Looking back, but still moving forward.

This has been quite the year, and while it may often feel from the outside that nothing is happening, it is often the exact opposite on the inside. Bethany and I have come along way from last December 31st, and as I think about it, I am humbled. It was a year ago that we were still in the midst of getting our homestudy from the local government, and applying for international approval seemed like a far off dream. Now, at the end of 2015, we have already applied internationally, and have confirmation that our dossier is being reviewed by the government in question. We are preparing ourselves mentally for the moment when we get the call: "You can plan your first trip to meet your son." That call could come as soon as February.

Oh, did I mention that we are matched now with a five year old little boy? Well, we are! A year ago we had no idea who God would bring into our lives, and yet now I can't imagine not adopting him. We haven't met him yet, and its true that the adoption wont be finalized for some time yet, but seriously! We're matched with him! He is literally waiting for us to finish the paperwork! The adoption could be completed by the end of this summer.

So yeah, this year has seen a lot of progress on our adoption front. I think about all the help that we've received, emotionally, spiritually, and monetarily, and I am again humbled. God has provided for every need so far, and while we still have about a third of the money to raise, I am confident that he will bring it to pass. Bethany and I have been blessed by so many that want to help, not least of them being a lady on our island who is a national of the country in question. We spoke with her about our adoption, and she offered to teach us the language for free for a month! If that isn't enough to blow your "God is awesome" gauge, let me add this: She is a teacher, and used to teach American English speakers the language professionally. God is so great!

Its good to look back, and be reminded of where we came from. It's a reminder that greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. Who knows, by this time in 2016, we may have even more awesome things to 'look back on.' Happy New Year!

Adoption Event

We are having our first adoption fundraiser event, Ladies Night Out Adoption Fundraiser this Saturday,  November 14th at 6:30pm. I hope to see some of you ladies there.


We are looking forward to an enjoyable evening with a spiritually uplifting message, music, as well as fun with an auction featuring many wonderful items donated by friends and local businesses including:

Jewelry by Joyia and IB Design 

Original watercolor paintings by Marilyn May


These things and more will be available.

For more information visit our Facebook event page.

So now what? Shouldn't you be done by now? Not quite.

Some of you have heard our announcement that we have gotten our USCIS approval. We were really excited about this because it meant that we don't have to re-do any of the paperwork we have already done. Basically our U.S. paperwork is done and approved. Praise the Lord this was a HUGE answer to prayer!

This is not the final stage by any means. So what is next? International paperwork! We needed approval from the U.S. before we could even start the international paperwork, which is called our dossier. This paperwork we just completed yesterday and sent to our adoption agency. There it will be notarized, approved, and sent to the foreign country we are adopting from. This paperwork will be translated into a foreign language and we will be officially be waiting to adopt a child from that specific country! 

From there there are two ways it can go, we will either wait to be matched with a child which can take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years. The other option is that we will find a waiting child that we feel we can parent and apply to adopt them. Waiting children in our country of choice are children who have already been available to be adopted within the country for 6 months and have had their paperwork presented to potential parents, but for whatever reason the parents chose not to adopt them. These children's information is given to adoption agencies to advocate for them. Some children are represented by multiple adoption agencies. Most waiting children both domestic and internationally are over 8 years old or/and have medical or developmental special needs or delays. We are hoping to adopt a child under 7 with minor medical needs and some developmental needs or delays. Some people are surprised by this thinking we will adopt a healthy infant. Although we are looking for a young child we are not looking for a baby. In fact within the adoption world, children over 3 are considered "special needs" because they are an older child.  Each adoption agency is given specific children to advocate for. I regularly check these lists of waiting children for children that we believe we can care for. If we are able to find a waiting child we wish to adopt we may have to wait 1-2 months for our agency to acquire their file from the country, if the child is currently being represented by another agency. If the child is still available, our adoption agency can request their file. From there we decide  to pursue the specific child for adoption. From there the process is much quicker: 6 months to 1 year! We would make travel plans to meet the child, decide to adopt them, return home for several months and wait to be given official custody of the child. Once we have official custody we travel back to the country to pick up our child and bring them home. From there our real journey begins, our journey as parents 24/7.

So yes we still have quite a ways to go, but we celebrate each small step on the way there. In the meantime we are doing our best to save and raise funds and learn more about parenting vulnerable children. Thank you to everyone who has been so supportive, your prayers, encouragement, and gifts mean so much to us!

Good News, progress finally!

Good News in our adoption journey! We have finally completed step one. We are officially three months into the 2-3 year process. That three month step, unfortunately, took fifteen months to complete. I am very thankful that we did not have a specific child in mind from the beginning, as these delays would have been agonizing. We are now waiting to see if this document will pass inspection by the U.S. government, please pray that it will not have to be revised. If it needs any revisions, there is only a brief window for them to be completed in without having to reapply with a new costly fee. Pray that we find helpfulness and cooperation with the people that are in charge of these things.

We now have documents from three states, two territories, and two federal agencies proving that we are not criminals. Medical tests proving we do not have tuberculosis, hepatitis, HIV, or anything else that the doctors know of. Yet we still need another paper signed by a doctor and yet another set of fingerprints to be done if I am not mistaken. Some of these things seem a bit redundant to us, but I told our adoption agency that it is actually exciting getting to fill out this next round of paperwork since it means we are moving forward with this process.

Both Abe and myself will be turning thirty this year, if we had waited this long to start the process we could have chosen a different country as some countries have a requirement that both parents be over thirty years old. As it is we are planning on sticking with the country we have chosen, their program seems very stable and well run, compared to some. We still meet the requirements to adopt. We have received many generous gifts from friends, family, and even strangers! Many people are praying for us and are excited for us, we are too. We have been able to take on some additional jobs (cat and dog sitting, graphic design, chauffeuring, and selling Jamberry nail wraps so far) and save back money. All told we already have about a third of what we expect we will need. Pray that God will prepare us to be the best parents we can be to a child or siblings that come from a background of pain or neglect.