The Folsom's Adoption Journey: Take Two

Adoption Journey: TAKE TWO

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Our initial adoption journey began over two years ago! It hasn't been the smoothest of journeys. It seemed as if things could go wrong, they DID! Even after all of the bumps in the road our personal case faced, adoptions in the country of Ghana had an entire struggle all their own. If you are keeping up with the adoption world at all, you will find that adoptions are being halted in Ghana and it is unknown when or if they will open in the future. I have been avoiding blogging about this topic because it is very difficult, very private, and I felt like if I announced it it was too official and I was admitting failure or giving up. (this will be a blog for another day...)

We Please know, we are NOT abandoning our initial adoption. But do know that we believe God has provided us with an incredible opportunity to adopt!

Here is our SECOND dossier! 

It is all submitted! (phew!) I am not going to lie, it was a bit daunting starting the adoption paper chase, yet again! But this time, I knew what it meant to get a document apostiled. I knew where to go to get fingerprinted. I had read the books and researched the professionals. Yes, we had another home study!

We CANNOT wait until the day we can share information about this adoption!

We cannot wait to show you all pictures of his sweet face and happy grin!

Trusting in God's perfect plan and timing,

Matt & Courtney

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Forgety Family: Update

I received a birthday card from one of my aunt’s back in March, who is so sweet and always sends me a card, with a comment that she misses the updates on the blog.  And I thought to myself, “Has it really been that long since I updated? I just posted last week.”

Well, it’s been more like 4 months. Whatev.

So…here is quick recap of our adoption progress over the last 4 months:

·         January 9^th:  Received our updated number of 76

·         February 16^th: Received our new number of 74

·         April 9^th: Received our new number of 67

Nothing terribly exciting but still progress none-the-less towards bringing our kiddo(s) home.  We are about to have to start the process of updating all our paperwork/fingerprints/etc.  and that thought alone makes me have a mini panic attack.  

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

Until then we are hanging out with our two small tator tots that:

• are learning to use the big potty,
• like to give hugs straight out of the bath tub while they are still soaking wet, 
• call us "Ty-lee" and "A-don", 
• like to pray about their poop, 
• change clothes at an alarming rate, 
• throw wild-eye hissy fits because we cannot magically produce juice at any given moment in time, and on command
• and love us despite all the flaws Adam and I have.

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One Step Closer

By: Khylee

 

Photo By: Courtney Folsom Photography

Well we received some awesome, stupendous, triple fist pump kinda news here in Forgety household.  Our dossier was translated and officially submitted to the INHFA committee for approval on June 8^th, 2012! 

Praise the Lord! Halleljuah!

Translation- all we are waiting on now is for this committee to approve our dossier and then we will be assigned our waitlist number!

It could be this month, it could be next month, it could be the September.  But once we are on that blessed waitlist we will finally start the “official” wait for our children.  (Yes, that’s right, we haven’t even started our 2-4 year estimated wait-time that our agency gave.)

So, please be praying this month that our documents won’t be expired,  that the committee will meet, and that we get approved and assigned a number!

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Update - The Folsoms

By Courtney:

Something I have discovered through this process is I'm an avoider. I avoid confrontation. I avoid the difficult stuff. I definitely avoid sharing my feelings if at all possible.

Perhaps that is why I have found blogging so difficult.   Something we all (the Forgety family and Matt and I) decided from the very beginning was to be as open and honest as possible with our blog. So I put it off and I put it off.....

"Soooooo..... have you heard anything?"
Matt and I probably get this question more than once every single day.

For the longest time we honestly just had nothing to update. We had no news to share because we had received no news.

But then there was news to give, I just didn't want to give it.

"Soooooo..... have you heard anything?"
Who wants me to bombard them with the pain? The tears? The truth?

So instead I just lie and say, "No news".  I lie because I feel like the majority of people are only asking to make small talk. They honestly don't really want to hear all the hairy details. And honestly it is just too emotionally exhausting to share every single detail with everyone.

So here is the update:

At one point we believed our adoption was over. It was probably one of the darkest weeks of my life. I had a day where I struggled to even get out of bed. I actually became physically ill. I felt awful. I could barely function for an entire week. I doubted God. I was mad at God. I was sad. I was beyond sad. I was grieving. I was mourning. This child is already considered part of our family and when we were told the adoption might never happen, it felt as though I had just experienced a death. I was mourning the potential loss of our child.

