Wow, the past few months have been crazy. We have prayed, pondered, agonized, researched, thought about, considered, weighed out, noodled, puzzled over and deliberated and have finally came to the decision of picking an adoption agency to start our little family. We have not given up on the miracle of a biological child, but we have felt God leading us to move forward with bringing a little child into our home that needs a family to love.
In some ways the decision was made hard because I have felt that by deciding to adopt, that means I am giving up the hope that we will one day have our own biological child. But God has really impressed upon my heart that He has a purpose and a plan for us in this whole adoption process. We are so excited about what God is going to do in our lives as we step out and trust him through this journey. The very act of adoption is a sacred and a special act that is very close to God's heart. It is loving a child not because that child is a part of us, but because of who that child is...God's.
We just spent the past two days at our adoption agency in the Bay Area learning all of the ins and outs of the adoption process. We were given a binder full of paperwork that we need to fill out plus educational resources and materials to read. We also signed our contract and had amazing interaction with other couples who are in the same situation that we are in. They are full of heartache from infertility and desperate to finally start their little families. It was such a relief to be in a room of people that know exactly what we are going through. I know some of these couples could potentially be friends for life.
We are currently in our home study phase. This is where we need to get all kinds of paperwork filled out. Physical exams, TB tests, DMV records and marriage records collected, and letters of references from friends. We also will be going through our home with a home study checklist to get little things in order like putting all medications in a lock box and making sure we have other safety measures in place. Someone will then be coming into our home to inspect these things.
Concurrently with all of that we will be writing a "Dear Birth mother" letter. This is a 4 page letter with pictures of our lives, describing who we are and what our dreams for our family are. We will also be creating a website with additional information about ourselves. These are materials and ways that the birth mothers all across the U.S. can find us and pick us. It's a bit of a daunting process. Marketing ourselves so to speak. It feels weird, like we have to prove that we can be a good parent and stand out above the other few hundred couples out there doing the same thing. But again, we know that God is leading us in this direction so somehow He will direct the right birth mom to find our information and fall in love with us.
I could write so much more about this process. I will definitely keep the blog updated on everything. But now I must get back to the task at hand...paperwork!!!!
