Adoption: Home Study
When I was a teenager, I would say I wanted to adopt. Childbirth sounded far too painful, so adoption was my plan.
As I got older and learned more about the beauty of epidurals, I decided that giving birth maybe wouldn’t be so bad after all. So my plans shifted a bit – in fact, giving birth was something I desperately wanted to do.
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In 2009, David and I got married and not long after our first wedding anniversary, we found out we had a little one on the way! Later that year, our oldest arrived – and every two years for the next handful of years, we welcomed a new little one into our family.
While in the throes of wedding planning and then changing diapers, adoption wasn’t something we seriously considered, but along the way, little seeds were being planted…
…the students I taught who had been adopted…
…the friends who had opened their lives to adoption…
…the child dedications at church for children who didn’t look anything like the parents who had chosen to love them forever…
…the baby in the nursery who took my breath away the first time I saw her…she was addicted…her birth parents were addicted…she was so tiny…I fell in love with her…I’ve never forgotten her…
…the couple we watched wrestle in front of the abortion clinic…if they would only chose life, I would – without hesitation – welcome their child into our home…it made me realize that my heart could love that way…
…but to actually pursue adoption?
That’s only for really brave, adventurous, go-with-the-flow people – right?
Sure, David and I have always shared a passion for supporting and partnering with pro-life causes and organizations, but brave, adventurous, go-with-the-flow people we are not.
We are not risk takers. We are planners.
We are not adventurous. We are consistently calculated.
We are not go-with-the-flow. We are intense people who get incredibly annoyed with things don’t go as planned.
Perfect candidates for the adoption process, right? ha!
But, friends, Aubrey changed everything.
In 2015, our daughter Aubrey was born with Down Syndrome, and God has used Aubrey’s life to teach us that sometimes the scariest things in life can end up being the most beautiful. What, at first, felt like such difficult news, has turned out to be one of our greatest joys, and we can not imagine our family life without the gift of those bedazzled chromosomes.
So – together – we have decided to offer a big, brave, adventurous, go-with-the-flow YES to the Lord and pursue one of the scariest things we’ve ever done – apply to become adoptive parents.
Over the past few years, there have been seasons where we have talked about the idea, researched it a little bit, and prayed about it together – but never in the same way we have these last several months – with David looking at me in the chaos of after-dinner cleanup one evening and saying, “Let’s go ahead with the home study.”
To say we’re terrified would be an understatement, but we are also very excited to see what God has in store for our family. We do not know what the future holds, but we are so grateful to know that as we walk out the pages of our story here on this earth, we are never alone.
In recent weeks, we have found ourselves neck-deep in all the paperwork that comes along with applying for the adoption process and completing a Home Study, and we would be so grateful for your prayers as we continue to walk through these details.
We are pursuing a domestic newborn adoption.
- Gender? We’ve got a name in mind for either one.
- Skin Color? We are wild about all the different shades of skin God has created.
- Number of babies? We’ve told them we’d consider twins.
- Closed vs. Open Adoption? We would want what’s best for the child.
We look forward to keeping our community here posted on how things are going along the way. You have been such an encouragement to us over the years, and we are beyond grateful for your support as our family takes this step.
