Today Jill from CampFunk shares her story as she and her family are working toward adopting a little girl from Ethiopia.  I hope you will be as inspired as I am after reading about the Funkhouser’s journey…
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First of all I want to thank Laura for letting me post on her blog.

I am writing this entry as a guest here to let you know about this wonderful journey my family and I are participating in. My name is Jill.  My husband Dave and I live in a small town in Northeast Wisconsin (Kiel) where Dave proudly works as the police chief. We have 4 wonderful children, three boys and a girl, all who are ages 6 and under and all who have a deep love of God.

Even with our God-loving and fun-filled house, we decided we wanted more from life. So, this past fall, we started the process to adopt a child from Ethiopia.  Dave and I felt that God was laying something heavy upon our hearts, that we had more love to give and certainly room in our home and more importantly in our hearts. Every time we thought about it and put up obstacles against adoption, God smashed those obstacles with an overwhelming need that is so evident in our world. There are so many children who need our help.

So what makes a woman who already has 4 little kids of her own want more? People often think (and say) “you’re crazy!” but adoption has always been something I had dreamed of, even as a child. Soon after our youngest child was born, I felt we were getting too comfortable, even with the craziness in our life, and that we were meant to do more and to help more than we do. I had this sense of “Okay, God…We’re ready for whatever you are about to put in front of us…Bring it on!” 

My husband Dave was more reluctant to just dive right in so we spent a solid year of research and connecting with other families talking about the many risks, problems, and extremely high costs of adoption. Even with the information, Dave was still reluctant but he told me that he would ask God for direction and did. Dave prayed and asked God for signs on what to do. The very same morning he told me this he stopped for gas on his way into work and a van pulled up on the opposite side of the gas pumps. Written in block graphic letters across the back window in bold print was “Adoption is the only Option” and out of the van popped a whole bunch of kids, all who Dave learned were adopted. They smiled and laughed and talked to Dave about how their life now was so wonderful. It was truly a miraculous experience for Dave.

As if that obvious sign wasn’t enough; Dave and I both were repeatedly exposed to numerous other encounters with children who were adopted from other countries. Our waitress on a dinner date was adopted from Africa, the family camping next to us had adopted a little boy from Africa, our tour guide on a mini-vacation we took had adopted three children and so on. Everywhere we turned, we received God’s signs that this is what we were meant to do. It had become our mission and we made the commitment to move forward with it.

 In November 2009 we submitted our application to adopt a little girl from Africa and our mission began anew. Our adoption story is one of faith—a mission defined by our desire to participate with God in restoring what’s broken in this world.  We realize we cannot help all of the 147 million of the world’s lost children, but we know that we have room in our hearts and in our home for at least one.

There have been a lot of road bumps along the way with the forces of evil working against us, but for every roadblock, we receive a small blessing and we know that if we stay focused and faithful our loving and wonderful God will provide for us. We humbly ask you to join us on this journey. We ask that you pray for us as we embark on this adventure to bring our little girl home. 

We might not have the answer to the many questions you have but we do know that we have a gracious, kind and loving heavenly Father that delights when His children follow Him– even to uncharted territory. We wait expectantly for all that God has for us along this journey and we would welcome you to come along for the ride!  God is good!

 The Funkhousers will be hosting many fundraisers along the way and have set up a blog site online so that you can follow them on this journey (www.campfunk.blogspot.com).  I encourage you to check out their site and get to know this family.  Maybe there’s a way you can help them out!