Yes, recently we received news from our agency that the adoption might never happen.  At a later date we were updated and we did receive clarification that the adoption will more than likely still happen, they just have no idea when. The Ghanaian government interviewed Richmond's grandmother (his only known living relative) as part of the adoption finalization. During the intervew it was mentioned that there is also a living uncle. (which was not known before) Well, he is now important to this process since he is the oldest living male in the family. They need to interview him in order to move forward with the adoption.  Sounds simple, right? There is one little problem... Uncle is working in ANOTHER COUNTRY! He will return and can be interviewed at that time. No one knows when that might be, though.

At this point it is just a waiting game. All we can do is wait and pray. Pray and pray and pray. (feel free to join us here!) I cannot do anything about our situation but God can. My God - the God of Ada, Oklahoma is also the God of Ghana. He is mighty and powerful and sovereign.

When we do update people and explain the situation people often wonder how we are so calm (as you read it hasn't always been that way!) All we can say is the Lord has given us a peace that surpasses all understanding. God is in control. His hand is over Richmond. He is guiding us. We have faith.  We don't understand everything but we don't have to.  All we have to do is trust HIM!


John 16:33
I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.


Joshua 1:9
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.

Romans 8:24-25 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

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the Dossier

By: Khylee

This 6 lb beauty left our house Thursday of last week, that's right, I birthed a 6 lb paper stack!  Many of you may be wondering, what is that thing?  Well it is the beloved Dossier, the final set of paperwork that will actually be submitted to Honduras, and it has been my life for the last 5 months.  With this small stack of paperwork, we will FINALLY be on the list to begin waiting for our children. 

When we started this process in June of 2011, my goal was to have this thing submitted by January 2012.  We came up a little short of that goal, but four months later, and few thousand dollars poorer we are done, finished, finito.  Through this entire process I have learned a few things about my need to always be in control.  Courtney sent me this quote the other day:

"When our [plans] are interrupted, His are not. His plans are proceeding exactly as scheduled, moving us always (including those minutes or hours or years which seem most useless or wasted or unendurable) "toward the goal of true maturity" (Rom 12:2 JBP)." - Elisabeth Elliot

 There have been countless days that have felt wasted and useless throughout the last 10 months. But God is the author of this adoption story, not Khylee and Adam.  As much as I want it to go quicker, to be done, to know who our kids are, I also know that there is a purpose, a reason for every wait that we have encountered and every piece of paperwork that has had to be redone. We will be on the perfect spot on the wait list, so that we will get OUR kids, the ones that the Lord has chosen to become a part of our family. 

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Thanks, thanks, many thanks!

By: Khylee

 Courtney, Matt, Adam and I would like to thank EVERYONE of you who ordered a t-shirt, bought a bracelet, ordered a calendar, or have donated just because you felt led, and prayed with us and for us.  Thank you honestly cannot begin to describe how much we appreciate your help in helping us bring our children home. We still have a few extra t-shirts in both designs if anyone you know has commented on what a rocking t-shirt you are wearing (click here to see designs).  

And because I couldn't resist, here is Adam and I with the two precious girls from His Little Feet that stayed with us for 4 days in February.    

ARE THEY BOTH NOT ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Tsion & Gracia- We love you both and miss your smiles, your laughs, your singing, the large amount of fruit that you eat, recording with Uncle Adam, fixing Auntie Khylee's hair, saving Tsion from the dogs and playing Just Dance! Big, big, big hugs!!!!!!

Give Auntie Brooke a big hug from us too!!!

 

 

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I'm Human....

By: Khylee

To say that I have been frustrated during the last month would be an understatement.  For the first time since we have started this process I have felt hopelessness …. We are no where closer to finishing our dossier than when I updated everyone last month.  We have almost 90% of our documents in our folder waiting to be apostiled (another level of notary done by the State Attorney General), but several BIG things are still in the process.

Let me just paint a picture for you about how this month has went:

I have read many a blog where women have divulged that they forgot an important piece of paperwork, or didn’t read something right in a set of agency instructions and had to redo an item…and my Type A self would say “I will never do that, I have got things under control.”

Oh how very wrong I was.

