The Lord took us on an amazing journey in the adoption of our son. Our family (Mom, Dad and two boys) was just settling into a new home. We’d unpacked boxes, begun a routine and felt we were where God wanted us.

Little did we know what more God had planned! We had prayed about adopting and decided to complete paperwork to start the long, slow process rolling — hoping to seriously pursue in a year or so. (This was November, 2005.)

God’s timing was different; an adoption worker asked to see us before Christmas 2005. We thought it was an initial interview until she told us of a baby boy who’d been born at Thanksgiving and needed a home. Shocked, we agreed to pray about it. We prayed, but I also started to doubt, asking everyone’s opinion and making excuses as to why we weren’t the best family for this child.

Then we were reminded of Abraham’s journey (Genesis 12). God called; he obeyed. Delayed obedience is disobedience. We needed to act in obedience even when we couldn’t see what God was doing. Once God spoke, we needed to keep going in that direction until He said something else. We were so challenged by Abraham’s example (Genesis 22) of hearing God ask him to sacrifice his son Isaac, getting up the next day, going on a long hike and not questioning God or asking for another confirmation until the ram in the bush was provided in place of Isaac.

We were challenged to believe God in our situation. Praying for His timing and His will to be done (even if we felt inadequate, overwhelmed and out of control), we started to feel God wanted us to adopt this baby. We were led to walk obediently through the doors God was opening. Then we talked to the baby’s birth mom by phone. She asked some questions and said she’d call us with a decision in two weeks. The next day she called and asked us to adopt her son!

By this point, we knew God wanted us to adopt him. But God continued to confirm it in our hearts. We prayed about what to call this little boy since his birth mom wanted us to name him. We liked the name Quentin but kept praying about whether or not that was God’s choice. Right after the baby’s birth mom asked us to adopt her son, we were able to meet him for the first time. He was in foster care with a family we knew from Plymouth, where we used to live. When we arrived at the house, he’d just gotten up from a nap and was a little fussy. His foster dad said, “What’s the matter, Quinn? It’s okay.” I asked, “What did you call him?” He said, “We named him Quinn.” I started crying (again) and said, we were thinking of naming him Quentin. The foster dad said, “That’s the name our son calls him all the time.” I said, “This is the child the Lord wants us to adopt.”

Three weeks later Quentin Isaac came home to live with us. Today, he is two years old and brings much laughter and joy to those around him. Praise the Lord for His great guidance and faithfulness. May He receive all the glory!