Email I wrote to Hope

Here is the email that I wrote to Hope Church about the sermon series I Quit. Hope sent out an email asking for people to write about something that you have quit during this sermon. So I wrote this email. Mainly to get it off my chest and to let God have all my worries. I did not ever think they would pick mine to read to the whole church. mine was one of the four that they read. They cut it in half, but it was cool to hear it. Mark was sitting by me and said, " sounds like another couple." I looked at him and said, " it is us!" Then I started to cry once it was talking about us getting the "call". I took it as a sign that God was with us and He would not leave us during this journey.


Our names are Shannon and Mark McDade. We have a biological daughter named Summer who is seven years old. I felt like God was calling me to adopt. I went and told my husband Mark about this and he thought I was crazy. I mean when you sit down and look at how much it cost to adopt international, and all the training you have to do. It was a lot for him to take in, but he eventually was on board. We started the adoption process in June 29,2009 with the country of Taiwan, but after a year of waiting we realized that it was going to be a longer wait than we wanted. Now our daughter was getting older and I thought that we needed another child quickly. Mark and I talked to our agency and we decided to switch countries to Ethiopia in 2010. Our social worker said it might be quicker to adopt from Ethiopia - so we thought too. Then right after we got our dossier over there in Ethiopia the slow down began again!! The government came across some cases that the children were stolen from their birth families. So they shut down some orphanages and we were getting so nervous about the switch we made, but I knew it was the right path to be on. There were days where I would ask God "why is it taking so long for us to be blessed with another child?" I was getting to the point that I thought we would never get "the call" - "the call" that I wanted more than anything at this time. It was really hard to see other people that I knew having a baby or getting "the call" from their adoption agencies. We had other stresses on top of the not knowing when or if we would get the call. One of the stresses that I have to deal with is my dad being against this adoption since we were adopting an African American child. He has not talked to me, my husband, or his granddaughter in over eight months. So this hit me really hard. However, I feel like God wants us to adopt and that is what we were going to do even if it meant it would take a while and certain people were against us. We waited for eight months then we received a referral of a 13 month old little boy in October 26, 2011!! What a happy day that was when the phone rang and our social worker said, "there is a 13 month old boy needing a home." Then we were waiting again... We have been waiting for three months on a court date so we can meet our little boy. During this time Hope started doing the series on I Quit. It was like God was talking to me especially on the sermon about Quit Complaining!! That my blessings out weight my bruises, not letting other people dampen my gratitude, remembering God is faithful and won't give us more than we can shoulder! Man that hit me hard.. So I left that day from Hope thinking differently about our adoption. I gave it all to God on that day and told Him to lead us where He wants us to go. If we have to wait a little longer before we hold our precious boy I can handle that, because I know that God is holding and loving on him while He prepares our family for the blessings yet to come!!

Thanks,
Shannon, Mark and
Summer McDade


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