Since the time our family grew from two to three, Jonathan and I knew that we would want to expand our family. We love children and we love cultures from around the world so it seemed as though international adoption would be a perfect choice for us to expand our family. After years of prayer and discussion, we decided to start that journey and follow God's plan for our family. But how did we get to this point?For me adoption has been on my heart since I was a child. My desire for my future family was not to be an all-white, middle class family but would someday be a multi-racial family - modeling "all the little children of the world". Known in the adoption world as the adoption gene, it has always been a part of who I am; a longing that I couldn't explain but was always apart of how I was made. During college, I began to even wonder if biologically I would be able to have children since my desire to adopt was strong - Obviously God had other plans and blessed our family with a beautiful daughter four years ago.
For Jonathan his desire to adopt is out of biblical obedience. The bible speaks clearly of our call as believers to care for the orphans and widows - this is not a suggestion from Christ but a mandate for believers. While dating Jonathan and I had extensive talks about family and adoption. He knew upfront my desires and as a couple we began to pray about this process separately long ago.
After having Izzie 4 years ago, we wanted to wait a bit before having more children, but knew one day we would grow our family. With the passing of my mom 2 years ago, the idea of mothering a new child without her here seemed daunting and frightening. I thought "How can I be a "new" mom all over again without my mom here to help?" The desire to go through pregnancy again was not in me at all. It was at this point, the conversation of adoption came back to Jonathan and me. We began to talk and pray through the option of adoption and God's desire for our family. After about two years of discussing and praying, we began emailing different agencies for information. We quickly found that every agency is wonderful in their own ways. They of course put the most precious children on their material making you instantly "fall in love" with them and what they can offer. We didn't want to take this process lightly - this would be the agency that would help facilitate the process, paperwork and matching of our child - the child that God has personally picked just for us. This process of deciding on an agency would be the most challenging thus far.
After a couple of months of researching, comparing, talking with other adoptive families, emailing and even attending two informational sessions, our hearts were turned to America World. We had an instant connection with the young lady that would end up being our social worker and felt a complete peace when we made publically announced we had decided on them.
This decision was made on November 7, thus beginning the paperwork pregnancy (unofficially).
We submitted our application for the Ethiopian Program to America World on November 10, 2010, not expecting to hear anything for at least 7-10 days. Two days later we received the call that we had been officially accepted into the program; this phone call was followed up by mounds and mounds of paperwork - the official paperwork pregnancy.
The next two months consisted of paperwork and homestudy meetings. The process thus far has been pretty seamless. Our homestudy was approved in January and now we are about to apply with USCIS (immigration) to get approval to bring a child in to the country.
You may ask what is the time line for all of this. While I have my hopes of holding our baby girl in our arms by the end of the year, I know that God is completely in control of this process. This is one situation that I have to hold my hands up and give complete control to Him. It is such a humbling thought that God will hand pick the little girl that will be ours. He somehow finds us faithful and worthy enough to raise that little girl....this is a process I can not rush nor do I want to rush.....I want the one He has for us and only us. The waiting is hard but in the end the little girl that has been in our hearts will be placed in our arms.
So for now, we ask for your prayers. Here are few things you can bring for us about:
-For patience during the waiting times when it is all out of our hands
-For the health and well-being of the lady that is/will carry and birth the little girl we will call ours
-Ask God how he may use you to care for the orphans of the world. While we are not all called to adopt we are called to care for them. This could include sponsorship, fostering, praying, or even supporting families financially that are adopting.
In closing thank you for following us on this journey as we Build Castles - from a family of three to a family of 4
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