Why a girl?

I had a blogger ask why we are waiting for a girl instead of getting a boy due to the huge disparity in wait time?

That’s a complicated question to answer.

The simple, most true answer is that when God put adoption on our hearts, we always sensed that this child was to be a girl.

As I’ve said before, I’m a private worshipper. I like the Catholic faith with it’s quiet meditations and thoughtful prayers. This adoption experience has taken me out of my spiritual comfort zone in so many ways.

One of those ways is having to “voice” the urgings of my soul rather than keep them silent. While in worship two years ago, I felt God prompting my heart in a very tangible way. I heard in my spirit, “This is the time to adopt. You will have a girl from Ethiopia.”

After church on our walk home, I mentioned to Matthew that I felt this was the time for adoption. Without saying I felt God was calling us to adopt a daughter, he said, “I believe we are to get a girl.”

So there’s my spiritual answer.

Growing up in Africa, I observed that there seemed to be far more chances for boys to succeed within poverty than girls. Girls tend to get hired out to be maids, go on to collect a dowry and then have babies and the cycle continues.

We have a daughter and then a son. Our daughter has selfishly asked for a sister since she could talk.

So…a long winded answer to a sweet question. Thank you J-Momma! I hope that this response makes some sense. In the years to come when our daughter reads through this blog (which I intend to make into a book), we want her to know that God led us to her in a very specific way. He put her on our hearts and we feel committed to stay the course.

I do have to say that I have felt like Sarah many times in this process. I find myself wanting to laugh at God. Sarah laughed because she thought it was crazy she’d have a baby her age. I find myself saying seriously God, you really think we’ll get a daughter with all this waiting going on? Will we really adopt?

But as Matthew reminds me, Abram choose to try to “make a promise happen before it’s time” by getting Hagar pregnant. We feel that we should not change our dossier or “request” unless God really leads us in that direction. So far, it’s “stay the course.”