Good morning family and friends! I am starting a blog to chronicle our journey of becoming the parents of an Ethiopian girl. I always wanted to do a blog for my boys when I was pregnant and record their first 12 months of life, but I never had the patience or time to commit to a blog. I do have baby books for both boys and realized that I will not have a baby book for our future daughter since I will not be her birth mother. I will however commit to recording the process of adopting her through a blog so that she will have something to connect to her journey here. Also, it gives me an outlet to write how we are feeling through this long process that will require a lot of patience. I wanted to be able to share the blog also with our family and friends to keep them updated and request prayers. We will need many in this journey. We are so thankful and blessed for our support system! God truly has great plans in store for us!
You might ask how we came to the decision of an international adoption. For me, adoption has always been on my heart even before we started a family on our own. My heart has always ached for children without parents or a safe and loving home. No child should grow up feeling alone or abandoned. I prayed to God for patience and direction in this conviction and need. In the meantime, Brian and I decided to try and start a family on our own and we were so blessed to get pregnant right away and had our first son Evan. 19 months later we were blessed with another son Erik. We knew we wanted to have at least one more child, but let's just say Erik made that difficult with not being a good sleeper and really fussy as a baby. Lol! I'll just be honest and admit also that I really do not enjoy being pregnant. I was tired, cranky, and felt huge! I am so thankful that I had healthy pregnancies and babies so please do not think for one minute I take that for granted.
Due to our health insurance change and maternity coverage, we really needed to wait another year til February 2012 to try and have another baby. It gave us a year to pray and think about what was best for our family. Again adoption was in my heart and mind and Brian and I started to research a little more and talk to other families who have adopted or were adopting. Last year, I had a mom in my MOPS group that had adopted from Ethiopia and she was able to share her journey with me. We really did not even know where to start, but it just so happened some friends had just announced they were adopting through America World. I pulled up their information online and was impressed with their services and our friends had great things to report about this particular agency. I talked to a representative from America World over the phone and they sent us a huge packet of information and a formal application.
Next came Brian's second thoughts. The process, national versus international adoption, how it would affect our boys, were all thoughts racing through our minds. We decided we needed to turn it back over to the Lord in prayer and just be patient. We really wanted to make sure our hearts were 100% in this and looking back I know we were not ready to make the decision and commitment at that time. We did not discuss it much further and just tried to be still for God's plan and answer.
Fast forward to November 2012. Brian and I were able to take a long weekend away in Scottsdale, AZ. I will never forget the first night we were there and went to dinner at El Chorro. It was one of the most romantic outdoor patio dining venues I had ever been to. We were next to a fireplace enjoying wonderful food and conversation. Brian brought up the future of our family. Honestly, he and I are not getting any younger and we needed to be at peace with either staying a little family of 4 or adding another child. I just knew when I looked into the future I saw more than 2 boys sitting at our table growing up and coming home for the holidays. He told me he really wanted to consider adoption again, and that's when I knew God was nudging us to move forward.
When we got home, I really wanted to get through the holidays and get all our financial reports done for 2011 and 2012 before completing the lengthy adoption application. Not once through this process did I want to rush or be hasty in our decision. On January 28, 2013, I officially submitted our adoption application to America World. We decided to use America World because of our friends' referral and it felt like a right fit for us. Our letter of intent was to pursue adoption in China or Ethiopia. China was on our hearts due to the restrictions of one child and preference to a male in their culture. However, we found out the wait for a Chinese child is approximately 6 years. That is how we decided Ethiopia and it really helps that there are numerous families in the area with adopted children from the same country. We are requesting a girl for obvious reasons....we already have 2 boys!
On February 20, 2013, Abby from America World called and welcomed us to America World. Our application had been approved! Many emotions were felt that day. Joy, relief, and uncertainty of what lies ahead. However, we are certain God has had His hand in this the whole way up to this point. We are moving forward and finished the next set of paperwork and are mailing it in tomorrow with our first payment toward the adoption.
This whole process and journey is going to require so much trust and patience. What we do know is that God already has our daughter picked out and for that we are very thankful. I will try to update the blog throughout the process for our Emma's chronicle, family and friends, and maybe some other parents out there going through the same journey. We are told 24-36 months before a child is even referred to us. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. I will close by explaining why we already have a name for our little girl. Even before we started our family, if we were going to have a girl, it was to be Emma. My grandmother's name is Emma and Brian's grandmother's name is Emma. Both are and were very special ladies and since it's a name on both sides of our family, it just feels perfect!
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