First, I discover that we were supposed to have our psychological evaluation completed during the home study process, BACK IN OCTOBER.  I had no idea, none, zero. I’m floating around in Lala land think we are just trucking right along making great progress. “The psychological evaluation will only take one appointment and it will be a quick process,” I said to myself. Oh how very, very wrong I was. Our agency was good to let us go ahead and continue on (I hope that means that they don’t think we are crazy) and one month later we are just now finishing it up…..

The second scenario went down something like this. Standing on the front porch I see a big white envelope hanging out of the mail and joyfully open it expecting to see a date for us to go to get our fingerprints completed and instead I am greeted with a sweet love note from the Federal Government stating our fingerprint application is not complete.  We forgot a signature. That’s right. A. SIGNATURE. How many times did I check those documents before they were mailed, oh you know, a thousand, but whatever.  I was sick to my stomach and mad at myself for wasting more precious time when our children could potentially be out there, waiting.  There goes another 2 weeks on something so small, yet so significant.

But, through it all, the Lord continues to remind and comfort me:

"The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." Exodus 14:14

"But these things I plan won't happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled. If it seems slow, wait patiently.  For it will surely take place. It will NOT be delayed."

"...I will not forget you. See I have engraved you on the palms of my hand." Isaiah 49:15b-16a  

His timing is always  perfect, and I am learning to completely trust in this truth.

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The Beauty in the Wait

By: Khylee Forgety
 

 The question I get asked the most often right now is "So, where are you now?"  And my answer is almost always "Still waiting." 

We are waiting on our approved home study to be mailed to us, waiting for certified copies of birth certificates to come in the mail, waiting to make appointments for psychological evaluations and blood work until other paperwork comes in so we don't have too much of a time lapse and thus make other documents void. 

In the middle of November our social worker from our agency sent us the long list of items we needed to start compiling for our dossier.  Some were simple things I had expected like letters of employment, copies of important life documents like birth certificates and marriage license, copies of our passports.  Others were not so expected like having to get a psychological evaluation and get all of the documents apostiled (I will save the definition of that for another post).  At first, I will be honest the list was overwhelming.  Overwhelming to the point that for about a week my type-A self was completely paralyzed.  I didn't know which document to start collecting first and so I couldn't seem to motivate myself to do anything. 

After a week of immobilization, some encouragement from fellow adoptive mothers and word from our agency that we could officially begin the dossier process we dove in headfirst.  Needless to say for the last month and half Adam and I been consumed in completing mounds of paperwork so that we can finally be on our agency's waitlist. Happy dance, happy dance, happy dance!!!

Last week while reading for advent I came across this sentence and scripture:

"Sometimes God has his people wait long so our gratitude becomes deeper and wider." Anne Voskamp

"But these things I plan won't happen right away.  Slowly, steadily, surely the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled.  If it seems slow wait patiently.  For it will surely take place. It will not be delayed." Habakkuk 2:3

For a waiting momma's heart these words are giving me encouragement that I didn't even know I needed. I am clinging right now to each word, to each promise that this verse holds during this long season Adam and I are in of waiting for our children to come home! 

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"Our Journey" Part 3 (The Folsoms): Where are we now?

By: Courtney

Where are we now? I’ll tell you where we are….

We are up to our eyeballs in paperwork. We spend our evenings talking about certified copies, notaries, dossiers, and parenting techniques. We are checking our emails every hour (no, seriously, I do) in hopes of any tiny tidbit of information about our son. We are meeting, planning, crafting, worrying, and praying. Oh yeah, and praying, and praying, and praying some more! We are working our tails off trying to bring our baby home.

Where are we now? We are parents.

When Khylee and I were making a tentative timeline for our future blog posts a few months ago (Khylee is uber organized, so yes, months ago!) never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that by our third post we would be this far in the process. Never. You know what though?
 
God can do anything, you know-far more than you could ever imagine, guess or request in your wildest dreams! (Ephesians 3:20)

Just to catch you up to speed…

February 13, 2011 – The day the Lord said “Do it! Adopt the child.”
May 4, 2011 – Completed application #1 with Dillon International
June 29, 2011 – Submitted application #2
September 17^th, 2011 – Adoption Workshop in Tulsa at Dillon International
September 30^th, 2011 – Completed part #1 of our home study
October 26^th, 2011 – We got to see the first photo of our son!

