So we've never blogged before, but now seems like an appropriate time to start. Here's the "backstory." Thanks for your patience as we figure out this blogging thing.
How We Decided to
Adopt Again
Before we
ever started our family, we knew we wanted to adopt. I (E) had worked for
Bethany Christian Services for a number of years, and saw adoption as a
beautiful way for God to make families. We were fortunate to be able to have
two biological children, and intentionally planned not to have any more - to
"leave room" for another child to join our family through adoption.
We adopted S in 2010 from Haiti when he was two years old.
The idea of
adopting for the second time really began in B's heart. Before we attended an
adoption parenting conference last spring, B began to feel that we
should consider adopting again, but the idea was pretty scary to me. This was
mostly because of my struggles over the last five years. In the context of
parenting our three kids, my selfishness, anger, and desire for control became
obvious in new and humbling ways. Facing my parenting failures and embracing my
children anyway has been the hardest thing I've ever done. In that journey, the
beauty of Christ's sacrifice on my behalf has become truly life-giving. Even
so, in the midst of failure, I wasn't feeling eager to add another child to our
family.
But at the
conference, the ideas and training we received really gave us incredible hope
that God could change our hearts towards our kids and how we interact with them.
And God's faithfulness in past struggles gave us confidence that He would be
faithful in the future, whatever comes our way. As we applied the ideas from
the conference, we saw enormous transformation in our relationships with our
kids. We began to have success in our interactions. We began to feel we had
more to give. I moved from being willing to step out in faith to being really
excited to adopt again.
Why We're Fundraising
We funded
our first adoption entirely independently. But after seeing other adoptive
families reach out to their community to support their adoption, we began to
reconsider the value of including our community in our adoption. We saw how the
fundraising efforts of other families included their family and friends in
their adoption journey and broadened the circle of folks invested in their
child. We've even had friends tell us that if they'd known international
adoption was so expensive, they would have loved to help pay some of the costs
to bring S home.
This
adoption has come when we haven't
been planning for a while to adopt, and don't have money set aside. But far
more importantly, we want to offer our family and friends the opportunity to
invest in our daughter before she even arrives. We want to give them the chance
to feel connected to her and to our family. So we are writing this blog, and
offering our Both Hands fundraiser as a tangible way for them to be
involved.
Tell us about the
child you're adopting.
Ca will
turn 6 this summer, and lives in China. We learned about her on our adoption agency's waiting child page. She has some health issues that we expect
will need some diagnostic evaluation when she arrives home, and maybe some
surgery, but we expect that on an ongoing basis she will be a healthy, active
child. She doesn't speak English. She has a strikingly beautiful smile.
What is the status of
your adoption?
The
paperwork that describes our family has just been sent to China. The next step
is for the Chinese government to review (and likely approve) our request to
adopt Ca. We expect to bring her home sometime before Christmas, but are
patiently trusting in God's timing for her homecoming. We will travel to China
for two weeks to bring her home.
