Monday, January 23, 2012

Our Story

As most of you may know, we were married in March of 2005. It's been almost 7 years! 

Both of us have always loved kids, and entertained the thought of adopting. After praying about building a family for years, we began our adoption process in January 2011 by attending international adoption training. Following that, we began our home study process in August. We were initially very apprehensive about the home study, and the amount of questions that would be asked, and how we might feel completely picked apart. However, the home study was a good experience for us and helped us think about parenting and the way we might react to issues that parents encounter when they raise kids.

Our home study was approved in January 2012, and we are currently in the process of completing our dossier to send to the US, the country we hope to adopt from. There is SO much paperwork to do, and it can be super confusing to figure out what documents need to be sent where, when, how many copies, how much money to send, etc. We have been truly blessed to work with two great adoption agencies, one here in Canada, and one in the US, and they've been very supportive and patient with our many questions.

Many of you may be wondering what is involved with adoption. We'll try to give you a couple of the highlights:

International Adoption Training - completed January 2011
Home Study - completed September 2011
Provincial Home Study Approval - Received January 2012
Contact International Agency - in the process
Complete dossier - in the process
Send dossier to provincial government to be sent to our US agency pending their approval
Dossier arrives at International Agency
Placed on International Agency's wait list for 2-4 months
Placed on International Agency's active list and have birthmoms view our profile
Chosen by birthmom - 6-18 months after placement on active list
Get to know birthmom/await delivery of baby - 4-5 months
Baby is born!
Wait for birthmom to sign paperwork & for judge to allow baby to be adopted internationally - roughly 4-7 days
We travel to pick up the baby & complete further paperwork - in the US 1-2 weeks
Come home as parents with our baby!
Complete 3 further home visits from a social worker to ensure we are adjusting over the first 90 days

If all this is making your head spin, we're not surprised. A lot of the adoption process is a waiting game, followed by periods of 24/7 paperwork, followed by waiting, etc.

We are so grateful to God for being there for us and helping us to be patient with the waiting.

If you would like to help us out, here are some ways you can do so:

Pray for our birthmom. There is no way to imagine the heartache that she may be going through as she makes an adoption plan for her child. Pray for her salvation, pray for strength, pray for health.

Pray for our baby. Pray that our birthmom takes good care of herself through the pregnancy, pray that our baby will bond well with us as parents. Pray the same prayer for our adoptive baby that you pray for your or your friends biological babies. Pray that our child will grow up to be a mighty man/woman of God.

Pray for us. Pray for patience, pray for peace, pray for courage. Pray for wisdom to make the right decisions regarding each step of the adoption process. Pray for Lucy as she puts together the profile that the birthmoms will see.

If you wish to help out financially, please click on the Paypal donations button on the right. We do not like asking for your hard earned money, but if you feel led by God to help out, we would appreciate any and every financial gift. As you may have heard, adoption can be financially draining - between agency fees, home study fees, lawyer's fees, birthmom living expenses, travel expenses, etc., our projected financial cost ranges between $30,000 and $45,000.

If you have any questions, comment on this post, and we'll get back to you as soon as possible. Keep checking back for updates!

2 comments:

vaughn said...

you guys are amazing, and i'm praying... still :) blessings <3

Carmen and Rachelle said...

Praying like crazy for you two! -Shelle