Juliana's opinion

I was talking to Juliana this morning, trying to explain the whole adoption idea. She decided that it would be great to bring a new kiddo home from Ethiopia to share our family with. She also decided that she wanted a little girl. Hmm... i guess we will have to see about that one :) Here she is playing play-doh today. She is holding a little bird she made and named "spider". She took very good care of him until we squished him back into the play-doh container to be played with another day.

Why adopt?

I think I am right in saying that it has been a big surprise to many around us when we have shared the news of pursuing adoption. The next questions that logically follows is "Why?". In case you were wondering this too, I wanted to explain a bit so that you might hear our hearts' desire in this whole process.

It is easy to press forward assuming that we will have a beautiful child at the end of this whole process. I catch myself doing this and just want to remind myself that the Lord is sovereign over all. Even if we would come to a stopping point in this process our awesome God promises the following:

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, [1] for those who are called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

Praise Him for the peace we can have! Though there are many steps Craig and I will be required to take and many evaluations ahead, the Lord has His hand in "all things" and ultimately they will work for our good.

Okay, back to the "Why?" question. I have always wanted to adopt. I have no good answer as to why other than the explanation that the Lord has planted that desire in my heart. I am pretty sure Craig and I talked about it before we got married and he thought it was a great idea too. The reason I am confident that now is the time is because Craig has become like-minded with me - without me having to talk him into it! In James 1:27 we are told that pure undefiled religion is to care for orphans and widows in their affliction. I do not believe all christians are called to adopt. There are many ways to care for orphans whether you actively serve them, financially support them, make it possible for others to serve, or adopting. I'm sure there are many other options that i have not even thought of. So anyway, Craig and I feel the Lord has planted that desire in our hearts to care for an orphan through adoption. I have several other reasons to explain, but there are two reasons why i must stop writing right now - Juliana and Evan (ha ha!) to be continued...

Wait for me!

Craig is leaving me in the dust on this personal data sheet! We actually might learn a few things about each other from this :) I seem to be most successful if i try to knock a few questions down at a time instead of leaving it for the evening when everything else is done. The format is essay type questions and i have 14 done, 40 left to go. yeah, no joke, there are 54 short answer questions! I was pretty proud of how much I had accomplished until just now when i counted (ha ha!) We will keep pressing forward a few steps at a time :)

The first round of paperwork

A few days ago we recieved the first packet of paperwork from Holt International that will need to be completed prior to our homestudy. The forms include the following:

• authorization for background checks
• forms for our physicians to sign confirming we are healthy enough to be parents. this includes a physical, HIV, and TB test
• addresses from the last 5 years
• verification of employment form for Craig
• a big old "Personal Data Information Sheet" for each of us that actually starts the process of our home study. We should expect to have completed our home study by 8 weeks from now. This form is the one that asks questions ranging from what our family was like growing up to why we want to adopt to how will we include a different culture in our family. All great questions and hmmm...it will take us some to finish this one!
• financial data sheet. basically they want to look at how you spend your money so if you have a budget in place this one is pretty easy.
• we need to start getting some forms together like certified birth certificates and marraige license.

In the beginning...

It is hard to believe that this is actually real! My first entry in the start of our adoption process. My hope for this blog is to keep family and friends updated on the status of the adoption as many of you have asked that we keep you posted on how things are going. Several of you have also expressed interest in considering adoption for your own families so hopefully you will feel much more informed about the process from reading about our experience. Please, if you have any words of wisdom or encouragement along the way you can share comments on this blog.

In the beginning, as of January 27th, 2008, we are a family of four - Craig, Erin, Juliana (2 years old) and Evan (10 months old). In approximately 12 months we will (Lord willing) be a family of five! We will be adopting a child most likely between 6-12 months old from Ethiopia. It will be a surprise whether we get a girl or boy!