I remember sitting in the dark in our little duplex in Austin, TX back in 1999. I was a sophomore in High School and my dad had just left my mom to pursue another woman who he assumed would make him happier. Mom wanted us to still have a relationship with dad, so we moved to Austin to follow him as he followed her. I love Austin, but at that point, I was just mad.

We started going to this church called Bannockburn Baptist Church. “Cool,” I thought, “We’re going to a church named after the field that Scotland won their freedom in the Academy Award winning movie, Braveheart.” Yeah, I was a dork, but that’s neither here nor there.

My youth pastor, Charlie Harrisberger, was quite the God-send. He took me under his wing and really became a father figure to me. I can honestly say that his influence shaped me more than any other man in my life. He began to give me books by Piper, Tozer, Sproul, Edwards, etc. and really challenging me to pursue Christ, and it was in the midst of that that our story picks up.

I sat alone in that dark duplex, 10:30 at night, reading a Piper sermon called The Depths of Christ’s Love: It’s Lavish Benefits, that changed my life forever. It was about 2 warring tribes in Rwanda, and a man losing His son in the process of trying to save the life of a child from the enemy tribe. In the wake of the disaster, he clothes, feeds, rescues, adopts and gives everything He owns (which is surprisingly substantial) to this enemy child.

It was illustrating that the power of the gospel for us is in our adoption. I woke up this morning thinking about this and the profound impact it made on me as a 16 year old boy. Now 11 years later, I have often thought about this obscure sermon that Piper preached so many years ago. How it impacted me then, and still impacts me now. How it was really the first front that the Lord used to move my heart to displaying the gospel through adoption… to follow His example.

I don’t know a whole ton of 16 year old boys who want to adopt. I think that can tend to be a girl thing. My 6 year old wants to adopt. It’s not unique to girls, but for a boy, that’s pretty weird. But I distinctly remember thinking, “I can not be the same. I want to adopt.” And I began praying that the Lord would send me a wife when the time was right who would have a heart for adoption as well. I’m so glad He did.

I’m so glad that God had given Amanda a heart for children and orphans and to respond to the call to take care of the fatherless through adoption before we ever met.

I’m so glad for that night in 2005 at the Frank Irwin Center in Austin, TX when Steven Curtis Chapman challenged an auditorium full of people who called themselves Christians to actually live out their faith through adoption, and all the conversations that sparked then. The passion it ignited in us as a married couple. And the journey it got back on track.

I’m so glad for meeting Aaron Ivey back in 2008. How he has become such a dear friend and fellow worship pastor, and reminds me what it means to be a man of God. Who displays the gospel with his life and reminds others to do the same. Who does the hard work of obedience, not for the sake of legalism, but out of a righteous heart to see the glory of Jesus Christ known in all the Earth. And who challenges me to do that through adoption.

I am so glad for moments that I can look back at and see time and time again how the Lord has been bringing us to this moment for the last 11 years and reminded that it is He who will carry it through to completion. And He will… for His name’s sake.

It has now been a few months since we officially decided and announced our plans for adopting.  Amazing how things change over a couple of months.  We began researching to find a good adoption agency that could help us adopt from Kazakhstan, and it seems like every agency we spoke with was really encouraging us toward Ethiopia.  So we began to pray and look at Ethiopia, and as we did, the facts were astounding!

It is one of the oldest countries in the world, being an independent state since ancient times.  As such, it’s the second most populous nation in Africa with nearly 80 million people living there, out of which, there are 5 million orphans, a number which increases annually!  The growing number of homeless and parentless children is a mushrooming crisis that the government warns is tearing apart the social fabric of the country.  The main cause of the rising amount of orphans is the sheer poverty, leading to parents dying of malnourishment, AIDS, tuberculosis, etc.  As such, the government is very open and willing to make it as easy as possible to adopt and is making efforts to reverse this tragedy.

As we began seeing pictures and looking at the faces of these beautiful children, and the poverty and hopelessness they live in, we could just feel the Lord drawing us to this country and changing our hearts.  So we are planning on adopting from Ethiopia, using the International Adoption Guides agency to help us through the process.  They have come highly recommended from some of our friends who have also adopted and we are very excited to be working with them to bring our next child home. We are open to any age or sex, but are prayerfully considering adopting a boy between the ages of 0 and 4 years old.

Some of the good news is that we are no longer aiming to raise $50,000, but rather only $25,000… exactly half of what we would have had to raise to adopt from Kazakhstan.  So we continue on our journey to try to raise that money and have designed a shirt that we hope you will consider purchasing.  It is $20 and every penny will go to funding our adoption.  We will have them printed on high quality unisex shirts in sizes XS – XXL.

Please consider buying a shirt and also passing the word along.  If you feel God calling you to give a larger amount, you can always donate to our paypal account  adoption@stephen-miller.com.  We pray you would consider doing this as well.  $25,000 is a big number, but God is much bigger.

We so long to proclaim the gospel that the Lord, our Father, adopted us, and made us children and heirs, regardless of our race or ethnicity, nation or language.  We want to have a family of different races, cultures, and skin tones and feel called to display the gospel in this way.  Please join with us. Buy a shirt today.

If you remember, we wrote a couple weeks ago about our decision to begin the adoption process for a child in Kazakhstan. As we mentioned in our last post, this will cost between $25,000-$35,000 and could take up to a year after the funds are raised. We decided rather than wasting time, we would begin the fundraising process right away while we searched for a great adoption agency that works with Kazakhstan.

As a result, we have opened a bank account and PayPal account dedicated strictly to our adoption in Kazakhstan.

We are asking you to pray about it and seek the Lord, and then come alongside us in changing the life of an orphan in the next year. You can do this in a couple ways.

1. Please pray that God will give us wisdom to move forward and favor with an excellent agency.
2. Please pray that we will have fortitude and courage to carry this process through to the end. This is a REALLY hard process! Everyone tells us that it’s more pain than we could ever imagine, but so worth it.
3. Please give to our adoption fund. You can donate on PayPal by sending your donation to adoption@stephen-miller.com

Thanks guys!

Grace and peace,
Stephen Miller