Big News!

We have very exciting news….we have officially accepted our referral! Even as I type those words, it does not seem real. It is amazing to think of how far God has carried us in this adoption. We are so excited to announce that, Lord willing, we will be bringing our son home this winter. God is so good!

On March 19^th 2014 we received an “India Program Referral Announcement” from our agency (AWAA) advocating for children in the system that were still waiting to be matched with a family. These “waiting children” had been in the international adoption system for a long period of time and currently did not meet any families’ listed referral criteria. We had just submitted our dossier (THE giant compilation of paperwork) and were looking forward to a much deserved break from paper work as we waited for the arrival of Summer and Brooke. AWAA had made it very clear that we were not able to receive a referral (being matched with a child) until approximately 6 months after the girls were born and we completed another home study update. Even then, it could be months or years until we received a referral. We were at peace with this fact since we went into adoption knowing it was a long process and we would have twins to keep us busy while we waited. With all this in mind, I clicked on the link to view the “waiting children” list thinking there was no harm in just looking. I scrolled through images of sweet little Indian faces and day dreamed about receiving our referral one day and what our child would look like. Then I saw him; the cutest little boy I had ever seen.  

My heart swelled as I read his brief description. The words “adorable, affectionate, friendly, hilarious and fun-loving” paired his picture perfectly. My heart knew that there was something special about this little boy.

As I continued with my day, I could not get thoughts of this sweet little guy off my mind. My heart was filled with so much compassion and concern for him. The moment Justin arrived home from work I showed him the picture. Justin agreed that he was a “cutie.” As the week went on, thoughts of him did not let up and I felt a strong urging to take some sort of action. So I decided to bring the topic up again with Justin to determine whether this was the Lord leading my heart or just a batch of pregnancy hormones J. I asked Justin about the idea of adopting a boy, partially expecting him to pump the breaks- after all, we had JUST submitted a ton of paperwork setting us up to adopt a 0-2 year old girl. Much to my surprise, Justin encouraged me to call our agency and look more into him. This confirmed that the Lord was working in both our hearts. When speaking to our agency, I preferenced the conversation with: “I know this might sound crazy, but….”  Again to my surprise our family coordinator did not immediately shut me down, but instead said she would talk to the orphanage for us. I was so excited to hear that the orphanage director did not have any issues with us having twins and the fact that we would be adopting out of birth order. So from there we decided to pray and ask for God’s direction. We felt that we had another sign from God that He was leading us to adopt a boy when we found out we were expecting twin GIRLS! We felt that this solidified that God wanted us to follow the prompting in our hearts to pursue adopting our sweet little guy. I later called our social worker to discuss the matter and received some very disappointing news. She stated that she could not give the approval for us to move forward in the adoption until after the twins were born. She needed to see how we adjusted to the major life change of having twins before she approved us to receive a referral. Although we understood her decision, our hearts were broken. After so many promptings and reassurances, we felt confused by the abrupt halt. Hitting a roadblock on a path we felt called to walk down was crushing. So we did the only thing we could at that time: pray. We prayed that our sweet little guy would find a forever family, whether that be us or someone else. We prayed that he would soon know the love of a mother and father. We had to let go and trust God’s plan and timing.

Fast forward to December 2014. We received an email from AWAA stating that our sweet little guy was still available for adoption and we could begin moving forward again. God’s timing is so perfect because that same week our current family coordinator was headed to India to visit his orphanage! We were able to get current pictures, videos and medical information on him. Watching videos of him sing and dance completely confirmed in our hearts that this was indeed our son. We fell in love as we heard his soft little voice recite nursery rhymes in hindi. We had a connection with him that brought us to tears.

The last three months we have been working non-stop: talking to multiple doctors, adoption professionals and compiling MORE paperwork. Our dossier and referral acceptance paperwork has officially been mailed off to India. Now we wait some more. It will take 9-12 months before we are able to travel to India to pick up our son. We have multiple approvals we still need from the Indian court systems. Please be praying specifically for these much needed approvals. We are considered a high risk adoption since we are adopting out of birth order and typically Indian courts deny these types of adoptions. We have been told that, considering our specific situation, the courts should approve us and that the orphanage has agreed to advocate on our behalf. It is hard to explain the level of anxiety we are currently feeling. We are trying to find peace in the knowledge that God has brought us this far and He is always faithful. 

Thank you for your continued prayers and support! It means more than we can express. 

(Although I would love to share his picture and name, we are not at liberty to do so at this time.)