Thursday, October 02, 2008

Treading the Atlantic


We met with our caseworker Wednesday night, the first of several meetings in the home study process. She seems like a great caseworker and we really enjoyed talking with her and as far as we could tell everything went pretty well! We're both emotionally stable (just barely in a few areas) and we feel like we have a little more direction than we did a few days ago.

It feels very odd having so many choices about who your next child will be. With the past three, there's really only been one decision to make (wink, wink) and then the rest has all been decided for us. We trusted God through the pregnancies knowing that whatever child was born to us would be the perfect child for our family. With this process of adoption, it feels like we are more in the driver's seat, which is a very scary place to be. Again, it feels like it, but of course in reality we are no more in control than we have been with our three biological kids. So the past few months have really been a constant plea for God to guide us, direct us, and make a path clear to us. We know that, as with our pregnancies, whatever child we bring home will be the perfect child for our family.

As of now, we have narrowed our focus to two paths. One is a domestic trans racial infant adoption. That is basically where a birth mother from Arizona who wants to place her child for adoption decides that she wants us to be her baby's parents. We would also then have the opportunity to continue that relationship with the baby's birth mom, which is an exciting prospect. The other path is an international adoption from Uganda. This is definitely the scarier more intimidating option, thinking of dealing with a third-world government and with there being so many unknowns, not to mention sorting through the 437 pages of information I received from the international agency. But Uganda seems to be the direction we are heading at this point, although we are keeping our eyes and ears out for domestic opportunities that may come up. Obviously there is a point financially where we would have to commit to Uganda, but until then we are keeping as many avenues open as possible.

Those of you praying for us, thank you! We have felt your prayers as God has narrowed our focus. Please pray now for continued direction as we tread the Atlantic, and even as we think through the possibility of adopting siblings.

Also, might want to throw one up there for us this weekend. Matthew and I are tent camping for pretty much the first time ever while we ride in the Tour of the White Mountains bike race. Judging from the fiasco of killing a mosquito in our kitchen last night, we need all the help we can get!

6 comments:

mama bird said...

We will be praying for you as you make decisions about adoption. Aren't we blessed to know our God is in control? :) Happy Biking!
The Roberts Family

Anonymous said...

Hi. I am currently adopting from uganda and would love to talk with you. My email is kendigfarm at yahoo dot com.

Melissa said...

Brought home two from Uganda in July, would love to talk with you.

burpeefamily@yahoo.com

Gretchen said...

Kristie- So cool to see inside your adoption journey. It's an interesting one, isn't it? Hope to talk to you more at WAJ about it all. Are you coming this year?? Hope so.
Best to you and your family,
Gretchen

Anonymous said...

Wow! Adoption! I am so happy for you guys and a bit jealous as this is the path that we would like to go down as well someday. I am trying to find your e-mail so that I can contact you to find a time for our families to get together!

This is Jennifer Rydman, by the way. :-)

Sheri - the patient one said...

Hello Kristie

Fellow EVBC goer here. Dave and I are grateful for the Braselton musical gifts. We looked forward to Matthew leading us in worship every Sunday.

We are in the process to adopt from China and with the extremely long wait we are looking to possibly do a concurrent adoption. We are struggling right now (praying) for doors to open on where that might be. As you note the choices are a difficult ones - odd is exactly how I would describe them.

Sheri
theshaniproject.blogspot.com