We shared our plans to adopt with our parents this weekend and wrote this little note for their first visit to our blog ...
Dear Mom and Dad,
We have been waiting to share something important with you for some time now. It is time to share. Back in November, we attended a seminar on International Adoption and fell in love with the idea of adopting a child from Russia. We have been working hard to pay off our debts and get ourselves ready financially to climb this mountain. We have prayed and believe it is God's will for us to take this journey. So, now, we are ready to share it with you. Please read this blog from the beginning so you can catch up to us on the road we've begun to travel these last few months and continue to check back for updates as we move through the adoption process. We hope you will support us, encourage us, pray for us and help us as we begin our journey to HOPE through adoption.
Love,
Chad & Emily
Benjamin, too!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Going Forward
Just wanted to post a quick update. We have decided to go forward with the application and trust that God will provide for us if this is His will, which we believe it is. We are still within $1000 of the minimum annual income requirement and I read that exceptions are made on a case-by-case basis. We worked hard to pay off most of our debt last year (we sold one car and are paying off the rest with our tax return) and minimal bills, so I think they will still accept us. And Chad is working on finding other work to supplement his full-time income. So, as soon as we get our taxes back and have some cash, we are going to submit our application and tell our families. I am really getting excited as it becomes more and more of a reality that we are going to adopt and bring home a little girl next year!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Putting Application On Hold
Well, it turns out we can't submit our application after all. We just learned yesterday that Chad will lose his part-time job in 60 days, which puts us below the minimum income requirement per family member for the Russia program. He still has his full-time job at Teen Challenge, but it's not enough. We do have 60 days for him to find something else, but we're not sure where God is leading us. Please pray for us as we figure out what to do.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Application Completed
At the advice of a good friend, we have taken some time to explore our hearts on this adoption and what our 'perfect' scenario would look like and realized that Russia is the best program for us (and where we have felt led from the beginning). We have completed the application and are ready to submit it to FTIA just as soon as we collect the last few items we need and get our remaining finances in order. We are both very excited to get started on this adoption journey. We're not allowing fear to keep us from following our heart's desire to add another child to our family.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Answers, Answers!
Wow, I just had the most incredible weekend! I went to the "Captivating" retreat in the Colorado mountains with my friend, Missy, and I am more certain than ever that this is the path for us. I just really felt God speak to my heart His heart for adoption and our need to take risks and live the adventure. I believe He has put the desire to adopt a child in our hearts and He will provide for us. Likewise, He removed the desperate need from my heart for another birth child for the first time since Abby died. In faith, I completed the adoption application this weekend while overlooking the beautiful Buena Vista valley and Colorado mountains with a joy in my heart that another child will soon be joining our family and that we are in for the adventure of a lifetime. Before I go, I would like to share these excerpts from "The Spirit of Adoption" written about God's heart for the orphan and plan of redemption through adoption from the America World Adoption website:
Parenthood was designed to be the outcome of God's beautiful union of marriage. The path toward parenthood, however, can be as winding and varied as the people who travel it. For many couples pregnancy is an easy and effortless milestone in their life. For some, however, the road to parenthood is a long and difficult path, filled with heartache, disappointment and an ongoing sense of failure.
In Genesis 3:16 (NKJV) God says: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children . . .”
This verse tells us that pain is to be a part of this world, even in marriage and childbearing. The broken condition of this world is a reality we must all face. Knowing the condition of this world is significant to our understanding of the blessing of adoption. When we know that suffering is part of a loving God's plan, then we can understand that the existence of orphaned children is not an accident or failure of God's plan.
Have you ever considered the fact that Jesus was adopted? Yes, Jesus' earthly father Joseph adopted him. In fact, the Gospel of Matthew traces the bloodline of Jesus not through his biological mother, Mary, but through his adoptive father, Joseph. Even though one might easily pass over this fact as insignificant, this detail reveals something amazing about God's nature. God does not make mistakes, and He certainly doesn't need a back-up plan. Through this footnote in history we see that for Jesus, adoption was not Plan B.
God's plan of redemption for an imperfect world was set in motion through the very concept of adoption. Not only did He ordain his son Jesus to be adopted, but He made adoption the only way we could become a part of His eternal family. It was His good pleasure to adopt us. In fact, it is His ideal mechanism to establish relationships.
Psalm 113:9 says, "He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the LORD." (NIV)
This verse doesn't say that God makes barren women fertile-although that is certainly within His power. The key phrase is "happy mother." A "happy mother" is God's Plan A. How can a barren woman become a happy mother unless she adopts? Just as God has decided that some couples will experience parenthood through biological birth, He also has ordained some couples to experience parenthood through the miracle of adoption.
(taken from http://www.awaa.org/stories/spiritofadoption.aspx)
One little girl died and now another little girl across the world has hope because there is room in the hearts of her parents for another child. Perhaps we were ordained to experience parenthood through the miracle of adoption from the start ...
Parenthood was designed to be the outcome of God's beautiful union of marriage. The path toward parenthood, however, can be as winding and varied as the people who travel it. For many couples pregnancy is an easy and effortless milestone in their life. For some, however, the road to parenthood is a long and difficult path, filled with heartache, disappointment and an ongoing sense of failure.
In Genesis 3:16 (NKJV) God says: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children . . .”
This verse tells us that pain is to be a part of this world, even in marriage and childbearing. The broken condition of this world is a reality we must all face. Knowing the condition of this world is significant to our understanding of the blessing of adoption. When we know that suffering is part of a loving God's plan, then we can understand that the existence of orphaned children is not an accident or failure of God's plan.
