The Beginning of Our Journey...

As most of you know, last Summer, after several months of prayer and a general feeling that the Lord wanted to take us out of our comfort zone but not being sure exactly HOW, we made an inquiry with the International Mission Board concerning a return to the field. We were not certain that this was where God was leading, but we wanted to be willing to go back, and we were. We also met with Pastor Mike and Diane and they counseled and prayed with us. We sincerely wanted to follow God's leading and we conveyed this to our Board. The Board's answer : No. Sadly, their number one reason was the fact that they have actually been forced to reduce their missionary number due to lack of funds. Another concern was the age of our daughters now -preteens, which is a tenuous age to take kids out of their own culture and into another one. We were a little sad, mainly because we will always miss Africa, but also relieved because God had answered our prayers and closed a door He obviously did not want us to go through.


So we continued to pray and continued to be convinced that He was calling us to follow Him in some new and possibly terrifying way! It wasn't long before our daughter Grace began to talk to us about adoption. One day on a walk she asked Mark and me if we ever thought any more about adopting. You see, five years ago in Zambia we often worked with an orphanage for babies and children affected by HIV/AIDS which was only about 200 yards from our home. Grace and I would go there and help care for the little ones. We fell in love with a little boy named Kayawe. Thats when God first opened our minds and hearts to adoption. However, because of US and Zambian laws, we could not adopt a baby with AIDS. Thankfully, the orphanage director allowed us to bring Kayawe into our home for visits, and we would play with him, bathe his sores, and try to make him smile through his pain. Kayawe died in July 2005. We tucked away our dream of adoption with our memories of him.

Until that walk...

I answered Grace "Grace, we have four children already. We can't save every child in the world!"

To which she replied "But Mom, it might MEAN the world to just one child -to have a family, to be loved."

Mark and I were broken that day. We prayed and asked God if THIS was His new and terrifying direction for us. It wasn't long before we both came to the conclusion that it was. He began to confirm it in many ways.

Soon, He brought Dawn Lucas into our path and very soon after that we were looking at lists and lists of precious children. At first we assumed that the Lord would direct us to adopt from Africa. But we could not stop looking at that list of waiting, special needs little boys in China. And then we found M H. And we all knew it was him. Even our children knew that HE was the one.


Our family is committed to bringing M H home. In our hearts, he is our son already. We hope that you will embrace him as well and through our family and friends he will truly know and feel the love of Christ and one day embrace Jesus as His Lord and Saviour. No, we may not be able to go to the world. But we can bring one little child out of the world, into our home.



Please pray for us:



Provision: of prayer and finances and smooth paths for all the paperwork.

Protection: from the enemy's schemes -he does not want M H in a Christian home.

Preparation: for our family and for M H as it will be a big adjustment for everyone!

Salvation: that M H will one day embrace Christ as Lord and Saviour.



Blessings!!

Mark and Stacey Conard

"Behold I will do a new thing,

Now it shall spring forth;

I will even make a road in the wilderness

And rivers in the desert."

Isaiah 43:19