Anyway, Jeremy and I sat at dinner last night and decided to take our lives to the blogosphere. It’s really the only reasonable thing to do when you make a big decision in life, right? Share it with the public – of course! Actually, I usually shy away from things like this, but as we have talked, this feels like a good way to share what’s going on and let others have a glimpse into the journey we are currently on. The truth is, we need you to share in this with us… but, we will get more into that later.
As my dad would say, “What’s the bottom line, Amanda?”
The bottom line is that we are adopting a baby.
Now for the version my mom would prefer to hear…
Before we ever got married, Jeremy and I knew that we wanted to adopt a child. I can vividly remember conversations about whether we would adopt or have a biological child first… we would debate the pros and cons of each and dream of being parents someday. Adoption has always been something we have hoped for. This is not our “plan B”… we have dreamed of adopting for over 5 years and are currently, as Jeremy would say, living the dream!
At the beginning of 2014, I declared this “the year of the family” … We were trying to get pregnant at this point, and in January we decided we would also start down the road of adoption. We didn’t know which would happen first, but in my heart, I wanted this to be the year we became a family of 3. At this point, I can safely say I won’t be birthing a baby in 2014, but with adoption, there’s really no telling when we will get a baby! We still have to complete our home study, but once the home study is complete it could be anywhere from 2 days to 2 years! (eek!!)
So, that’s it… we have picked an agency in Houston and are adopting an infant domestically. We have started the home study process and hope to have all of the paperwork and interviews completed before the end of the year. Once the home study is complete, we will be waiting for a birth mother to choose us as adoptive parents!
The plan (we will see how it goes!) is to use this blog to keep friends and family updated on how things are going, as well as to share any needs we may have. We always need prayer! The adoption journey has already proven to be difficult in a lot of ways, but we know this is something the Lord has called us to, so we continue to press forward. Prayers are greatly appreciated for us and even though we don't know her yet, you can pray for the birth mom that will someday choose us. And of course you can pray for the sweet child that we believe the Lord already has picked out for us!
We are also planning on doing a fundraiser or two in order to help pay for all things adoption, so we will use this site to share information on how you can support those efforts as well.
This is exciting and terrifying all at the same time, so thanks for sharing in the journey with us! We will keep you posted!