adoption

This might be as good a time as any to do an update on our family's adoption, especially since I'm getting questions now that Casey has been ill.  For those who haven't heard, our family has been in the adoption process since 2013.  Case & I have had the passion for orphans and interest in adoption since our early years of marriage, and in 2012 felt like it was time to move forward.  We started raising funds at that time with garage sales, selling Casey's first CD, and finding out what agency & praying for a country.  We prayed for direction -- and chose Ethiopia and moved ahead.

2013 & 2014 were years of so very many delays with our the entire adoption process.  We had difficulties with a social worker (a new policy in that particular agency made it difficult for us to adopt) --- and then a surprise pregnancy at the beginning of 2014.  We were in between agencies at that time, and I found it difficult to get anyone willing to take on a pregnant woman.  As many of you who have adopted know, everything is time-sensitive & we could lose so much of our investment if we stopped & started again-- so I kept making calls until we found an agency willing to let a pregnant woman move forward with adoption.  At the time we didn't think it was much of a risk, because we knew that the wait for a child from Ethiopia was still a good 2-3 years out.

Our surprise baby L was born in July of 2014.  Up until then I was getting amazing questions-- as our confused kiddos would share the info.  The best was my daughters 4K teacher laughing that Merian was telling them that a baby from Africa was growing in her mom's belly.  :)  We also finished up the dossier & started the wait for a child that fall (Casey was the beast who finished that up!)  And then we just sat & waited.  Oh, and we chose to specify a girl-- that was decided the moment our only daughter bawled at the birth of her third brother.  Out of that deal M got to start ballet that fall AND if we were going to adopt it was going to be a sister.  (And honestly, wild little boys are a challenge, and this tired momma is ready for some more females in the house!)

In February of 2016 we were told that the wait for Ethiopia was started to be so long that it was now a good 4-5 years with another 1/2 month added for every month that passes.  Basically--- it could possibly be forever.  At the same time we were offered the option to switch countries at a discount -- (aka. we would not have to start over financially from the beginning!)-- so we prayed about it & chose to switch.  I had no idea how I would feel about that--- but I honestly struggled.  I had grown to love Ethiopia, this country I have never visited-- and was excited to adopt a little girl from there.  China felt so distant to me, and my heart wasn't in it yet.  But we made the change-- and I prayed God would help our hearts grow to love this country our future daughter was from, just like we had Ethiopia.

Since then we've completed our home study update-- and there have been a lot of delays out of our hands again-- but by January we are hoping to finally have our dossier in the mail over to China.  And then we will be able to wait for a match for a daughter.  YAY!

Okay, and now for the question people ask us these days-- Does Casey's new illness affect the adoption?  Of course it does, but not immediately.  Currently we don't have a firm diagnosis.  And if this is West Nile, no doctor can predict ahead of time what it will look like.  Currently we don't know if this is going to clear up in a couple weeks or take years to heal from.  We just have so many unknowns right now that it seems crazy to suddenly stop something that God has put on hearts for years.  We are committed to making choices that are good for everyone, and we will make those as we need to along the way.

So for now, we keep sending in our very time-sensitive paperwork & pray and wait on God.  Trusting that He has put this on our hearts for a reason, and for now we will just continue with what He has for us.