Q. What made you decide to adopt?
A. I've been thinking about adoption for about a year. In September of 2010 I attended a Women of Faith conference and heard Mary Beth Chapman speak. She shared tidbits of her life. Later in the conference a representative from World Vision talked about all the children in the world that needed our help. That weekend I signed on with World Vision to help a little girl Alexis's age in Mexico. Through our monthly gift, her family gets aid from World Vision. That weekend a seed was planted. I was satisfied by "adopting" through World Vision. Later that year my dad gave me Mary Beth Chapman's book- Choosing to See. If you haven't read it, you should. It's a great book (and I don't read). In the book she talks about her life, her family's tragedy (she's married to Steven Curtis Chapman, the Christian singer- google it if you don't know what I'm talking about and want to), and the adoption of their 3 little girls from China. I cried a lot while reading that book. Not unusual for me, I'm a cryer. But their family's story really stuck with me. After reading that book (or maybe in the middle?) I talked to Andrew about the possibility of us adopting "some day". He agreed that he would be on board, but that's really as far as it got. Fast forward to last week. I had been thinking about adoption for a year. I would see videos or read little snippets and think "if we ever have more kids, that's how I want to do". Then last week, our church showed a video about a couple who was given a very generous gift so they would be able to adopt. The video made me tear up and I knew it was because this was something that God was telling me to do. After church Andrew and I talked. In the end we decided that yes, we should adopt. So I got to work researching, asking questions (facebook is a great sounding board!) and gathering up as much information as I could. It only took a year of God pulling, tugging, nudging on my heart to take the plunge. That's not that long... right?
Q. Where are you adopting from?
A. In my research I learned a few things. 1. Adoption ain't easy. 2. Domestic adoption is easier and cheaper 3. Domestic babies are fought over. Andrew and I talked about what kind of baby we would want. We decided we didn't care about the race- it could be purple, whatever. But we did decide that we want a baby- under the age of 2. We just think that will fit in best with our family dynamic and it's what we're best equipped to handle. We have experience with that age, our house has experience with that age, and our kids won't be too far apart in age. I didn't want for him/her to be adopted and 10 years older than his/her sisters who are *13 1/2 MONTHS* apart. One of the things I learned is that babies in the United States aren't easy to come by. When a mother gives up her baby for adoption she usually has dozens of families to chose from. Many of which struggle with infertility. We obviously don't struggle with that, and that's not why we're choosing to adopt. So we decided that even though there are more hoops to jump through, more red tape to go around, and more money to be spent, to go with international adoption. There are millions of orphans (give or take 150 million) that need a home. Millions of which are babies. These babies sit in an orphange, many without being held. There are many sad statistics I could throw at you, but instead I'll just say that's why we chose international. Lots of babies with no love... we have love... 1 less baby with no love.
Q. Isn't adoption expensive?
A. Yes, yes it is. No, we're not rich. We pay our bills, we give when we can, and we even go on vacation at least once a year, but we're definitely not rich. But this is something we feel God is calling us to do. James 1:27 says "to look after orphans and widows in their distress". So, that's what we're doing. We have decided on one of the more expensive types of adoption by deciding on international adoption, but again, it's because it's what we feel is right and what God is calling us to do. We plan on doing lots of fundraising to bring our baby home, and the updates for all that will be on this blog too, so be looking forward to that!
That's all I have for now, but I'm sure I'll have more installments. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. That's one of the things the blog is for :)
I'm so excited for you guys! I told my husband about the person anonymously emailing you and he also thought that was really rude!
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