Hello, everybody!!
Okay, so I had to delete my long post about our news because I said some things I wasn't supposed to say! Oooopsies! In case you don't know, BJ and I are ADOPTING!! YAY!!!!
I'll paraphrase the original post. BJ and I began talking about starting a family almost two years ago. One of the first questions I had for him was "What do you want to do if we can't conceive?" We both agreed that rather than spending money on expensive fertility treatments that weren't guaranteed to work we would adopt. As many of you know, I was adopted at birth and have always had positive feelings about adoption. While we debated where to adopt from we took a hard look at some disturbing facts. For instance, orphans in Russia and Ukraine age out of the system at 16. They are dumped onto the streets with very little money and practically no skills to help them survive. 10-15% of these kids will commit suicide by the time they are 18. 60% of the females turn to prostitution to survive while 70% of the males become hardened criminals. Those statistics alone motivated us to look to international adoption.
I know some of you are thinking about the thousands of children in our own country who need good homes. Believe me, we recognize that, but American orphans live a life vastly different than those abroad. We truly believe the greatest need lies beyond our shores. I am a champion of adoption, both domestic and international. I believe that in the end, when we stand before our Creator, we will stand before him not as Americans, Germans, Italians, Russians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Brits, etc., but as His children. James 1:27 calls us to watch over widows and orphans in their affliction, but it makes no mention of country of origin. We are meant to love on ALL people. Some of us are called abroad while some are meant to adopt from the United States. God bless all adoptive parents, regardless of where their kids were born. If you disagree with our choice, I completely understand and encourage you to adopt domestically if your heart is led to do so. As for BJ and I, we believe we are following God's lead.
SO! Now that I'm off my soapbox I can get to the good stuff. My friends Chrissy and Erick were just finishing up their adoption through Reece's Rainbow when Chrissy posted a little boy on her Facebook page. Now I had been looking at orphans on websites for months, but when I saw Gregory staring back at me from Chrissy's Facebook page something inside me churned. At first I wasn't sure what God was asking me to do. I showed Gregory to BJ and I started praying. I didn't know if God had called us to pray for Gregory, or if God was showing us our son. I could not stop thinking about him. Eventually I couldn't deny the constant tugging on my heart. We decided to commit to Gregory. OH HAPPY DAY!
Since then we have been working hard to save/fundraise and gather all the paperwork. The first step is our home study. When that's finished and we are approved by the home study agency we will begin collecting documents for our dossier. The dossier goes to the government of Gregory's country (I'm not allowed to say specifically where he lives, but I can tell you it's in Eastern Europe). Once his country approves our dossier we will wait for a travel date. We will travel to meet Gregory and officially accept the referral, but then we have to come home without him and wait for a court date. I imagine this will be the hardest part. It typically takes 2-3 months before a court date is assigned. When we have the court date we will travel back to Gregory's country and stand before a judge proclaiming our desire to raise Gregory. If all goes well in court we will have a 10 day waiting period before we can finally bring Gregory home! That seems so far away that it's hard to picture, but what a wonderful day that will be!!!
A word of caution: International adoptions never go as planned. The actual process will not fit nicely into that finely crafted paragraph above. There will be MANY bumps in the road. The process will be LONG and ARDUOUS, but completely worth every second and every penny. In fact, we have already hit one of those bumps. The region where Gregory lives has temporarily suspended American adoptions. Our adoption agency tells us they hope the system will be up and running again by the end of the month and they seem optimistic about it. BJ and I know that God's timing is GOOD and PERFECT, so we will cling to that promise throughout this adoption.
So follow this blog if you'd like to walk with us! Donate if you can, advocate if you have time, and pray if you feel so led. We love you and can't wait to share the rest of this journey with you!
Love,
BJ and Jenn
No comments:
Post a Comment