Meeting Steven Curtis Chapman!!!

Okay...so when we first started the adoption process, there were two really great adoption agencies that I wanted to go with....America World or Gladney.  Although both are awesome adoption agencies, I really felt my heart tugging towards America World for our family.  The problem: doubt and thoughts of rejection started creeping into my mind.  I mean America World had sent us this amazing package of information and inside the package was a dvd sharing the story of a few families who had used America World, their thoughts, fears, and the joy of adopting internationally.  Along with their story was another chapter featuring the Chapman family and their heart for adoption.  I'm sitting in my office watching this dvd....crying and thinking...OH.MY.GOODNESS!!! Steven Curtis Chapman!!!!!!!! THE CHAPMAN FAMILY supports this agency enough to allow them to put their story on a dvd?!!!

Of course, the enemy started working overtime with this fear of the unknown....popping ideas in my head about how we wouldn't qualify for this agency.  The fear of rejection really is a beast.  I mean we didn't have any irregular things in our history but boy did I conjure up some thoughts about why they wouldn't accept us.  And then to be as transparent as I possibly can, throughout the dvd, I didn't see any African-Americans who were adopting internationally nor did I know any at the time.  At the time of my fear battle, I knew of plenty who had perhaps adopted domestically or were foster parents, which are fantastic options, but I knew no African-Americans, who had gone through the process of international adoption.  I kept looking at the awesome packet of info, on the website for the agency and thought....me and Tony, seriously???  How are we going to explain this to our family?  I was blessed to have scoured the internet and found a few African-American couples, including one in my area. I was still fearful but I felt God nudging me in the direction of applying for America World.  Okay, God.....high dive...here we go....in spite of my own fears of rejection.  So after going through the intensive application process, imagine my squeals when we found out that we were accepted into the Ethiopia program of our dream agency - America World!!!! ...and the rest is history.  We have LOVED America World, their amazing staff, and know that we made the best choice for our family.

So by now to bring this whole thing full circle....you know the regard (from above) that I have for Steven Curtis Chapman and his family, right? Well just imagine my excitement when last week as we are coming to a close in our fundraising, a really good friend of mine, Kimberly, invited me to attend a Steven Curtis Chapman concert with her and friend, Claire.  But get this.....we'd have backstage passes too!!!!  Shut up!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Heaven.

I've been soooooo super busy since 2009 with saving, fundraising, and filling out adoption paperwork.  Between working full-time, being a mom, wife, staying up late, and getting up at the crack of dawn, boy......I felt well overdue and longing for a refreshing.  This night of worship this past Saturday was exactly that.  We first went backstage and met their 'friend from a previous road tour', Michael W Smith and then to his right sat Steven Curtis Chapman.  You know what I did, right?  NO.....I didn't pass out! LOL.  I pulled out that America World dvd, my Sharpie, and quickly shared that we had just finished fundraising, and asked if he would sign my DVD.  He looked at the America World dvd and said, "I love these guys".  This was a full circle moment for me.  Back in the Fall of 2009 when I first saw this dvd, I would have never guessed that Chapman would be actually personalizing mine. This very moment in time continues to prove to me that GOD IS SO INTO THE DETAILS!  If I could only put into words, how paralyzed with fear I was back then when I got this dvd, perhaps you'd understand the magnitude of him autographing this very thing...ya know, that moment in time that gripped me with fear.


BTW: We were also blessed to participate in an AMAZING day of worship with Matthew West, Big Daddy Weave, Kutless, Jonny Diaz, and Sidewalk Prophets!  WOWZER!!!!!!!