Completely New Direction

We just wanted to post an update on what has happened so far with our adoption process. We had kind of a set back because the agency we had chosen, Bethany Christian, told us that they could not work with us because we could not sign their confession of faith. It was a pretty big blow to us because we were feeling like Bethany was the way to go but it was obviously not meant to be.

So, we regrouped and reconsidered our options. There were a few other agencies that LDS Family Services recommended but both were out of the state and after what happened with Bethany, we wanted something that would be really different. So we recontacted Holt International which had been our first choice before starting this whole process. We really liked the idea of adopting internationally because it would be just a unique experience to travel to a completely different land and culture to get our new baby. We decided we would go with the China Special Needs program because we could get an infant, the wait times were shorter and we already felt connected to that program because of the success our friends, Ric and Stevie, had with adopting their girl Marissa from a similar program.

Once that was decided, we contacted Holt to go over some initial questions we had and we also sat through a couple of webinars about adopting from China and how to finance an adoption. Both of these made us feel better about the process and made us really excited to make it happen. We had to get all of our finances in order which meant cutting out a few of our more expensive bills, paying off our credit card, and secure a rather large loan from my 401k plan to get us started. Once this was done, on March 26, 2012 we filled out our application online and submitted it to officially start our adoption! It was actually kind of stressful getting it filled out because we had to put a lot of information on there especially about what types of special needs we thought that we could handle. But we were so relieved to get that major part done.

Now we are waiting to begin the home study portion of our process. We will be working with a local agency in Delaware for that part. We know it will take about 3 months and will be intense with paperwork and interviews that they must complete to get us ready. One day at a time!

Our New Blog

We wanted to start this blog as a way of documenting our journey to begin a new family! After a long time of trying to have a baby on our own, we have come to the decision that our new baby will come to us from another mother. We are very excited with this decision as it means that we have a direction to go and when we are done with this process, we will finally have a wonderful, new baby that we can care for. Yes, we have shed a few tears in the process and we are sure there will be more, but for now we are so grateful that there is a way for our family to begin.

Our journey began when our Bishop approached us and told us that he had a feeling that we should consider adoption. It took some time for us to accept the fact that we may not be able to have a baby of our own and after much prayer we both came to the conclusion that our Bishop was right. Now the question was, how to begin what seems to be such an overwhelming process. Where do we go? Who do we talk to? Luckily, our church provided a guiding light...through its Family Services department. After a few phone calls, a very nice lady sent us a packet in the mail listing several adoption agencies in our area that they recommended. After reviewing the information, we quickly decided that the one that was right for us was Bethany Christian Services. They seemed to have a program that really cared about their birth mothers and making sure that the babies get placed with the best families. A quick web search revealed that they offered an information class to potential adoptive parents that outlined their services. The night of the class, we met a very nice lady who talked to us for several hours about the details of their adoption program. We left that night very excited because we knew that we had come to the right place.

Now the next big step is to fill out our application.