We're having a baby (actually two)!

Karen and I have begun the process of adopting two children from Ethiopia through America World Adoption. We have a blog that details our journey of adoption. However, the blog is private. If you would like to follow our blog email me at johnmark20@gmail.com so I can send you an invitation.

Here is a post that I wrote which describes some of our reasoning and desire to adopt:

Adopting in Our Family
Karen and I talked about adopting from the beginning of our relationship. Once we moved to Owensboro and God provided both of us with stable jobs, adoption became a reality rather than just a desire. Over the past few weeks and days, Karen & I have fielded many questions regarding the adoption process, the costs, and at the bottom of it all, the why.
When you read the statistics listed on Karen's previous blog post, and on the right side of our blog about the desperate situation for adoption in Ethiopia and in other countries, it's easy to cognitively recognize the need. Karen and I feel the call to adopt children in this desperate situation--not only because of the need, but because of our faith.
We are tremendously excited about starting our family by adoption and raising up children for God's glory. There are many things that I do differently--that's for sure! I ride my bike rather than drive a car. I drink hot coffee by the pool in the summertime. I would rather read a good book on a Friday night than go to a movie. American food is not my favorite food. If given the choice, we'd both chose anything but American food. But adopting children from Ethiopia before trying to have biological children, that's not what most people think is natural. Karen and I do not operate by natural thinking. Even so, I would agree; it's not natural. It is so much more. One might even say supernatural.
God has done something that is unthinkable by our standards. While I was far away from Him, a foreigner, his enemy, God brought me to His family. I call Him Father because His son, Jesus, paid for my adoption with a much greater cost than our AWAA fees- His blood. By the blood of my brother, I am not a stranger anymore; I am a son of God. The strangest part of God adopting me is that I did nothing to make this adoption possible. I was the ugly, estranged person that had nothing to give back. But God being rich in mercy and love brought me out of darkness and made me His son. I don't deserve the riches that God has given me, but I know whom my heavenly Father is and what He has done for me. It's not natural by any measure at all.