We took one look at his perfect little face and cried tears of joy! I cannot explain the million different emotions that I experienced. It was as though a hand of steel grabbed my heart and wouldn’t let it go. I felt so hopeful, yet hopeless all at once. The urgency I felt at that moment is inexplicable. In that moment I knew, we will do whatever it takes to bring our son home!

Please note: This is not the norm for international adoption. This timeline is honestly much more accelerated than the “average” adoption. God has allowed our process to be shorter than most, and I praise Him daily for this!

At this point, we still have paperwork to do, a room to decorate, furniture, clothes and toys to buy, parenting books to read, patience to learn… We are adding to our list daily.

We cannot explain how thankful we are. We cannot begin to tell you how you have blessed us with your prayers, your words of encouragement, your ideas, you showing up at our fundraisers, volunteering your Saturdays, crafting with us, praying over us, not to mention the financial support! It all means so much. More than you will ever know.

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"Our Journey"- Part 3: Where are we now?

By: Khylee Forgety

The adoption process has a lot of different steps that Adam and I had no idea existed before we started.  There is a ton of paperwork to complete, copies to make, doctors visits to go to, parenting education to attend, and a lot of new vocabulary to learn. Some of you may be familiar with the process, but for those of who you aren't this post is for you.  Here is a time line of how it all works: 

1. Application: involves a lot of the paperwork.  You fill out an application all about you and your spouse, you get copies of birth certificates, marriage license, social security cards, you ask people to complete a reference for you, etc. This also ensures that you meet the criteria for the country program you are applying to (i.e. you have been married the required number of years, so many divorces, if you are single)
2. Home-study: If your application is approved by the agency then the agency completes the home study which consists of two visits with a social worker.  The two visits are to assess the home and to get to know the couple or family. In the "home assessment" the social worker looks for things like smoke detectors and a fire extinguisher, not if you have any dust on your dining room table.  He or she also talks to you about things you put in your autobiography (something that is a part of the application).  The social worker who completes the home study has a vital role in the process as they approve the home for a certain number of children, age range, etc. (usually the decision is based upon what the couple has  expressed to the worker). 
3. Dossier: is a collection of certified or notarized copies of documents such as birth certificates, marriage licenses, etc., the home study, pictures of your house- that are submitted to the country where you are desiring to adopt. Every country has a different process of what documentation they require.
4. Wait list: once the dossier is submitted to the country, the family gets put onto their agencies wait list. The agency gives you a time-line for how long they anticipate you to wait for a referral: 8 months, 24 months, 4 years... This is probably one of the hardest parts of the journey because there is a lot of unknown: when will you get the phone call, how long will you have to wait? what if it is longer than what they said?, what if is shorter?, will I be able to take off work at a moments notice?, how much will flights cost? and the list could go on...
5. Referral: This is the blissful moment when someone from the agency calls you to tell you there is a child or children that matches what you specified you were willing to accept.  Often times families get to see a picture of the child, medical information, the child's history (if known).  The family can choose to accept or decline the referral based upon this information.  
6. Trip 1: If the family accepts the referral than plans are made to the take the first trip to the country (not all countries require two trips, but both Ghana and Honduras do).  On this trip the family gets to meet the child, visit where the child lives, and begin the legal process of adopting him or her. Often this trip takes between 7-10 days.
7. Trip 2:  Then the family comes home.  Again, this is probably one of the hardest things to do is to leave your child for 3-5 months while the paperwork gets done.  The family then returns for the second trip.  For the Folsoms' their second trip will be another 7-10 days, for the Forgetys' the trip will last anywhere from 3-6 weeks.  On the first trip the parents only make trips to the orphanage to visit the kiddo, on this trip that precious little girl or boy gets to stay with you at your hotel and the actual parenting process begins.  During this time the child legally becomes a part of your family so that when they step onto U.S. soil they are U.S. citizens.
8. U.S. Court: Even though the adoption is legal, our agency recommends that you finalize the adoption here in the United States.  

I caution you though to remember that while I laid the process out pretty black and white, how it can play out in reality can look different for every family.  Bureaucracy can slow paperwork down, a judge can discover one error in the paperwork and require it to be resubmitted, or the court can close for a season or decide to stop all adoptions from a particular region in a country.   

