Adoption--the story

Ok, so I have had a million questions on this adoption. I am happy to answer all that you have. Some things I can not say in public because of the way adoption works, but ask me privately and I will be happy to answer you.

In short, we have always known we would adopt some day. It was just a matter of when. I have read adoption blogs for years. I have followed lots of stories of domestic and international adoption. This is just where our heart is. The life of an orphan in Eastern Europe, when they age out of the baby house and are moved into an institution...wow, it just breaks my heart into pieces...always has. Even worse, when they age out of the system altogether...

Anyway, we were discussing when we would start pursing our own adoptition around the time Eli was born. We thought our time was soon. God only knew how soon. As you all know, when Eli was 5 weeks old, our world was torn to pieces. Burying our baby girl was unexpected and excruciating. The devasting tragedy has knocked us off our feet, but it has also taught us so many things. Life is so short. So many things we obsess over are meaningless. Anyway, our committment from the beginning is that we refuse to let Abigail's story be one of destruction. Her name is Hope. Her story is Hope. Her story has not been finished yet.

With that in mind, I continued to read adoption blogs, we made a painful move, and we continued to grieve. Then, God got my attention. I was reading a blog one day and it had the pictures of several sweet orphans in Eastern Europe. The post said that because of overcrowding at their baby house, these orphans were soon to be transferred. The institution they were to go to is unbearable by any standards. They would be ripped from all they knew and moved to this cold, scary place. The first beautiful face on that page was a little girl who was only 3 years old. Can you imagine at 3 being moved to such a place? My heart was broken. I showed her picture to Michael and we spent the night praying for her. By morning we both agreed. God says to take care of the orphans. That call is clear. Why wait? She needed us now, so we committed to bring her home.

At this point, we have mostly finished our home study. We are just waiting on our fingerprint clearances to come back from the FBI. Once they do, we will send our home study off to immigration to be approved. We have just about finished all the rest of our paperwork. We have even renewed our passports. We are just waiting for those steps to process. You know me--give me a good checklist and I am will get it done quickly. I love doing paperwork and making lists. I am just a nerd like that. But there is so much on the other end of this paper trail.

Our entire family is so pleased to make sacrifices to save this little girl's life. All the kids say that they plan to adopt several when they are adults. That makes my heart warm. I love their heart for the plight of these children. I love that they are eager to share their home. I know they are aware of what is important in this world even more than some adults. They have been face to face with death. It changes you. Hopefully, we will be able to submit our dossier in just a couple of months when our country re-opens to new dossiers. Please pray with us that this process continues to go smoothly. I look forward to introducing you to our 3rd daughter (but she is actually older than Abigail) soon.