God writes the most amazing and unpredictable stories, doesn’t He? This story is multifaceted and could fill a book. It’s hard to know where to begin and what to include, because all of it radiates with God’s creativity. But here’s where we’ll start: In 2014, I (Grace) moved to Lesotho to work at Beautiful Gate…
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“Someday we’ll start that journey,” I would say. I have probably said those words a hundred times in the last decade out loud and in my head. Someday when were ready, when were not so overwhelmed, when we pay off our debt, when we finish our house projects, when we have a savings account, when…
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“Now glory be to God, who by His mighty power within us, is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of; Infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts or hopes.” Ephesians 3:20 This scripture from Ephesians describes our unique love story, our beautiful adoption journey, and the…
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We [the Payton’s] always knew that we wanted to adopt. In our minds, we thought that adoption would come later in life (we were 24 and 26 at the beginning of the process) and thought that you had to be more “mature” and “stable” to start the process. Really, there is no right time, just…
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I’ve travelled a lot in my many years of ministry through Small World. I’ve now been to 54 countries. I’ve seen a lot. Most of my family and friends are fascinated with my travels. I used to keep a hashtag on my travels called #jimbosselfietour in which I would post selfies of myself in various…
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Q: Tell us about your journey to adopt from Lesotho. Brownlows: When we started our adoption journey we were expecting 18-24 months. If someone would have told us it would have taken 8 years; I probably wouldn’t have signed up. That’s God’s grace for you though because he knew how much this journey would…
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When we married in 2010, we knew we wanted a family. Adoption was discussed at that time. We were thinking maybe have a biological child first and then adopt. We were in our mid 30’s when we married so we thought we had better get started in a couple of years. After trying to…
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The timing was all wrong… we were living in an RV at the time- trying to decide if we were building or buying our next home. There were 5 of us and a guinea pig living in an RV on my (Austin’s) parents land. Though we had talked about adopting in the past, it wasn’t on…
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So many people have used the word “unique” to describe our adoption story. It started with a mission trip back in January of 2013 with a small group from our church traveling to Lesotho to help with various projects at a small orphanage. Our oldest daughter, a sophomore in college at that time, accompanied me…
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My favorite definition of patience is simple: quiet, steady perseverance. It is a quality I admire and aspire to, but sadly one that doesn’t come natural to me. I’m lucky to be married to someone with seemingly never-ending patience, yet our adoption journey even challenged his quiet, steady perseverance. As someone who made the…
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