I know I have enjoyed being a part of other friends and family's journeys of adoption and it's so hard to stay in touch about the celebrations, the insights, the questions, the needs, the bumps, the updates.....This seemed like a good way to stay connected about all of that stuff. Hopefully it will be a blessing to you as well as to us.
What we think we know so far....in adoption, you rarely know much for sure. If anyone knows our birth story with Timothy, we "knew" he was a girl right up until the moment he made his grand entrance. So, we've learned to keep a window open to if things might change. That said, we are pursuing what we believe is a good and blessed path. Right now, the path we are on is to China. We are in the middle of our home study and will start preparing our international dossier very soon. We submitted our application in December and the time frame we've been told is that we will likely have our next Hubers in an average of 12-18 months from that start time. We are sure we need to adopt a child younger than Annie, but we are not 100% on which gender or what kinds of special needs we are open to. We will be exploring that throughout the process. If you would like to pray for our discernment in that arena, please, please do.
In our home study we are asked to complete an autobiography. The first question on the autobiography is "Why do you want to adopt?" My answer took one full page, single spaced. Kevin's took three sentences. Both of our answers are honest, genuine and beautiful because I believe God wove this into our hearts in His own way.
Each of us bring a different story to the table as to How God prepared our hearts. If I can summarize both of our answers into one here, I will attempt.
God is the Master of grafting family members into His household. We are very "other" than Him, yet Jesus has loved us with a self-sacrificial love that enveloped us into His family. We want to reflect a bit of that Gospel within the context of our little family. We have a home. There is a child who does not have one. We have family members ready to learn how to keep loving self-sacrificially. There is a child who needs that kind of love. For us, the question our hearts had to answer was "Why wouldn't we adopt?"
Regardless of the circumstances of the parents, pregnancy always starts with the beauty of a life created in the image of God. In adoption, things move swiftly to a place of loss. But our God is about redemption and about weaving a new story to reflect His mercies. We want to be a part of that story.
We realize this is one expression of God's grace to the world and not all family's will manifest this expression. A friend once told me it's important to respond not to the need, but to the call. The needs of this world are too overwhelming and they are not all ours for solving. Our role is to be in tune with the heart of our Savior and what particular beat He has put in ours. For our family right now...that is adoption.
I have no idea how often I'll update here, but if you'd like to follow our updates feel free to enter your email near the top of this site.
Thanks for your role in our family's life and we look forward to continuing to share life with you.
How exciting, will be praying! Aunt E
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