What Moved Us to Adopt

Many people have asked us why we decided to adopt again, so in this post, I’d like to explain how we came to that decision. There has never been a time in our 16 years of marriage that we weren’t open to adopting, but there were a few steps that led us take action now.

This year in September, I was listening to the book Counter Culture by David Platt. In this book, David Platt shares Biblical wisdom about current challenges to our Christian culture. One of the topics he discusses (along with many others) is orphans. While listening to David Platt’s words I was challenged in my life of self satisfaction to again remember the call of James 1:27, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” We are called to actively meet the needs of the orphans of the world. I had become complacent in that call.

The day that I finished the book, I couldn’t get adoption off of my mind again. I knew at that moment that I wanted to adopt again, but also realized that it might make more sense to support or help others adopt. Less than a year ago our fifth child was born, and I wasn’t sure that Cindy was ready to have another child running around the house.

That evening I told Cindy that I had been thinking about adopting again and asked her what her thoughts were. I have to admit that I was surprised, but I shouldn’t have been. I expected her to say, “Let’s give it a year or so.” Instead she was all for it. I told her that I was more interested in adopting internationally if possible, and she started researching agencies.

A week later on Monday September 26th on my way home from work, I get an email from Cindy with the message, “Is it too early to say I want her? :)”

In the next post, Cindy will share why this child was the one that stood out among the rest.

More Progress...

Guest Post! OK, maybe not a guest post, but this is my first post on this blog. I thought I would take a little time this morning and give you an update on where we are at in the adoption process. As most of you know, last week we received our preliminary approval from China to adopt our newest daughter, and I can tell you that this week has been packed full of crazy thoughts and excitement.

A few things have happened this week are:

• We received our passports. The process that normally takes 4 to 6 weeks, took only a week and a half!
• We received both our criminal  checks back from the state and FBI.
• We have both completed our physicals and medical evaluations.
• We have completed over 24 hours of required training for home study.
• We have submitted all required paperwork for the home study. (Here is where I tell you that it is really Cindy who submitted all the paperwork; I just signed and initialed a lot.)
• Our house passed the state’s fire inspection. So things are moving.

This week we also had an opportunity to work with the media department at Miami Valley Christian Academy. They are working on a video project that will give a short story of our journey into adoption. We are very excited about this and can’t wait to see this project completed and share with all.

Throughout the next few weeks, I hope to be sharing the process that we are now journeying through. My prayer is that through this, there might be some who don’t see the process of adoption as an impossible task, but a God given opportunity to love the fatherless. Not everyone is called to adopt, but everyone is called to love the fatherless, the widows, the poor and the helpless.  

If there are questions or topics that you want Cindy or I to write on, please let us know.

We Are Matched!

Two weeks ago, we submitted a Letter of Intent (LOI) to China. This is us providing basic information about ourselves to the Chinese government, and requesting permission to adopt a specific child from their country. We waited what felt like an eternity, but yesterday we received from them a pre-approval letter. We still have tons of paperwork to fill out, both for our country and for theirs, and tons of waiting while the governments run that paperwork, but as long as all goes well we will be bringing home this little girl in roughly a year or so! Please pray with us!