The Davis Family

It was July 2004, and my husband, Mike, and I were driving from where we lived near Cincinnati (Northern Kentucky) to visit family in Oklahoma. In the back were Anna, Landon, and Avery, our three children, who were 9, 5, and 1 at the time. We had planned on driving about halfway, which would be St. Louis, stop for the night, and then drive on in the next morning. At one point we looked at our children, who were sound asleep, and decided to just keep on driving without stopping. What sounded like a great idea at 9:00pm felt like a terrible decision at 2:00am. Mike and I were both struggling to stay awake, so I began to change the radio station. I came across a program that had just begun. It was James Dobson’s Focus on the Family, re-airing a broadcast that had been on a few years earlier. So, we began to listen to a woman named Pat Wadenpfuhl from Cleveland, Ohio, share her story about adopting her daughter, Hannah Grace, from China. Mike and I were drawn in to her story as she shared about how God got her attention to consider adopting Hannah Grace, about the situation with the baby girls in China, and finally, how similar being physically adopted is to being spiritually adopted. I was reminded of what God had taught me through a Bible study a few years earlier in Romans 8:15...how we have not received a spirit of bondage again to fear, but that we have received a spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father." God had been faithful to show me that I, too, had been adopted and He was MY Abba, my Daddy. All I could do was sit, listen, and cry. As the program ended, and we arrived at our destination, I remember looking at Mike and saying, “I think we are supposed to do this.” He nodded, and suggested we pray about it. So we did. And God was faithful to confirm His will for us over and over, in very real ways. Because that is the kind of God we serve! He is faithful.

Because I didn’t know anyone personally who had ever done this, I felt like we were very much on our own to find an agency. I began searching the Internet, and came across AWAA’s website. What I liked initially was its simplicity. As I read further about the agency, I had an appreciation for what AWAA is founded on: Romans 8:15. Mike and I both felt the Lord was directing us to use AWAA to facilitate this journey He was taking us on. And what an incredible journey it has been!

You know, the most common question we get when people see us is: “Why?” Before we adopted Aubrey, we had three children, and at the time, believed our family was complete. Our response to this question is always the same: “We were made aware of a huge need, and we believe God directed us to do this. We have been so blessed...we cannot imagine our family without the miracle of this child.” And we mean it. I will never forget Thursday, November 10, 2005, 2:50pm, 16 months after the Lord initially spoke to us about adopting. The phone rang, and I answered. And I heard the sweet voice of Kim (our family coordinator) on the other end telling me congratulations...I had a daughter. WOW! For me, time just stopped...I had a daughter. I want to clearly express this: that moment was not one bit less special, meaningful, or significant than when I gave birth to our other 3 children. I don’t even have words to describe it accurately. Only that our God is just so amazing. It was miraculous.

Now here we are, home for almost a year from China, getting to know this wonderful little person named Aubrey Elizabeth Cuini Davis. We wouldn’t have missed any of this for the world! Thank you Brian, Renee, Kim, and all of the awesome staff at AWAA. You all are great, and we enjoyed getting to know you guys. And if the Lord should ever call us to do this again, we would know right where to begin.

Isaiah 25:1 - "Praise to the LORD, O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago."

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