So there you have it friends!  I hope that you all found this educational. Adam and I are currently are waiting for our adoption agency to approve our home study and we hope to have our dossier completed by January. 

For the rest of the Forgetys' story, click on the links below:
Part one: Why are we adopting?
Part two: Getting started 

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"Our Journey" Part 2: Getting Started

By Khylee

International or a domestic adoption?

How old of a child?

Boy or girl?

One child, or a sibling group?

If international, what country?

What agency is reputable?

How do we know when to start?

These are just a few of the questions that we have wrestled with.   And…I know these are just a few of the ones that many of you want us to answer. 

Honduras, 2004

In January of this year, I began to feel a pull towards the Central America country Honduras. It was one of the countries listed on several of the agencies I had been researching and the Lord would bring Honduras up when I was watching the news, reading an article, talking with friends, watching gangland-that’s right Adam is a big fan of the show, I watch from behind the covers. It was also a country that holds precious memories for me. In 2004, during my freshmen year in college I had the opportunity to travel there for a mission trip to work with boys at an orphanage/school.  It was only 6 days but it was a life-changing six days as those boys showed me love and held me when I cried and I didn't want to come home.

…but then my heart would say things like “the wait is too long, 2-4 years is ridiculous to wait for a child”, “you aren’t guaranteed a baby and a toddler will come with too many issues.”  So, I began to research a little more on Ethiopia and domestic private adoptions because the wait isn’t as long, and you can get a referral for a child that is under a year old, problem solved, right? 

Wrong.

What a selfish, selfish human being I am.  I am embarrassed to even admit I thought that, but that was the state of my heart.   I was only attracted to Ethiopia and private adoption, so MY needs would be met, so that I could become a mother on my terms.   

In May of 2011, Adam and I took a vacation to Mexico.  Every night we would go down to a street called 5^th avenue that was filled with all sorts of touristy things to buy, places to eat, and live music. Among all the “stuff” though, we saw young children without shoes picking up cans, digging through the trash to find things they could make money off of, and selling bracelets.  One night, Adam looked at me and said “Khylee-I think we need to adopt from Honduras, I don’t care how long the wait is.” 

And I knew in that moment- I knew that Adam was right, I knew that the Lord had our children in that country, I knew I needed to wait, to wait as long as it took, and to open my heart to a wider age range.    The Lord had already intimately connected my heart to this country and he spoke through Adam to help wake me up to the boundaries and rules I was setting up for how this adoption-thing was supposed to go. 


It wasn’t a coincidence that I had learned to speak Spanish in college or that I already traveled to Honduras once in college on a mission trip and fell in love with a group of orphaned boys.  The Lord had purposefully placed in my heart a love for this community of people.

Mi mono "my monkey" was my nick name for this little guy.  

So we both came home from our vacation, with a firm grasp that it was time- Time to begin this new, exciting, scary, unpredictable journey… 


(For Part One of our story: "Why we are adopting" click here)

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Our Inspiration

By Courtney

When we announced we were adopting, our friends, the Forgety family, told us they were also starting the adoption process. (Just one more way the Lord was confirming our decision) We immediately wanted to team up and help support each other along the way. We couldn't believe another family was just as "crazy" as us, struggling with the same issues as us, and believes the same as us.

What a blessing to be able to walk through this journey together!

During a drive to and from an adoption workshop we were all discussing ideas for a blog name we could use together. We tossed ideas around but nothing was really jumping out at us. When they mentioned this song had really spoken to them we immediately pulled it up and listened to it. WOW. 

This is the inspiration not only for our blog name but also to title this journey we are on.  It also represents our relationship with Christ.

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"Our Journey" continued... Why Adopt?

The Folsoms' Story

By Courtney

I think many times as Christians, somewhere in the back of our minds, we think adoption is a great idea.  We rarely know someone who has adopted and we rarely actually consider it. Yet we think “Oh, that’s great! For them.”  I believe that if you actually stopped and considered it, you might be surprised.

Over the last year the Lord has opened my eyes to such injustice across the globe. In the past year our church studied The Hole in Our Gospel (eye opening for all Christians!), I read Jen Hatmaker’s book Interrupted (changed my life), Matt and I went on a mission trip to Belize…. In each of these events the Lord opened my eyes a little more and tugged at my heart even more.  I was convicted by how wasteful Americans are and how little the rest of the world lives on. I was convinced that I could not go on living my life the same...working, buying stuff, and fulfilling selfish desires. I was also convinced that Christians needed to be doing something about these injustices – that I needed to be doing something .

