LIfe As It Is: Adoption

Adoption? Really? People ask "why?". We can have kids, and do have kids...2 as of now (no, not planning any more biological kids at this point, but God always has his own plans, so who knows!). Why? Because God has blessed us with so much, and we have so much love to share. Why not share it with children who don't have love, who don't have a forever home, or a family? 

Kris and I went to Haiti in 2005 as a part of a Short Term Mission Trip with another church. I did dental work and Kris worked with the kids doing a Vacation Bible School and visiting schools. At the time, I fell in love with all the little guys I worked with in one of the orphanages. I mentioned to Kris that I would love to adopt from Haiti someday. He didn't respond with much desire, so I didn't say anything else (figuring adoption definitely needs to be a mutual agreement!). After the earthquake in 2010 Kris came to me saying that he felt now was the time, as there would be a lot of kids without homes and families. So, we started the process...and, what a LONG process it is! We applied to adopt a little girl and boy younger than TK.

We initially applied to an orphanage directly. We didn't hear back from them & assumed it was because of the earthquake and being so busy rebuilding. In the meantime we had B (which we wouldn't trade for the world!!!). At the one year anniversary of the earthquake, we saw the same orphanage on TV and decided to re-apply. They then told us that we had to go through an agency because Haiti was changing its rules (which we now know happens ALL the time!). So we switched over to an agency. They gave us  REALLY long list of all the things we needed to get together. We started working on those, and then we were told "Oh, by the way, you need a home study from an agency in your state." Whoops, minor detail, right? So then we had to find an agency in our state, as well. 

Things were fine and moving forward. Home study was done and ready to be submitted to Illinois' Dept of Children and Family Services, when we found out that the orphanage and agency we were working with was not very organized & not moving along ANY of the adoptions they had sitting in the legal system for years (to say the least...possibly being unethical to say more). Fortunately, we had never matched with any children from their orphanage, and had never given the agency in Texas any more than a small application fee, so we were able to switch fairly easily. Once we switched we tried to make the September deadline to get our Dossier (file of paperwork needed to get adoption approval from the Haitian government) into Haiti. Unfortunately, the new agency (Voice of the Orphan), which is incredible and so dedicated to helping children get adopted into forever homes, is not a registered agency in Illinois (they didn't have to be to do independent adoptions-which was permitted in Haiti previously). Since our home study was already done (and paid for) we either start all over, or wait to see what changes come when Haiti is ratified into the Hague Convention (a governing set of laws on requirements for adopting). If we start all over, we may still have problems, because we don't know what rules and regulations Haiti will come up with next. So, all we can do right now is WAIT...and trust that God's timing is PERFECT. Since we never did get matched to any children, all we can hope is that God has the perfect additions to our family waiting for us. We can't wait to meet them! 

TK talks all the time about "where his new brother and new sister will sleep", "where they will sit at our dining room table" or how "he'll share his toys with them" (Yeah, right! Can't wait to see that! ;)

I picked up all our medical papers, again (for the 3rd time!), today. Hopefully this will be it. We could be matched in a few weeks...or a few months...it's so hard to not know! And so not my personality! ;) I look at the pictures (Giving Hope Haiti) and wonder..."Which of these children will be ours???"