before our adoption was complete.

We completed our training and paperwork in record time and within a month we had our first placement. Since then, we have had a total of six children in our home for anywhere from one night to one year. It has been such an incredible opportunity to serve the orphans in our own community. Right now, we have a four-year-old and five-month-old twins and we love it!

We recently heard a statistic that if every Southern Baptist Church in the state of Florida had just one family foster three children, then all the foster children in Florida would have a home. Just one family, imagine if our church could step up and provide a Christian home for all the foster children in Leon county. That is our hope!

If you have ever thought about adopting, fostering or if you would just like to know more about it, please join us after the 11am service at Leon on April 21st! My husband and I will be hosting a question answer time with representatives from Florida Baptist Children's Home. We hope to see you there and answer any questions you may have!