It all started around this time last year.
A friend of mine was telling me about a friend
of hers that recently adopted an infant
that was just 2 or 3 days old. They
went and picked the baby up from
the hospital. They didn't use
an agency and it was rather inexpensive.
My reaction to her telling me
this was first of all tears
and then "I want to do that."
My reaction surprised me because I
had never thought that adoption was for me.
A lot of people dream of adopting or
plan on it for a long time
but that was not me. I never really gave it much
thought.
But the real problem was that my husband was
DONE having kids.
He didn't want anymore. After having
our 3 girls he wanted to be done.
I would have had one more but he was done!
I hesitated to tell him about my
reaction to adoption and actually waited a
while. There were a number of times
that adoption came up after that and it just
brought me to tears. I just couldn't
stop thinking about it.
So I told Peter about my reaction and how
I was feeling and his
reaction was so amazing. He
didn't say no way, he said I'll think about it and
let's pray about it.
So we prayed and I did some research
and we did lots and lots of talking.
After a few months
we decided to go for it!
We told family and friends!
The plan was to do a private domestic
infant adoption.
Private meaning not using an agency so we
would have to find our own birthmom.
Which is possible but can take lots of time
as you can imagine.
We got a home study done and
began to make some phone calls to get our
name out there. We
decided that this process may not be for us.
We didn't want to wait a few years to find
a birth mom. We wanted all our
children to be close in age.
SO. That leads us to the new plan.
Foster to adopt.
We found an agency that we really like.
We have begun the training
and gathering info for our new home study.
(yes we have to do another one)
The whole process should only take 3 months
(or less) to get us approved.
With fostering we get to choose a lot of
things. We have decided to go with a girl
that is 0-2yrs old and any race.
Other then that we don't really
know what to expect.
The past year has been such a journey.
First of all God opening our hearts to
adoption. Then the process of
what that really is going to do to our
family and how much it's
going to change things. As much as
I was open to it there was a process of
accepting it and all that comes with it.
Then my "plan" not working out
and
God opening our hearts to fostering which
I never ever thought I would be
doing.
It has been an amazing journey
so far and I would not
be able to do any of it with out the
support of my amazing husband.
This is only the beginning!
