So we're starting our blog...again. We are more readers than we are writers. Sorry for the long delay for any one who has wondering!
Our adoption plans are moving along really quite fast. We anticipated maybe having a child in our home by next spring originally. Now it is quite possible that we may be traveling to Ethiopia to pick up our child before Christmas...not guarenteed but possible! Now that we are back from our summer project in Juneau we are talking to our agency more frequently. We're finding ourselves all at once excited, nervous, busy, confused, freaked out, and yet at peace. We have no doubt that this is God's plan for adding to our family.
We continually come across more and more confirmation that God is the author of this endevour. Just this week I was talking with a friend from our church who is also pursuing adopting an Ethiopean child. Her and her husband just found out about a local group of Ethiopean Americans in our very diverse college town. This is huge for us as we really desire to incorporate the Ethiopean culture into our family. We are hoping to be able to celebrate some Ethiopean holidays and learn some customs we can introduce in our family - especially the cooking. I'm always excited about new recipes, but this carries a greater than normal significance for me!
Now to give you a few facts: We are 3rd on the waiting list for boys and 24th for girls. This of course means we're closer to hearing about a boy who is available for adoption. Since we didn't specify the gender we are obviously most likely to receive a referral for a boy and therefore eventually have another son! The time that this could happen in is very close. If you're praying for us, pray that we'll have wisdom when we do receive a referral - knowing the right questions to ask, the information we need from the international pediatrician, etc. Also you can pray that Jason and I will be physically in the same place. Upon hearing about a child, we will have a week to look over the photo and info of the child and then we need to have all decisions made. Jason will need to be in Alaska to close summer project in August and we're really hoping that we aren't receiving our referral just as he is leaving for that! Either way, God will give us what we need.
Thanks for praying for our family!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Our Adoption Adventure begins
Thank you for checking out our family blog!
We’re honestly nervous about being adoptive parents, but at the same time excited! Here’s a snapshot of our process of coming to this point. In the summer of 2008, our interest in adoption began to grow. We had tried for nearly a year and a half to get pregnant with no success and the seed was planted for us to consider adoption. We began to pray about it and think about adoption more seriously over the summer.
As we were surfing the internet researching adoption, we found an agency out of Oregon called All God’s Children. The video from their website, called ‘Come Near and Rescue Me’ definitely pulled at our heart strings in our decision making process: http://www.allgodschildren.org/about/videos/
We’ve come to conclude this process to be very congruent with the gospel message itself. Adoption is taking a child without a family and bringing them into a family where they can be deeply loved, accepted, and protected. The adoption process has come to be for us a very vivid expression of living out the gospel. In our current life circumstances, this is where following Christ has taken us.
We have signed on with an Ethiopia adoption program through All God’s Children. We have requested a boy or a girl, two years and younger. Ethiopia currently is one of the most open countries to international adoption. It is estimated that there are 4 million orphans in the country, largely from civil war, poverty, and the AIDS epidemic. That number approaches the combined population of Kansas and Nebraska. I cannot wrap my mind around that fact.
Aaron and Audrey have expressed excitement to the idea of adding another sibling to our home. Audrey especially likes the idea of having a baby around to play with. Audrey even has a few baby dolls and animals she excitedly calls ‘adopted’. She will frequently turn to us when talking about a doll or animal and proclaim “this one is adopted.”
We’ll keep you posted as we progress through the process. For now, we are wading through what one friend has called the ‘paperwork pregnancy’ of adoption. We hope to have our dossier paperwork completed soon and then enter the waiting for referral phase.
We’re honestly nervous about being adoptive parents, but at the same time excited! Here’s a snapshot of our process of coming to this point. In the summer of 2008, our interest in adoption began to grow. We had tried for nearly a year and a half to get pregnant with no success and the seed was planted for us to consider adoption. We began to pray about it and think about adoption more seriously over the summer.
As we were surfing the internet researching adoption, we found an agency out of Oregon called All God’s Children. The video from their website, called ‘Come Near and Rescue Me’ definitely pulled at our heart strings in our decision making process: http://www.allgodschildren.org/about/videos/
We’ve come to conclude this process to be very congruent with the gospel message itself. Adoption is taking a child without a family and bringing them into a family where they can be deeply loved, accepted, and protected. The adoption process has come to be for us a very vivid expression of living out the gospel. In our current life circumstances, this is where following Christ has taken us.
We have signed on with an Ethiopia adoption program through All God’s Children. We have requested a boy or a girl, two years and younger. Ethiopia currently is one of the most open countries to international adoption. It is estimated that there are 4 million orphans in the country, largely from civil war, poverty, and the AIDS epidemic. That number approaches the combined population of Kansas and Nebraska. I cannot wrap my mind around that fact.
Aaron and Audrey have expressed excitement to the idea of adding another sibling to our home. Audrey especially likes the idea of having a baby around to play with. Audrey even has a few baby dolls and animals she excitedly calls ‘adopted’. She will frequently turn to us when talking about a doll or animal and proclaim “this one is adopted.”
We’ll keep you posted as we progress through the process. For now, we are wading through what one friend has called the ‘paperwork pregnancy’ of adoption. We hope to have our dossier paperwork completed soon and then enter the waiting for referral phase.
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