In November 2011, Allan and I took a leap of faith and applied to adopt a child from Ethiopia. In December 2011, Allan lost his job but we didn't let that stop us from beginning our paperwork process. Like always, God provided all the money needed to start the journey. We had so much paperwork and had to rely on a lot of people to make sure it was all done correctly! It took us a long time to get the paperwork completed because of some unexpected health problems Allan experienced during our physicals for the adoption. On March 22, 2013 our paperwork was sent to Ethiopia and we officially became paper pregnant!
With a lot of help from friends, we held all sorts of fundraisers over the years. We made crafts to sell, Allan made bracelets and I made earrings, we had numerous yard sales where people donated items for us to sell, bake sales, Bingo, Zumba,Texas Roadhouse dinners,a Chili cook-off was organized by our friends, Both hands where we had the opportunity to clean up a Widows house. At each of these events in some way we were able to share our story and what God was doing in our lives and were able to hear other people's stories. We helped people's eyes become open to the need for international adoption, we had people praying for us and for our child in Ethiopia.
We prayed for our child over the years, prayers that they were being taken care of and loved until we could bring them to us. We made a book about Ethiopia to learn about their culture, we bought a baby book, and Ethiopian flags; we wanted to be prepared! The expected wait times continued to increase and that made things so hard sometimes. But, we continued to trust in God's plan and His timing. It helped to know we had so many people praying with us! We always saw God's hand in our adoption, we had a family sell their car and donate the money to us, we had a family who just had a baby donate a large amount of money to us, we had the exact amount we needed to pay on the adoption given at just the right time! That was all God, He provided everything we needed exactly when we needed it. Adoption does cost a lot of money, it's sad but it's a reality.
In February 2014, I found out that I was expecting our first child. That was a miracle in itself because we didn't think we would be able to after 6 years of infertility. Our social worker approved that we could continue with the adoption but that we needed a bigger house because each child has to have their own room and we only had one spare bedroom. So, we began the journey of getting a bigger house for our growing family. All the while, the wait time for Ethiopia continued to increase and the government decided to start changing adoption policies.
At the end of 2015 our adoption agency started suggesting that families in the Ethiopia program start looking into other countries. Again, we trust in God's plan and started praying about what to do moving forward. There are so many children that need a family in Ethiopia but our hands are tied because of the government, the paperwork, the legal stuff.
So, Allan and I have been praying for several months as to the direction we need to go and we are being led towards helping another family bring home a child. The couple we have in mind is still praying as it is a big decision. If they decide that adoption isn't what they want to do then we will seek another family to help. This isn't quite how we expected to end our journey but at the same time
we trust God's big plan. We have had an amazing journey and God has taught us so much through these last 5 years. We are so thankful for everyone who has supported us and been by our sides. We had the privilege of doing countless fundraisers with our family and
friends and sharing the gospel along the way and now we get to give that
money to help another family bring home their child, how cool is
that?! :)
We are mourning the loss of what would've been with our child in Ethiopia.We had a room prepared for him or her. We have prayed for our child for years so it is a grieving process as we move forward. We can and will continue to pray for the orphans. We trust in God and his amazing plan and rejoice that in time a child will be placed into a forever family even if that family isn't ours.
We will update everyone with who will be receiving the money as soon as we know. There is a lot involved in stopping an adoption process when money is involved, we are not keeping any of it and are doing our best to return to those who want theirs back.
I know some people might not understand our decision and that's okay, but understand that this wasn't an easy decision for us and sometimes we don't always understand what God is up to but we just trust and move forward.
Thank you to everyone who has prayed with us, for us, supported and loved us, followed our blog, donated time and money, etc. You all helped us tremendously and now we are able to pay it forward and help a child be placed into a forever family!!