 Several months ago Matt and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. We started talking about starting a family. Each time we discussed it, I never felt at peace about it. During the year I felt like the word orphan was in my face every time I turned around- time and time again. In the spring I read the book of James. Wow. It was like the words jumped off of the page – ORPHAN. I started thinking about adoption but I never mentioned it to Matt, I didn’t want to him to think I was crazy.  

One Sunday after church Matt asked what I thought about adoption.  I almost jumped out of my skin. WHAT?! So from that point on we discussed adoption and I said things like “We’ll have some of our own then consider adoption.”  Each time I said this I felt convicted. It sounded so fake and (I’m sorry to say this) just gross. I felt like the Lord was leading us towards adoption and I was tainting it with MY timing and MY selfish desires and MY idea that I thought sounded good.  Matt and I discussed it and prayed about it for months. I jokingly say I felt like Gideon… “Lord, if the fleece is wet and the grass is dry, I will know it’s Your will. Lord, if the fleece is dry and grass is wet….”  I prayed time and time again and the Lord kept confirming it. Adoption and the orphan were put in front of our faces over and over. I wanted to be sure. I wanted to be sure that this wasn’t just something I thought we needed to do just because it sounded good. I needed to know it was from the Lord (although he was trying to show me – I’m slow – I need a neon sign). Well, he gave me one!  One evening Matt and I had prayed about it yet AGAIN. I prayed, “Lord, I am a little slow. I need you to make it obvious. Put it in writing. Let me know this is from You.”  That evening while reading my devotional these words practically jumped off the page -

“Adopt the child.” 

The devotion was about how God has great adventures planned for us. I could have fainted! As tears ran down my face, I promised the Lord I would follow Him, and I would do it NOW, in His timing.

Why adopt? First of all, I believe it is a command. We are called to take care of the widows and orphans (Yes, all of us). If you physically cannot adopt, foster, or help support a cause in some way, you CAN help other families do so. 

Second of all, I’m pretty sure the Lord made it crystal clear for us, and I’m not going to tell the big guy no!

For us this is as much about awareness and making a life change. I want every single person to know that EACH one of us CAN make a difference. We are put on this earth to know Him, love Him, and make His name known. “By this the world will know we are HIS disciples – LOVE.” John 13:35

For me personally, I just know I can no longer say I didn’t know…. Proverbs 24:12 

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"Our Journey" Part 1: Why do you want to adopt?

By Khylee

High school, for me, is a time in life I am glad is over. I had absolutely NO sense of personal style (I shopped at GAP kids) and my hair was a short frizz ball. Don’t judge, my friends-the CHI had not yet been purchased. 

I do know one thing though that was very certain during this time: I wanted to adopt.

 Call me crazy, but I used to tell my friends I wanted a child from somewhere in Asia, India, Africa and Latin America.   And this desire to have a family full of diversity has not changed.

Fast forward to January of 2011, 2 ½ years after Adam and I had been married.  I had been looking at tons of different adoption agencies. We had already had several LONG discussions on adopting our children versus having them biologically. On January 12^th, with adoption heavy on my heart, I prayed that God would make it as crystal clear to Adam as it was to me and that it would he would become 100% on board. 

Over the course of the next 4 months the Lord was faithful to answer that prayer.  It wasn’t that Adam was opposed, he did WANT to adopt.  It was just that He needed the Lord to give him some confirmation to move in this direction.  And the Lord did just that: through the stories of two men, lots of prayer, and a gut wrenching reality check Adam was ready. 

So, for those of you who are wondering, adoption is not our back-up plan, not our plan B. As far as we know we have no issues of infertility that would prevent us from having biological children. 

What we do know is this: 

• The Lord has made it clear that we are to adopt our children
• We are to fight for, protect, love, and be parents for at least a few of the MILLIONS of children out there that are without a mother and father
• That the road ahead is full of uncertainty, long waits, first-hand experiences with injustice, heart-ache and yet will bring unspeakable joy  

"Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless..." Isaiah 1:17

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