Keep on Keepin On

We submitted our application with a new agency to proceed with our Ethiopian adoption last Friday.  In the meantime I asked for some information on waiting children from this agency.  This whole process and my gut feeling caused me to have tons of questions rolling around in my head.  So I used the handy old internet to do even more research.  What I came to find out is that the agency I chose was not the best choice as it has had tons and tons of complaints filed against it and it's leaders could be involved in adoption corruption in Ethiopia.  So we begin again and keep on keepin on.  I have called and called and researched and researched and I think I have finally found an agency that is honest, ethical and cares only about the children and not the money.  African adoption is a whole new ball game and care needs to be taken to find the right agency to lead us in this.  I am just amazed at the corruption out there.  I truly believe we need to adopt those children who are truly in need.  But I think we also need to support the families who can keep their children and just need some financial assistance.  Matt and I's hope is to somehow be able to figure out how we can start doing this.  This morning he said let's just start our own 501C3 nonprofit and build a house in Africa.  Sounds great to me!!  We will still be pursuing adoption wholeheartedly but I am excited to see what else God may do with this whole process.  We stand with arms wide open surrendered to whatever God might have in store for us!! 

The Beginning

I decided to create this blog to record our adoption journey and allow people to stay up to date with the twists and turns this journey will take us on.  So welcome to the beginning!  Our adoption story starts on December 1, 2011, my birthday, when Matt told me YES we can adopt.  And so the process started.  We went forward with an agency and we were approved for the China special needs program.  Five months later we had our homestudy complete and had all of our paperwork gathered together for our dossier.  Early in May 2012, we asked for more information on a little boy on the waiting child list.  We went through the whole process and we were told that we were approved and could adopt him.  However, the next day we got a phone call saying that we did not meet agency requirements and that he was too close in age to our youngest daughter and so we would not be able to adopt him without an exception.  A few days later they called us and they decided not to make an exception, so we were unable to adopt this sweet little boy.  This was a painful, yet much needed learning experience on the adoption journey.  Matt and I took some time to take a step back from everything and search our hearts.  We prayed and talked and researched and read the bible in an effort to make the best decision about how to move forward on this journey.  We ended up realizing that God knows our hearts better than we do and he wants to give us our desires!  What an amazing God we serve!!  My heart has always been in Africa, so we decided to explore our adoption options in Africa.  We settled on Ethiopia.  We found out that there are many orphans who need a home in Ethiopia and we can adopt a young boy, which is what our heart desires.  So the journey begins again.  We switched agencies and we are starting the application process.  We are praying we get approved and can begin the journey to bring home our little boy from Ethiopia.  We feel so blessed to be able to do this.  God has laid it on our hearts in a huge way and we cannot wait to fulfill the mission he gave us.  Matt would say he has been thinking about adoption forever!  We are so excited to see what God does with this amazing journey!!