Reflecting over our Journey through Stage 1

I can't believe that it has been 8 months since we sent in our paperwork to AWAA!! The time in some ways has dragged on forever, and in other ways has flown by!! Now that the bulk of our paperwork is complete and we are in the "Waiting Stage," I thought I would take some time to reflect back on our journey so far...

I remember well over a year ago sitting at Starbucks having a conversation with my sister-in-law Maria about the adoption of their 2 kids from Rwanda. I had so many questions for her! That conversation sparked what had already been cultivating in my heart for many years! I remember Maria sharing with me that if God had placed the call on my heart to adopt, then I needed to not let that die out... (as a side note I remember reading something somewhere of a statistic that of those who consider adoption, only around 10% of them will actually follow through with it)

When I approached Tim with the thought, I was so thankful that although he was not on board yet, he said that we should continue to dialogue about it. We started reading a book called "Adopted for Life," and our perspective about adoption completely changed. We started seeing adoption the way God sees it... His heart breaks for the fatherless, the needy, the oppressed!!! He saw us as lost (which is what we are without Him), and He came to this earth to save us and to adopt us as His own. We started to realize that the adoption of a child is so much more than simply expanding a family. It is about becoming a "father to the fatherless," to rescue a child that otherwise would be left without a home, to welcome a child to be a part of our family, to show her hope, to love her unconditionally, and to point her to her true Savior in hopes that one day she too would be adopted into His family!! We knew that we had more room in our family and that this was God's calling on our family!

I remember the time spent looking into where we should adopt from... local/domestic, international, what country, what age, etc. There were so many details to look into and sooooooo many different agencies to use!! It was during this time that as we prayed for wisdom for what God wanted for our family, we settled on China. That week, my friend Lynette was over (not knowing we were looking into adoption) and shared that her friends, the Eby's were adopting from China!!! I knew that we needed to get in touch with them! I called them and asked a lot of questions, and we decided to also use America World as our adoption agency... That began our journey with Stage 1...We were excited to find out there was also another family in our church adopting from China, and so the three of our families banned together to "Join the Journey!"

I remember when we first settled on China, we really couldn't fathom how we were going to get the money to be able to adopt... I must admit that Tim was filled with much more faith than I was. He stated very clearly that "not all are called to adopt, but all of us are called to help the orphan... we just need to make this a team effort!"

At first my mind began to do the math... Let's see, we have a big extended family, a big church family, and know a bunch of people... If everyone we knew even gave a little, we could make this happen!!! I was sooo excited to begin the journey!! We sent out our first support letter, and WAITED, and WAITED, and WAITED.... nothing... not even a dollar! I remember the tears!!

We needed $1500 initially to start the whole process and once we started, we couldn't really back out due to lack of funds... we had yet to receive even a dollar from family and friends, so we were left at a crossroads... Do we not go through with the adoption process, or to we step out in trust? We decided to take the step of faith and trust God to provide! And boy has He ever!!! Why did I ever doubt??? It seems so silly looking back now, but I do remember the gut wrenching emotions of praying for our future daughter in China, and thinking that "I just can't do this!!! This is too hard and people don't get it, and there's no way we can come up with this money on our own!!!...but I can't leave our daughter out there without a family!!"

As far as the finances go, God has continued to provided every step of the way... we are not there yet, but I have amazing faith and hope as so many have come alongside us and joined the journey!! Through our events, fundraisers, Chinese Food Boxes, and faithful supporters, we have been able to complete everything thus far without having to go into debt!! Thank you to all of you who have given to help bring our daughter home!!

As the money started to come in, we began the roller coaster ride of adoption!! We started the "paper chasing" and home study process... what fun!!!??? Everything had to be filled our precisely accurate... everything about us had to be revealed,--our past, our present, our future :-)...Everything had to be notarized (and thanks to our "Join the Journey" night, we found a notary in our church)...

I remember our trip to the Dr.'s with Lora Jeanne (our new friend and notary). She had to notarize the Dr.'s who had performed our physicals. My Dr. was in a complete rush and as we were driving home I realized she didn't fill the form out correctly and stated that I was NOT fit to be an adoptive parent :-)... So, I had to travel back again to have here do it all over again. 

I remember struggling over the fact that although we entered the China program 3 weeks after the Eby's, God had a much slower route for us than for them... they were able to complete their home study in 3 days, and it took us over 2 months...paperwork continually got delayed and things moved a lot slower for us!

It was through all of this that I learned to trust God's timing... He already knows who our daughter is, and when we will be getting her, and knows exactly when everything needs to be completed by in order to get her!

I remember the craziness of things like Drew swallowing a battery (from a tiny finger light that cost roughly 10 cents) and the trip to the ER (they told us we had to go to make sure the battery wasn't leaking acid) that cost us $1000...The craziness of all my tests for my physical that didn't come back normal and fearing that I would find out I had some sort of deadly cancer... Further tests and procedures came back absolutely fine :-)...The craziness of Jeremy starting Kindergarten in the midst of the paperwork stage... The craziness of the Secretary of State office not accepting all the notaries from our agency and having to have them re-done... The craziness of recording 2 CD's to help raise $ for the adoption, and the enemy doing whatever he could to feed me lies, and sabotage the project...I'm sure there's more...

In the midst of this roller coaster ride, we have had to stay focused on the fact that there is a little girl somewhere half way around the world that is waiting for her mommy and daddy to wrap her up in their arms and say, "welcome home!!"

So as I reflect back on Stage 1, none of the former matters... the craziness, the money, the emotions, the exhaustion, etc.! All that matters, is we are one stage closer to holding her in our arms and there being one less orphan in this world...