We’ve been a family of four now for almost two years. Noah and Esther bring more joy to our lives than we could have ever imagined. We laugh ourselves to sleep many nights sharing funny comments the girls have made or how they discovered something new. Like Noah consistently referring to a donkey as as “doinkey” or Esther believing that Ninja Turtles live in the sewer after a walk over our drainage grates with ML. Thanks a lot, Mister.
Children are a blessing from God and this Christmas we were excited to announce our latest blessing!
We are excited to announce that our family is growing…
The one true God has adopted us into His family as sons and daughters, and He has burdened our hearts to adopt a second time. It is with great joy that we pursue adoption from the Dominican Republic- Lord-willing, in 2016.
As we await God’s perfect timing for the “matching” of our family with ours-to-be, we invite you to take a special part in our journey.
Adoption has many challenges common to life and many unique challenges as well. For this reason, we invite you to PRAY for us and for the child who awaits us:
Please PRAY for grace in parenting our daughters
and wisdom in preparing for adoption.
Please PRAY for Esther and Noah and for our closeness with them as we all make adjustments to our growing family.
Please pray for parental bonding to grow quickly between us and our child-to-be as he or she adjusts to major life changes and learns what it means to have a mommy and a daddy.
Please PRAY that our fundraising efforts be timely and effective, and please consider how you may participate with us in financially supporting our adoption.
Please PRAY that our marriage and our adoption portray the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who do not yet know Him and PRAY that God would give us opportunities to share His great message all along the way on this adoption journey.
We are adopting from the Dominican Republic!
Just like last time we waited until we were past the Home Study part of the process before “officially” sharing the news with everyone. It’s sort of like making it through the first trimester of a pregnancy. We hope to travel sometime in 2016 but in reality it all depends on how long the matching process takes. I thought it might be best to explain some of the details in a Q & A format (again like last time)… 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 Dominican Republic?
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 the Dominican Republic (DR) fit us for several reasons. Michael Luke and I have traveled there for multiple mission trips and have a heart for the people there. We also finally meet the age requirements for the DR. To adopt from the DR each spouse must be 30 years old so last year (2015) for ML’s birthday we submitted our application to Lifeline Children’s Services for the adoption process again.
How old will the child be?
Last time we had every intention of keeping the birth order but once we were handed Esther’s file we knew God had different plans for us. This time we feel like we definitely need to keep the birth order. Noah had no trouble filling her role as the baby sister when Esther stepped into the big sister role but Esther prides herself on being the big sis and we really feel like that isn’t a position she should have to give up. Her bond with Noah is super tight and Noah is looking forward to being a big sis too so that’s why we have chosen to adopt with-in the age range of three years and under.
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. Our two bed home in Birmingham would have only allowed for another girl. Adoption doesn’t allow for siblings of the opposite sex to share a room. So whether we moved to Memphis or not we felt like it was time for us to move to a new dwelling place so we could be open to either sex.
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 the DR. 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. Here’s some pics of me from with some of the kids on my last mission trip there.
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 again. I’ll try to keep you up to date as we move forward and would love to answer any more questions.
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