on the road again...to ADOPTION!!!!

Well friends, it has been a wild and crazy ride as we near the one year anniversary of Isaiah's entrance onto the scene throwing us for a loop! We la-la-la-LOVE our little Isaiah Adam. At 2 months he's roughly the size of a one-year-old, so maybe I shouldn't call him little, but he will always be my special surprise baby. He is the easiest baby of our 3 - well, minus the week at Sutton's Children's, but that was no fault of his own. Isaiah has taught us much in his short life so far! I actually have an unfinished post I would like to share about that when time allows.

Our road to adoption has detoured from the one we originally planned, and we're way excited about it! Some changes in Lifeline's Peru program have come about, making it an overall longer and higher-risk process than expected. I don't mean that there are no risks involved in our new program because there always are with adoption, but the Peru process is less predictable than when we first started, and we realized that since our dossier was not yet in country and we were in no way bound to Peru we could pray about where we as a family could meet a need more quickly. Peru remains a great option for many families, but God urged us to switch to the BULGARIA program as we jumped back into the water after Isaiah's birth! We are not serial program hoppers; Bulgaria is where we plan to stay. Bulgaria is in Eastern Europe (I tell you this because I admit I could not have found it on a map myself a few weeks ago). Operation World states that they have more abortions than live births each year. Our wonderful new social worker at Lifeline, Stephanie, laid out the country's situation well for us when she described that it has a culture that does not value children in general, much less orphaned children. As a result, there are very few restrictions on families who want to adopt from Bulgaria, meaning that Isaiah's age will not be an issue. The process is streamlined and predictable. Rather than the 28 days Mason and I would have needed to spend in Peru, we will take 2 separate week-long trips to Bulgaria, separated by 3-6 months. The first trip will be to receive the referral for our child/ren and the second will be to bring them home. We won't even be present for a court date, as that will be taken care of in our absence. 

This program seems to be a great fit for us, but Mason and I are just as scared in some ways as we are excited. Eastern European orphanages are notorious (look up Pleven, or just Bulgarian orphanages, and you will see). We will be spending our days visiting our child/ren in the orphanage and will no longer be able to turn a blind eye to the suffering of these children. I've seen video clips and photos, but nothing will prepare us I'm sure for what we'll feel and see there. They are sad, dark places, but how thrilling to be able to go and bring the light of a mother's and father's face to one or two of those children!!!! We are so excited. It's entirely possible that about one year from now, we'll be there. Excited just doesn't describe our emotions about this. I need a new word because I'm using that one too much. We were excited about Peru, but I am THRILLED and my heart comes to life when I think about Bulgaria. I told Mason the other night, whenever God calls me home, I will not be able to look Jesus square in the face without being able to say yes, I did everything I could to follow through on this passion You placed in my heart. He has spoken so clearly that "this is the way, walk in it" (Isaiah 30:21). When I look into sweet Isaiah's eyes in the dead of night, nursing and changing and snuggling and loving on him, my heart breaks because I see in my mind's eye the babies lying quietly alone in cribs because they know nobody will be there for them. I weep as I write this because that is really how God has spoken to me the last 2 months, through Isaiah. Isaiah has indescribably deepened my passion for adoption, and his waking me up at those quiet hours of the night has allowed me to hear from God louder and clearer than I ever could during the day. 

We, however, do not plan on getting a baby. There is a long waiting list for babies, and we want to adopt children that have been waiting for parents. We will keep our 0-8ish age range, though Bulgaria will allow us to adopt children as little as 15 years younger than us (which right now would be a 12-year-old; I will be 27 like Mason in June). The wait time for one of these older children is very short or nonexistent because there are so many of them waiting for parents to pick them. Some have physical or mental special needs but also many have institutional delay as their only special need. We want them in our family!

First step is to update our home study, which should happen mid-June. Then immigration approval, dossier submission, referral (or the referral could happen at any time if we choose from the waiting list as I'd like to do rather than waiting for Bulgaria to match us!). Then travel to meet them, come home to prepare, and travel again to get the child/ren a few months later. That's the rough sequence of events from our standpoint, and no official timeline has been given, but we think it's possible we could add our next family members by the close of 2014! Stay tuned. Most of all WE want to stay tuned in to the voice of God telling us exactly what to do and when to do it, as many decisions lay ahead. Excited about this next step of family growth!!!