I first want to acknowledge the reaction to our announcement of our adoption plans. In the social media world we live in, "likes" are apparently a really big deal. It was pointed out to me that our announcement was "liked" and "shared" a lot!!! I know in real life this is not a measure of anything that affects Jay and I directly, but to know that we have the support and love from our friends and family is overwhelming for me personally, so THANK YOU!! The more we can share the news of this big event, the more awareness I feel like we can bring to the fatherless and adoption being "PLAN A."
So, where are we in this process?
I have had A LOT of people ask me where we are in the process, what age will our child be, did we give a gender preference, when will we get matched and my favorite question - what can we do to help?
We are in the final application process now. From what I gather from my AMAZING case worker, this batch of paper work is the largest, most time consuming and has definitely been one of the most emotional experiences of my life personally. I kept hearing the term "paper pregnant" and I feel that I now understand the concept behind it.
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The final application process has consisted of giving every detail of mine and Jay's personal lives from our experiences growing up, why we want to adopt, how we plan to parent, bank statements, checking yes or no to certain questions, pictures of the rooms in our home and the list goes on and on. I am not what people would consider to be a "private" person and this has been hard for me. On top of the amount of paperwork that we are required to give the agency, we have also been working on our dossier that we will send to India once we are approved (God willing). So basically, we are working on getting clearance from the United States and then we will need clearance from India and once we have all of that we will be eligible to be matched.
BOY or GIRL?
So originally Jay and I had decided that we would put the gender preference as a male. We thought it would be cool for all of our other children to have an older brother to look up too and to protect them. Then right after my birthday I was birthday shopping at one of my favorite boutique's in Sylacauga called Buttons and Bows. As soon as I walked in I saw this bed and ALL of the ridiculous frilly, girly, sparkly things that I am drawn too in general and thought to myself, WE HAVE TO GET A GIRL!!!
I called Jay as soon as I got in the car and asked him his thoughts. His first reaction, naturally, was "we've already talked about this and made a decision." I told him to think about it and he did. He finally decided it would be ok for us to give girl as our preference, I was so excited and then I was overwhelmed with emotions. I thought to myself, shouldn't this be the Lord's decision. When we have a baby we won't get to decide the sex, so why should we now? With that being said, we decided since this is our first child we will put no preference on sex and we have been praying the Lord will give us the child he picked out for us before the world was created.
The last two details we have decided on is age and whether or not we would take special needs and the answer is 0-3 years old and YES ! we are willing to take special needs. These special needs are very specific and once we are matched we will be able to give more details.
PRAY
First and foremost, Jay and I both need a lot of prayers. On top of the daily routines in life, this process is long and tedious. There are a lot of decisions that need to be made and sometimes they are not always easy. On top of the support from our family, God has placed some AMAZING people in our life that have been a wealth of information and experience and we will forever be grateful to them for their continued prayers, love and support.
GET INVOLVED
Jay and I are in the midst of trying to come up several different fund raising ideas. If you or someone you know has experience with certain types of fund raisers and would like to help us out, please let me know. We would be eternally grateful.
DONATE TO OUR YARD SALE
I am sure that you have heard, read, seen a Facebook or instagram post about our upcoming yard sale. If you have any items you want to donate, please contact me and let me know. I am working on a day that I ride around and pick up items from people who are donating, so if you can't meet me anywhere find me and I will get a date and time and get your items out of your way. If you do not have any items to donate and want to donate time, I would love as much help as I can get to help get everything set up and organized on the day of the yard sale. It will be an early morning, but any help I can get will be appreciated.
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.
Ephesians 1:4-5
