Adoption

I guess I need to backtrack a little :)

Nathan and I have been thinking of adopting for about a year. We really went back and forth. When we first considered this, I researched for hours different agencies, made charts and graphs and completely overwhelmed Nathan! He needed a break. After a while, we had pretty much decided on Ethiopia. Last fall, we tried submitting an application and the app. fee to one agency and it never went through. I then tried sending a pic of the fam and that didn't go through either. We took that as a sign not to continue for a while. So we waited a few more months. We then decided to try again. Once again, it didn't work out with that particular agency, then I just didn't have a great feeling about it, so we waited some more.

Nathan then read an article about Haiti and how some women have to choose which of their children get to live because they are too poor to feed all of them. He came home one day certain we were to go to Haiti. During this time of waiting, again, I had researched even more agencies and found another one I really liked, but when we came home and said it's Haiti, that agency didn't do adoptions in Haiti, so I was back to square one in looking for an adoption agency. Ugh. Finally, I found an agency who I liked and who we are going through now, International Child Foundation www.childfound.org

Although Haiti's adoption process is very long, we really feel this is where God is leading us to adopt. Right off the bat, we learned that Haiti frowns upon families with biological children, but thankfully, the president is pro-adoption and is willing the grant the necessary waiver that is needed to let us adopt from his country. Although it is an extra step, we are excited to do this.

The entire proecss will most likely be at least 2 years. We submitted our application to the adoption agency in mid-December, are now in the middle of our homestudy which hopefully will be completed by mid-end of Feb. Then it's time to work on the 'dossier' which is Haiti's paperwork. Then we have to apply to US immigration, then all of this paperwork needs to be translated into Haiti's language for the officials to review.

We will get a referral (a child that the orphanage has picked out for us) fairly quickly but the wait after the 'referral' will be 12-18 months. Luckily the agency we chose will allow us to visit as often as we like.

It's a lot of waiting and A LOT of unknowns, something I'm not always good with. I am praying for peace and patience and wisdom and of course for this new child. I pray specifically for a healthy body, strong bones, good immune system, healthy blood, good ears and eyes, and a healthy brain. I pray for the caregivers that they have patience and wisdom and love on these orphaned children and make them feel so loved and wanted.

This is all so outide of my comfort zone, telling everyone about what's going on in our lives and asking for prayer, but if you wouldn't mind keeping this new baby in your prayers and the orphange and the caregivers in your prayers, it would mean the world to us.

Thanks for reading this blog.

~L