Today I have a special treat for you! About a month ago, my dear friend Emily was asking for bloggers who would be willing to share their adoption story to help bring their girls home from Africa. I jumped at the chance. I love adoption and it's something that Dave and I have prayed about, and we both know it could possibly be something God leads us to in the future.
James 1:27 tells us how God wants us to take care of the widowed and orphaned.
So today, I am honored to introduce you to Emily and Tony. A husband and wife with amazing hearts, trying to bring not one, but TWO girls home from Africa!
Here's their story......
We are adopting! Soon two little girls will be ours forever and our family will officially double in size. You read right, not one little girl, but two. Some days I wonder if Tony could ever possibly prepare for the lovely chaos that a house full of girls can bring. Some days I wonder, can I? Sure raising both girls and boys are special in ways I've yet to fully understand, and when we began this adoption we were open to either; however, I am absolutely thrilled that this stage in life brings us a celebration of all things girl! We cannot wait to travel to East Africa (name of specific county must be withheld per privacy agreement) and bring our daughters home.
Before I keep going maybe I should back up a little bit. Tony and I have known for several years that we would adopt, but it took awhile to understand when we should take our first steps in that direction. Last year we came to the conclusion that adoption was how we wanted to start our family. By fall our adoption process was set in motion. We've spent months completing paperwork, going through a good deal of adoption training, answering many questions and making lots of decisions. Our decision to complete an independent international adoption is one we're glad we've made despite the additional work we feared at first. For some families an independent adoption isn't an option, but for us it's been a great choice.
Our decision to adopt independently was made almost in tandem with our decision on where to adopt from. In the beginning our desire to find our child (at first we didn't know that we had children) was stronger than a pull towards any specific country. We never wanted to feel like we were shopping for a child, because that in many ways seemed wrong, but the process of finding your child can feel daunting at the start. The questions you must answer as a couple during the early stage of adoption can feel quite overwhelming, but the more we talked and prayed about it the more clarity we received. It didn't take Tony and I long to make contact with the children's home we're now adopting from and with that we had an answer to the question, where does the other part of our family live? I should let Tony tell you about our referral!
Getting our referral was pretty insane. Emily and I have heard a lot of stories of the moment when parents see their child for the first time. I know it's something I will never forget. Like Emily said, we were quickly connected to a children's home in East Africa and we were able to reach out to them initially via email and then by phone. We had some correspondence at first that actually led us to believe we wouldn't be able to work with them. You see, the children's home generally adopts no less than two children at the same time. They see it as very beneficial for the children to have a sibling from the same background (not always blood related) as they transition into their new family. Emily and I saw the advantages of this policy; however, at the time we thought for sure that we were only meant to adopt one child. Funny how God works sometimes, huh?
As it turns out an exception to their multiple child preference was made for Emily and I. The children’s home director looked for a child she felt would do well being adopted on his or her own and who would truly benefit from an international adoption. When we received the referral for our youngest, a sweet two-year-old girl, it didn't take us long to know she was our daughter. I just remember sitting in front of the computer reading and re-reading the email that described her. Emily and I responded and let the children's home know she was in fact our daughter, then we began to get more information about her. After some time had passed we began to ask questions about her birth family. Questions about her birth parents, siblings, or anything else we could think of. Seriously...we ask a TON of questions. It was at this time we found out about our oldest daughter. We were informed that our youngest did in fact have an older sister, but not only did she have a sister, but this young eight-year-old girl was also in need of a family’s care. Soon we realized that this girl was not just our daughter’s sister, she was also our daughter. Realizing that our family was going to double in size and what the means for our family was really intense. Like on scale of 1-10 it was is easily an 11.
Emily and I have been stretched in many ways by this entire adoption process and we're not even done. One of the coolest things to witness and feel is the support we've received from family, friends, and total strangers. We couldn't do this without a lot of the people supporting us in the ways they are (and the ones to come!). So, now as we continue to gain support from people we wait…..we wait to get the amazing notification from our girls’ country that we can travel, stay for 4-5 weeks and then bring our girls home! And yes...waiting is the hardest part of adoption.
Would you join us? Join us in praying their girls home. Join us in donating to their adoption fund to help bring their girls in to their FOREVER home? Join us in sharing their message on facebook, twitter, pinterest....however you choose to help bring not one but TWO orphans home and into their forever family?
If you were touched by Emily and Tony's story today would you prayerfully considering donating to their cause? From now through Valentine's Day they are asking for $14 single donations to help bring their girls home for good.
Blessings,
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