It started back in January. I spent a lot of time searching all things adoption on the internet. We spent quite a bit of time talking about what it was we were looking for in an agency, what age child we wanted to adopt, domestic or international... a lot of thinking, discussing, praying...
In March, we went to an adoption conference in Austin, Texas. This was a huge turning point for us. After the conference, we drove 3 hours to Houston and talked the entire way about what we learned and what steps we would take to move forward. We began telling our close friends and families that we were planning to adopt. Things were getting a bit more serious... at least that's what it felt like at the time.
We began calling agencies.. "will you send us an information packet?" ... wait, wait, wait for information packets to arrive via snail mail, read 30 pages of information, decide this agency isn't a good fit for us x30!! ... okay, maybe not 30, but it seemed like we looked at a lot of them.
All the while, we are still trying to get pregnant. At the beginning of the summer, we decided to get some testing done to see if we could figure out why it wasn't happening. Tests, tests, and more tests. Ultimately, the doctors said that there is no definitive answer, but it's not likely that we will be able to conceive a child naturally. We were pretty rocked by this news... we found out on a Wednesday afternoon. I went to our church small group that night and ugly cried. They loved me, listened, encouraged and prayed. Seriously, I am so thankful for those people.
The very next morning I got an e-mail with an information packet from an agency in Houston. Upon first read, it seemed like a good fit ... I actually loved everything I read about them. I called that afternoon with some questions and was able to speak with one of the directors. She answered all of my questions and even spoke about some things that were important to me, but I didn't bring up. It was such a sweet gift that I know was from the Lord. The timing of the information, the encouragement from the phone call ... all of it. I knew this was our agency.
We mailed in the initial packet and got invited to orientation at the beginning of August. We went to orientation and loved it! We had no doubt that this was indeed "our agency". At that point, we got our home study packet, which includes a ton of paperwork that we have to get together and turn in. Also, we have 5 interviews/trainings that we have to complete. Once all 5 of those interviews/trainings are complete and all of our paperwork is turned in, our home study will be done. From there, we will just be waiting, hoping, praying to be selected by a birth mom to adopt her baby. We could potentially be waiting anywhere from 2 days to 2 years to be selected -- there's really no way to know.
Now, we are in the process of getting all of the paperwork together, saving money to cover adoption costs, figuring out when to start getting some baby stuff, talking about baby names, and enjoying this time together as child-less people... because someday in the near future, God willing, our lives are going to be totally turned upside down by a tiny little human and we could not be happier about it.