Our News- Adoption

So I made a small announcement in our last post.. Nate and I are planning on adopting. I say planning because it is a LONG LONG Road ahead and we have been taught by our past experiences not to say something is happening because God might have another plan for you along the way.. we hope God sees adoption as his plan (but we are speaking from past experiences here..).

This announcement is not a small one or shall I say one we take lightly.. It is one we have discussed, slept on, discussed some more, argued about, and listened to everyone else's opinion on..etc.. We have been discussing adoption since we meet actually. We both felt eventually in our life we would adopt a child. But it wasn't till last year that I really started to think about it. At first I thought it was just the loss of the miscarriage that put adoption in my heart..I think it is apparent I want to be a mother.. but I prayed about it. Put it in the back of my mind and left it there. Nate said last year he wanted to try again and see if we could have our own. So we tried.. and you know how that story ends. After that it was like a seed was planted inside me.. I meet total strangers talking to me about it. I prayed about.. there was a sermon at church about it.. just weird things happened which is no coincidence.. it was god planting that seed in me.  Yet, Nate was fearful.. I think initially due to people's responses about our choice. But I kept praying and God planted the seed in Nate. He started talking about it..he started looking into and than we found Depelchin Children's Center.

The first step towards adoption (domestic) is to attend a CPS approved intial orientation meeting which is two hours long and they shove a ton of information down your throat. I left there in tears.. tears of joy..tears of overwhelmed..tears that this is happening!! OMG this is happening..

Than you go onto step two.. filling out 30 pages about your parenting style, how you feel abot discpline, where the child will sleep, where they will attend school..etc. Than there is getting all the documents ready for the agency/social worker which includes: birth records, social, drivers license, proof of all insurance, marriage certificate, plans of your home, pictures of every room, pictures of all pets and people who live in the home, paycheck stubs, diplomas, health status, background check and driving record.

Step Three is to turn in more documents start the homestudy process which includes visits from a social worker and fire marshall.

Step Four is to complete all classes which happens between step 2-5. There are over 60 hours of very informative classes that are required.. and than after all is completed and they deem us acceptable parents we will have a child.


I'll keep you updated as we go.. this week we are childproofing and organizing the house to get ready for the fire marshals visit. They recommend you have the marshal visit before the social worker so that if there is anything to fix you have a timely manner to fix it. We are still at step two and it is a process so as we are updated we'll let you know...


I'm sure if you are reading this you are wondering alot of questions. So let me answer them all..or try to at least... we are not certain that we can't have kids. I've been asked now multiple times if we are infertile. I assume not since we have been pregnant twice now. It is just we are not willing to undergo thousands of dollars worth of testing to maybe find a solution.. much less did we feel it was necessary. We aren't going to play God.. this isn't to say that those who do chose this option are wrong.. we just didn't feel at this time it was the road for us to go.

We just feel that after two miscarriages that we still wanted kids and that trying naturally wasn't where we were anymore. It wasn't a choice that happened overnight and both of us came to this.. we feel that we are called to adoption and that if God later blesses us with a child thru natural birth than we will be twice blessed.  Right now just Houston has 1500 kids waiting for a home.. 1500. We are good people who want kids and feel we can give one of these children a great home.  Here's the catch we aren't doing straight adoption. We are doing foster to adopt which means that the child's parental rights haven't be relinquished but most likely will. So we will have the child in our home for 12-18 mths before the adoption can be finalized. I know it sounds like a long time and there is risk.. but this is the route we chose to go.. and it is more likely we will receive a child from 0-6. We did talk about straight adoption to adopt an older child but right now we are leaning towards 0-6 foster to adopt. This might change as it is a long process but this is where we are right now.The process to get a child in our home varies from 3 months to 2 years. Typically it is 9 months. So we have time to evaluate all our options and see where we are.. Any other questions feel free to leave me a comment or email me.

I know adoption isn't for everyone. I have heard people's ideas of adoption and I know that some feel it isn't the ideal way to start a family. But there are really great stories out there.. so please keep your negative comments to yourself. We have researched this, we have went to the classes and we have started the process.. this is the choice we have made.. Perhaps research it yourself. See if you can open your heart to a child who needs a home. Someone to make them feel safe, secure and loved. Isn't that what God wanted us all to do??