Welcome to my blog!

Well, here I am. First blog post. Monumental, right? Actually, it is pretty monumental. We are in the process of adopting two siblings from Ethiopia. A 6-ish year old girl and a 2-ish year old boy. We found out yesterday that the court date for our case will take place on November 20th. That's a little over 3 weeks from now! If all goes well and our case "passes" court, we will be traveling to get the new Finleys about 5-6 weeks after that. My mind is racing, my heart is all aflutter, my tummy feels a little sick! I'm absolutely THRILLED to meet the children; they consume my thoughts much of the day to be honest. I am constantly wondering what they are like, if they will like us, if they are missing their birthmother, if they're being treated well in the orphanage, if they're getting enough to eat, and sometimes even if we must be CRAZY for adopting two more children?! I mean, we have two absolutely beautiful, wonderful children now. Grace is 5 and Jack is 3. They're a handful! But they're the best thing going. I cherish every moment that I get to spend with them and love being their Mommy. Why do we want to go and "mess that up?"

Well, basically it all started with a little stirring way down deep in the pit of my stomach. I started feeling an ache to expand our family. Every once in awhile I'd mention it to my husband and he would nervously laugh it off. Our family was perfect just as it was. We're filled up to the top! And I thought he could be right, but the stirring just kept getting bigger. Since God decided for us that adoption was the way that we were going to build our family instead of the "homegrown" way, I tried to stay involved in the adoption community. I read Adoptive Families Magazine, perused Rainbow Kids regularly and prowled adoption agency websites. This spring, I started reading blogs, mostly of adoptive families, or those who were about to become adoptive families. Some of those blogs crushed me to the pit of my soul. These families were doing God's work, not only adopting children, but adopting A LOT of children, or adopting children who other families might not even consider, like children who are HIV+. I LOVED what I read, but kept thinking, "Man, Jesus is really demanding, isn't he?" And the longing to add another child to our family just kept getting stronger and stronger for me.

In the early summer, I coerced my husband into attending foster-to-adopt training classes. And we were hopeful. We thought we might be able to add to our family through foster-adoption. But, every week we attended those classes, it became more and more apparent to us that it was not the right path for our family. I found it very unlikely that I could welcome a child into my home, get to know them, invest my heart in them, and then release them to return to their birthfamily - even if I knew that it was absolutely the right thing to do. I think those who can do that are incredible, noble people. I have the utmost respect for them - but know in my heart that it would be an impossibility for me.

After much soul-searching, we decided that we probably also didn't want to parent an infant again. I adore children, I truly do, but bottles and diapers and sleepless nights are not my favorite things, so domestic infant adoption was probably out. We also both felt that there was a much bigger need for older child adoption. We decided to turn to international adoption again and landed on Ethiopia. We decided on this country for a number of reasons. First, this country seemed to offer smooth, affordable and fairly quick adoption timelines. Second, the need seemed to be great. We knew that we wanted a toddler girl, not a baby, and so imagined that would be entirely possible for us. Third, we currently have a biracial daughter and a Korean son, so throwing an African child into the mix seemed just fine. I have "researched" agencies for about 6 years, so I had a huge pool of agencies to consider. We decided to use Celebrate Children based upon a recommendation from our homestudy agency. They have been absolutely the best, most supportive and approachable agency that we've ever used. I can't say enough good things about them.

So with all that decided, I thought another little girl to add to our family would be a no-brainer! But somehow, that demanding Jesus of mine got in the way. Instead of a girl, we were led to a sister and brother. And we couldn't be more thrilled about them!!! I know I have gone on WAY to long. Always a problem of mine! But I would just like to ask for prayer for our November 20th court date. Pray that it goes smoothly, that we pass the first time and that we can bring the children home as quickly as possible.

More to come. . .