Wow, that feels kind of weird to write out, but it's true! We're in the process of adopting!
When I instagrammed a picture earlier today of us leaving the DCBS office where we had our fingerprints taken and applied for our background checks, everyone's surprise and excitement made me realize that we haven't really told very many people about it.
I guess it's been something in the works for our family for so long that it's still kind of hard to believe that it's actually in the works now.
We've talked about adopting ever since we were engaged. Adopting has never been a "plan b" for growing our family. It's just something we knew the Lord would want us to do someday.
As you may or may not have guessed by the fact that we've had 1 child in 7 years of marriage, fertility hasn't been something that's come easily for us. I had to take medicine in order to get pregnant with Jude, and around his 2nd birthday we got to thinking seriously about him being a big brother, so I took 3 more rounds of that same medicine to no avail. It was at that time--two and a half years ago--that we decided we would pursue adoption as soon as we were able.
We were still living in Moldova at the time, and we thought that "as soon as we were able" meant that it would happen soon after we moved back to the States and got settled in at one of the dozens of great ministry positions Josh had been applying for. We thought we might even have another child or two in our home by that Christmas.
As you can probably figure out, God had other plans for us (you can read about our first year back in the States here; sorry I haven't been better at blogging since we've been back). Those plans did not involve any of those churches that received resumes all the way from Moldova, nor did they involve us having enough income for the government to let us foster or adopt any children.
And as we have seen time and time again, God's plans for us are so much better than any plans we can make for ourselves. He gave us a much needed time of spiritual refreshment as members of a wonderful church before calling Josh to pastor another incredible church. Every day we are blown away with thankfulness for him bringing us here, but I guess that's for another post.
Finally financially able to foster and adopt, we are excited to be partnering with Sunrise Children's Services to bring one or two new children into our home. The training process with Sunrise has been very thorough, and we don't have any rose-colored glasses about how difficult things may be. But, nonetheless, we are excited.
I hope to blog at least a few more times on the subject of adopting from foster care, because I feel like it isn't a very well-understood journey. Even among those of us familiar with international adoption and the evangelical orphan care movement, foster care and foster adoption often get left out of the discussion. So if you have any questions about foster care or foster adoption, feel free to ask! I don't have all of the answers, but we're learning a lot and I'd be happy to help shed some light on this often overlooked aspect of orphan care.
When I instagrammed a picture earlier today of us leaving the DCBS office where we had our fingerprints taken and applied for our background checks, everyone's surprise and excitement made me realize that we haven't really told very many people about it.
I guess it's been something in the works for our family for so long that it's still kind of hard to believe that it's actually in the works now.
We've talked about adopting ever since we were engaged. Adopting has never been a "plan b" for growing our family. It's just something we knew the Lord would want us to do someday.
As you may or may not have guessed by the fact that we've had 1 child in 7 years of marriage, fertility hasn't been something that's come easily for us. I had to take medicine in order to get pregnant with Jude, and around his 2nd birthday we got to thinking seriously about him being a big brother, so I took 3 more rounds of that same medicine to no avail. It was at that time--two and a half years ago--that we decided we would pursue adoption as soon as we were able.
We were still living in Moldova at the time, and we thought that "as soon as we were able" meant that it would happen soon after we moved back to the States and got settled in at one of the dozens of great ministry positions Josh had been applying for. We thought we might even have another child or two in our home by that Christmas.
As you can probably figure out, God had other plans for us (you can read about our first year back in the States here; sorry I haven't been better at blogging since we've been back). Those plans did not involve any of those churches that received resumes all the way from Moldova, nor did they involve us having enough income for the government to let us foster or adopt any children.
And as we have seen time and time again, God's plans for us are so much better than any plans we can make for ourselves. He gave us a much needed time of spiritual refreshment as members of a wonderful church before calling Josh to pastor another incredible church. Every day we are blown away with thankfulness for him bringing us here, but I guess that's for another post.
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Finally financially able to foster and adopt, we are excited to be partnering with Sunrise Children's Services to bring one or two new children into our home. The training process with Sunrise has been very thorough, and we don't have any rose-colored glasses about how difficult things may be. But, nonetheless, we are excited.
I hope to blog at least a few more times on the subject of adopting from foster care, because I feel like it isn't a very well-understood journey. Even among those of us familiar with international adoption and the evangelical orphan care movement, foster care and foster adoption often get left out of the discussion. So if you have any questions about foster care or foster adoption, feel free to ask! I don't have all of the answers, but we're learning a lot and I'd be happy to help shed some light on this often overlooked aspect of orphan care.
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