Our latest news

We are not pregnant! Let me just stop those thoughts right there! :) It is the same subject however. Our news is that we are pursuing adoption, specifically with a big Christian agency called Buckner in Dallas. Some of you may be familiar with it b/c they do so much in the DFW area. I don't usually write long blogs with no pictures but I'm needing to verbally process as I do, so here goes. I guess I'll back up and explain how we got to this point. You all know that we spent 2.5 years trying to get pregnant before going through IVF to conceive the boys. We had amazing results with IVF but I have never wanted to go through that again. Since the boys were 1, we have spent 2.5 more years trying to get pregnant. I will say however that it was night and day going through it and doing all of the medical stuff before and now we just "see what happens." Of course it is completely different having two wonderful children as we try for more. This year I have had adoption on my heart. I've been praying for the Lord to show us his will and for Cameron to get on board if we are to do this. Cam and I have talked about adoption throughout the years but it seems to be different once you're actually talking about signing up and enduring the process. Our close friends, Tyler and Shannon, just adopted a little boy after fostering him for 2 years (tried to adopt him from the beginning). We had a bunch of events recently for him. I thought that would be the thing that got Cameron saying he was ready and it was. Tyler is our pastor and did his sermons the last two weeks on adoption. One Sunday they had a pizza party to celebrate their son's adoption and he brought in 3 agencies to talk about foster care and adoption. I talked for a while with the lady from Buckner, which got us started with them.

Right now we are at the very beginning of a long process. We have sent in our pre-application and a picture. Next we sign up for a workshop in Dallas. We hope to take the one on Oct. 10th. Then there is a massive amount of paper work for the formal application, interviews, a huge list of things to do for the home study (they will interview my boys...should be interesting! :) ), etc. Once all of that is complete, they will begin looking for a child for us. For domestic adoption the average wait is 18 months. For international, it's 24-48 months (and more expensive). At this point we are primarily pursuing domestic adoption but are open to international and fostering to adopt a specific child. With domestic, you usually adopt a newborn. They discourage picking a gender. We have ordered books that we are to read and will take our first class soon, so I know that the million questions I have will be answered soon. We are also in contact with a lady at Buckner almost daily and she has answered many questions.

So far we have been really excited while talking, praying, researching, sending in paper work, etc. Yesterday, I had an overwhelming attack of emotions mostly regarding questions about open adoption and a relationship with the birthmom. It has also been a busy week with a difficult family situation and lots of other things (too many to mention). It is challenging to try to weigh the pros and cons of each avenue of adoption...especially until we have more knowledge about each. I'm trusting that the Lord will show us what to do and give us to the strength to endure the trials that come with the process.

At this point my prayer requests are: God will show us what avenue (domestic, int'l, foster care) to choose, lead us to the child He has for us, and for patience and strength to endure the process.

Thanks for listening,

Christin