Moving to Face Space but not completely

We are dropping the blog and moving the chronicles of our journey to facebook.com/pauladoption

Edit:  Changed my mind.  I like the blog, but we will keep the facebook.com/pauladoption as well.

Spring Forward

Okay, so Spring is here and so is the pollen.  Our thoughts and prayers are with those who suffered damage from the hail storm this week.  For many people, this is the time of year for Spring cleaning, but wait, before you get rid of anything, you may be able to help us raise money for our adoption.  Here's a post from Brandy's Facebook:

 TJ and I are having a yard sale on April 6 in Brandon to help raise money for our adoption! If anybody needs to clean out their closets with clothes they don't wear anymore or make more room we would really appreciate any donations! Just let us know and we can meet you anywhere!

We'll take anything that we can sell to raise money for the adoption.  You can bring the stuff to us, or we can come get it.  Please spread the word.  We want all the junk in your trunks.

No big news on the adoption right now.  Our application has been submitted, but the review committee was all gone on Spring Break last week.  We are just in full fund-raising mode right now.  If you know of any adoption grants or great ways to raise money, we would love to hear your suggestions.

We also want to say a BIG thank you to those who have made donations so far, including this beautiful gift.

One more thing.  I'd like to tell people how they can follow this blog and get notifications when we make new posts without checking the blog constantly.  Does anyone know how to do this?

Let's Get Physicals

Big week this week.  On Tuesday, we mailed our adoption application to our agency, New Beginnings (http://www.newbeginningsadoptions.org/).  Before that, though, we had to fill out the sixteen page application, and answer all types of questions ranging from our net worth to who would take the child if anything ever happened to us.  We also each had to get physicals.  The good news is, according to the doctors, we are physically qualified to handle being parents.  Yes, we are able to walk fifty feet without shortness of breath, and neither of us has Tuberculosis, yay.  I kept thinking, ANYBODY can get pregnant, but you have to pass all kinds of tests just to adopt. What if everyone had to be approved before they could have their own children too?

We got our physicals at Richland Primary Care.  The nurses there were very excited and very encouraging of our adoption.  I think they see plenty of sick people, and found us to be a nice change of pace.  They were all very friendly.  Brandy got her physical a few days before me.  So, when I got there they already knew all about our adoption.  One girl told me how Brandy was so pretty and so sweet.  I already knew that, but its nice when other people think so too.

Since we went public, the amount of support we have received has been, well, amazing!  God has already been assuring us that we are doing the right thing, but to know that we have so many people who are happy for us is really awesome.  Within twenty minutes of posting our blog, we got our first donation!  We are even establishing connections with people who can help guide us through the process.  We hope you continue to follow along with us on the journey, and we hope that our story might encourage someone else to either adopt a child or support adoption in some way.

Now, we wait for the agency to review our application.  Then, they will assign a social worker to us.  I'm told that this is an interesting and intrusive process, but we have resolved to be open books.  Let's pray for a supportive social worker, and pray that Brandy and I just keep focused on the goal throughout the whole process.

Adoption Chronicles: Our Journey

Brandy and I have come to the decision to adopt a child from Asia.  This is a bombshell, I know, and that is part of the reason for this blog.  Through our research and talking with other adoptive families, it was suggested that we start a blog about our adoption journey.  We were told that it is a great way to keep everyone informed.  It also helps us and the readers to see just how we got where we are. We promise to try to keep our posts as clear, short, and informative as possible.  However, we’ve got to tell you how we got where we are now, and that’s taken no less than two years.  Also, if you’ve ever talked to Brandy or read anything I’ve written, short and concise are not our forte.

It might help if I start by answering some questions, “Why don’t you try to have your own?  Why do you want to adopt?  Why would you go out of the country to adopt when there are children right here?”


Let me start by saying that we did not come to this decision over night.  Let’s rewind.  Two years ago, adoption was barely in my vocabulary.  I’m not even sure what triggered the journey to adoption.  Have you ever stopped yourself and asked, “How did I get here?”  I can only say with certainty, that God has a plan and we are only just beginning to see it unfold.

Why don’t we try to have our own?  
This has been a question we have been asked since before we even got married.  When Brandy and I were dating, we had the inevitable discussion about children.  I had always pictured having two kids, three years apart.  Brandy had pretty much decided that she didn’t want children.  All I knew was that I loved Brandy, and I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her, even if that meant my family would only consist of her and myself.  Regardless, we knew we wanted to spend the first few years of our marriage getting to know each other.  Our lives have changed so much over the past seven years of being together.  Who we were then and who we are now, might not know each other if we passed in the street.  Now, we both know that our family is going to be more than just the two of us.  Somewhere along the way we have decided that we want to have one child the normal way (the way that doesn’t need a blog for everyone to understand), and we want to adopt at least one child.

Why do we want to adopt?
I think it’s gotta be the same for all or most who adopt.  It’s just a calling.  It started as a whisper, but God has been speaking much louder and clearer that this is something He wants us to do.  It’s something I never saw myself doing, but my heart has been changed.  We now know the beauty of adoption.  We know that it is one of the greatest examples of God’s love because He first adopted us.  Our hearts break every time we hear a story of an innocent child or baby who is mistreated.   So, this is why we want to adopt.  We want to make a difference in one child’s life.  We want to show them the love of Christ and give them a life that they would not have known otherwise.  

Why would you go out of the country to adopt when there are children right here?
The most simple and most important answer to this question, it’s what we feel lead to do.  We are not called to adopt domestically.  We support domestic adoption whole-heartedly, but there were a few things that stopped us in our tracks when we considered domestic adoption.  As I said, we just haven’t been lead towards domestic adoption.  I even asked the domestic vs. international adoption question to a customer of mine who adopted internationally.  What he said sold me on international adoption.  His reasoning was based on a fear of what would happen if the mother or father one day decided they wanted their baby back.  I could think of few things harder for an adoptive parent to have to go through.  Now, I have heard plenty of stories about domestic adoption and children who have known their birth parents and their adopted parents, so I am not trying to sway anyone towards international adoption.  It’s just that this is how it is for us.  Yes, I know the same thing that I fear could happen with international adoption as well.  Our calling is to adopt a child from Asia, and we want to have a child that is ours and only ours.