Have you ever considered the fact that Jesus was adopted? Yes, Jesus' earthly father Joseph adopted him. In fact, the Gospel of Matthew traces the bloodline of Jesus not through his biological mother, Mary, but through his adoptive father, Joseph. Even though one might easily pass over this fact as insignificant, this detail reveals something amazing about God's nature. God does not make mistakes, and He certainly doesn't need a back-up plan. Through this footnote in history we see that for Jesus, adoption was not Plan B.
God's plan of redemption for an imperfect world was set in motion through the very concept of adoption. Not only did He ordain his son Jesus to be adopted, but He made adoption the only way we could become a part of His eternal family. It was His good pleasure to adopt us. In fact, it is His ideal mechanism to establish relationships.
Psalm 113:9 says, "He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the LORD." (NIV)
This verse doesn't say that God makes barren women fertile-although that is certainly within His power. The key phrase is "happy mother." A "happy mother" is God's Plan A. How can a barren woman become a happy mother unless she adopts? Just as God has decided that some couples will experience parenthood through biological birth, He also has ordained some couples to experience parenthood through the miracle of adoption.
(taken from http://www.awaa.org/stories/spiritofadoption.aspx)
One little girl died and now another little girl across the world has hope because there is room in the hearts of her parents for another child. Perhaps we were ordained to experience parenthood through the miracle of adoption from the start ...
Friday, January 30, 2009
Decisions, Decisions!
Well, we decided in December that wanted to pursue adoption in 2009. We have found an agency we like, but are still doing a lot of research on our options. We are still leaning towards international adoption, but we both have a lot of questions to explore.
We first thought Russia would be our country due to having the shortest wait (referral only 2 to 7 months after submitting our dossier then 4-5 weeks until our first trip to Russia). But it is the only country that requires both parents travel and requires two separate trips. And it is a little more expensive since two trips are required for the adoption.
We thought we might like to adopt from China, but it can take more than 30 months just to get a referral and up to 4 years for the adoption to be finalized. With Benjamin turning 5 in just a couple of months, we don't want to wait that long. He would be 8-9 by the time we brought our child home. China does have a "Waiting Children" program, which we have begun seriously considering. If we adopt through the China Waiting Children program, we could have a referral only 2-10 weeks after submitting our dossier!! The waiting program is for special needs children and we are exploring the possibility of opening our hearts up to a special needs child, but we're just not sure that's where we are being led.
There's another possibility that we could adopt domestically, which costs about the same as international adoption, but could also take years. Again, we both feel we are being led in a different direction, but want to be sure that we have explored all of our options. And I thought the decision just to adopt was hard!! Figuring out the who, what and how is even harder. Thanks for letting me work through some thoughts while we try to figure out and pray through all of these decisions.
On an exciting note, we talked to Benjamin today and asked him what he thought about the idea of adopting, explaining that we have been asking God to put another baby in Mommy's tummy for a long time now and that maybe we should see if we could be a family to a baby who doesn't have one. He was very excited about being the big brother to a child who doesn't have a family. I think he really understood what that meant. However, we were sure to tell him that, just like having a baby in Mommy's tummy, we needed to pray and ask God to give us a baby through adoption; that we would try, but that we still wouldn't know if and when it would happen. I wanted to be sure he understood that it was a process and not set him up for more disappointment.
Anyway, thanks for letting me share. I have a feeling I'm going to be a little more active now that we are actually proceeding.
We first thought Russia would be our country due to having the shortest wait (referral only 2 to 7 months after submitting our dossier then 4-5 weeks until our first trip to Russia). But it is the only country that requires both parents travel and requires two separate trips. And it is a little more expensive since two trips are required for the adoption.
We thought we might like to adopt from China, but it can take more than 30 months just to get a referral and up to 4 years for the adoption to be finalized. With Benjamin turning 5 in just a couple of months, we don't want to wait that long. He would be 8-9 by the time we brought our child home. China does have a "Waiting Children" program, which we have begun seriously considering. If we adopt through the China Waiting Children program, we could have a referral only 2-10 weeks after submitting our dossier!! The waiting program is for special needs children and we are exploring the possibility of opening our hearts up to a special needs child, but we're just not sure that's where we are being led.
There's another possibility that we could adopt domestically, which costs about the same as international adoption, but could also take years. Again, we both feel we are being led in a different direction, but want to be sure that we have explored all of our options. And I thought the decision just to adopt was hard!! Figuring out the who, what and how is even harder. Thanks for letting me work through some thoughts while we try to figure out and pray through all of these decisions.
On an exciting note, we talked to Benjamin today and asked him what he thought about the idea of adopting, explaining that we have been asking God to put another baby in Mommy's tummy for a long time now and that maybe we should see if we could be a family to a baby who doesn't have one. He was very excited about being the big brother to a child who doesn't have a family. I think he really understood what that meant. However, we were sure to tell him that, just like having a baby in Mommy's tummy, we needed to pray and ask God to give us a baby through adoption; that we would try, but that we still wouldn't know if and when it would happen. I wanted to be sure he understood that it was a process and not set him up for more disappointment.
Anyway, thanks for letting me share. I have a feeling I'm going to be a little more active now that we are actually proceeding.
Monday, December 8, 2008
We Are Doing It
I think we have made a decision ... we are going to start the adoption process in January. It will be my full-time job for awhile, I know. I will need all the support I can get, so please help me walk through this. We are ready to stop feeling sad and sorry for ourselves and do something that will bring HOPE to our family. Thank you for the help and advice from my last post. I will keep you updated as things progress!!! We are hopeful that this is the road that will finally bring our next child home.
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