Our Adoption Story

As we sent our dossier down to Colombia, our family celebrated with true joy that our adoption journey was nearing and that soon we would be united with the three children we had grown to love in our hearts for over a year now. We had found these three on a waiting child listing in February 2006 and notified our agency of our interest in adopting them. Just one month before, we had placed a verbal commitment on another sibling group only to learn that another family was chosen instead of us -- their paperwork had reached the home office before ours. We relied heavily on our faith in God to mend our hearts and restore trust in this agency. That is when we found the three children on the photolisting.

For weeks we prayed that God would guide our way. We felt without a doubt that these three were our children. Upon receiving their information I prayed again asking that God send a sign that I would not miss if these were indeed our children. As I looked down at the picture of the middle child, I saw a boy standing ever-so-proudly with his finest clothes on, and the most heartwarming smile, but what stood out more than anything else was his fingers were crossed as if to say, "Please adopt us and be our forever family!" Seeing that sight was something I could truly relate to as I remember often as a youngster, I would secretly wish for something and find myself crossing my fingers in anticipation of my request.

We experienced great feelings for adopting these 3 children; each day was spent dreaming of how these siblings would fit into our family, especially how the new children would grow to love their new sister (our 9-year old daughter). As each day passed, our love grew immensely. We firmly believe it to truly be God's calling which we respectfully choose to be obedient to His desire for our family. Not everyone receives such a worthy calling and we feel so privileged to be chosen to share our love and guidance we are entrusted to raise more children. Through this long and tedious adoption process, many lessons have been taught to us and from those tribulations our family has grown in tremendous faith and strength. Our heavenly Father continues to pour out His wisdom and grace. We remain grateful for His continued blessings!

This adoption hasn't been easy for us as we endured many setbacks and hold-ups along the way. From the beginning, it was such a backwards deal -- literally!!! To further explain, our I-171H was the very first form we got back! Seriously, this is unique because the I-171H is most often the last document to come in. (For those individuals not savvy to international adoption, it's the immigration form granting approval to adopt international children.) Our homestudy took over 8 months from start to finish, and for no reason on our part to cause the lengthy delays. Other dilemmas would present themselves as we treaded through the paperwork gathering process. Finally our dossier (all necessary paperwork for International adoptions) was sent to Colombia and we were finally at a more relaxed and comfortable stage in the adoption process. We were pleased to know that the dossier would soon be reviewed, then we'd be officially matched to our children with travel following soon after! Overjoyed with emotions, we celebrated this achievement with great pleasure.

The celebration came to a roaring halt as we learned of the unfortunate news that these children were no longer listed as available to adopt. Perplexed by this news, our emotions stirred and we wondered how this could be? This entire adoption was led by God's desire for our family and we genuinely believed those children were the ones for our family, only to find out differently now. All along we continued to pray an unselfish prayer for those 3 children (and many other children who appeared on that same photolisting) that they receive numerous blessings and for each child to be welcomed into a wonderful family. Over time we felt more confident they were to join our family. Throughout the adoption process we knew that until it was official, they would not actually be our children, but we held them in our hearts as our children and we still love them just as they are our children. Somewhere out there in this big ole' world there are three lovely children whom will never know just how much they are loved and how they've touched our hearts and impacted our lives forever. We know they will always remain in our hearts and in our prayers, and are comforted in knowing that God has other children out there whom are destined for our family. We ask for God's protection to be placed over our family. Our prayer is for a swift referral and for their sweet faces to be revealed to us.

So much of what God has been preparing our family for over the past year has been instrumental in helping us as we find the courage to move ahead and open our hearts to love another group of siblings. We trust that God will place the children for us at His perfect timing and we must remain patient! Patience is and has been so hard to learn, but not quite as hard as relinquishing all control and placing everything at the feet of Jesus! We mustn't grow weary and our focus must remain on following what God's plans are! (This is where my overly-analytical mind gets me in trouble. God is working on me though -- Hallelujah!!) We are so blessed by God's faithfulness in our lives and daily He continues to comfort us. Even upon just learning of this devastating news, there were several songs that continued to play over and over in my mind. One was Casting Crowns' "I Will Praise You In This Storm". Another was "Blessed Be Your Name", especially the part -- You give and take away ..... (Newsboys version, of course, so their awesome accent also provided extra comfort as it was playing over and over in my mind.) Might I also add that those Newsboys put on a great in concert here back in the Fall! Loved it!!!!

That catches you up to where we are at now. WAITING! Waiting joyfully! And we know that there’ll be great joy to wait for! (Again, there's that patience thingy creeping to the forefront of our lives!) His timing is perfect and I am reminded of this by the following scripture:

He said to them: It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority. Acts 1:7 (NIV)