Why are we here?

Mine and Randy's desire to adopt began when we were newly married (engaged maybe?) and began talking about our plans for a family. We both desired to have biological children, probably two, and then we each said that we thought we would be interested in learning more about adoption as a possibility.

As we continued to study Scripture, we saw in many places how we are commanded to show love to others - not just say that we love, but accompany our faith with actions. James 2:15-17 says "What good is it my brothers if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, 'Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."

And again, in Matthew 25, we read that by showing love to "the least of these," that we are showing love to God himself.

This can look like many different things, but our hearts have been drawn to orphans. James 1:27 says "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep yourself from being polluted by the world."

So we began to consider adopting as one way of showing love to others, showing love to God, and giving a child a chance to be loved in a family and hear the Gospel, when otherwise they might grow up alone and not knowing the love of God. What an honor that would be!

As we began working at Brazos Pointe and began making trips to Cambodia to visit the orphanage our church sponsors there, our hearts fell in love with the people of SE Asia. Randy has been back multiple times now, and I was able to go once in 2010. We decided that if possible, we would adopt a child from that part of the world, where the risk of trafficking for young boys and girls is so high, slavery is prevalent, and most countries are predominantly Buddhist.

Through lots of research, we learned that Cambodia is a currently a closed country for adoption. The international laws on adoption are called the Hague agreement, and Cambodia just did not have good enough laws in place to be recognized as a safe place for adoption. The US has not recognized or allowed adoptions from there for several years now. Their government, as well as ours, is working to open it back up again, but we don't know how long that will take.

After we had Cooper, and she was about to turn a year old, we began feeling like we were ready to begin this journey. We knew international adoption takes quite a bit of time, so we felt like the sooner we started, the better. We started researching other countries in SE Asia that may be open to adoption. What we learned is that basically only Thailand and the Philippines are open currently, and for various reasons we didn't qualify to adopt from those countries.

As those doors seemed to be shutting, we wondered if maybe God was pointing us towards domestic adoption. So we took awhile to start doing research on that, including both the foster-to-adopt option and adopting domestically through an agency. We even got as far as to research some agencies we might adopt from here in Texas. Because domestic adoption is much faster than international adoption, we slowed down just a little.

While we continued to wait, Randy was able to attend the Secret Church simulcast at our church that was taught by David Platt. The one he attended (in November, I believe?) was about marriage and family. At one point, Platt taught about adoption. As he spoke, Randy said he felt like God was saying that maybe we didn't fight hard enough for what our original dream was - to adopt from an Asian country, where there are few opportunities for girls in particular, and where there is low access to the Gospel.

We talked this over, because we don't feel like domestic adoption is better than international, or vice versa. We just knew that adopting internationally was what had been in our hearts for a long time, and maybe we needed to fight harder for that for a reason. So, back to the drawing board.

The countries in SE Asia that we had researched still had the same barriers as before. But, then I read something that opened our eyes to China being a possibility. We knew that you had to be 30 to adopt from China, which Randy is already, but I am not until August 24th of this year. But I read that you are able to begin the process when you are 29.5 because the home study and dossier prep and all of the initial paperwork takes about 6 months. So, we saw that we could begin working on that in February, with the goal of submitting everything as soon as I turn 30 in August!

So that is where we are and why we are here now. We learned through the whole research process that international adoption has changed in the past few years to being more for adopting special needs children. For example, the wait in China for a normally-developing child is 6-8 years. The entire process for adopting a child with special needs (Waiting Children) is 12-15 months. We are in this Waiting Children program. I will post more soon about what this means - this is a super long post already!

If you have stuck with me this far, thanks! Mostly this is for us - to have a record of our journey, thoughts, feelings, motivations, and our hearts. But we are thankful for family and friends who love us and already love the sweet little child we will bring home someday. I hope through reading this that you were able to see a little bit of why we have been looking forward to this for so long!

And, one more reason we want to adopt: because we know what it means to be adopted!
"For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves." Ephesians 1:4-6
He has freely given us grace, and chose us to be adopted...and we are thankful!!