Michael Luke and I are thrilled to announce that we are expecting our second child!

That’s right, our little family of three will soon become a family of four.  Noah is going to be a big sis!

I should probably clarify something though.  I’m not pregnant.  We are in the process of adopting a child from Colombia.

Within the next week or two, we hope to wrap up the home study process, which leaves us anywhere from nine months to a year away (or whatever time frame God chooses) from bringing our baby home.

I thought it might be best to explain some of the details in a Q & A format…  almost like a dialogue.  I tried to include all the major ones I could think of, but I will gladly answer any more questions you might have in the comments.

Shedding Light On Our Adoption Journey

Why are you choosing to adopt?

It has nothing to do with fertility or infertility.  Our desire to adopt goes all the way back to when ML and I were dating.  Well, technically mine goes even further.  It’s hard to explain really.  We just both knew that God was calling us to adopt.  You can’t argue there!  I actually knew I wanted to adopt before I knew I wanted to have biological children.  The thought of the whole labor process always freaked me out!  (More on that here.)  I survived though.

Scripture calls us to care for orphans.

 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.  James 1:27

This doesn’t mean that everybody should adopt, but clearly we should all find ways to care for orphans and widows, however that may look.  For us, it means adoption into our family (of the orphan, that is. I don’t think widow-adoption is the path God has for us right now.)  But we feel a strong calling to welcome a child without a family, a child who is nothing like us, to be our child.  Just like God did for us when He adopted ML and me to be a part of His forever family.  He has given us this same desire and love for orphans.

Why Colombia?

With our desire to adopt also came a desire to adopt internationally.  We love the thought of a multicultural family, just like God’s family, made up of His children from every nation and tribe.  And Colombia fit us for several reasons.  We met their age and length of marriage requirements.

Our agency, Lifeline Children’s Services, is partnered with Colombia for adoption services.  Plus, we felt drawn to Latin America after going on several mission trips different countries there.  We have fallen in love with Colombia after learning so much about it during the home study process.  So much so that we even found ourselves cheering for them during the Olympics!

How old will the child be?

We plan to keep the birth order.  Which right now basically means, when we match, our adopted child will be younger than however old Noah is at the time.  Ideally, we would like to have a few months between them.  Because of Colombia’s guidelines, we are eligible for children 0-36 months old.

Will it be a boy or a girl?

It’s a surprise… to you and me.  Just like natural birth, we have chosen to let God decide the gender of our child.  We will let you know when we find out.

Will the child look like you?

No, silly.  We are adopting!  Amazingly, they don’t have too many whiter than white kids available for adoption in Colombia.  Our child will be and look Latin American.  The closest we come to that is ML after a good summer in the sun, and that hasn’t happened in a while.

How long will you spend in country?

Somewhere between four and seven weeks!  This was also one of the perks that won us over for Colombia.  We are looking forward to soaking up the culture and language.  So much so that ML has already ordered us Rosetta Stone!  We each took Spanish back in school, but it has been a while.  And you know the saying, “Use it or lose it.”  We lost it.  Mine will probably come closer to Spanglish, but it’s better than nothing.

Doesn’t it cost a lot?

Yeah, but so does a new car.  We have been saving up for a while but still plan to do a few fundraising events for anyone who might want to partner with us on our adoption journey.

Hopefully, this will give you a glimpse at the why and how of our decision to adopt.  I’ll try to keep you up to date as we move forward and would love to answer any more questions.  Oh, and if you have ever adopted, I would love to hear your story or any advice you might have to give.

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