A pastor’s offer of prayer encouraged a couple to proceed with their first of several adoptions through Holt International

by Todd Wisotzkey

Dianne and I got married in July 1993 and five years later began our family with the birth of a beautiful baby girl named Kayla.

Our journey to extend our family through adoption began when Kayla was about 2.  The idea of adopting a child had come up in our discussions before, even prior to our marriage.  The process seemed intimidating, and we were anxious about unknowns and all the factors that were out of our control.  We initially decided against pursuing adoption.  But the Holy Spirit worked on both of us, and we both independently came to the conclusion that we wanted to adopt.  This would be our way to serve God by sharing our blessings, which included our marriage and family life, access to good medical care, loving extended families, a safe family-oriented neighborhood and caring Christian friends.

We began researching adoption agencies and procedures, which took many hours on the Internet and phone conversations with agencies.  We ended up choosing a Christian agency—Holt International.

Shortly thereafter, I became overwhelmed with fear and worry about whether we were making the right decision to proceed with adoption.  We were just getting into the mountain of paperwork, and had not yet been matched with any child.  Dianne and I had prayed a lot about our decision and received many indications that this was God’s will for us, but the details and the unknowns of how we were going to handle it were causing me to question our plan.  I finally said out loud in a tense discussion with Dianne, “I think we should back out.”  In that very instant the phone rang.  I answered, and was greeted by the pastor of the church we were attending at the time, asking what he could pray for on behalf of our family.  Every week, he prayed for five families, and it took him more than a year to get through the congregation’s rolls—this week, he happened to have reached us.  I stood speechless, in awe of God’s timing of this phone call.  My doubts about the process vanished immediately. Read the rest of this entry »