Adoption Was (for God) and Is (for Us) Seriously Planned.
From Reclaiming Adoption

“He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:46

Adoption was not Plan B in God’s mind. There was no Plan A with lots of children who never sin and never need to be redeemed. God predestined us for adoption before the creation of the world. Plan A was creation, fall, redemption, adoption so that the full range of God’s glory and mercy and grace could be known by his adopted children. Adoption was not second best. It was planned from the beginning.

In our lives, there is something uniquely precious about having children by birth. That is a good plan. There is also something different, but also uniquely precious, about adopting children. Each has its own uniqueness. Your choice to adopt children may be sequentially second. But it does not have to be secondary. It can be as precious and significant as having children by birth. God is able to make adoption an A+ plan in our lives.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a court date!  April 13th, we will travel to Ethiopia to formally appear before a judge and officially adopt our boys. Though we will not be able to bring the boys home at that point, it is basically the last phase of the process. 6-8 weeks later, if all goes well, we travel and bring them back with us! We are so excited about this…It’s less than 2 months away!

As this is rapidly approaching, we find ourselves needing to go ahead and book the flights to Ethiopia.  Could we be bold enough to ask if you or someone you know would be willing to donate enough frequent flier miles for 2 round trips to Ethiopia? Please know that it would significantly reduce the costs we are looking at and help out more than we could ever dream!  The cost of flights constitutes over one third of the $23,000 we still need to bring Surafel and Esrael home. If you are interested or know someone who is, please contact us at adoption@stephen-miller.com.

Humbled at the thought
Though I was His enemy
At infinite cost 
He would adopt me.  

Please join with us in displaying the gospel through adoption!

As of last week, we have finished our homestudy, sent in our dossier and all that crazy stuff, so it’s at this point just waiting. They are telling us that we may be able to pick up Liam Esrael and Jude Surafel by April or May, which would be AWESOME!

We now only have 2 hurdles to jump through – God willing. Hurdle 1 is the $10,000 remaining balance on the country fee to adopt 2 boys. Hurdle 2 is the traveling costs which are approximately $9000.

A lot of people want to do some year end giving around this time because they need some last minute tax write-offs. May I ask you to consider praying about giving to our adoption. International Adoption Guides is a 501(c)(3) that will take your donation toward our adoption and in exchange give you a tax receipt for your records. You could very well give the gift of adoption this Christmas and still get your tax write-off.

Simply make your checks out to International Adoption Guides and put Stephen & Amanda Miller in the subject line and then send it to us at:

Would you join us in praying? Would you consider giving? We appreciate you all and are so thankful that we serve a God who provides for His children.

Grace and peace,
Stephen & Amanda Miller

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